General secretary of the United Nations

The General secretary of the United Nations is the senior official of UNO. He is member of the Secrétariat of the United Nations.

Its role

The General secretary must be most independent possible, it is mainly for this reason that the nationality of the various general secretaries forever be that of a State which is permanent member with the Safety advice.

The Charte of the United Nations charges it with fulfilling all the functions with which it can be charged by the Safety advice, the General meeting, the Economic and Social Council or very other body of UNO. It can also draw the attention of the Safety advice to any business which it considers important.

As a senior official of UNO, it can use its independence to prevent the appearance, the aggravation or the extension of any conflict which can put in danger the maintenance of the peace or the respect of the international law.

Nomination

The General secretary is named by the General meeting on recommendation of the Safety advice. The permanent members can use their right to veto to prevent this recommendation. The duration of its mandate is 5 years and although there is no limit in the number of mandate, no General secretary exerted more than two mandates.

General secretaries

Sir Gladwyn Jebb (the United Kingdom) (1900-1996), General secretary by interim of 1945 with 1946
Trygve Binds (Norway) (1896-1968), General secretary of February 1946 until its resignation in November 1952
Dag Hammarskjöld (Sweden) (1905-1961), General secretary of April 1953 until its death in an air crash in Africa in September 1961
U Thant (Burma) (1909-1974), General secretary of November 1961 to December 1971
Kurt Waldheim (Austria) (1918-2007), General secretary of January 1972 to December 1981
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (Peru) (1920 -), General secretary of January 1982 to December 1991
Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Egypt) (1922 -), General secretary of January 1992 to December 1996
Kofi Annan (Ghana) (1938 -), General secretary of January 1997 to December 2006
Ban Ki-moon (South Korea) (1944 -), General secretary since January 2007

External bonds

Site of the General secretary of UNO

Map-bms: Sekretaris Jenderal PBB

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