United Nations General Assembly observers

As of 2019, there are two permanent non-member observer states in the General Assembly of the United Nations: the Holy See and Palestine. Both were described as "Non-member States having received a standing invitation to participate as observers in the sessions and the work of the General Assembly and maintaining permanent observer missions at Headquarters".[4] The Holy See uncontroversially obtained its non-member observer state status in 1964. The Holy See did not wish to join the United Nations as a member because "Membership in the organization would not seem to be consonant with the provisions of Article 24 of the Lateran Treaty, particularly as regards spiritual status and participation in possible use of force."[5] Since April 6, 1964, the Holy See has accepted permanent observer state status, which was regarded as a diplomatic courtesy, to enable the Vatican to participate in the UN's humanitarian activities and in the promotion of peace.

In 2012, Palestine's observer status was changed from "non-member observer entity" to "non-member observer state", which many called "symbolic".[6] The change followed an application by Palestine for full UN membership in 2011[7] as part of the Palestine 194 campaign, to provide additional leverage to the Palestinians in their dealings with Israel.[8] The application had not been put to a UN Security Council vote.[9]

With the change in status, the United Nations Secretariat held that Palestine was entitled to become a party to treaties for which the UN Secretary-General is the depositary.[10] On 17 December 2012, UN Chief of Protocol, Yeocheol Yoon, declared that "the designation of 'State of Palestine' shall be used by the Secretariat in all official United Nations documents."[11]

The seating in the General Assembly Hall is arranged with non-member observer states being seated immediately after UN member states, and before other observers.[12] On 10 September 2015, the General Assembly resolved to approve the raising at the UN of the flags of non-member observer states alongside those of the 193 UN member states.[13]

Non-member state[14]	Date observer status was granted	Additional timeline and details
Holy See	6 April 1964: granted permanent observer state status 1 July 2004: gained all the rights of full membership except voting rights, submission of resolution proposals without co-sponsoring, and putting forward candidates (A/RES/58/314)[12]	Sovereign entity with statehood over the territory of the Vatican City State.
State of Palestine	22 November 1974: non-state observer status for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) (A/RES/3237 (XXIX))[15] 9 December 1988: right to circulate communications without intermediary (A/RES/43/160)[16] 15 December 1988: designation "Palestine" (A/RES/43/177)[17] 7 July 1998: right to participate in general debate and additional rights (A/RES/52/250)[18] 29 November 2012: non-member observer state status (A/RES/67/19):[19][20] 16 October 2018: Provided additional rights and privileges of participation, described in /A/RES/73/5, by virtue of Palestine being Chair of the Group of 77 for 2019.[21]	28 October 1974: PLO recognized as "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people", by states of the seventh Arab summit (and later by over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations and by Israel).[22][23][24][25] 22 November 1974: PLO recognized as competent on all matters concerning the question of Palestine by the UN General Assembly in addition to the right of the Palestinian people in Palestine to national independence and sovereignty. 15 November 1988: PLO unilaterally declared the State of Palestine. 4 May 1994: PLO established the Palestinian National Authority territorial administration as result of the Oslo Accords signed by the PLO itself, Israel, United States and Russia. 7 July 1998: PLO has been assigned seating in the General Assembly Hall immediately after non-member States and before the other observers.[18][26] 23 September 2011: State of Palestine applies for UN membership[27] 17 December 2012: UN Chief of Protocol Yeocheol Yoon decides that "the designation of 'State of Palestine' shall be used by the Secretariat in all official United Nations documents."[28]

Notes

• The Cook Islands and Niue, both states in free association with New Zealand, are members of several UN specialized agencies, and have had their "full treaty-making capacity" recognized by United Nations Secretariat in 1992 and 1994 respectively.[29][30] The Cook Islands has expressed a desire to become a UN member state, but New Zealand has said that they would not support the application without a change in their constitutional relationship, in particular the right of Cook Islanders to New Zealand citizenship.[31]
• The Republic of China, commonly known as Taiwan, was a founding member of the United Nations representing China, which had been divided between the ROC and the People's Republic of China since the Chinese Civil War. However, in 1971 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 transferred China's seat in the UN from the ROC to the PRC. Since then, Taiwan has sought to resume its participation in UN activities. Various methods were considered, including seeking observer status,[32] but ultimately the ROC chose to submit more vague requests which did not specify the form of participation it sought between 1993 and 2006.[33][34] These requests have been consistently denied due to the UN's recognition of the PRC as the "legitimate representative of China to the United Nations".[35] The UN Secretary-General concluded from the resolution that the General Assembly considered Taiwan to be a province of China, and thus it does not permit the ROC to become a party to treaties for which it is the depositary.[36]
• Other countries are recognized by the United Nations as not being self-governing and appear on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, but are represented in the UN by their respective administering member state.[37]

Sixteen former non-member states were also granted observer status.[38][39] Fourteen of those states eventually became members of the United Nations. The other two constitute a single special case.[Note 1]

Most of the former non-member observer states accepted this status at a time when they had applied for membership but were unable to attain it, due to the (actual or threatened) veto of one or more of the permanent members of the Security Council. The vetoes were later overcome either by changes in geopolitical circumstances, or by "package deals" under which the Security Council approved multiple new member states at the same time, as was done with a dozen countries in 1955 and with East and West Germany in 1973.

State	Granted	Became full member	Period
Austria	1952	1955	3 years
Bangladesh	1973	1974	1 year
Democratic People's Republic of Korea	1973	1991	18 years
Democratic Republic of Viet Nam	1975	1977a — [Note 1]	1 year
Federal Republic of Germany	1952	1973	21 years
Finland	1952	1955	3 years
German Democratic Republic	1972	1973	1 year
Italy	1952	1955	3 years
Japan	1952	1956	4 years
Kuwait	1962	1963	1 year
Monaco	1956	1993	37 years
Republic of Korea	1949	1991	42 years
Republic of Vietnam	1952	1976 — [Note 1]	24 years
Spain	1955	1955	0 years
Switzerland	1946	2002	56 years
Vietnam	1976 [Note 1]	1977b 1977	1 year

Notes

While the EU is an observer, it is party to some 50 international UN agreements as the only non-state participant. It is a full participant on the Commission on Sustainable Development, the Forum on Forests and the Food and Agriculture Organization. It has also been a full participant at certain UN summits, such as the Rio and Kyoto summits on climate change, including hosting a summit. Furthermore, the EU delegation maintains close relations with the UN's aid bodies.[42] In 2011 the EU was granted enhanced powers in the General Assembly; the right to speak in debates, to submit proposals and amendments, the right of reply, to raise points of order and to circulate documents. These rights were also made open to other international organizations who requested them,[43][2] if their members have given them the right to speak on their behalf.[44]

In the resolution adopted in May 2011 granting additional rights to the European Union the UNGA decided that similar arrangements may be adopted for any other regional organization that is allowed to speak on behalf of its member states.[44]

Organization or entity	Date observer status was granted	Entity type
European Union[note 1]	11 October 1974 (A/RES/3208 (XXIX)): observer status 10 May 2011 (A/RES/65/276):[44] additional rights	The only observer that operates through a hybrid system of intergovernmentalism and supranationalism, giving it some state-like qualities.

• The South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO),[16] a liberation movement in Namibia, held observer status with the right to circulate communications without intermediary beginning in 1976.[56] This terminated in 1990 when the Republic of Namibia attained independence and was granted full membership in the United Nations and SWAPO was transformed into a political party.