Who is the first speaker in the annual general debate of the General Assembly?

The general debate is held at the beginning of each session of the General Assembly, usually in September in accordance with the Rules of Procedure and A/RES/57/301.

Often Member States are represented by their Heads of State or Government during the general debate. Not all Member States participate in every session.

The general debate provides an opportunity for Member States to raise any topic and statements often reflect issues of importance to the Member State.

Theme of General Debate

In recent years, the President of the General Assembly has announced a theme for the general debate.

For more information see our FAQ What have been the themes of the general debate of the United Nations General Assembly?

Order of Speakers

Over time, certain customs have emerged during the general debate, including the custom of the order of the first few speakers.

In current practice, after the opening of the meeting by the President of the General Assembly, the Secretary-General makes a statement, followed by the President of the General Assembly and then the representatives of Brazil (regardless of the level of representation) and the United States (as the host country, regardless of the level of representation).

• Since the 10^th session in 1955, Brazil has spoken first and the United States has spoken second, with a few exceptions.
• At the 38th (1983) and 39th (1984) sessions, the United States spoke first and Brazil spoke second.
• At the 71st session, on 20 September 2016, Chad spoke second due to the delay in arrival of the President of the United States (see meeting record A/71/PV.8).
• At the 73rd session, on 25 September 2018, Ecuador spoke second due to the delay in arrival of the President of the United States (see meeting record A/73/PV.6).

The list of the first and second speakers for the first 10 sessions are set out below.

According the General Debate website, for all other Member States, the speaking order is based on the level of representation, preference and other criteria such as geographic balance. Only the Holy See, the State of Palestine and the European Union are invited to participate in the general debate and their speaking slots are determined by the level of representation.

A voluntary 15-minute time limit for statements is to be observed in the general debate. The speaking order of the general debate is different from the speaking order of other General Assembly debates.

Additional Resources

Additional thematic high-level meetings are often organized around the time of the general debate; there are also many informal events organized at this time. The UN Journal is a good source of official information about these activities.

We have additional FAQs listing the general debate statements for each Member State from 1946 to 2021, just search Ask DAG for the country name.

In addition, general debate statements are included in the online Index to Speeches.