An emergency special session is an unscheduled meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to make urgent decisions over a particular issue. They are typically rare — a fact reflected in there being only 10 in the history of the United Nations. Most emergency special sessions span a single session — the tenth, however, is the only emergency special session to be resumed more than once (the seventh emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly was resumed once).

The UN's Uniting for Peace resolution (Resolution 377 [1]) allows a majority vote of the Security Council, a majority vote of UN member states, or a simple request from any single member to convene an emergency special session within 24 hours.

First emergency special session

• Topic: Suez crisis
• Date: 1 November - 10 November 1956
• Resolution: A/3354
• Convened by: Security Council

Second emergency special session

• Topic: The Soviet invasion of Hungary (1956 Hungarian Revolution)
• Date: 4 November - 10 November 1956
• Resolution: A/3355
• Convened by: Security Council

Third emergency special session

• Topic: Lebanon Crisis
• Date: 8 August - 21 August 1958
• Resolution: A/3905
• Convened by: Security Council

Fourth emergency special session

• Topic: Secessionist violence in Congo
• Date: 17 September - 19 September 1960
• Resolution: A/4510
• Convened by: Security Council

Fifth emergency special session

• Topic: Six Day War
• Date: 17 June - 18 September 1967
• Resolution: A/6798
• Convened by: USSR

Sixth emergency special session

• Topic: Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
• Date: 10 January - 14 January 1980
• Resolution and press release: A/ES-6/7, GA/6172
• Convened by: Security Council

Seventh emergency special session

• Topic: Palestine
• Dates: 22 July - 29 July 1980; 20 April - 28 April, 25 June - 26 June, 16 August - 19 August, and 24 September 1982
• Resolution and press release: A/ES-7/14, GA/6245
• Convened by:
• See also: Seventh emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly

Eighth emergency special session

• Topic: South Africa's long occupation of Namibia
• Date: 3 September - 14 September 1981
• Resolution and press release: A/ES-8/13, GA/6414
• Convened by: Zimbabwe

Ninth emergency special session

• Topic: Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights
• Date: 29 January - 5 February 1982
• Resolution and press release: A/ES-9/7, GA/6560
• Convened by: Security Council

Tenth emergency special session

• Topic: Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem
• Date: 24 April - 25 April, 15 July, and 13 November 1997; 17 March 1998; 5, 8 and 9 February 1999; 18 and 20 October 2000; 20 December 2001; 7 May and 5 August 2002; 19 September, 20 October - 21 October, and 3 December 2003
• Resolutions: A/ES-10/5, A/ES-10/L.1, A/ES-10/L.2, A/ES-10/L.3, A/ES-10/L.4, A/ES-10/L.5, A/ES-10/L.6, A/58/ES-10/L.13, A/58/ES-10/L.16, A/58/ES-10/L.17, A/RES/ES-10/2-11
• Press release: GA/10152
• Convened by: Qatar
• See also: Tenth emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly