6th Emergency Special Session: The Situation in Afghanistan and its Implications for International Peace and Security (1980)

In 1980, the GA and the SC both addressed the situation in Afghanistan. At the request of 52 Member States, the SC convened from 5 to 9 January to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security (see S/13724; S/13724/Add.1; S/13724/Add.2). The Member States requesting the meeting argued that the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan, which began at the end of December 1979, had destabilized the region and posed a threat to international peace and security.¹ Afghanistan opposed the UN’s involvement, asserting that it had requested Soviet military assistance due to foreign threats.² The USSR subsequently vetoed a draft resolution proposed by Bangladesh, Jamaica, Niger, the Philippines and Zambia that would have condemned the armed intervention in Afghanistan, affirmed the necessity of respecting the country’s independence and sovereignty, and called for the immediate withdrawal of foreign troops to allow Afghanistan to determine its own form of government (S/13729). The SC, in 1980, by a vote of 12-2-1, then requested an emergency special session of the GA to examine the question (S/RES/462).

In the emergency special session, on 14 January 1980, the GA reaffirmed respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence as fundamental principles of the UN Charter (A/ES-6/2).³ It further deplored the armed intervention without explicitly naming the USSR, and called for the “immediate, unconditional and total withdrawal of the foreign troops from Afghanistan” (ibid.). It also called for Member States to support conditions for the voluntary return of Afghan refugees as well as to extend humanitarian relief assistance (in coordination with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees) (ibid., paras. 5–6).