# President of the United Nations General Assembly

The president of the United Nations General Assembly is a position voted 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.

## 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.
Because of their powerful stature globally, some of the largest, most powerful countries have never held the presidency, including the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Japan.
A few countries had a national elected as president of UNGA twice: Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Hungary and Nigeria; all the other member states had a national holding this office once (not counting additional special and emergency special sessions of UNGA and also not considering that the then separate West Germany and East Germany held the presidency once each during the Cold War). In addition to the president, a slate of 21 vice-presidents are elected for each General Assembly session. The vice-presidents have the same powers and duties as the president, and the president may designate one of them to cover his absence from any meeting or part thereof.

## List of presidents

| Year elected | Name of president (Birth–Death) | UN member state | Region | Sessions |
| 1946 | Paul-Henri Spaak (1889–1972) | Belgium | WES | First |
| 1947 | Oswaldo Aranha (1894–1960) | Brazil | LAS | First special Second |
| 1948 | José Arce (1881–1968) | Argentina | LAS | Second special |
| 1948 | Herbert Vere Evatt (1894–1965) | Australia | COS | Third |
| 1949 | Carlos P. Romulo (1898–1985) | Philippines | EAS | Fourth, First Asian president |
| 1950 | Nasrollah Entezam (1900–1980) | Iran | EAS | Fifth |
| 1951 | Luis Padilla Nervo (1894–1985) | Mexico | LAS | Sixth |
| 1952 | Lester B. Pearson (1897–1972) | Canada | COS | Seventh |
| 1953 | Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1900–1990) | India | COS | Eighth, First woman president |
| 1954 | Eelco van Kleffens (1894–1983) | Netherlands | WES | Ninth |
| 1955 | José Maza Fernández (1889–1964) | Chile | LAS | Tenth |
| 1956 | Rudecindo Ortega Mason (1896–1962) | Chile | LAS | First emergency special Second emergency special |
| 1956 | Wan Waithayakon (1891–1976) | Thailand | EAS | Eleventh |
| 1957 | Leslie Munro (1901–1974) | New Zealand | COS | Twelfth Third emergency special |
| 1958 | Charles Malik (1906–1987) | Lebanon | MES | Thirteenth |
| 1959 | Víctor Andrés Belaúnde (1893–1966) | Peru | LAS | Fourteenth Fourth emergency special |
| 1960 | Frederick Boland (1904–1985) | Ireland | WES | Fifteenth Third special |
| 1961 | Mongi Slim (1908–1969) | Tunisia | MES | Sixteenth, First African president |
| 1962 | Muhammad Zafarullah Khan (1893–1985) | Pakistan | COS | Seventeenth Fourth special |
| 1963 | Carlos Sosa Rodríguez (1912–1997) | Venezuela | LAS | Eighteenth |
| 1964 | Alex Quaison-Sackey (1924–1992) | Ghana | COS | Nineteenth |
| 1965 | Amintore Fanfani (1908–1999) | Italy | WES | Twentieth |
| 1966 | Abdul Rahman Pazhwak (1919–1995) | Afghanistan | Asia | Twenty-first Fifth special Fifth emergency special |
| 1967 | Corneliu Mănescu (1916–2000) | Romania | EEG | Twenty-second |
| 1968 | Emilio Arenales Catalán (1922–1969) | Guatemala | GRULAC | Twenty-third |
| 1969 | Angie Brooks (1928–2007) | Liberia | Africa | Twenty-fourth |
| 1970 | Edvard Hambro (1911–1977) | Norway | WEOG | Twenty-fifth |
| 1971 | Adam Malik (1917–1984) | Indonesia | Asia | Twenty-sixth |
| 1972 | Stanisław Trepczyński (1924–2002) | Poland | EEG | Twenty-seventh |
| 1973 | Leopoldo Benites (1905–1996) | Ecuador | GRULAC | Twenty-eighth Sixth special |
| 1974 | Abdelaziz Bouteflika (1937–2021) | Algeria | Africa | Twenty-ninth Seventh special |
| 1975 | Gaston Thorn (1928–2007) | Luxembourg | WEOG | Thirtieth |
| 1976 | Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe (1913–1980) | Sri Lanka | Asia | Thirty-first |
| 1977 | Lazar Mojsov (1920–2011) | Yugoslavia | EEG | Thirty-second Eighth special Ninth special Tenth special |
| 1978 | Indalecio Liévano (1917–1982) | Colombia | GRULAC | Thirty-third |
| 1979 | Salim Ahmed Salim (born 1942) | United Republic of Tanzania | Africa | Thirty-fourth Sixth emergency special Seventh emergency special Eleventh special |
| 1980 | Rüdiger von Wechmar (1923–2007) | Federal Republic of Germany | WEOG | Thirty-fifth Eighth emergency special |
| 1981 | Ismat T. Kittani (1929–2001) | Iraq | Asia | Thirty-sixth Seventh emergency special—Continuation Ninth emergency special Twelfth special |
| 1982 | Imre Hollai (1925–2017) | Hungary | EEG | Thirty-seventh |
| 1983 | Jorge Illueca (1918–2012) | Panama | GRULAC | Thirty-eighth |
| 1984 | Paul J. F. Lusaka (1935–1996) | Zambia | Africa | Thirty-ninth |
| 1985 | Jaime de Piniés (1917–2003) | Spain | WEOG | Fortieth Thirteenth special |
| 1986 | Humayun Rashid Choudhury (1928–2001) | Bangladesh | Asia | Forty-first Fourteenth special |
| 1987 | Peter Florin (1921–2014) | German Democratic Republic | EEG | Forty-second Fifteenth special |
| 1988 | Dante Caputo (1943–2018) | Argentina | GRULAC | Forty-third |
| 1989 | Joseph Nanven Garba (1943–2002) | Nigeria | Africa | Forty-fourth Sixteenth special Seventeenth special Eighteenth special |
| 1990 | Guido de Marco (1931–2010) | Malta | WEOG | Forty-fifth |
| 1991 | Samir Shihabi (1925–2010) | Saudi Arabia | Asia | Forty-sixth |
| 1992 | Stoyan Ganev (1955–2013) | Bulgaria | EEG | Forty-seventh |
| 1993 | Rudy Insanally (1936–2023) | Guyana | GRULAC | Forty-eighth |
| 1994 | Amara Essy (born 1944) | Ivory Coast | Africa | Forty-ninth |
| 1995 | Diogo de Freitas do Amaral (1941–2019) | Portugal | WEOG | Fiftieth |
| 1996 | Razali Ismail (born 1939) | Malaysia | Asia | Fifty-first Tenth emergency special Nineteenth special |
| 1997 | Hennadiy Udovenko (1931–2013) | Ukraine | EEG | Fifty-second Tenth emergency special—Continuation Twentieth special |
| 1998 | Didier Opertti (born 1937) | Uruguay | GRULAC | Fifty-third Tenth emergency special—Continuation Twenty-first special |
| 1999 | Theo-Ben Gurirab (1938–2018) | Namibia | Africa | Fifty-fourth Twenty-second special Twenty-third special Twenty-fourth special |
| 2000 | Harri Holkeri (1937–2011) | Finland | WEOG | Fifty-fifth Tenth emergency special—Continuation Twenty-fifth special Twenty-sixth special |
| 2001 | Han Seung-soo (born 1936) | South Korea | Asia | Fifty-sixth Tenth emergency special—Continuation Twenty-seventh special |
| 2002 | Jan Kavan (born 1946) | Czech Republic | EEG | Fifty-seventh Tenth emergency special—Continuation |
| 2003 | Julian Hunte (born 1940) | Saint Lucia | GRULAC | Fifty-eighth Tenth emergency special—Continuation |
| 2004 | Jean Ping (born 1942) | Gabon | Africa | Fifty-ninth Twenty-eighth special |
| 2005 | Jan Eliasson (born 1940) | Sweden | WEOG | Sixtieth |
| 2006 | Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa (born 1952) | Bahrain | Asia | Sixty-first Tenth emergency special—Continuation |
| 2007 | Srgjan Kerim (born 1948) | North Macedonia | EEG | Sixty-second |
| 2008 | Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann (1933–2017) | Nicaragua | GRULAC | Sixty-third |
| 2009 | Ali Treki (1937–2015) | Libya | Africa | Sixty-fourth |
| 2010 | Joseph Deiss (born 1946) | Switzerland | WEOG | Sixty-fifth |
| 2011 | Nassir Al-Nasser (born 1952) | Qatar | Asia-Pacific | Sixty-sixth |
| 2012 | Vuk Jeremić (born 1975) | Serbia | EEG | Sixty-seventh (election) |
| 2013 | John William Ashe (1954–2016) | Antigua and Barbuda | GRULAC | Sixty-eighth |
| 2014 | Sam Kutesa (born 1949) | Uganda | Africa | Sixty-ninth Twenty-ninth special |
| 2015 | Mogens Lykketoft (born 1946) | Denmark | WEOG | Seventieth Thirtieth special |
| 2016 | Peter Thomson (born 1948) | Fiji | Asia-Pacific | Seventy-first (election) |
| 2017 | Miroslav Lajčák (born 1963) | Slovakia | EEG | Seventy-second Tenth emergency special—Continuation |
| 2018 | María Fernanda Espinosa (born 1964) | Ecuador | GRULAC | Seventy-third |
| 2019 | Tijjani Muhammad-Bande (born 1957) | Nigeria | Africa | Seventy-fourth |
| 2020 | Volkan Bozkır (born 1950) | Turkey | WEOG | Seventy-fifth |
| 2021 | Abdulla Shahid (born 1962) | Maldives | Asia-Pacific | Seventy-sixth Eleventh emergency special |
| 2022 | Csaba Kőrösi (born 1958) | Hungary | EEG | Seventy-seventh |
| 2023 | Dennis Francis (born 1956) | Trinidad and Tobago | GRULAC | Seventy-eighth |
| 2024 | Philémon Yang (born 1947) | Cameroon | Africa | Seventy-ninth |

### 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
* EEG: Eastern European Group
* GRULAC: Latin American and Caribbean Group
* WEOG: Western European and Others Group