During the 55th session of the General Assembly, the Fifth Committee asked for a legal opinion of the implications of the expression "takes note of" when considering a report; and whether that means the General Assembly has agreed to the content of that report.
The discussions took place in the Fifth Committee during their 52nd, 57th and 68th meetings of the 55th session in 2011:
The legal opinion was drafted by the Legal Counsel and circulated as an annex to a letter to the Fifth Committee. The official document where this opinion is found is in document A/C.5/55/42.
Subsequently, the General Assembly adopted decision 55/488 (in A/55/49 (Vol. III), p. 92) on 7 September 2011 at the 111th plenary meeting of the General Assembly (A/55/PV.111), which states that "takes note of" and "notes" are "neutral terms that constitute neither approval or disapproval".
