Organizations, like human beings, are not born to an identity. They establish one in the course of their maturation. The identity they can develop is limited by the social origins of the organization and by the environment during their early years, but it is not predetermined by these factors in any simple fashion.

The General Assembly held its twentieth session, comprising the 1332nd–1408th plenary meetings, at UN Headquarters from September 21 to December 21, 1965. Part of the Assembly's proceedings were summarized in the Spring 1966 issue of International Organization and the remainder follows below.

The General Assembly held its twentieth session, comprising the I332nd–1408th plenary meetings, at UN Headquarters from September 21 to December 21, 1965, during which time it took action on 108 agenda items and adopted 125 resolutions. By acclamation the Assembly admitted three new states, Gambia, the Maldive Islands, and Singapore, to United Nations membership, thereby bringing the Organization's total membership to 117.

The 38th session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), comprising the 1355th–1363rd meetings, was held in New York from March 22 to March 26, 1965.1 At the 1355th meeting Akira Matsui (Japan) was elected President of the Council; Adnan Pachachi (Iraq) was elected First Vice President; and Jiří Hájek (Czechoslovakia) was elected Second Vice President.

At the initiative of the President of the Council, Arthur J. Goldberg (United States), the Security Council met on September 4, 1965, to consider the India-Pakistan question. Mr. Goldberg explained that, following consultations with the Secretary-General, he had decided to call a meeting of the Council because of the gravity of the military news from Kashmir and because it appeared that the UN observers there were being prevented from carrying out their functions freely. He also informed the Council that on September 1 the Secretary-General had sent to the Prime Minister of India and the President of Pakistan an appeal for a cease-fire. Although objections of a procedural nature were raised by the representative of the Soviet Union, the Council decided to consider the question. At the invitation of the President representatives of India and Pakistan took seats at the Council table.

Between May 3 and July 26, 1965, the Security Council devoted 30 meetings to consideration of the situation in the Dominican Republic. The Council placed this item on its agenda at the request of Nikolai Fedorenko (Soviet Union) who in a letter of May I had called for an urgent meeting of the Council to consider the question of the armed intervention of the United States in the domestic affairs of the Dominican Republic.

Economic Commission for Africa: The seventh session of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) was held in Nairobi, Kenya, on February 9–23, 1965. The Commission welcomed Malawi and Zambia as full members of ECA and also recognized Tanzania as a member with a single identity, replacing the two members, Tanganyika and Zanzibar, which had formed a political union.

The Second (Economic and Financial) Comittee held its 953rd-1020th meetings between September 22 and December 17, 1965; its 955th–970 meetings were devoted to a general debate on world economic problems.

Consolidation of the Special Fund and the Expanded Program of Technical Assistance in a United Nations Development Program: The Second Comittee considered this item as its 971st–980th and 989th and 990th meetings, November I–II and November 19, 1965. It had before it two notes by the Secretary-General; a report in two parts by the Secretary-General on the various UN technical assistance programs; the report of the twelth session of the Governing Council of the Special Fund; the report of the Technical Assistance Comittee (TAC); the report of the Administrative Comittee on Coordination (ACC); and the report of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) to the nineteenth session of the General Assembly.

In his Introduction to the Annual Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization, 16 June 1964–15 June 1965 Secretary-General U Thant noted that the ten months under review had without doubt been difficult ones in the history of the United Nations. The opening date of the nineteenth session of the General Assembly had been postponed several times and, when it did meet, it had been unable to follow the normal rules of procedure due to the controversy over the applicability of Article 59 of the UN Charter. Another regrettable development of direct concern to the UN had been the announcement by Indonesia of its decision to withdraw from the Organization as from January 1, 1965.

Marking the twentieth anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) the annual report on the state of food and agriculture reviewed the progress achieved during the second postwar decade, 1954/1955–1964/1965. In his foreword Director-General B. R. Sen noted three distinct phases of FAO's history. In the first, covering the postwar decade, FAO played a role in the task of reconstruction. The second phase, coinciding with the second postwar decade, had been marked by a number of significant developments in science and communications, in demography, and in national aspirations which influenced the outlook and work of FAO. Calling attention to the unprecedented rate of population growth and lagging food supply, FAO had warned that this trend implied a grave peril for the future peace and security of the world. The Freedom from Hunger Campaign launched by FAO in 1960 had represented a response to this new awareness of the dimensions of hunger and malnutrition in the world and of the responsibility of the world community to face the problem. The third phase of FAO's work, opening with the third postwar decade, would be a critical period. Mr. Sen referred to FAO studies, contained in the report, which indicated that the total food supplies of the developing countries would have to be increased fourfold in the next 35 years to give their rapidly expanding populations an adequate diet. The task of FAO, which would depend on the willingness of the leaders of the nations to devote a large share of the world's resources to meet the crisis, would be to assist in laying the foundation for this increase.

The Maritime Safety Committee of the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) held is tenth session in London, April 29-May 7, 1965. The session dealt with a number of matters, including the question of tonnage measurement, the revised International Code of Signals, the IMCO International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code, and navigation in the Strait of Dover.

The fifteenth Congress of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) met in Vienna from May 29 to July 10, 1964, under the chairmanship of Benno Schaginger of Austria. Nearly 500 delegates representing 122 countries participated in the sessions. On June 5, 1964, however, the Congress approved a resolution expelling South Africa from UPU by a vote of 58 in favor, 30 opposed, with 26 abstentions. During the debate on this question several delegates maintained that the resolution was illegal since a country could only be expelled for violating UPU's regulations. The South African delegate remained in the conference hall after the vote but left at the request of the presiding officer when African delegates demanded his withdrawal.

The twelfth special session of the Trusteeship Council was held at UN Headquarters in New York on March 2, 1965, to consider the agenda item arrangements for the dispatch of a periodic visiting mission to the trust territories of Nauru and New Guinea in 1965.

The ninth Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) took place in Montreux, Switzerland, between September 14 and November 12, 1965, under the chairmanship of Gustav-Adolf Wettstein (Switzerland). The main task of the Conference was the revision of the previous Convention, drawn up by the preceding Plenipotentiary Conference in Geneva in 1959. The new Convention was to enter into force on January 1, 1967. In one of its major decisions the Conference agreed in principle on a Constitutional Charter eventually to replace the Convention, and it instructed the Administrative Council to set up a study group to prepare the draft of such a charter in sufficient time for it to be distributed at least one year prior to the next Conference, scheduled to be held in 1971. The Conference approved the Union's accounts for the years 1959–1964 and fixed the limits of expenditure for the period 1966–1971, providing for slight annual increases in this expenditure. It also approved the purchase of the new headquarters building by December 31, 1965.

The twelfth special session of the Trusteeship Council was held at UN Headquarters in New York on March 2, 1965, to consider the agenda item arrangements for the dispatch of a periodic visiting mission to the trust territories of Nauru and New Guinea in 1965.

Meeting under the presidency of Dr. A. Nyberg, the Executive Committee of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) held its sixteenth session in the WMO secretariat, Geneva, from May 26 to June 12, 1964. The Committee considered a number of matters, including technical questions, the New Development Fund, and administrative and financial questions.

Meeting in Seoul on June 14–16, 1966, nine non-Communist Asian and Pacific nations declared dieir common determination to preserve their integrity and sovereignty in die face of external threats and invited other free countries in the region to join the newly formed Asian and Pacific Council (ASPAC). Participating in the conference were Australia, the Republic of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea (South Korea), Malaysia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Thailand, and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). Laos attended as an observer.