{"type":"events","slug":"1978-un-general-assembly-ufo-decision","title":"UN General Assembly Decision 33/426","url":"https://disclosdex.com/events/1978-un-general-assembly-ufo-decision","description":"Grenada pushed UFO research onto the UN agenda, ending in a consensus decision for national coordination","date":"1978-12-18T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["UN"],"updated":"2026-05-05T00:00:00.000Z","disclosureRating":5,"status":"resolved","lat":40.7489,"lng":-73.968,"connectionCount":0,"content":{"markdown":"On December 18, 1978, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Decision 33/426, the formal outcome of Grenada's campaign to place unidentified flying objects and related phenomena on the UN agenda.[^1][^9][^10]\n\n## Origin\n\nGrenada's initiative came from Prime Minister Sir Eric M. Gairy, whose government asked the Secretary-General to include an item on the thirty-third General Assembly agenda about creating a UN agency or department to undertake, coordinate, and disseminate UFO research.[^3]\n\nGairy told the Special Political Committee that Grenada had raised UFOs at the thirtieth, thirty-first, thirty-second, and thirty-third General Assembly sessions, and the UN library later summarized that the item was included in the 1977 and 1978 agendas at Grenada's request.[^2][^5]\n\nThe 1978 agenda request was accompanied by a Secretary-General report collecting replies from Member States and specialized agencies, including a supportive reply from Seychelles and no-comment replies from organizations such as ICAO and UNESCO.[^4]\n\n## Who\n\nThe central political sponsor was Gairy, who personally led Grenada's presentation before the Special Political Committee on November 27, 1978, with Wellington Friday serving as minister for education and deputy chairman of the Grenada delegation.[^5]\n\nGrenada also brought outside UFO researchers and witnesses into the UN record. Friday introduced J. Allen Hynek of the Center for UFO Studies, Jacques Vallee, and Lt. Col. Larry Coyne, whose 1973 Mansfield helicopter encounter was presented as an example of an aviation-safety case needing international procedures.[^5]\n\n## What Grenada proposed\n\nGrenada's draft resolution asked the United Nations to initiate, conduct, and coordinate research into the nature and origin of unidentified flying objects and related phenomena, then invite governments, agencies, and NGOs to send information and proposals by May 31, 1979.[^5][^6]\n\nThe draft also sought a three-member expert group under the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to define study guidelines, review submissions, report through that committee, and place a follow-up item on the thirty-fourth General Assembly agenda.[^5][^6]\n\n## What the UN adopted\n\nAfter consultations, the Special Political Committee replaced Grenada's agency proposal with a narrower consensus draft decision, and the committee approved that text at its forty-seventh meeting on December 8, 1978.[^7][^8]\n\nDecision 33/426 did not establish a UFO office. It took note of Grenada's statements and draft resolutions, invited interested Member States to coordinate national scientific research into extraterrestrial life including UFOs, asked them to inform the Secretary-General of observations and evaluations, and sent Grenada's material to the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space for possible 1979 consideration.[^1][^8][^10]\n\nThe General Assembly then adopted the Special Political Committee's recommendation without a vote at its eighty-seventh plenary meeting on December 18, 1978.[^1][^9][^10]\n\n## How evolved\n\nThe outcome was a procedural compromise rather than the UN UFO agency Grenada had first sought. UN library guidance states that Grenada's draft resolutions in the thirty-second and thirty-third sessions were not pressed to a vote and were not adopted, while decisions 32/424 and 33/426 were the formal actions actually taken.[^2]\n\nThat distinction explains why later retellings often overstate the event. The official symbol is A/DEC/33/426, the UN Digital Library classifies it as a decision, and the adopted text points research responsibility toward interested national governments and the existing outer-space committee rather than a new investigative department.[^1][^2][^10]\n\n## References\n\n[^1]: [UN Digital Library: General Assembly Decision 33/426](https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/527441?ln=en)\n\n[^2]: [Ask DAG: Did the General Assembly ever consider UFOs?](https://ask.un.org/faq/22686)\n\n[^3]: [UN Digital Library: Grenada request for inclusion in the 33rd session agenda, A/33/141](https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/655114?ln=en)\n\n[^4]: [UN Digital Library: Secretary-General report on the Grenada UFO agenda item, A/33/268](https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/655422?ln=en)\n\n[^5]: [UN Documents: Special Political Committee 35th meeting verbatim record, A/SPC/33/PV.35](https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n79/552/98/pdf/n7955298.pdf?OpenElement=)\n\n[^6]: [UN Digital Library: Grenada draft resolution, A/SPC/33/L.20](https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/678474?ln=en)\n\n[^7]: [UN Digital Library: Special Political Committee 47th meeting summary record, A/SPC/33/SR.47](https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/673684/files/A_SPC_33_SR.47-EN.pdf)\n\n[^8]: [UN Digital Library: Special Political Committee report, A/33/512](https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/660888?ln=en)\n\n[^9]: [UN Digital Library: General Assembly 87th plenary meeting, A/33/PV.87](https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/646798?ln=en)\n\n[^10]: [Yearbook of the United Nations 1978: Research into unidentified flying objects and related phenomena](https://cdn.un.org/unyearbook/yun/chapter_pdf/1978YUN/1978_P1_SEC1_CH16.pdf)","readingTime":"4 min read"},"relatedRecords":[],"citation":{"canonicalUrl":"https://disclosdex.com/events/1978-un-general-assembly-ufo-decision","title":"UN General Assembly Decision 33/426","publisher":"Disclosdex","retrievedFrom":"https://disclosdex.com/api/v1/events/1978-un-general-assembly-ufo-decision","license":"CC-BY-4.0"},"witnesses":["Sir Eric M. Gairy","Wellington Friday","J. Allen Hynek","Jacques Vallee","Lt. Col. Larry Coyne"],"evidence":["General Assembly Decision 33/426","87th plenary meeting record","Special Political Committee records","Grenada agenda request","Grenada draft resolution","UN Yearbook account"]}