Summary
The General Assembly’s resolution ES-10/23, adopted on 10 May 2024 at the tenth emergency special session, which determines that the State of Palestine is qualified for membership in the United Nations in accordance with Article 4 of the Charter and should therefore be admitted, recommends that the Security Council reconsider the matter favourably after the 18 April 2024 draft recommending admission, supported by 12 Council members, was prevented by one negative vote of a permanent member, and, on an exceptional basis and without setting a precedent, adopts annexed modalities giving the State of Palestine additional participation rights in the General Assembly from its seventy-ninth session — seating among Member States, group statements, proposals, co-sponsorship, procedural motions, agenda proposals and eligibility of its delegates as officers — while expressly withholding the right to vote or to put forward candidature to United Nations organs (Resolution ES-10/23: Admission of new Members to the United Nations (10 May 2024), PDF p.1-4).
What the file is
United Nations document A/RES/ES-10/23, General Assembly, Distr.: General, 14 May 2024, Tenth emergency special session, Agenda item 5, 4 PDF pages, about 1,504 words in the text copy, including the annex. Adopted at the 49th plenary meeting on 10 May 2024 without reference to a Main Committee (A/ES-10/L.30/Rev.1). The text copy is clean and matches the original. Footnotes identify the Arab Peace Initiative, the Council’s special report A/78/856 and the April draft S/2024/312. No vote count for this resolution is given in the file, and the permanent member whose negative vote is recorded is not named.
Section by section
- Preamble (PDF p.1-2). Charter and self-determination; recalling Palestine resolutions including ES-10/22, Council resolutions, resolution 2625 (XXV), resolution 3236 (XXIX) and 78/192 on self-determination including an independent State of Palestine; inadmissibility of acquisition of territory by force; territorial unity, contiguity and integrity of the Occupied Palestinian Territory including East Jerusalem; peaceful-settlement resolutions stressing withdrawal, inalienable rights and cessation of settlements; two-State support on resolution 2334 (2016), Madrid terms including land for peace and the Arab Peace Initiative, on pre-1967 borders; status resolutions 3210, 3237, 43/177, 52/250, 67/19 and 73/5; the State of Palestine’s treaty parties and full memberships, including the League of Arab States, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Group of Asia-Pacific States and the Group of 77 and China; the Council’s special report examined; conviction of full qualification under Article 4; widespread support; deep regret and concern at the 18 April 2024 vote; membership open to peace-loving States.
- Operative paragraphs 1-9 (PDF p.2-3). Paragraph 1 determines qualification and that the State of Palestine should be admitted; paragraph 2 recommends the Council reconsider favourably in light of the determination and the International Court of Justice advisory opinion of 28 May 1948, in strict conformity with Article 4; paragraph 3 adopts the annex modalities on an exceptional basis without precedent; paragraph 4 requests the Economic and Social Council and other organs and agencies to apply them; paragraphs 5-7 reaffirm self-determination, Charter compliance, and renewed efforts to end the occupation begun in 1967 on the two-State basis; paragraph 8 requests implementation measures by the Secretary-General; paragraph 9 adjourns the session temporarily.
- Annex (PDF p.3-4). The twelve modalities (a)-(l) listed in the Summary, effective from the seventy-ninth session and without prejudice to existing rights and privileges, closing with the observer-State exclusion of voting and candidature in paragraph (l).
Key passages
- “Determines that the State of Palestine is qualified for membership in the United Nations in accordance with Article 4 of the Charter of the United Nations and should therefore be admitted to membership in the United Nations” (operative paragraph 1, PDF p.2)
- “The State of Palestine, in its capacity as an observer State, does not have the right to vote in the General Assembly or to put forward its candidature to United Nations organs” (annex paragraph (l), PDF p.4)
Evidence the work relies on
A General Assembly resolution, not an evidentiary work. Its stated bases are Article 4 of the Charter, the International Court of Justice advisory opinion of 28 May 1948 on admission, the Security Council’s special report A/78/856, the recalled status and self-determination resolutions, and the memberships and treaty participation it lists. The April 2024 Council figures — 12 members supporting, one permanent-member negative vote — are given in the preamble without naming the member or listing the supporters.
Analysis
The resolution does two different things and keeps them distinct. Paragraphs 1-2 speak to membership itself, which under Article 4 the Assembly cannot complete without a Council recommendation: it determines qualification and recommends reconsideration. Paragraph 3, the only part the Assembly enacts alone, is expressly exceptional and non-precedential, and its annex is carefully bounded — every added right is a participation right, and paragraph (l) restates the two exclusions, vote and candidature, that keep the status an observer status. Unlike resolution 67/19, this text makes no readiness or recognition count its evidentiary limb; its limb is qualification under Article 4 plus the recorded Council vote.
People, organizations, places and events
UN General Assembly Resolution ES-10/23, State of Palestine, International Court of Justice, East Jerusalem, Arab Peace Initiative
Concepts
Self-determination, Two-state solution
How it relates to other sources
- Resolution 67/19: Status of Palestine in the United Nations (29 November 2012) accorded non-member observer State status and expressed the hope that the Council would consider the 2011 application favourably; this resolution, recalling 67/19 among the status resolutions, returns to the membership question after the April 2024 Council draft failed and adds participation rights 67/19 did not grant.
- Resolution 273 (III): Admission of Israel to membership in the United Nations is the contrasting completed admission in the wiki: there the Assembly, on a Council recommendation, itself decided admission in its operative paragraphs.
Open questions
- No vote count for this resolution is given in the file, and the permanent member whose 18 April 2024 negative vote is recorded is not named in it.
- Whether the Security Council reconsidered the matter, and the outcome, are not recorded in this file.
- The content of the Council’s special report A/78/856 is not reproduced.
Coverage
PDF p.1-4 of 4, read in full.