President of the United Nations General Assembly

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President of the United Nations General Assembly
Emblem of the United Nations
Incumbent Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser
Appointer	United Nations General Assembly
Term length	1 year
Inaugural holder	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.

Election

A map of the world showing the home countries of Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly up until the 66th (current) session of the General Assembly in 2011-12.

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 Pakistan. 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

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

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

Wikinews has news related to: United Nations

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