President of the United Nations General Assembly
President of the United Nations General Assembly | |
---|---|
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. The President presides over the sessions of the General Assembly. The current officeholder is Sam Kutesa of Uganda. He was unanimously chosen by the African Union Executive Council to become President of the sixty-ninth session.[1]
Mogens Lykketoft of Denmark is the only nominee put forward by the Western Europe And other States group to become President of the United Nations General Assembly of the seventieth session of the General Assembly beginning 15 September, 2015. He will be officially appointed in June, 2015.[2][3]
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 UNGA.
The presidency rotates annually between the five geographic groups: African, Asian, Eastern European, Latin American and Caribbean, and Western European and other States.[4]
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
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, since 2011 the Asia-Pacific Group[7]
- EEG: Eastern European Group
- GRULAC: Latin American and Caribbean Group
- WEOG: Western European and Others Group
See also
References
- ^ "General Assembly elects Ugandan Foreign Minister as President of 69th session". United Nations News Centre. United Nations. 11 June 2014. Retrieved 15 June 2014.
- ^ "Danish parliament speaker to head UN General Assembly". Global Post. November 29, 2014. Retrieved December 17, 2014.
- ^ "President Ashe meets with H.E. Mr. Mogens Lykketoft, Speaker of the Parliament of Denmark". Un.org. June 23, 2014. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
- ^ "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.
- ^ United Nations document GA/11105
- ^ "Asian group of nations at UN changes its name to Asia-Pacific group", Radio New Zealand International, 31 August 2011.