President of the United Nations General Assembly

President of the
United Nations General Assembly

Emblem of the United Nations
Incumbent
Fiji Peter Thomson
Appointer United Nations General Assembly
Term length 1 year
Inaugural holder Belgium Paul-Henri Spaak
Formation 1946
Website List of Presidents of the UN 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. The President presides over the sessions of the General Assembly.

Peter Thomson of Fiji has been elected as the United Nations General Assembly President of its 71st session beginning in September 2016. The election of Peter Thomson is a first for Fiji and the Pacific. As President-elect for the 71st Session, Ambassador Thomson pledged to serve the General Assembly, "in a spirit of fidelity and commitment to the common good, always in accord with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations."[1]

Election

A map of the world showing the home countries of Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly up until the 69th session of the General Assembly in 2014-15, with historical member states in inset.

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 the UN General Assembly.

The presidency rotates annually between the five geographic groups: African, Asia-Pacific, Eastern European, Latin American and Caribbean, and Western European and other States.[2]

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 no permanent member of the United Nations Security Council ever 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. This does not include special and emergency special sessions of the General Assembly.

List of presidents

Year elected Name of President[3] UN member state Region Sessions
1946 Paul-Henri Spaak  Belgium WES First
1947 Oswaldo Aranha  Brazil LAS First special
Second
1948 José Arce  Argentina LAS Second special
1948 Herbert Vere Evatt  Australia COS Third
1949 Carlos P. Romulo  Philippines EAS Fourth
1950 Nasrollah Entezam  Iran EAS Fifth
1951 Luis Padilla Nervo  Mexico LAS Sixth
1952 Lester B. Pearson  Canada COS Seventh
1953 Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit  India COS Eighth, First woman president
1954 Eelco van Kleffens  Netherlands WES Ninth
1955 José Maza Fernández  Chile LAS Tenth
1956 Rudecindo Ortega (de)  Chile LAS First emergency special
Second emergency special
1956 Wan Waithayakon  Thailand EAS Eleventh
1957 Leslie Munro  New Zealand COS Twelfth
Third emergency special
1958 Charles Malik  Lebanon MES Thirteenth
1959 Víctor Andrés Belaúnde  Peru LAS Fourteenth
Fourth emergency special
1960 Frederick Boland  Ireland WES Fifteenth
Third special
1961 Mongi Slim  Tunisia MES Sixteenth
1962 Muhammad Zafarullah Khan  Pakistan COS Seventeenth
Fourth special
1963 Carlos Sosa Rodríguez (es)  Venezuela LAS Eighteenth
1964 Alex Quaison-Sackey  Ghana COS Nineteenth
1965 Amintore Fanfani  Italy WES Twentieth
1966 Abdul Rahman Pazhwak  Afghanistan Asia Twenty-first
Fifth special
Fifth emergency special
1967 Corneliu Mănescu  Romania EEG Twenty-second
1968 Emilio Arenales Catalán  Guatemala GRULAC Twenty-third
1969 Angie Brooks  Liberia Africa Twenty-fourth
1970 Edvard Hambro  Norway WEOG Twenty-fifth
1971 Adam Malik  Indonesia Asia Twenty-sixth
1972 Stanisław Trepczyński  Poland EEG Twenty-seventh
1973 Leopoldo Benites  Ecuador GRULAC Twenty-eighth
Sixth special
1974 Abdelaziz Bouteflika  Algeria Africa Twenty-ninth
Seventh special
1975 Gaston Thorn  Luxembourg WEOG Thirtieth
1976 Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe  Sri Lanka Asia Thirty-first
1977 Lazar Mojsov  Yugoslavia EEG Thirty-second
Eighth special
Ninth special
Tenth special
1978 Indalecio Liévano  Colombia GRULAC Thirty-third
1979 Salim Ahmed Salim  United Republic of Tanzania Africa Thirty-fourth
Sixth emergency special
Seventh emergency special
Eleventh special
1980 Rüdiger von Wechmar  Federal Republic of Germany WEOG Thirty-fifth
Eighth emergency special
1981 Ismat T. Kittani  Iraq Asia Thirty-sixth
Seventh emergency special—Continuation
Ninth emergency special
Twelfth special
1982 Imre Hollai  Hungary EEG Thirty-seventh
1983 Jorge Illueca  Panama GRULAC Thirty-eighth
1984 Paul J. F. Lusaka  Zambia Africa Thirty-ninth
1985 Jaime de Piniés  Spain WEOG Fortieth
Thirteenth special
1986 Humayun Rashid Choudhury  Bangladesh Asia Forty-first
Fourteenth special
1987 Peter Florin  German Democratic Republic EEG Forty-second
Fifteenth special
1988 Dante Caputo  Argentina GRULAC Forty-third
1989 Joseph Nanven Garba  Nigeria Africa Forty-fourth
Sixteenth special
Seventeenth special
Eighteenth special
1990 Guido de Marco  Malta WEOG Forty-fifth
1991 Samir Shihabi  Saudi Arabia Asia Forty-sixth
1992 Stoyan Ganev  Bulgaria EEG Forty-seventh
1993 Rudy Insanally  Guyana GRULAC Forty-eighth
1994 Amara Essy  Ivory Coast Africa Forty-ninth
1995 Diogo de Freitas do Amaral  Portugal WEOG Fiftieth
1996 Razali Ismail  Malaysia Asia Fifty-first
Tenth emergency special
Nineteenth special
1997 Hennadiy Udovenko  Ukraine EEG Fifty-second
Tenth emergency special—Continuation
Twentieth special
1998 Didier Opertti  Uruguay GRULAC Fifty-third
Tenth emergency special—Continuation
Twenty-first special
1999 Theo-Ben Gurirab  Namibia Africa Fifty-fourth
Twenty-second special
Twenty-third special
Twenty-fourth special
2000 Harri Holkeri  Finland WEOG Fifty-fifth
Tenth emergency special—Continuation
Twenty-fifth special
Twenty-sixth special
2001 Han Seung-soo  Republic of Korea Asia Fifty-sixth
Tenth emergency special—Continuation
2002 Jan Kavan  Czech Republic EEG Fifty-seventh
Tenth emergency special—Continuation
2003 Julian Hunte  Saint Lucia GRULAC Fifty-eighth
Tenth emergency special—Continuation
2004 Jean Ping  Gabon Africa Fifty-ninth
2005 Jan Eliasson  Sweden WEOG Sixtieth
2006 Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa  Bahrain Asia Sixty-first
Tenth emergency special—Continuation
2007 Srgjan Kerim  Republic of Macedonia EEG Sixty-second
2008 Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann  Nicaragua GRULAC Sixty-third
2009 Ali Treki  Libya Africa Sixty-fourth
2010 Joseph Deiss   Switzerland WEOG Sixty-fifth
2011 Nassir Al-Nasser[4]  Qatar Asia-Pacific Sixty-sixth
2012 Vuk Jeremić  Serbia EEG Sixty-seventh (election)
2013 John William Ashe  Antigua and Barbuda GRULAC Sixty-eighth
2014 Sam Kutesa  Uganda Africa Sixty-ninth
2015 Mogens Lykketoft  Denmark WEOG Seventieth
2016 Peter Thomson  Fiji Asia-Pacific Seventy-first (election)
2017 Miroslav Lajčák  Slovakia EEG Seventy-second

Abbreviations:

Pre-1966
Since 1966

See also

References

  1. ↑ "UN Elects Ambassador Thomson For Top General Assembly Post". FijiSun. June 14, 2016. Retrieved June 14, 2016.
  2. ↑ "UN: About the General Assembly". Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  3. ↑ Presidents of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Un.org. Retrieved on 2013-12-06.
  4. ↑ United Nations document GA/11105
  5. ↑ "Asian Group of nations at UN changes its name to Asia-Pacific Group", Radio New Zealand International, 31 August 2011.
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