President of the United Nations General Assembly should not be confused with Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Style: | His Excellency |
Post: | President of the United Nations General Assembly |
Insignia: | Emblem of the United Nations.svg |
Insigniacaption: | Emblem of the United Nations |
Flag: | Flag of the United Nations.svg |
Flagsize: | 140px |
Flagcaption: | Flag of the United Nations |
Incumbent: | Dennis Francis |
Incumbentsince: | 5 September 2023 |
Department: | United Nations General Assembly |
Status: | Presiding officer |
Member Of: | General Assembly |
Residence: | New York City (International Territory) |
Seat: | United Nations Headquarters |
Appointer: | Member states of General Assembly |
Termlength: | One year |
Constituting Instrument: | Charter of the United Nations |
Formation: | 1946 |
Inaugural: | Paul-Henri Spaak |
Website: | un.org/en/ga/ |
The president of the United Nations General Assembly is a position voted by representatives in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on a yearly basis. The president is the chair and presiding officer of the General Assembly.
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 UNGA.
The presidency rotates annually between the five geographic groups: African, Asia-Pacific, 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, including the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Japan.
The only modern countries that had a national elected as president of UNGA twice are Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Hungary and Nigeria; 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 UNGA. FR ["West"] Germany and ["East"] German DR held the presidency once each during the Cold War; the reunited Germany has not done so.
In addition to the president, a slate of 21 vice-presidents are elected for each General Assembly session. The vice-presidents have the same powers and duties as the president, and the president may designate one of them to cover his absence from any meeting or part thereof.[2] [3]
Year elected | Image | Name of president[4] (Birth–Death) | UN member state | Region | Sessions | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1946 | Paul-Henri Spaak | WES | First | |||
1947 | Oswaldo Aranha | Brazil | LAS | First special Second | ||
José Arce | LAS | Second special | ||||
Herbert Vere Evatt | COS | Third | ||||
1949 | Carlos P. Romulo | Philippines | EAS | Fourth, First Asian president | ||
1950 | Nasrollah Entezam | EAS | Fifth | |||
1951 | Luis Padilla Nervo | Mexico | LAS | Sixth | ||
1952 | Lester B. Pearson | Canada | COS | Seventh | ||
1953 | Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit | COS | Eighth, First woman president | |||
1954 | Eelco van Kleffens | WES | Ninth | |||
1955 | José Maza Fernández | LAS | Tenth | |||
Rudecindo Ortega (es) | LAS | First emergency special Second emergency special | ||||
Wan Waithayakon | EAS | Eleventh | ||||
1957 | Leslie Munro | COS | Twelfth Third emergency special | |||
1958 | Charles Malik | Lebanon | MES | Thirteenth | ||
1959 | Víctor Andrés Belaúnde | LAS | Fourteenth Fourth emergency special | |||
1960 | Frederick Boland | WES | Fifteenth Third special | |||
1961 | Mongi Slim | Tunisia | MES | Sixteenth, First African president | ||
1962 | Muhammad Zafarullah Khan | COS | Seventeenth Fourth special | |||
1963 | Carlos Sosa Rodríguez (es) | LAS | Eighteenth | |||
1964 | Alex Quaison-Sackey | Ghana | COS | Nineteenth | ||
1965 | Amintore Fanfani | WES | Twentieth | |||
1966 | Abdul Rahman Pazhwak | Asia | Twenty-first Fifth special Fifth emergency special | |||
1967 | Corneliu Mănescu | Romania | EEG | Twenty-second | ||
1968 | Emilio Arenales Catalán | GRULAC | Twenty-third | |||
1969 | Angie Brooks | Africa | Twenty-fourth | |||
1970 | Edvard Hambro | WEOG | Twenty-fifth | |||
1971 | Adam Malik | Asia | Twenty-sixth | |||
1972 | Stanisław Trepczyński | EEG | Twenty-seventh | |||
1973 | Leopoldo Benites | GRULAC | Twenty-eighth Sixth special | |||
1974 | Abdelaziz Bouteflika | Africa | Twenty-ninth Seventh special | |||
1975 | Gaston Thorn | WEOG | Thirtieth | |||
1976 | Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe | Sri Lanka | Asia | Thirty-first | ||
1977 | Lazar Mojsov | EEG | Thirty-second Eighth special Ninth special Tenth special | |||
1978 | Indalecio Liévano | GRULAC | Thirty-third | |||
1979 | Salim Ahmed Salim | Africa | Thirty-fourth Sixth emergency special Seventh emergency special Eleventh special | |||
1980 | Rüdiger von Wechmar | 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 | EEG | Thirty-seventh | |||
1983 | Jorge Illueca | GRULAC | Thirty-eighth | |||
1984 | Paul J. F. Lusaka | Zambia | Africa | Thirty-ninth | ||
1985 | Jaime de Piniés | WEOG | Fortieth Thirteenth special | |||
1986 | Humayun Rashid Choudhury | Asia | Forty-first Fourteenth special | |||
1987 | Peter Florin | EEG | Forty-second Fifteenth special | |||
1988 | Dante Caputo | GRULAC | Forty-third | |||
1989 | Joseph Nanven Garba | Africa | Forty-fourth Sixteenth special Seventeenth special Eighteenth special | |||
1990 | Guido de Marco | WEOG | Forty-fifth | |||
1991 | Samir Shihabi | Asia | Forty-sixth | |||
1992 | Stoyan Ganev | EEG | Forty-seventh | |||
1993 | Rudy Insanally | GRULAC | Forty-eighth | |||
1994 | Amara Essy | Africa | Forty-ninth | |||
1995 | Diogo de Freitas do Amaral | WEOG | Fiftieth | |||
1996 | Razali Ismail | Asia | Fifty-first Tenth emergency special Nineteenth special | |||
1997 | Hennadiy Udovenko | EEG | Fifty-second Tenth emergency special—Continuation Twentieth special | |||
1998 | Didier Opertti | GRULAC | Fifty-third Tenth emergency special—Continuation Twenty-first special | |||
1999 | Theo-Ben Gurirab | Africa | Fifty-fourth Twenty-second special Twenty-third special Twenty-fourth special | |||
2000 | Harri Holkeri | WEOG | Fifty-fifth Tenth emergency special—Continuation Twenty-fifth special Twenty-sixth special | |||
2001 | Han Seung-soo | Asia | Fifty-sixth Tenth emergency special—Continuation Twenty-seventh special | |||
2002 | Jan Kavan | EEG | Fifty-seventh Tenth emergency special—Continuation | |||
2003 | Julian Hunte | Saint Lucia | GRULAC | Fifty-eighth Tenth emergency special—Continuation | ||
2004 | Jean Ping | Africa | Fifty-ninth Twenty-eighth special | |||
2005 | Jan Eliasson | WEOG | Sixtieth | |||
2006 | Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa | Asia | Sixty-first Tenth emergency special—Continuation | |||
2007 | Srgjan Kerim | EEG | Sixty-second | |||
2008 | Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann | GRULAC | Sixty-third | |||
2009 | Ali Treki | Libya | Africa | Sixty-fourth | ||
2010 | Joseph Deiss | Switzerland | WEOG | Sixty-fifth | ||
2011 | Nassir Al-Nasser[5] | 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 Twenty-ninth special | ||
2015 | Mogens Lykketoft | Denmark | WEOG | Seventieth Thirtieth special | ||
2016 | Peter Thomson | Fiji | Asia-Pacific | Seventy-first (election) | ||
2017 | Miroslav Lajčák | Slovakia | EEG | Seventy-second Tenth emergency special—Continuation | ||
2018 | María Fernanda Espinosa | Ecuador | GRULAC | Seventy-third | ||
2019 | Tijjani Muhammad-Bande | Nigeria | Africa | Seventy-fourth | ||
2020 | Volkan Bozkır | Turkey | WEOG | Seventy-fifth | ||
2021 | Abdulla Shahid | Maldives | Asia-Pacific | Seventy-sixth Eleventh emergency special | ||
2022 | Csaba Kőrösi | Hungary | EEG | Seventy-seventh | ||
2023 | Dennis Francis | Trinidad and Tobago | GRULAC | Seventy-eighth | ||
2024 | Philémon Yang | Cameroon | Africa | Seventy-ninth |