President of the United Nations General Assembly

President of the United Nations General Assembly
Emblem of the United Nations
Flag of the United Nations
Incumbent Abdulla Shahid since 14 September 2021
United Nations General Assembly
Style	His Excellency
Status	Presiding officer
Member of	General Assembly
Residence	United Nations Headquarters
Seat	New York City, New York, United States
Appointer	General Assembly
Term length	One year
Constituting instrument	Charter of the United Nations
Inaugural holder	Paul-Henri Spaak
Formation	1946
Website	un.org/en/ga/

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 is the chair and presiding officer of the General Assembly.

Abdulla Shahid is the current president since 14 September 2021. On 7 June 2021, he was elected as the 76th president of the United Nations General Assembly with an overwhelming three-fourth majority, with 143 in favour, 48 against and no abstentions and no invalid votes.^[1]

Election[]

A map of the world showing the home countries of presidents of the United Nations General Assembly up until the 72nd session of the General Assembly in 2017–18, 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 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.^[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 UNGA president.

The only modern countries that had a national elected as president of UNGA twice are Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Nigeria; all the other member states had been represented only once by their nationals holding this office, and Germany had a national elected once as Federal Republic of Germany and once as German Democratic Republic. This does not include special and emergency special sessions of UNGA.

List of presidents[]

Year elected	Image	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
1948		Herbert Vere Evatt	Australia	COS	Third
1949		Carlos P. Romulo	Philippines	EAS	Fourth, First Asian president
1950		Nasrollah Entezam	Iran	EAS
1951		Luis Padilla Nervo	Mexico	LAS
1952		Lester B. Pearson	Canada	COS
1953		Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit	India	COS	, First woman president
1954		Eelco van Kleffens	Netherlands	WES
1955		José Maza Fernández	Chile	LAS
1956		(es)	Chile	LAS	First emergency special
1956		Wan Waithayakon	Thailand	EAS
1957		Leslie Munro	New Zealand	COS
1958		Charles Malik	Lebanon	MES
1959		Víctor Andrés Belaúnde	Peru	LAS
1960		Frederick Boland	Ireland	WES
1961		Mongi Slim	Tunisia	MES	, First African president
1962		Muhammad Zafarullah Khan	Pakistan	COS
1963		(es)	Venezuela	LAS
1964		Alex Quaison-Sackey	Ghana	COS
1965		Amintore Fanfani	Italy	WES
1966		Abdul Rahman Pazhwak	Afghanistan	Asia
1967		Corneliu Mănescu	Romania	EEG
1968		Emilio Arenales Catalán	Guatemala	GRULAC
1969		Angie Brooks	Liberia	Africa
1970		Edvard Hambro	Norway	WEOG
1971		Adam Malik	Indonesia	Asia
1972		Stanisław Trepczyński	Poland	EEG
1973		Leopoldo Benites	Ecuador	GRULAC
1974		Abdelaziz Bouteflika	Algeria	Africa
1975		Gaston Thorn	Luxembourg	WEOG
1976		Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe	Sri Lanka	Asia
1977		Lazar Mojsov	Yugoslavia	EEG
1978		Indalecio Liévano	Colombia	GRULAC
1979		Salim Ahmed Salim	United Republic of Tanzania	Africa	Sixth emergency special Seventh emergency special Eleventh special
1980		Rüdiger von Wechmar	Federal Republic of Germany	WEOG
1981		Ismat T. Kittani	Iraq	Asia	Thirty-sixth Seventh emergency special—Continuation
1982		Imre Hollai	Hungary	EEG
1983		Jorge Illueca	Panama	GRULAC
1984		Paul J. F. Lusaka	Zambia	Africa
1985		Jaime de Piniés	Spain	WEOG
1986		Humayun Rashid Choudhury	Bangladesh	Asia
1987		Peter Florin	German Democratic Republic	EEG
1988		Dante Caputo	Argentina	GRULAC
1989		Joseph Nanven Garba	Nigeria	Africa
1990		Guido de Marco	Malta	WEOG
1991		Samir Shihabi	Saudi Arabia	Asia
1992		Stoyan Ganev	Bulgaria	EEG
1993		Rudy Insanally	Guyana	GRULAC
1994		Amara Essy	Ivory Coast	Africa
1995		Diogo de Freitas do Amaral	Portugal	WEOG
1996		Razali Ismail	Malaysia	Asia	Tenth emergency special
1997		Hennadiy Udovenko	Ukraine	EEG	Tenth emergency special—Continuation
1998		Didier Opertti	Uruguay	GRULAC	Tenth emergency special—Continuation
1999		Theo-Ben Gurirab	Namibia	Africa
2000		Harri Holkeri	Finland	WEOG	Fifty-fifth Tenth emergency special—Continuation
2001		Han Seung-soo	South Korea	Asia	Tenth emergency special—Continuation
2002		Jan Kavan	Czech Republic	EEG	Tenth emergency special—Continuation
2003		Julian Hunte	Saint Lucia	GRULAC	Tenth emergency special—Continuation
2004		Jean Ping	Gabon	Africa
2005		Jan Eliasson	Sweden	WEOG
2006		Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa	Bahrain	Asia	Tenth emergency special—Continuation
2007		Srgjan Kerim	FYROM	EEG
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 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

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-Pacific: Asian Group, since 2011 the Asia-Pacific Group^[5]
• 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[]

External links[]

Wikinews has news related to: United Nations

• UN: List of UN General Assembly presidents
• UN General Assembly President Election Reform.
• UNelections.org.
• Elections and appointments (2020-2021)