President of the United Nations General Assembly
President of the United Nations General Assembly | |
---|---|
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 |
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.
On June 4, 2019, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande of Nigeria was elected the President of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly and later succeeded María Fernanda Espinosa, whose term officially ended in September 2019.[1]
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 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 countries that had a national elected as President of UNGA twice are Argentina, Ecuador 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.
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-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
References
- ^ "Muhammad Bande emerges UNGA President". Daily Trust. 4 June 2019. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
- ^ "UN: About the General Assembly". Retrieved 2009-09-16.
- ^ Presidents of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Un.org. Retrieved on 2013-12-06.
- ^ "Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser of Qatar Elected President of General Assembly's Sixty-Sixth Session; Vice-Presidents, Main Committee Chairs Also Named | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". www.un.org.
- ^ "Asian Group of nations at UN changes its name to Asia-Pacific Group", Radio New Zealand International, 31 August 2011.