At the beginning of the 1960's an unsophisticated observer—meaning, of course, someone other than the reader—might have concluded that, in the United States at least, the long-standing controversy over multilateral versus bilateral aid had been laid to rest. The funeral oration had been pronounced by no less a personage than President Eisenhower when he addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations in September 1960. He went right down the line for multilateral assistance via UN channels.

For the purposes of this discussion, the political role of the Secretary General is defined in somewhat narrow terms. It is not intended to discuss his role in the development of policy generally, which would be a possible way of viewing the subject. Rather, attention will be given to the role of the Secretary-General in the discharge of one of the major responsibilities of the United Nations—the maintenance of international peace and security. Consequently, the role of the Secretary-General in developing and executing policies and programs of economic and social development, which has come to be one of the major fields of activity of the Organization, will not be touched upon, except incidentally.

At the beginning of the seventeenth session of the General Assembly, there were thirteen Commonwealth countries at the United Nations, constituting one-eighth of the total membership. Jamaica and Trinidad-Tobago (which both became independent during August 1962) and Uganda (which received its independence in October) became Members of the UN during the seventeenth session. Kenya and British Guiana are two other Commonwealth countries approaching independence. If there are no other new United Nations Members in the meantime, and if these five remain in the Commonwealth, as they are expected to do, their addition would mean that one-sixth of the Members of the UN were also Commonwealth members.

Ever since World War II the United Kingdom has been engaged in the process of withdrawal from the Caribbean—indeed the beginnings were made before the war ended. The clearest and most recent evidence has been the advance of Jamaica and Trinidad from colonial status to independent membership in the British Commonwealth and the United Nations. But this was not quite what had been intended. The aim originally had been to make one federal union of all the British colonies in the region. The attempt, however, failed. British Guiana and British Honduras withdrew from the scheme at an early stage, and the federation of the islands foundered after a four-year period of trial.

The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, was opened for signature on March 30, 1961. As of August 1, 1961 (the last day for such action), this treaty was signed by 64 countries and as of the date of writing this article eleven states had become parties by ratification or accession: Cameroun, Canada, Cuba, Dahomey, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Morocco, Syria, and Thailand. When the United Nations Conference for the Adoption of a Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, meeting at United Nations Headquarters from January 24 to March 25, 1961, adopted the new Convention on March 25, 1961, it completed a work which had occupied international organs since 1948. It was in this year that, at its third session, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs adopted a resolution, introduced by the representative of the United States, which recommended the draft finally adopted by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) as Resolution 159 II D (VII), August 3, 1948. In this resolution the Secretary-General of the United Nations was requested to begin work on the drafting of a new single convention on narcotic drugs. He was instructed that the new treaty should replace the existing treaties in the field, provide for control of the cultivation of plants grown for the production of narcotic drugs, and simplify the international control machinery by replacing the present Permanent Central Opium Board and Drug Supervisory Body by a single organ.

The third part of the sixteenth session of the General Assembly was held at UN Headquarters from June 7 through June 28, 1962, when the sixteenth session was concluded. The Assembly considered the following agenda items, discussion of which had been deferred from the second part of the sixteenth session: 1) question of the future of Ruanda-Urundi; and 2) the question of Southern Rhodesia.

The Security Council at its 1012th to 1016th meetings, June 15–22, 1962, continued discussion of the situation prevailing in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. At the invitation of the President, the representatives of India and Pakistan took seats at the Council table. Mr. Adlai Stevenson (United States) expressed the opinion that it was die duty of the Council to search for a solution to this dispute which threatened the peace of the sub-continent. He referred to the common ground which existed between the two parties, namely the resolutions of the UN Commission on India and Pakistan (UNCIP) of August 13, 1948, and January 5, 1949, and in particular to paragraph 1 of the January 5 resolution which stated that “the question of the accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan will be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite”. He hoped that both parties would agree to a high-level conference to explore the prospects for negotiations and discussions which hopefully might lead to a final resolution of the dispute.

The 33rd session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), comprising the 1187th through 1208th meetings, was held in New York from April 3 through April 18, 1962. At the 1187th meeting Mr. Jerzy Michalowski (Poland) was elected President of the Council, Mr. Alfonso Patifio Rosselli (Colombia) was elected First Vice-President, and Mr. Muhammed el-Farra (Jordan) was elected Second Vice-President. Mr. Michalowski noted that this was the first time that the representative of a socialist country had been elected President of the Economic and Social Council, and he hoped this was an augury of sincere cooperation between states which alone would enable the Council to succeed in its task.

The Trusteeship Council held its 29th session at UN Headquarters in New York from June 5 to July 25, 1962. At its opening meeting, the 1180th, the Council adopted its provisional agenda, which included consideration of the most recent annual reports of the administering authorities on the trust territories of Ruanda-Urundi, the Pacific Islands, Nauru, and New Guinea, as well as examination of petitions and the reports of the UN Visiting Mission to Nauru and New Guinea. It also contained reports on the attainment of self-government or independence by trust territories pursuant to Trusteeship Council Resolution 1369 (XVII) and General Assembly Resolution 1413 (XIV); and it included reports on the situations in trust territories with regard to the implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, as well as reports of various committees of the Council.

Acting Secretary-General U Thant, in his Introduction to the Annual Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization, 16 June 1961—75 June 1962, stated that the serious situation in the Congo, which had led to the tragic death of Dag Hammarskjöld, was particularly crucial among the problems of the last year. The peace-keeping operation in the Congo (ONUC) and the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) had incurred large expenditures, while a number of Member States had failed to pay their assessments for the maintenance of these peace-keeping forces. As a result, the financial difficulties facing the Organization had become increasingly serious in the last year. In an effort to ease the UN's financial problems, the General Assembly had requested the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on the question of whether the expenditures for maintaining ONUC and UNEF constituted expenses of the Organization within the meaning of Article 17, paragraph 2, of the Charter and therefore represented binding legal obligations on Member States to pay their assessments for these operations. The General Assembly had also authorized the Secretary-General to issue during 1962 and 1963 up to $200 million of UN bonds.

South West Africa Cases (Ethiopia v. South Africa and Liberia v. South Africa): On October 2, 1962, the International Court of Justice held the first of the public hearings on the preliminary objections to the jurisdiction of the Court, raised by the government of the Republic of South Africa in these cases. After opening the sitting and briefly recalling the stages in the written proceedings covered since the institution of the cases on November 4, 1960, the President of the Court proceeded to the installation of the two judges ad hoc designated by the parties in accordance with Article 31, paragraphs 3 and 5, of the Statute of the International Court of Justice. The two judges ad hoc were Sir Louis Mbanefo, Chief Justice of the High Court, Eastern Region of Nigeria, designated by Ethiopia and Liberia acting in concert, and the Honorable Jacques Theodore van Wyk, Judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa, designated by the government of the Republic of South Africa. The President announced that Judge Córdova was prevented by his health from sitting in the present proceedings.

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development made a loan of $30 million for the continuation of a national power expansion program in Yugoslavia. The loan was to help to finance construction of a 240,000-kilowatt hydroelectric plant in central Yugoslavia, and the extension of the country-wide electric power network by the installation of 362 miles of transmission lines and associated substations. The loan was made to the Yugoslav Investment Bank, an institution of the federal government which channeled investment funds for development. The Investment Bank was to re-lend the proceeds of the Bank loan to the enterprises responsible for constructing and operating the power plant and the transmission system. The loan was for a term of 25 years at an interest rate of 5¾ percent; amortization was to begin on December 1, 1966. The loan was guaranteed by the government of Yugoslavia.

The International Monetary Fund entered into a stand-by agreement with the government of Honduras authorizing drawings equivalent to $7.5 million for a one-year period. The arrangement was to serve as an assured secondary line of reserves to strengthen the country's international reserve position. The Fund entered into a stand-by arrangement authorizing the government of India to draw up to $100 million over the following year; this arrangement was made in support of India's reserve position, which had been under considerable strain in previous months.

The Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) held its 29th session in Geneva on January 15–26, 1962, under the chairmanship of Dr. A. O. Abu Shumma. The Standing Committee on Administration and Finance held eight meetings. The Standing Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations held two meetings and considered new applications from organizations for official membership, as well as carrying out a quadrennial review of the organizations in official relationship with WHO. The Standing Committee on Headquarters Accommodations also met.

The Agreement for the Establishment of the Caribbean Organization, Article V (2), stated that the agreement would enter into force on signature of a joint declaration to that effect by the signatory governments following deposit of instruments of approval or acceptance by the signatory governments and after the Secretary-General of the Caribbean Commission had received notification from not less than six of the prospective members of the Organization. It was announced in February 1961 that the Secretary-General had received formal notification from six prospective members, who had accepted the obligations imposed by the Statute of the Caribbean Organization and elected to become members. These were: France for the departments of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, and Martinique; Surinam; the Netherlands Antilles; British Guiana; Puerto Rico; and the Virgin Islands of the United States. The government of the British Virgin Islands later notified the Secretary-General of its intention to join the Organization and became a member on May 31, 1962.

The Central American Common Market was established among the governments of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua on July 31, 1962, at the conclusion of the third extraordinary session, July 23–31, 1962, in San José, Costa Rica, of the Committee of Economic Cooperation of the five republics. Three conventions were signed by the ministers of economy, representing the five nations, with the aim of establishing the Central American economic integration structure: 1) the adhesion of Costa Rica to the Central American convention on equalization of tariff rates; 2) the protocol to the Central American convention on the equalization of import duties (the Protocol of San José); and 3) the Central American convention on fiscal incentives to industrial development.

The European Parliament (formerly called the European Parliamentary Assembly) met at Strasbourg from May 7 to May 11, 1962, under the presidency of Mr. Gaetano Martino (Italian Liberal). The President of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) High Authority, Mr. Piero Malvestiti, reviewed ten years of his organization's activities. In conclusion, he called for a European energy policy to counter upheavals caused by the changing pattern of energy consumption. Mr. Ernst Muller-Hermann (German Christian Democrat) reported on transport, and the Parliament requested the European Economic Community (EEC) Commission to draw up plans and a timetable for instituting a common transport policy. The Parliament unanimously adopted a draft resolution presented by Mr. Marinus Van der Goes van Naters (Dutch Labor) deploring the lack of valid action following the Bonn declaration on political union of July 18, 1961, and called for resumed negotiations for a political union fully respecting the statute of existing communities, aiming at the adoption of a common foreign policy, strengthening the Atlantic Alliance, and providing for cultural cooperation, harmonization of legislation, and the peaceful settlement of disputes. The Parliament also adopted a resolution hoping for a successful conclusion as soon as possible of the negotiations with the government of the United Kingdom.

The 1960–1961 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Tariff Conference was brought to a conclusion on July 16, 1962. The decision to hold the 1960–1961 conference was taken in May 1959, following a proposal of the United States that such a conference should be held. Approximately 4,400 tariff concessions were negotiated at the conference. There were three separate elements in the 1960–1961 conference: 1) renegotiations with the European Economic Community (EEC); 2) the “Dillon” or general round of negotiations; and 3) negotiations in accordance with the relevant provisions of the General Agreement with countries wishing to accede to GATT.

The following dissertation was omitted from the bibliography “Doctoral Dissertations in American Universities Concerning the United Nations, 1943–1961,” by Sidney N. Barnett, which appeared in the Summer 1962 (Vol. 16, No. 3) issue of International Organization:

Tobiassen, Leif Kr. The Right of Access to the United Nations. New York University, 1959.