The General Assembly, composed of representatives of all member states, is the UN's central deliberative body, empowered to discuss and make recommendations on any subject falling within the scope of the charter itself. It also approves the UN's budget and determines—alone or with the Security Council—part of the composition of the other main organs, including the Security Council.
The General Assembly has many functions that are more important than admission, suspension, or expulsion of members of the United Nations. These functions are designed to help it serve both as a sounding board for world opinion and as a parliament in which general standards of notional action for international cooperation can be established. As an organ through which world opinion can be expressed and mobilized, the General Assembly, like the League of Nations Assembly, is effectively organized. Every member state is represented. Since the members represent many different political, economic, and social views as to domestic and international policies, there seems every reason to expect a wide range of opinion in debate.
Both as to the "general principles" and as to particular' disputes, the General Assembly may "make recommendations" to the Security Council or to the member states. But if the Security Council is itself dealing with the dispute the General Assembly may not make a recommendation.
The broad function of the General Assembly is to set up international standards for economic and social as well as political cooperation. The range of the General Assembly's jurisdiction is extremely broad. Besides its powers of discussion and recommendation as to international disputes, it is specifically charged with studying and making recommendations that will promote international cooperation and the development of a code of international law, promote economic, social, and cultural cooperation among the nations and the realization of basic human freedoms everywhere, and have general supervision over the trusteeship system in no strategic areas.| General Assembly | Security Council | Human Rights Commission | Economic and Social Council |