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President of the United Nations General Assembly
Emblem of the United Nations
Flag of the United Nations
Incumbent María Fernanda Espinosa since 18 September 2018
United Nations General Assembly
Style	Her 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 presides over the sessions of the General Assembly.

María Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador has been elected as the UNGA President of its 73rd session beginning in September 2018.

Election

A map of the world showing the home countries of Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly up until the 72th 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 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, 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 and Ecuador; 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

Year elected	Name of President[2]	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	Second special
1948	Herbert Vere Evatt	Australia	COS	Third
1949	Carlos P. Romulo	Philippines	EAS	Fourth
1950	Nasrollah Entezam	Iran	EAS	Fifth
1951	Luis Padilla Nervo	Mexico	LAS	Sixth
1952	Lester B. Pearson	Canada	COS	Seventh
1953	Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit	India	COS	Eighth, First woman president
1954	Eelco van Kleffens	Netherlands	WES	Ninth
1955	José Maza Fernández	Chile	LAS	Tenth
1956	Rudecindo Ortega (de)	Chile	LAS	First emergency special Second emergency special
1956	Wan Waithayakon	Thailand	EAS	Eleventh
1957	Leslie Munro	New Zealand	COS	Twelfth Third emergency special
1958	Charles Malik	Lebanon	MES	Thirteenth
1959	Víctor Andrés Belaúnde	Peru	LAS	Fourteenth Fourth emergency special
1960	Frederick Boland	Ireland	WES	Fifteenth Third special
1961	Mongi Slim	Tunisia	MES	Sixteenth
1962	Muhammad Zafarullah Khan	Pakistan	COS	Seventeenth Fourth special
1963	Carlos Sosa Rodríguez (es)	Venezuela	LAS	Eighteenth
1964	Alex Quaison-Sackey	Ghana	COS	Nineteenth
1965	Amintore Fanfani	Italy	WES	Twentieth
1966	Abdul Rahman Pazhwak	Afghanistan	Asia	Twenty-first Fifth special Fifth emergency special
1967	Corneliu Mănescu	Romania	EEG	Twenty-second
1968	Emilio Arenales Catalán	Guatemala	GRULAC	Twenty-third
1969	Angie Brooks	Liberia	Africa	Twenty-fourth
1970	Edvard Hambro	Norway	WEOG	Twenty-fifth
1971	Adam Malik	Indonesia	Asia	Twenty-sixth
1972	Stanisław Trepczyński	Poland	EEG	Twenty-seventh
1973	Leopoldo Benites	Ecuador	GRULAC	Twenty-eighth Sixth special
1974	Abdelaziz Bouteflika	Algeria	Africa	Twenty-ninth Seventh special
1975	Gaston Thorn	Luxembourg	WEOG	Thirtieth
1976	Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe	Sri Lanka	Asia	Thirty-first
1977	Lazar Mojsov	Yugoslavia	EEG	Thirty-second Eighth special Ninth special Tenth special
1978	Indalecio Liévano	Colombia	GRULAC	Thirty-third
1979	Salim Ahmed Salim	United Republic of Tanzania	Africa	Thirty-fourth Sixth emergency special Seventh emergency special Eleventh special
1980	Rüdiger von Wechmar	Federal Republic of Germany	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	Hungary	EEG	Thirty-seventh
1983	Jorge Illueca	Panama	GRULAC	Thirty-eighth
1984	Paul J. F. Lusaka	Zambia	Africa	Thirty-ninth
1985	Jaime de Piniés	Spain	WEOG	Fortieth Thirteenth special
1986	Humayun Rashid Choudhury	Bangladesh	Asia	Forty-first Fourteenth special
1987	Peter Florin	German Democratic Republic	EEG	Forty-second Fifteenth special
1988	Dante Caputo	Argentina	GRULAC	Forty-third
1989	Joseph Nanven Garba	Nigeria	Africa	Forty-fourth Sixteenth special Seventeenth special Eighteenth special
1990	Guido de Marco	Malta	WEOG	Forty-fifth
1991	Samir Shihabi	Saudi Arabia	Asia	Forty-sixth
1992	Stoyan Ganev	Bulgaria	EEG	Forty-seventh
1993	Rudy Insanally	Guyana	GRULAC	Forty-eighth
1994	Amara Essy	Ivory Coast	Africa	Forty-ninth
1995	Diogo de Freitas do Amaral	Portugal	WEOG	Fiftieth
1996	Razali Ismail	Malaysia	Asia	Fifty-first Tenth emergency special Nineteenth special
1997	Hennadiy Udovenko	Ukraine	EEG	Fifty-second Tenth emergency special—Continuation Twentieth special
1998	Didier Opertti	Uruguay	GRULAC	Fifty-third Tenth emergency special—Continuation Twenty-first special
1999	Theo-Ben Gurirab	Namibia	Africa	Fifty-fourth Twenty-second special Twenty-third special Twenty-fourth special
2000	Harri Holkeri	Finland	WEOG	Fifty-fifth Tenth emergency special—Continuation Twenty-fifth special Twenty-sixth special
2001	Han Seung-soo	South Korea	Asia	Fifty-sixth Tenth emergency special—Continuation
2002	Jan Kavan	Czech Republic	EEG	Fifty-seventh Tenth emergency special—Continuation
2003	Julian Hunte	Saint Lucia	GRULAC	Fifty-eighth Tenth emergency special—Continuation
2004	Jean Ping	Gabon	Africa	Fifty-ninth
2005	Jan Eliasson	Sweden	WEOG	Sixtieth
2006	Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa	Bahrain	Asia	Sixty-first Tenth emergency special—Continuation
2007	Srgjan Kerim	Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia	EEG	Sixty-second
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[3]	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

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^[4]
  


• 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.


• 
  More news on UN elections and appointments^{[permanent dead link]}.