President of the United Nations General Assembly

The President of the United Nations General Assembly is a position voted for by representatives in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on a yearly basis.

Election

The session of the assembly is scheduled for every year starting in September - any special, or emergency special, assemblies over the next year will be headed by the president of UNGA.

The presidency rotates annually between the five geographic groups: African, Asian, Eastern European, Latin American and Caribbean, and Western European and other States.^[1]

Because of their powerful stature globally, some of the largest, most powerful countries have never held the presidency, such as the People's Republic of China, France, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In particular, it is customary that a national of a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council never serves as General Assembly president.

The only country that had a national elected as President of the United Nations General Assembly twice is Argentina; all the other member states had been represented only once by their nationals holding this office.

Reform

Clear and appropriate criteria have been proposed prior to the consideration of candidacies and to establish of an "elections committee" or, alternatively, a search committee.^[2] Criteria include:

• Availability to devote full-time attention for many months;
• Political independence;
• Multilateral leadership experience, including negotiation and consensus-building skills and the ability to deal with multiple powerful stakeholders; and
• A thorough understanding of the United Nations Charter.

Other propositions includes presidential voting by citizens of all over the world to elect the UNGA president.

List of presidents

Abbreviations:

Pre-1966

• COS - Commonwealth Seat
• EAS - Eastern European and Asian Seat
• LAS - Latin American Seat
• MES - Middle Eastern Seat
• WES - Western European Seat

Since 1966

• Africa - African Group
• Asia - Asian Group
• EEG - Eastern European Group
• GRULAC - Latin American and Caribbean Group
• WEOG - Western European and Others Group

See also

• President of the United Nations Security Council

References

1. ^ "UN: About the General Assembly". http://www.un.org/ga/55/bgrdga.htm. Retrieved 2009-09-16. 
2. ^ "Proposed elections committee". http://www.unelections.org/files/IGP_PGASelectionLetter_18Jan07.pdf. Retrieved 2009-09-16. 
3. ^ http://www.un.org/en/ga/president/index.shtml
4. ^ United Nations document GA/11105

External links

• UN: List of UN General Assembly presidents
• UN General Assembly President Election Reform.
• UNelections.org.
• More news on UN elections and appointments.