Secretary-General of the United Nations


The secretary-general of the United Nations is the head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The secretary-general serves as the chief administrative officer of the United Nations. The role of the United Nations Secretariat, and of the secretary-general in particular, is laid out by Chapter XV of the United Nations Charter.
As of 2020, the secretary-general is former Prime Minister António Guterres of Portugal, appointed by the General Assembly on 13 October 2016.

Selection and term of office

The secretary-general is appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. As the recommendation must come from the Security Council, any of the five permanent members of the Council can veto a nomination. Most secretaries-general are compromise candidates from middle powers and have little prior fame.
Unofficial qualifications for the job have been set by precedent in previous selections. The appointee may not be a citizen of any of the Security Council's five permanent members. The General Assembly resolution 51/241 in 1997 stated that, in the appointment of "the best candidate", due regard should be given to regional rotation of the appointee's national origin and to gender equality, although no woman has yet served as Secretary-General.
The length of the term is discretionary, but all secretaries-general since 1971 have been appointed to five-year terms. Every secretary-general since 1961 has been re-selected for a second term, with the exception of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who was vetoed by the United States in the 1996 selection. There is a term limit of two full terms, established when China cast a record 16 vetoes against Kurt Waldheim's third term in the 1981 selection. No secretary-general since 1981 has attempted to secure a third term.
The selection process is opaque and is often compared to a papal conclave. Since 1981, the Security Council has voted in secret in a series of straw polls. The Security Council then submits the winning candidate to the General Assembly for ratification. No candidate has ever been rejected by the General Assembly. In 2016, the General Assembly and the Security Council sought nominations and conducted public debates for the first time. However, the Security Council voted in private and followed the same process as previous selections, leading the president of the General Assembly to complain that it "does not live up to the expectations of the membership and the new standard of openness and transparency".

Powers and duties

Residence

The official residence of the secretary-general is a townhouse at 3 Sutton Place, Manhattan, in New York City, United States. The townhouse was built for Anne Morgan in 1921, and donated to the United Nations in 1972.

List of secretaries-general

Statistics

#Secretary-GeneralDate of birthAge at ascension
Time in office
Age at retirement
Date of deathLongevity
actingJebb, Gladwyn Gladwyn Jebb1900 04 2525 April 190045 18245 years, 182 days00 101101 days45 28345 years, 283 days1996 10 2424 October 1996
1Lie, Trygve Trygve Lie1896 07 1616 July 189649 20149 years, 201 days06 2826 years, 282 days56 11756 years, 117 days1968 12 3030 December 1968
2Hammarskjöld, Dag Dag Hammarskjöld1905 07 2929 July 190547 25547 years, 255 days08 1618 years, 161 days56 05156 years, 51 days1961 09 1818 September 1961
3Thant, U U Thant1909 01 2222 January 190952 31252 years, 312 days10 03110 years, 31 days62 34362 years, 343 days1974 11 2525 November 1974
4Waldheim, Kurt Kurt Waldheim1918 12 2121 December 191853 01153 years, 11 days09 36410 years63 01063 years, 10 days2007 06 1414 June 2007
5Pérez de Cuéllar, Javier Javier Pérez de Cuéllar1920 01 1919 January 192061 34761 years, 347 days09 36410 years71 34671 years, 346 days2020 03 044 March 2020
6Boutros-Ghali, Boutros Boutros Boutros-Ghali1922 11 1414 November 192269 04869 years, 48 days04 3645 years74 04774 years, 47 days2016 02 1616 February 2016
7Annan, Kofi Kofi Annan1938 04 088 April 193858 26858 years, 268 days09 36410 years68 26768 years, 267 days2018 08 1818 August 2018
8Ban, Ki-moon Ban Ki-moon1944 06 1313 June 194462 20262 years, 202 days09 36410 years72 20172 years, 201 daysLiving
9Guterres, António António Guterres1949 04 3030 April 194967 years, 246 days IncumbentLiving

By regional group

Lifespan timeline

This is a graphical lifespan timeline of the secretaries-general of the United Nations. They are listed in order of office

Living former secretary-general

As of , the only former secretary-general that is alive is Ban Ki-moon. The most recent death of a former secretary-general was that of Javier Pérez de Cuéllar on 4 March 2020.