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The General Assembly of the United Nations elected today by acclamation, former Swiss leader Joseph Deiss, as the next President of the General Assembly.
The world body’s 192 member states also elected 21 Vice-Presidents of the 65th session including Ahmed Abdul Rahman Al Jarman, Permanent Representative of the UAE at the United Nations.
Other Vice-Presidents are from Botswana, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Mauritania, Senegal and Sudan from the African States; Afghanistan, Indonesia, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan from the Asian States; Belarus from the Eastern European States; Ecuador, Nicaragua and Suriname from the Latin American and Caribbean States; and Luxembourg from the Western European and Other States.
The five permanent members of the Security Council (China, France, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and the United States) also serve as Vice-Presidents.
In separate meetings, Five of the six Main Committees of the General Assembly also elected their respective Chairs and other officers.
Deiss will succeed Ali Abdussalam Treki of Libya, elected last year after endorsement by the Group of African States. This will be the first time for a national of Switzerland to hold the presidency.
The General Assembly’s 65th Session will run from September 14, 2010 until September 13, 2011.
Deiss, who also served as Minister of the Economy from 2003 to 2006 and as President of the Swiss Confederation in 2004, said the progress of information technology and the increasing flow of people, goods, services and capital had created a global network of interdependence, and subsequently new challenges that would require collective and urgent responses. "More than ever before, we need to act together to be effective," he said.
He also listed among his priorities achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and sustainable economic growth. "The commitment of the international community is particularly important at this time," he said, asking: "How can the progress made just before the economic and financial crisis be consolidated? How can implementation be accelerated in areas such as maternal health and infant mortality which have been lagging behind?".
The Assembly would also need to address climate change, and work to achieve food security, reconstruction and strengthening of fragile and post-conflict States, human rights, the ideals of the Red Cross, humanitarian aid and disarmament, he said. "The search for lasting solutions to these challenges will require governance that better reflects the new balances of power in the world, as well as a more efficient work by the United Nations for the benefit of each individual," he said.
Deiss pledged to work with and respect all Member States, whose rights were equal, to make the Assembly’s work effective and ensure that "Swiss sobriety" guaranteed that relationships were based on specifics, a positive approach and friendship.
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