President of the United Nations General Assembly in the context of Abdelaziz Bouteflika

The Eightieth session of the United Nations General Assembly is the current session of the United Nations General Assembly, which began on 9 September 2025. The president of the General Assembly is from the Western European and Others Group.

Prince Varna Vaidayakara (full title: His Royal Highness Prince Varna Vaidayakara, the Prince Naradhip Bongsaprabandha), known in the West as Wan Waithayakon (1891–1976), was a Thai royal prince and diplomat. He was President of the Eleventh Session of the United Nations General Assembly (1956–1957) while serving as Thailand's Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He was a grandson of King Mongkut (Rama IV).

The United Nations General Assembly Building is part of the headquarters of the United Nations in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It contains the main assembly hall of the United Nations General Assembly, the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the United Nations (UN). The building was designed by a group of architects led by Wallace Harrison. It is connected to the other buildings in the UN headquarters, including the Secretariat Building and the Dag Hammarskjöld Library. Although the building is physically within the United States, it is exempt from some local regulations because the site is under UN jurisdiction.

The General Assembly Building is a four-story structure measuring 380 by 160 ft (116 by 49 m), with concave walls to the west and east, as well as a concave roof with a dome. The building contains a lobby for journalists and the general public to the north, as well as a lobby for delegates to the south. The central portion of the General Assembly Building is the General Assembly Hall, which has a seating capacity of 1,800 and measures 165 ft (50 m) long, 115 ft (35 m) wide, and 75 ft (23 m) tall. Each delegation has six seats in the hall, which face south toward a rostrum and a paneled semicircular wall with booths. The building also contains other spaces, including a delegates' lounge and the president of the United Nations General Assembly's offices on the second floor; a meditation room on the ground floor; and various shops and conference rooms in the basement.

The third regular session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, was held from 21 September to 12 December 1948 in Paris, France and from 5 April to 18 May 1949 in New York City, United States. The permanent Headquarters of the United Nations did not yet exist, so sessions of the General Assembly were convened in various cities; this was the first one to be held in Continental Europe.

The president of the United Nations General Assembly for both parts of the third session was Herbert Vere Evatt of Australia.

The sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly opened on 17 September 2013. The president of the United Nations General Assembly was chosen from the GRULAC with Antigua and Barbuda's John William Ashe being the consensus candidate, thus bypassing the need for an election.

Three United Nations Special Envoys on Climate Change were appointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on May 1, 2007. The envoys will be engaging in consultations with Governments and other organizations in order to assist the Secretary-General to progress the international negotiations towards a post-Kyoto climate change treaty.

Gro Harlem Brundtland is a former Prime Minister of Norway and former chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development. Han Seung Soo served as President of the United Nations General Assembly in 2001, and also as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea. Ricardo Lagos, former President of Chile is the third Special Envoy.

Lester Bowles Pearson (23 April 1897 – 27 December 1972) was a Canadian politician, diplomat, and scholar who served as the 14th prime minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968. He also served as leader of the Liberal Party from 1958 to 1968 and as leader of the Official Opposition from 1958 to 1963.

Born in Newtonbrook, Ontario (now part of Toronto), Pearson pursued a career in the Department of External Affairs went on to serve as the Canadian ambassador to the United States from 1944 to 1946. He entered politics in 1948 as Secretary of State for External Affairs, serving in that position until 1957 in the governments of William Lyon Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent. Pearson was also the seventh president of the United Nations General Assembly from 1952 to 1953. He was a candidate to become secretary-general of the United Nations in 1953, but was vetoed by the Soviet Union. He later won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Crisis, for which he received worldwide attention. After the Liberal Party was defeated in the 1957 federal election, Pearson handily won the leadership of the party in 1958. He suffered two consecutive defeats by Progressive Conservative prime minister John Diefenbaker in 1958 and 1962. He successfully challenged Diefenbaker for a third time in the 1963 federal election, winning a minority government. Pearson's Liberals won another minority government in the 1965 federal election.

The Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories (UNSCIIP), also called Special Committee on Israeli Practices, was established by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2443 (XXIII) of 19 December 1968. UNSCIIP was to monitor "respect for and implementation of human rights in occupied territories." The committee comprises representatives of three member states appointed by the president of the General Assembly.