2nd emergency special session: Hungary (1956)

In late October 1956, the USSR sent military forces into Hungary to quell a nationwide uprising that had emerged following student protests against the role of the USSR in the country and the Hungarian Government. France, the UK and the US requested that the SC consider the item, citing violent repression of the rights of the Hungarian people, and a violation of the Treaty of Peace of 1947.¹ The SC subsequently considered the situation in Hungary in four sessions in November 1956, and a draft resolution was submitted by the US that would have called upon the USSR to desist from armed intervention in Hungary, to withdraw its troops and (on revision) not to introduce further troops into Hungary, among other provisions (S/3730/Rev.1).² This draft resolution was vetoed by the USSR,³ whereupon the SC requested an emergency special session in the GA, referencing resolution 377(V) (the UFP resolution) (S/RES/120).⁴

The GA passed five resolutions during the 2nd emergency special session (4–10 November 1956), with language that was stronger and more specific in its condemnation of the USSR’s military intervention as compared to the language in other resolutions related to the use of force. In the first of these resolutions,⁵ the GA, condemning the “use of Soviet military forces” in Hungary in 1956 as contrary to specific peace treaties and the fundamental rights and freedoms embedded in the UN Charter, explicitly called upon the Government of the USSR to “desist forthwith from all armed attack on the people of Hungary” and from “armed intervention, in the internal affairs of Hungary” (A/RES/1004 (ES-II), para. 1). In the same resolution, the GA also called upon the USSR to withdraw all its forces and not to introduce additional forces (ibid., para. 2). It further requested the Secretary-General to dispatch representatives to observe the situation, for the Governments of Hungary and the USSR to permit these observers, and for UN agencies and humanitarian organizations to provide for humanitarian relief (ibid., paras. 4–8). The subsequent resolution within the emergency special session took note of lack of compliance with resolution 1004 (ES-II), reiterated calls for withdrawal and requested the Secretary-General to investigate and report back (A/RES/1005 (ES-II)). The final three resolutions reiterated calls for the USSR to “cease immediately actions … which are in violation of the accepted standards and principles of international law”, recommended humanitarian care and support to refugees (including via the UN High Commissioner for Refugees) (A/RES/1006 (ES-II)), and decided to place the matter on the agenda of the 11th regular session (A/RES/1008 (ES-II)). Subsequent resolutions in the regular session would build on the calls for the Secretary-General to investigate and send observers by later mandating a commission of inquiry known as the Special Committee.