General Assembly Elects Khalilur Rahman of Bangladesh President of Eighty-First Session, Selects Main Committee Bureaus
Vice-Presidents Also Elected
With delegates stressing the importance of bringing multilateralism back on course, the General Assembly today elected Khalilur Rahman (Bangladesh) as its President for the upcoming eighty-first session.
“We must collectively demonstrate that the UN can adapt, reform and better deliver, and justify every penny Member States — all of you — contribute, in order to restore trust in our Organization,” he said, addressing the Assembly after he won the election by obtaining a simple majority of 99 votes in a secret-ballot election.
Mr. Rahman, who will assume office in September, is the current Foreign Minister of Bangladesh. He joined its diplomatic service in 1979 and has held several senior positions at the United Nations. He was nominated by the Group of Asia-Pacific States, according to procedures to ensure equitable geographical representation. The other candidate was Andreas Kakouris (Cyprus), who received 91 votes.
The President-Elect acknowledged that his tenure will begin at a time when the UN is “being tested on multiple fronts”. While conflict is increasing and humanitarian space is shrinking, human rights are backsliding and development gains are, in some cases, even regressing. “All this is happening at a time when multilateralism is coming under increasing pressure, and our Organization is facing financial stress,” he said.
President-Elect Highlights Priorities
Pledging to confront those challenges in concert with all Member States, he said Bangladesh’s own robust experience in UN peacekeeping will help guide his approach in that critical arena — namely, one that prioritizes conflict prevention and the protection of civilians.
Turning to the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, he declared: “The gap between promise and delivery remains too wide.” Ongoing energy insecurity has added a new layer of insecurity, especially for the Global South, and the current global energy crisis could be the worst in half a century. “I intend to work closely Member States [to] prevent another lost decade on development, in particular in developing countries,” he said.
In addition, he pledged to push countries to address sustainability funding gaps and gender inequality, uphold the Assembly’s work on human rights, promote the just and safe use of artificial intelligence (AI), and implement such global compacts as the Doha Programme of Action on Least Developed Countries, among others.
Taking One of ‘Best Jobs in the World’ during Challenging Times
Several speakers congratulated the new President, including outgoing President, Annalena Baerbock (Germany), who said to him: “This is one of the best jobs in the world that you can have.” His decades of multilateral work will prove beneficial in these challenging times, she said, adding that, in an era when consensus is not a given, the Assembly President’s job is even more critical. Even reading the Chair Notes and enacting procedure is no longer an easy task because procedural rules themselves are being challenged, she pointed out.
Noting that the remaining three months of the current session will be a transition, with the two Presidents working together, she noted that electing a new Assembly President while the current President has three months left in her tenure is like preparing for the next football match while the current match has reached only the seventy-fifth minute of the game. “And like in football, in these days, we are definitely not knowing what is going to happen in the next three months,” she said, but unlike in a football match, she promised, “we will play the last part of this session together”. She looked forward to working together on reform measures, the selection of the next Secretary-General and streamlining the next high-level week.
António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, noted that the eighty-first session will be a moment of challenge, but also possibility. The “hard work” of diplomacy, dialogue and collaboration that occurs every day in the Assembly “gives me renewed hope that we can transform divisions into determination to work in common purpose”, he added.
For 80 years, collaborative solutions to the world’s greatest challenges have been forged in the United Nations. “I have enormous hope that the eighty-first General Assembly will live up to this great promise,” he concluded.
Calls for Revitalized Multilateralism, International Cooperation, Solidarity
Several speakers noted that the eighty-first session of the Assembly will witness the election of the next Secretary-General and called on the President-Elect to ensure a transparent process. Mongolia’s representative, speaking on behalf of the Asia-Pacific States, urged the new President to follow his predecessor’s lead in guiding the Assembly in the spirit of inclusiveness and mutual respect. He also highlighted the special role of the General Assembly — the most representative organ in the UN system.
That point was also made by the representative of El Salvador, speaking for the Latin American and Caribbean States. The Assembly must play a fundamental role in promoting revitalized multilateralism, international cooperation and solidarity, he said.
Mali’s delegate, speaking for the African Group, added: “We look to the President—Elect” to ensure progress in the intergovernmental process for Security Council reform. The broader membership must be appropriately engaged in the selection of the next Secretary-General, he said, and stressed the importance of reparatory justice for people of African descent.
Speaking for the host country, the representative of the United States also congratulated the President-Elect and noted that he assumes his responsibilities at a “critical” moment for the UN. The Organization must continue to swiftly implement overdue reform and demonstrate that it can contribute to international peace and security, and she said that the Assembly “will rely on your impartial leadership to follow through on both counts”. She also expressed hope that the President-Elect will improve the Assembly’s efficiency, reduce its costs and refocus on core issues, “measuring success by the quality of the results achieved, not by the volume of declarations produced”.
“We are continuing to witness an erosion of respect for international law, trust in each other, and trust in the multilateral system and the normative system we established,” said the representative of Canada, speaking on behalf of the Western European and Other States. However, she expressed her confidence that the Assembly’s new President will continue to facilitate an inclusive work programme open not only to all States, but also — crucially — to civil society representatives. Agreeing with other speakers, she said: Against that backdrop, the President must support all Member States in a transparent and inclusive manner, ensuring that the UN remains responsive to all their concerns.
Morocco Picked to Occupy First Seat in General Assembly Hall
In accordance with tradition, the Secretary-General drew lots to determine which delegation would occupy the first seat in the Assembly Hall during the eightieth session, with all other countries following in English alphabetical order. Morocco was picked for the first seat, and this seating order will be observed in the Main Committees.
Assembly Vice-Presidents Elected
The Assembly then elected the following Vice-Presidents of its plenary: Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Cabo Verde, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Eritrea, Finland, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Iraq, Ireland, Lebanon, Mongolia, Paraguay, Poland and Zimbabwe. They will join the five permanent members of the Security Council — China, France, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and the United States — which serve annually as Assembly Vice-Presidents.
Six Main Committees Elect Respective Bureaus by Acclamation
Following the meeting, consecutive meetings of the Assembly’s six Main Committees were held to elect their respective Bureaus by acclamation.
The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) elected Lok Bahadur Thapa (Nepal) as Chair; Faisal Abdelazim Salim Mohamed (Sudan) and Arsen Kotanjyan (Armenia) as Vice-Chairs; and Kim Van der Sluis (Netherlands) as Rapporteur. The election of the remaining Vice-Chair will take place at a future date.
The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) elected Suela Janina (Albania) as Chair; Hussain Azhaan Mohamed Hussain (Maldives), Walter José Mira Ramírez (El Salvador) and Robert Bunbury (Canada) as Vice-Chairs; and Ivo Miguel Rubio (Angola) as Rapporteur.
The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) elected James Martin Larsen (Australia) as Chair; Flavia Umulisa (Rwanda), Jovana Bubanja (Montenegro) and Abosede Hazlewood (Guyana) as Vice-Chairs; and Safaa Hijab Yaseen (Iraq) as Rapporteur.
The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) elected Coly Seck (Senegal) as Chair; Fahad Mohammad Alajm (Kuwait), Deborah Maria Borg (Malta) and Andrei Nicolenco (Republic of Moldova) as Vice-Chairs; and Matthew Moxey (Bahamas) as Rapporteur.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) elected Ibrahim Folorunsho Jimoh (Nigeria) as Chair; Noelle Tam (Singapore), Pablo Rodríguez (Dominican Republic) and Costantino Tarducci (Italy) as Vice-Chairs; and Corina Moroi (Republic of Moldova) as Rapporteur.
The Sixth Committee (Legal) elected Trishala Simantini Persaud (Guyana) as Chair; Mantsho Annastacia Motsepe (South Africa), Andrii Melnyk (Ukraine) and Elisa De Raes (Belgium) as Vice-Chairs; and Abdulaziz Fadala al-Sulaiti (Qatar) as Rapporteur.
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* The 84th Meeting was not covered.