Timeline of U.N. General Assembly presidents in the last decade

CAIRO – 9 September 2017: On September 12, the United Nations General Assembly

(UNGA)

will convene for its 72ndsession to discuss and debate international issues of concern, including political, humanitarian, economic and security topics. In light of the increasing vulnerability of millions of people around the world as a result of conflict, terrorism, displacement and rapid change in the climate that leads to natural disasters, this year the assembly is adopting the theme “Focusing on People: Striving for Peace and a Decent Life for All on a Sustainable Planet.”

On a yearly basis, the

UNGA

member states elect a president for one year, in line with an existing regional rotational scheme. This scheme allows the presidency to rotate annually between five geographic groups, the pattern for regional rotation since 1963 has been: Latin American and Caribbean states, African states, Western European and other states, Asian states and Eastern Europe. The assembly’s rules of procedures don’t include formal criteria for selecting the president. Annually one of the regional groups nominates an individual, who is then elected by a simple majority of GA member states as the president of the UNGA.

Traditionally, every regional grouping selects one nominee and submits its nomination to the GA for election. The most recent exception occurred in 1991, when the Asian group nominated three candidates for the position.

It is customary that no permanent member of the U.N. Security Council ever serves as a GA president because of their powerful stature globally. These countries include: China, France, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the U.S.

In this article we introduce the GA presidents during the last decade.



Prepared and designed by Yasmine Hassan

The regional nominations for the GA sessions until 2020 are as follows: 73rd GA (2018-2019)– Latin American and Caribbean States, while the president of the 74th GA (2019 – 2020) will be from an African state.

According to the GA rules of procedure, the president of the assembly presides over the GA annual session and oversees any remaining issues to be dealt with in the remainder of the session, including special or emergency assemblies. The president does not vote on GA decisions but has control over all other aspects of the discussions, including time limitations for speakers, closure of the list of speakers, suspension and adjournment of debate, and ruling on points of order. In addition, the president also has an informal facilitative role to play by consulting bilaterally with delegations to assess differences in position, propose solutions, and build consensus for proposals. Compensation for the president of the GA is determined by the home member state, which pays the president’s salary.

The only country that has had an elected president of the UNGA twice is Argentina; all other member states had been represented only once. GA presidents from the Arab countries include: Charles Malik form Lebanon 1958, Mongi Slim from Tunisia 1961, Abdelaziz Bouteflika from Algeria 1974, Ismat T. Kittani from Iraq 1981, Samir Shihabi from Saudi Arabia 1991, Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa from Bahrain 2006, Ali Treki from Libya 2009 and Nassir Al-Nasser from Qatar in 2011.

The current GA president, until September 12, is Peter Thomson from Fiji, who was elected in June 2016. During his election speech, Thomson pledged to serve the assembly "in a spirit of fidelity and commitment to the common good, always in accord with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the U.N.," according to the U.N. official website.

During his presidency, Thomson visited Egypt, Senegal and Ethiopia (March-April 2017) to discuss peace building efforts in the region, as well as sustainable development plans in Africa in line with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDGs).

This article is part of a series of articles by Egypt Today to shed light on the General Assembly and its 72nd session on September 12.