Gallery of Secretaries General of the United Nations (UN)
Antonio Guterres
The Secretary-General, who has witnessed the suffering of the planet's most vulnerable people in refugee camps and war zones, is determined to make human dignity the core of his work and to promote peace, build bridges and promote reform. and innovation.
Before being appointed Secretary-General, Mr. Guterres was the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015 and, as such, led one of the world's leading humanitarian organizations during some of the most serious crises. displacements in decades. The conflicts in Syria and Iraq and the crises in South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Yemen led to a large increase in UNHCR activities, in parallel with the increase in the number of people displaced by conflict and persecution, from 38 million in 2005 to more than 60 million in 2015.
Before joining UNHCR, Mr. Guterres had worked for more than 20 years in the civil service and administration. He was Prime Minister of Portugal between 1995 and 2002, a period in which he actively participated in international initiatives to resolve the crisis in East Timor.
As President of the European Council in early 2000, he led the approval process for the Lisbon Agenda for Growth and Jobs and co-chaired the first European Union-Africa summit. He was a member of the Portuguese Council of State from 1991 to 2002.
In 1976 Mr. Guterres was elected deputy to the Parliament of Portugal, of which he was a member for 17 years. During that time, he chaired the Parliamentary Commission for the Economy, Finance and Planning and, later, the Parliamentary Commission for Spatial Planning, Municipalities and the Environment. He was also the leader of his party's parliamentary group.
Between 1981 and 1983, Mr. Guterres was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, where he chaired the Commission on Migration, Refugees and Population.
For many years, Mr. Guterres was an active member of the Socialist International, the world organization of social democratic political parties. He was Vice-Chairman of that group between 1992 and 1999 and co-chaired the Commission for Africa and subsequently the Commission for Development. From 1999 to mid-2005 he served as President. He also founded the Portuguese Council for Refugees and the Portuguese Association for the Defense of the Consumer (DECO) and, in the early 1970s, he was President of the association Centro de Acção Social Universitário, which carried out social development projects in neighborhoods poor Lisbon.
Mr. Guterres belongs to the Club of Madrid, a leadership alliance made up of former presidents and former democratic prime ministers from around the world.
Mr. Guterres was born in Lisbon in 1949 and received a degree in Engineering from the Instituto Superior Técnico. He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, French and English. He is married to Mrs. Catarina de Almeida Vaz Pinto, Deputy Mayor for Culture of Lisbon, and he has two children, a stepson and three grandchildren.
Ban Ki Moon
On January 1, 2007, Mr. Ban Ki-moon of the Republic of Korea became the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations, bringing 37 years of experience serving the Government of his country and in the world scene.
Highlights of his career
At the time of his election as Secretary-General, Mr. Ban served as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea. During his long years of service in the Ministry he had destinations in New Delhi, Washington and Vienna and dealt with various portfolios; He served as Advisor to the President on foreign policy matters, as Senior Advisor to the President on matters of national security, as Deputy Minister of Policy Planning, and as Director General of American Affairs. Throughout his career, he was guided by the vision of a peaceful Korean peninsula that would play an increasingly important role in promoting peace and prosperity in the region and in the world.
Mr. Ban has had links with the United Nations since 1975, when he worked in the United Nations Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of his country. His work expanded over the years; He served as First Secretary of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations in New York, as Director of the United Nations Division at the Ministry's headquarters in Seoul and as Ambassador in Vienna, on which occasion he held, in 1999, the position of President of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. In 2001-2002, as Chief of Staff of the President of the General Assembly in the session that the Republic of Korea held the Presidency of the Assembly, he facilitated the rapid adoption of the first resolution of that session, by which they condemned the terrorist attacks of September 11, and took various initiatives to strengthen the functioning of the Assembly. In this way, it contributed to the approval of important reforms in a session that had begun amidst an atmosphere of crisis and confusion.
Mr. Ban has also actively dealt with issues relating to the relations between the two Koreas. In 1992, as Special Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he served as Vice President of the Joint South-North Commission for the Control of Nuclear Weapons, following the approval of the historic Joint Declaration on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. In September 2005, in his capacity as Minister of Foreign Affairs, he played a leading role in the conclusion of another historic agreement aimed at promoting peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, with the adoption of the Declaration in the six-party talks Joint on the solution of the nuclear issue in North Korea.
Education
Mr. Ban obtained a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from Seoul National University in 1970. In 1985, he earned a Master's degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. In July 2008, Mr. Ban was awarded an honorary doctorate by Seoul National University.
Awards and distinctions
Mr. Ban has received numerous national and international awards, medals and distinctions. In 1975, 1986, and again in 2006, he was awarded the Order of Merit, the Republic of Korea's highest honor, for services rendered to his country. In April 2008, he was awarded the "Grand-Croix de L'Ordre National" (Grand Cross National Order) of Burkina Faso and in the same month he was invested "Grand Officier de L'Ordre National" (Grand Officer of the National Order ) of the government of Côte d'Ivoire
Personal details
Mr. Ban was born on June 13, 1944. He is married to Ms. Yoo (Ban) Soon-taek, whom he met in high school in 1962. They have a son, two daughters, and four grandchildren. Mr. Ban also speaks Korean, English and French. The Secretary General's wife has focused her efforts on promoting the health of women and children, and has collaborated in a large number of awareness campaigns on autism, the fight against gender-based violence, and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission. of HIV / AIDS.
Kofi Annan
Mr. KOFI A. ANNAN from Ghana was the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations. Annan, who was the first Secretary-General to be elected while on the staff of the United Nations, began his first term on January 1, 1997. On June 29, 2001, the General Assembly, on the recommendation of the Security Council, appointed by acclamation for a second term, from January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2006.
Mr. Annan's priorities as Secretary-General have been the renewal of the United Nations through a comprehensive reform program; the strengthening of the Organization's traditional work in the fields of development and the maintenance of international peace and security; the promotion and promotion of human rights, the rule of law and the universal values of equality, tolerance and human dignity enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations; and restoring public confidence in the Organization by seeking new partners and, in his own words, "bringing the United Nations closer to the people."
Mr. Annan was born in Kumasi (Ghana) on April 8, 1938. He studied at the Kumasi University of Science and Technology and in 1961 he completed his studies in economics at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota (United States of America ). From 1961 to 1962 he did postgraduate studies in economics at the Institut universitaire des hautes études internationales in Geneva. In 1971-1972 Mr. Annan, Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earned a Master of Science degree in Management.
Mr. Annan joined the United Nations system in 1962 as an administrative and budget officer at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva. Since then he has worked at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Addis Ababa; at the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF II) in Ismailia; at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva; and at United Nations Headquarters in New York as Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management and Coordinator of Security Affairs for the United Nations system (1987-1990) and Assistant Secretary-General for Program Planning, Budget and Finance and Controller (1990-1992).
In 1990, following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the Secretary-General requested Mr. Annan, as a special mission, to facilitate the repatriation from Iraq of more than 900 international officials and citizens of Western countries. He subsequently led the first United Nations team to negotiate the sale of oil with Iraq to finance the purchase of humanitarian aid.
Before being appointed Secretary General, Mr. Annan was Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations (March 1992 to February 1993) and later Assistant Secretary General (March 1993 to December 1996). While serving as Under-Secretary-General, there was an unprecedented increase in the size and scope of United Nations peacekeeping operations, with a total deployment peaking in 1995 of nearly 70.000 military and civilians. from 77 countries. Between November 1995 and March 1996, following the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Annan served as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the former Yugoslavia and was in charge of oversee in Bosnia and Herzegovina the transition from the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) to the Peace Agreement Implementation Force (IFOR) led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
As Secretary-General, Mr. Annan's first major initiative was his reform plan entitled "Renewal of the United Nations", which he presented to Member States in July 1997 and the implementation of which has continued ever since, with a particular focus on improving coherence and coordination. His April 1998 report to the Security Council on "The causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa" was part of several initiatives to maintain the international community's engagement with Africa, the most disadvantaged region in the world.
He has used his good offices in various politically sensitive situations. Among them, the 1998 attempt to get Iraq to comply with Security Council resolutions; a mission in 1998 to help promote the transition to civilian government in Nigeria; an agreement in 1999 to resolve the deadlock that existed between Libya and the Security Council over the Lockerbie bombing in 1988; the 1999 diplomatic initiatives to forge an international response to the violence in East Timor; the certification of Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in September 2000 and new efforts, since a new outbreak of violence in September 2000, to encourage the Israelis and the Palestinians to resolve their disputes through peaceful negotiations based on the resolutions 242 and 338 of the Security Council and on the principle of "land for peace."
Mr. Annan has also sought to improve the status of women in the Secretariat and to create closer partnerships with civil society, the private sector and other non-state actors whose strength complements that of the United Nations; In particular, it has advocated a "Global Compact" with the participation of leaders of business circles from around the world, as well as unions and civil society organizations, in order to ensure that all the peoples of the world share the benefits of globalization and bringing values and practices to the world market that are fundamental to meeting socio-economic needs.
In April 2000, it presented the Millennium Report, entitled "We the peoples: The role of the United Nations in the 2000st century", in which it called on Member States to commit to carrying out a plan of action to end with poverty and inequality, improve education, reduce HIV / AIDS, safeguard the environment and protect people from deadly conflict and violence. The Report formed the basis of the Millennium Declaration, approved by the Heads of State and Government at the Millennium Summit, held at the United Nations Headquarters in September XNUMX.
In April 2001, the Secretary-General issued a five-point "Call to Action" to combat the HIV / AIDS epidemic, which he described as "his personal priority", and proposed the establishment of a Global AIDS Fund and for Health to serve as a mechanism to partially finance the increased expenditures needed to help developing countries cope with the crisis.
On December 10, 2001, the Secretary-General and the United Nations were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. At the award ceremony, the Nobel Committee stated that Mr. Annan "has been preeminent in giving new life to the Organization." In also conferring the award on the world body, the Committee said it wished to “proclaim that the only negotiable path to world peace and cooperation is through the United Nations.
The Secretary General speaks English, French and several African languages. He is married to Nane Annan from Sweden, a lawyer and artist who is keen to understand the work of the United Nations on the ground. She is particularly concerned with two issues: HIV / AIDS and the education of women. He has also written a children's book on the United Nations. The couple has three children.
Kofi Annan passed away on August 18, 2018 in Bern (Switzerland) at the age of 80.
Boustros Boustros-Ghali
Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt was the Sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations, he held that position from January 1, 1992 to December 31, 1996. From May 1991 to the date of his appointment by the Assembly General, on December 3, 1991, Mr. Boutros-Ghali was Deputy Prime Minister for Foreign Affairs of Egypt, and had previously held the position of Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (October 1977 to 1991).
Mr. Boutros-Ghali has been involved in international affairs for a long time as a diplomat, lawyer, scholar, and author of numerous works.
Mr. Boutros-Ghali was a member of the Egyptian Parliament since 1987 and was part of the secretariat of the National Democratic Party since 1980. Until his inauguration as Secretary-General of the United Nations, he was also Vice-President of the Socialist International .
He was a member of the International Law Commission from 1979 to 1991, as well as the International Commission of Jurists. He maintains numerous professional and academic links related to his training in law, international relations and political science, as evidenced, among other things, by his membership in the Institute of International Law, the International Institute for Human Rights, and the African Society for Political Studies. and the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences (Academie Française, Paris).
For four decades, Mr. Boutros-Ghali participated in numerous meetings on international law, human rights, economic and social development, decolonization, the Middle East question, international humanitarian law, the rights of ethnic minorities and other minorities, the non-aligned, development in the Mediterranean region and Afro-Arab cooperation.
In September 1978, Mr. Boutros-Ghali attended the Camp David Summit Conference and participated in the negotiation of the Camp David accords between Egypt and Israel, signed in 1979. He chaired numerous delegations from his country at meetings of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, as well as in the Conference at the Summit of Heads of State of France and Africa. He was also the head of the Egyptian delegation to the General Assembly sessions of 1979, 1982 and 1990.
Mr. Boutros-Ghali obtained a doctorate in international law from the University of Paris in 1949. His thesis was on the study of regional organizations. Mr. Boutros-Ghali also obtained a law degree from the University of Cairo in 1946, as well as diplomas in political science, economics and public law from the University of Paris.
From 1949 to 1977, Mr. Boutros-Ghali was Professor of International Law and International Relations at the University of Cairo. From 1974 to 1977 he was a member of the Central Committee and the Political Bureau of the Arab Socialist Union.
Regarding his other professional and academic activities, it is worth mentioning that Mr. Boutros-Ghali was the holder of a Fulbright research fellowship at Columbia University (1954-1955), Director of the Research Center of the Academy of Law International in The Hague (1963-1964), and visiting professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Paris (1967-1968). He has lectured on international law and international relations at universities in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America.
Mr. Boutros-Ghali was President of the Egyptian Society of International Law since 1965; President of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies since 1975; member of the Administrative Council of Curators of the Academy of International Law of The Hague since 1978; member of the Scientific Committee of the Academie Mondiale pour la Paix de Menton (France) since 1978, and associate member of the Affari Internazionali Institute of Rome since 1979. Mr. Boutros-Ghali was a member of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations of the International Labor Organization from 1971 to 1979. In addition, he was the founder of the Alahram Iqtisadi publication, which he directed from 1960 to 1975, and the Al-Seyassa Al-Dawlia quarterly publication, which he directed until December 1991.
Mr. Boutros-Ghali is the author of more than 100 publications and numerous articles on regional affairs, international relations, law and diplomacy, and political science.
Throughout his career, Mr. Boutros-Ghali has received titles and honors from 24 countries: Egypt, Belgium, Italy, Colombia, Guatemala, France, Ecuador, Argentina, Nepal, Luxembourg, Portugal, Niger, Mali, Mexico, Greece, Chile, Brunei Darussalam, Germany, Peru, Côte d'Ivoire, Denmark, Central African Republic, Sweden and Republic of Korea. In addition, he has been awarded the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
Throughout his career, Mr. Boutros-Ghali has received titles and honors from 24 countries: Egypt, Belgium, Italy, Colombia, Guatemala, France, Ecuador, Argentina, Nepal, Luxembourg, Portugal, Niger, Mali, Mexico, Greece, Chile, Brunei Darussalam, Germany, Peru, Côte d'Ivoire, Denmark, Central African Republic, Sweden and Republic of Korea. In addition, he has been awarded the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
He has also received the title of honorary member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Moscow (April 1994); a title of foreign honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (April 1994); a title of foreign honorary member of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences, Minsk (April 1994); an honorary doctorate from the Carlos III University of Madrid (April 1994); an honorary degree from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Washington, DC (May 1994); an honorary doctorate in international law from Moncton University, New Brunswick, Canada (August 1994) and honorary doctorates from the University of Bucharest (October 1994), from the University of Baku (October 1994), from the University of Yerevan (November 1994), University of Haifa (February 1995), University of Vienna (February 1995) and University of Melbourne (April 1995); and an honorary doctorate in law from Carleton University, Canada (November 1995). The Berkeley Higher Institute of Yale University has appointed him to the Council (March 1995). He has received the Onassis Award for International Understanding and Social Achievement (July 1995). He received an honorary doctorate in law from the University Montesquieu in Bordeaux, France (March 1996) and an honorary doctorate in law from the Koryo University in Seoul, Republic of Korea (April 1996).
Mr. Boutros-Ghali was born in Cairo on November 14, 1922 and died on February 16, 2016 at the age of 93. He was married to Leia Maria Boutros-Ghali.
Javier Perez de Cuellar
Secretary General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar took office as Secretary General of the United Nations on January 1, 1982. On October 10, 1986, he was elected to continue his second term, beginning on January 1, 1987.
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar was born in Lima (Peru) on January 19, 1920. He is a lawyer and career diplomat, now retired.
He joined the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1940 and the diplomatic corps in 1944, working shortly after as secretary in the embassies of Peru in France, the United Kingdom, Bolivia and Brazil, and as Counselor and Minister Counselor in the Embassy in Brazil.
After his return to Lima in 1961, he was promoted to the rank of Ambassador the following year, and successively developed the duties of Director of the Legal Department, Director of Administration, Director of Protocol and Director of Political Affairs. In 1966 he was appointed Secretary General (Vice Minister) for Foreign Affairs. In 1981, he worked as Legal Counsel at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar was the Ambassador of Peru in Switzerland, in the Soviet Union, Poland and Venezuela.
He was a member of the Peruvian delegation to the General Assembly at its first session in 1946 and a member of the delegations of the twenty-fifth and thirtieth sessions of the Assembly. In 1971 he was appointed Permanent Representative of Peru to the United Nations, and led his country's delegation in all sessions of the Assembly from then until 1975.
In 1973 and 1974 he represented his country in the Security Council, serving as President of the Council during the events in Cyprus in July 1974. On September 18, he was appointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Cyprus, a position he held until December 1977, when he returned to his service in the Foreign Service.
On February 27, 1979, he was appointed Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations for specific Political Affairs. Since April 1981, and while he was still in this position, he served as the Personal Representative of the Assistant Secretary-General in the situation concerning Afghanistan. Under this condition, he traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in April and August of the same year to continue the negotiations started by the Under Secretary General a few months earlier.
In May 1981 he rejoined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of his country but continued to represent the Assistant Secretary-General in the context of the situation in Afghanistan until his appointment as Secretary-General of the United Nations in December of the same year.
He also worked as professor of International Law at the Diplomatic School of Peru and as Professor of International Relations at the Peruvian Air War Academy. He is the author of the Manual of Diplomatic Law, 1964.
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar received the Honoris Causa Doctorate from the following Universities: University of Nice; Jagiellonian University of Krakow; Charles University of Prague; Sofia University; University of San Marcos in Lima; Free University of Brussels; Carleton University of Ottawa, Canada; University of Paris (La Sorbonne); Visva-Bharati University in West Bengal, India; University of Michigan; University of Osnabruck in the Federal Republic of Germany; University of Coimbra in Coimbra, Portugal; National University of Mongolia in Ulan Bator; Humboldt University of Berlin; Moscow State University; University of Malta in Valleta; Leyden University in the Netherlands; La Salle University in Philadelphia; Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts; Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
Throughout his career, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar was decorated in about 25 countries.
In October 1987, he received the Prince of Asturias Award for promoting Ibero-American cooperation. In January 1989 he was awarded the Olaf Palme Award for International Understanding and Common Security from the Olaf Palme Memorial Fund. In February 1989, he received the Jawaharlal Nehru Prize for International Understanding.
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar has two children.
The diplomat died on March 4, 2020 in Peru at the age of 100.
Kurt waldheim
Mr. Kurt waldheim of Austria,, was appointed Secretary-General of the United Nations for five years on January 1, 1972. The Security Council had suggested the appointment on December 21, 1971 and the General Assembly approved it by acclamation the following day.
The Secretary General was born in Sankt Andra-Worden, near Vienna, Austria, on December 21, 1918. He graduated from the University of Vienna as a Juris Doctor of Laws in 1944. He also holds a degree from the Vienna Consular Academy.
Kurt Waldheim joined the Austrian diplomatic corps in 1945, and from 1948 to 1951 he worked as First Secretary of the Delegation in Paris. He headed the Personnel Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vienna from 1951 to 1955. In 1955 he was appointed Permanent Observer of Austria in the United Nations and later the same year he went on to direct the Austrian Mission when Austria was admitted by the Organization.
From 1956 to 1960, Kurt Waldheim represented Austria in Canada, first as Minister Plenipotentiary and later as Ambassador. From 1960 to 1962 he headed the Political (Western) Department of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, later becoming Director General for Political Affairs until June 1964.
From 1964 to 1968, Kurt Waldheim was the Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations. During this period he was Chairman of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space; in 1968 he was elected President of the First United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Exploration and Purposes of Outer Space.
From January 1968 to April 1970, Kurt Waldheim was Austria's Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs. After leaving the Government, he was unanimously elected President of the Safeguards Committee of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and in October 1970 he returned to be the Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations, a position he held until being elected Secretary General of the Organization .
In April 1971 he was one of two candidates for the Austrian Federal Presidency.
During his first three years as Secretary-General, Kurt Waldheim made visiting areas of special concern to the United Nations a custom. In March 1972 he traveled to South Africa and Namibia pursuant to an order of the Security Council to help in the search for a satisfactory solution to the problem of Namibia.
The Secretary General visited Cyprus three times: in June 1972, August 1973 and August 1974, to discuss with government leaders and to inspect the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces on the island. During his visit in August 1974, following hostilities, Kurt Waldheim arranged a meeting between the acting President, Glafcos Clerides, and Rauf Denktash.
The Secretary General also made several trips to the Middle East, always with the aim of establishing peace in the area. In August 1973 he visited Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt and Jordan; In June 1974 he met with the leaders of Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan and Egypt, in November 1974 he traveled to Syria, Israel and Egypt under the mandate of the United Nations Separation and Observation Force (UNDOF ). During these visits he also inspected United Nations peacekeeping operations (United Nations Truce Oversight Organization (UNTSO)), United Nations Emergency Forces (UNEF) and UNDOF.
In February 1973, during an official trip to the continent, the Secretary General discussed with the governments of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh the problems created by the war between India and Pakistan and the means and means to overcome its consequences. It also inspected the United Nations Relief Operations in Bangladesh, the largest relief operation carried out under the auspices of the United Nations.
In February and March 1974, the secretary-general visited a number of countries in the Sudano-Sahelian area of Africa, where the United Nations has developed a major relief operation to help victims of a prolonged drought.
The Secretary-General also opened and led a series of major international conferences convened under the auspices of the United Nations. These include the third session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Santiago, April 1972), the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm, June 1972), the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (Caracas, June 1974), the World Population Conference (Bucharest, August 1974) and the World Food Conference (Rome, November 1974).
The Secretary General participated in meetings of the Security Council that took place away from Headquarters, in Africa (Addis Ababa, January 1972) and in Latin America (Panama, March 1973).
He directed and was present at the meetings of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), in Rabat (June 1972) on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the OAU, in Addis Ababa (May 1973) and in Mogadishu (June 1974) . He also directed the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington (March 1972).
In February 1973, the Secretary General participated in the Vienna International Conference on Viet Nam: in December of the same year he presided over the first phase of the Geneva Peace Process on the Middle East.
In July 1973, Kurt Waldheim chaired the Conference on European Security and Cooperation in Helsinki.
Invited by their respective governments, the Secretary General officially visited a number of countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Europe
Kurt Waldheim was the author of a work on Austrian foreign policy, The Austrian Example, published in German, English and French.
Married and father of three children, he passed away on June 14, 2007 in Vienna (Austria), at the age of 88.
u thant
Mr. u thant From Myanmar, he served as Secretary General of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971, was elected to head the World Organization after the death of Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold in a plane crash in September 1961.
U Thant was born in Pantanaw, Burma, on January 22, 1909, and studied at the National High School in Pantanaw and at the University College in Rangoon.
Prior to his diplomatic career, U Thant had a background in education and information work. He worked as a Teacher at the National High School, which he had attended at Pantanaw, and in 1931 he became Headmaster after achieving first place in the Anglo-vernacular exams for a Secondary teacher.
He was a member of the Burma Education Committee and the National Education Council before World War II, and was a member of the Executive Committee of the Directors of the Association of Colleges. He also actively worked as a freelance journalist.
In 1942, U Thant worked for several months as Secretary of the Burma Education Reorganization Committee. The following year he returned to the National High School as Principal for four years.
U Thant was appointed Press Director of the Government of Burma in 1947. In 1948 he became President of Broadcasting, and a year later he was appointed Secretary of the Government of Burma in the Ministry of Information. In 1953, U Thant became Secretary for Projects in the Prime Minister's Office, and in 1955, he was assigned additional duties as Executive Secretary of the Burma Economic and Social Board.
At the time of his appointment as Acting Secretary-General of the United Nations, U Thant had been Burma's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, with the rank of Ambassador (1957-1961).
During this period, he led the Burma delegations in the Sessions of the General Assembly, and in 1959 he served as the Vice-Presidency of the fourteenth session. In 1961 U Thant was Chairman of the United Nations Commission for the Conciliation of the Congo and Chairman of the Committee for a United Nations Development Fund.
Throughout his diplomatic career, U Thant served several times as Counselor to the Prime Minister of Burma.
U Thant began as Acting Secretary General from November 3, 1961, when he was unanimously appointed by the General Assembly, advised by the Security Council, to end the unfinished post of the last Secretary General, Dag Hammarskjold. Then, he was unanimously appointed Secretary General by the General Assembly on November 30, 1962 for the period until November 3, 1966.
The General Assembly reappointed U Thant as Secretary General of the United Nations for the second time on December 2, 1966 on the advice of the Security Council (resolution 229, 1966). He continued in his position until December 1971.
U Thant received an honorary doctorate in law from the following Universities: Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada (May 25, 1962); Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts (June 10, 1962); Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey (June 12, 1962); Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts (June 2, 1963); Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (June 13, 1963); Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire (June 16, 1963); University of California at Berkeley, California (April 2, 1964); University of Denver, Denver, Colorado (April 3, 1964); Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania (June 8, 1964); New York University, New York (June 10, 1964); Moscow University, Moscow, Soviet Union (July 30, 1964); Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario (May 22, 1965); Colby College, Waterville, Maine (June 6, 1965); Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (June 14, 1965); University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada (May 28, 1966); Hamilton College, Clinton, New York (June 5, 1966); Fordham University, Bronx, New York (June 8, 1966); Manhattan College, New York (June 14, 1966); University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (March 30, 1967); University of Delhi, New Delhi, India (April 13, 1967); University of Leeds, England (May 26, 1967); University of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium (April 10, 1968); University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada (May 13, 1968); Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts (May 19, 1968); Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ (May 29, 1968); University of Dublin (Trinity College), Dublin, Ireland (July 12, 1968); Laval University, Quebec, Canada (May 31, 1969); Columbia University, New York (June 3, 1969); University of the Philippines (April 11, 1970); Syracuse University (June 6, 1970). He also received the following honorary degrees: Doctor of Divinity, The First Universal Church (May 11, 1970); Doctor of International Law, Florida International University, Miami, Florida (January 25, 1971); Juris Doctor, University of Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut (March 23, 1971); Doctor of Civil Law, honoris causa, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, (May 30, 1971); Doctor of Humanities, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina (June 7, 1971).
U Thant retired at the end of his second post in 1971 and passed away on November 25, 1974 after a long illness. he was 65 years old.
** formerly called Burma.
Extracted from the United Nations website here.
Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjold
Mr. Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld from Sweden, he was Secretary General of the United Nations from April 10, 1953 to September 18, 1961, when he died in a plane crash while on a peacekeeping mission in the Congo. He was born on July 29, 1905 in Jonkoping, in south-central Sweden. Fourth son of Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, Prime Minister of Sweden during the World War I years, and his wife Agnes, MC (Maiden Almquist), grew up in the university town of Uppsala, where his father resided as Governor of the country of Uplandia .
At 18 he finished school and entered the University of Uppsala. Specializing in the history of French literature, social philosophy and political economy, Hammarskjöld received his Bachelor of Arts degree with honors two years later. For the next three years he studied economics at the same university, where he received a "philosophical degree" in economics at age 23. He completed his studies two years later, becoming a Law graduate in 1930.
Hammarskjöld then went to Stockholm, where he became secretary of a government committee on employment (1930-1934). In parallel, he wrote his Ph.D. thesis in Economics, entitled "Konjunkturspridningen" (The Expansion of the Business Cycle). In 1953 he received a Ph.D. degree from Stockholm University, where he became assistant professor of Political Economy.
In early 1945 he was appointed Cabinet adviser on financial and economic affairs, organizing and coordinating, among other things, various government projects for the economic problems that arose as a result of the war and the post-war period. During these years, Hammarskjöld played an important role in shaping Sweden's financial policy. He led a series of trade and financial negotiations with other countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.
In 1947 he was elected to the Office of Foreign Affairs, where he was responsible for all economic affairs with the rank of Undersecretary. In 1949 he was appointed Secretary General of the Office of Foreign Affairs, and in 1951 he joined the Cabinet as Minister without portfolio. He became, in effect, Minister of Foreign Affairs, dealing mainly with economic problems and projects for close economic cooperation.
He was a Delegate at the Paris Conference in 1947, when the machinery of the Marshall Plan was created. He was the main Delegate of his country at the Paris Conference of 1948 for the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OECC). In 1950 he became Chairman of the Swedish Delegation to UNISCAN, created to promote economic cooperation between the United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries. He was also a Member (1937-1948) of the advisory board of the Institute for Economic Research, sponsored by the government.
He was Vice Chairman of the Swedish Delegation at the Sixth Regular Session of the United Nations Assembly in Paris, 1951-1952, and was Chairman of the Swedish delegation at the Seventh General Assembly in New York in 1952-1953.
Although he was in the service of the Social Democratic Cabinet, Dag Hammarskjöld never joined any political party, as he considered himself politically independent.
On December 20, 1954 he became a Member of the Swedish Academy. It was decided that he should sit in the Academy where his father had sat before.
Twice elected Secretary General
Dag Hammarskjöld was unanimously appointed Secretary General of the United Nations by the General Assembly on April 7, 1953 on the recommendation of the Security Council. He was unanimously reelected for another 5 years in September 1957.
During his tenure as Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld handled many responsibilities of the United Nations in efforts to prevent war and fulfill the other objectives of the Charter.
Among the objectives of the Middle East were: to continue diplomatic activity in support of the Armistice Agreements between Israel and the Arab States to promote progress towards better and more peaceful conditions in the area; the organization in 1956 of the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) and its management since then; the cleaning of the Suez Canal in 19957 and aiding in the peace settlement of the dispute over the Suez Canal; the organization and management of the United Nations Observations Group in Lebanon (UNOGIL) and the creation of an office of the special representative of the Secretary-General in Jordan in 1958.
In 1955, following their visit to Beijing (December 30, 1954 - January 13, 1955), the People's Republic of China released 15 detained American airmen who had been in command of the United Nations Command in Korea. Dag Hammarskjöld also traveled to many countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, America and the Middle East, either on a special mission or to strengthen relationships with member government officials and learn about problems in the area.
On one of these trips, from December 18, 1959 to January 31, 1960, the Secretary-General visited 21 countries and territories in Africa, a trip that he would later describe as "a strictly professional trip to investigate and gather information," which he had drawn "a kind of characteristic sample of political opinion in Africa today."
Later, in 1960, when President Joseph Kasa-Vubu and Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of the Republic of the Congo sent a cablegram on July 12 calling for an "urgent shipment" of United Nations military aid to the Congo, Secretary General led the Security Council in an evening meeting on July 13 and asked the Council to respond to the request "as soon as possible." Following the measures of the Security Council, the United Nations Forces were established in the Congo and the Secretary-General himself traveled to Congo on four occasions in connection with United Nations operations. The first two trips to the Congo were made in July and August 1960. Later, in January of the same year, the Secretary-General stopped in Africa while on another mission for the Union of South Africa on issues of racial problems in the country. The fourth trip to the Congo began on September 12 and ended with the deadly plane crash.
In other fields of work, Dag Hammarskjöld was in charge of the organization in 1955 and 1958 of the First and Second International Conference of the United Nations on the Peaceful Purposes of Atomic Energy, in Geneva, and also of programming a conference of the United Nations on the application of science and technology for the benefit of the less developed parts of the world, which took place in 1962.
He received an honorary degree from the University of Oxford, England; in the United States, by Harvard University, yale, Princeton, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Amherst, John Hopkins, the University of California, Uppsala College and the University of Ohio; and in Canada by Carlton College and McGill University.
Extracted from the United Nations website here.
Trygve halvdan lie
Mr. Trygve Halvdan Lie from Norway, was born on July 16, 1896 in Oslo, Norway, the son of Martin and Hulda Arnesen Lie.
He studied at the University of Oslo, where he received a law degree in 1919. On November 8, 1921, he married Hjordis Joergensen. They had three children: Sissel, Guri and Mette.
Trygve Halvdan Lie became a member of the Norwegian Labor Party Youth Organization in 1911. He was Assistant to the Secretary of the Labor Party from 1919 to 1922, Legal Adviser to the Norwegian Federation of Trade Unions from 1922 to 1935, and National Executive Secretary of the Labor Party in 1926.
During the Government of the Labor Party formed by Johan Nygaarsavold, Trygve Halvdan Lie was first Minister of Justice, from 1935 to 1939, and then Minister of Commerce and Industry from July to September 1939 and, during the outbreak of World War II, he was became Minister of Supply and Transport. As such, he developed the provisional measures that saved the Norwegian troops from the Allies, after the German invasion in April 1940. In June of that same year he went to England, when the Norwegian Government decided to continue fighting from outside. He became Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs in December 1940 and was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway in 1936 and re-elected in 1945. On June 12, 1945 the Government of which he was a member resigned; Trygve Halvdan Lie was appointed Cabinet Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Provisional Coalition which succeeded the government at the time and Minister for Foreign Affairs of the new Labor Party Government in October 1945.
Trygve Halvdan Lie led the Norwegian delegation to the United Nations Conference on the International Organization in April 1945 in San Francisco, and was Chairman of Commission III for drafting the Security Council provisions included in the Charter. He was also Chairman of the Norwegian Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly, in January 1946 in London. On February 1, 1946, Trygve Halvdan Lie was appointed Secretary-General of the United Nations. He took formal possession of his office at the 22nd meeting of the General Assembly on February 2, 1946. At the Assembly on November 1, 1950, Trygve Halvdan Lie was ratified in office for three more years from February 1, 1951. Resigned as Secretary General of the United Nations in November 1952.
Following his departure from the United Nations, Trygve Halvdan Lie received the following appointments: Governor of Oslo and Akersus, Chairman of the Norwegian Energy Board. Following a 1958 General Assembly resolution, King Olav of Norway was asked to lay the groundwork on the basis of which Ethiopia and Italy could begin to establish a territorial dispute involving Somalia, a former Italian colony. In 1959, King Olav appointed Trygve Halvdan Lie as Mediator.
On December 30, 1968, Trygve Halvdan Lie passed away at the age of 72.
Biography taken from the official website of the United Nations here.