Secretary-Generals of the United Nations

The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the head of the UN Secretariat

Appointment of the Secretary-General 
The selection is subject to the veto of any of the 5 permanent Members of the UNSC
The appointment and approval process of the Secretary-General is outlined in the UN Charter .These include a limit to two five-year terms, regional (continental) rotation of the appointee’s national origin, and the appointee may not be a citizen of any of the Security Council’s five permanent members.

Term of  Secretary-General
Secretaries-General serve for 5-year terms that can be renewed indefinitely, although none so far has held office for more than two terms

The current Secretary-General is Ban Ki-moon(South Korea) who took office on Jan 1, 2007 and his first expired on Dec 31,2011. However,he was re-elected unopposed to a second term on June 21,2011




 Secretary Generals of the UN

S No	Secretary General’s Name	Nationality	Tenure	Remarks
1	Trygve Lie	Norway	Feb 2,1946 – Nov 10,1952	Resigned
2	Dag Hammarskjold	Sweden	April 10,1953 – Sep 18,1961	Died in Plane Crash
3	U Thant	Burma	Nov 30,1961 – Dec 31,1971	Declined 3rd Term
4	Kurt Waldheim	Austria	Jan 1,1972 – Dec 31,1981	China Vetoed his 3rd Term
5	Javier Perez de Cuellar	Peru	Jan 1,1982 – Dec 31,1991	Refused to be considered for a 3rd term
6	Boutros Boutros-Ghali	Egypt	Jan 1,1992 – Dec 31,1996	UN Vetoed his 2nd Term
7	Kofi Annan	Ghana	Jan 1,1997 – Dec 31,2006	Retired after 2 terms
8	Ban Ki-moon	South Korea	Jan 1,2007 - Present	Incumbent