Seventy-third session of the United Nations General Assembly

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister, María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés was elected as President of the General Assembly on 5 June 2018. [2]

There will be twenty-one Vice-Presidents for the 73rd Session. They will be: [2][3]

The five permanent members of the Security Council:

•  China
•  France
•  Russian Federation
• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• United States of America

As well as the following nations:

•  Algeria
•  Burkina Faso
•  Cambodia
•  Cyprus
•  Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Gambia (Republic of The)
•  Guyana
•  Iraq
•  Japan
•  Namibia
•  Panama
•  Qatar
•  San Marino
•  Spain
•  Sudan
•  Ukraine

The following were elected as Chairs and officers of the General Assembly committees for the 73rd Session: [2]

First Committee (Disarmament and International Security)

Name	Country	Position
H.E. Mr. Ion Jinga	Romania	Chairperson
Ms. Marissa Edwards	Guyana	Vice-Chair
Mr. Noël Diarra	Mali	Vice-Chair
Mr. José Ataíde Amaral	Portugal	Vice-Chair
Ms. Muna Zawani Md Idris	Brunei Darussalam	Rapporteur

Second Committee (Economic and Financial)

Name	Country	Position
H.E. Mr. Jorge Skinner-Kleé Arenales	Guatemala	Chairperson
Mr. Mehdi Remaoun	Algeria	Vice-Chair
Ms. Hessa Muneer Mohammed Rashed AlAteibi	United Arab Emirates	Vice-Chair
Mr. Cedric Braquetti	Monaco	Vice-Chair
Ms. Anneli Lepp	Estonia	Rapporteur

Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural)

Name	Country	Position
H.E. Mr. Mahmoud Saikal	Afghanistan	Chairperson
Ms. Lahya Itedhimbwa Shikongo	Namibia	Vice-Chair
Mr. Martin Kováčik	Slovakia	Vice-Chair
Mr. Andrés Molina Linares	Guatemala	Vice-Chair
Ms. Katharina Konzett-Stoffl	Austria	Rapporteur

Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization)

Name	Country	Position
H.E. Mr. Lewis Garseedah Brown II	Liberia	Chairperson
Mr. Faisal Nasser M. Alhakbani	Saudi Arabia	Vice-Chair
Mr. Dániel Goldea	Hungary	Vice-Chair
Mr. Michael O’Toole	Ireland	Vice-Chair
Mr. Luis Mauricio Arancibia Fernández	Bolivia (Plurinational State of)	Rapporteur

Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary)

Name	Country	Position
H.E. Ms. GiIlian Bird	Australia	Chairperson
Mr. Fabio Esteban Pedraza-Torres	Colombia	Vice-Chair
Mr. Andre Lipand	Estonia	Vice-Chair
Mr. Haseeb Gohar	Pakistan	Vice-Chair
Mr. Hicham Oussihamou	Morocco	Rapporteur

Sixth Committee (Legal)

Name	Country	Position
H.E. Mr. Michel Xavier Biang	Gabon	Chairperson
Ms. Maria Angela Ponce	Philippines	Vice-Chair
Ms. Barbara Kremžar	Slovenia	Vice-Chair
Mr. Patrick Luna	Brazil	Vice-Chair
Ms. Nadia Alexandra Kalb	Austria	Rapporteur

As is tradition during each session of the General Assembly, Secretary-General António Guterres will draw lots to see which member state would take the helm at the first seat in the General Assembly Chamber, with the other member states following according to the English translation of their name, the same order would be followed in the six main committees.[4] For this session, Mali was chosen to take the first seat of the General Assembly Chamber.[3]

Most states will have a representative speaking about issues concerning their country and the hopes for the coming year as to what the UNGA will do. This is an opportunity for the member states to opine on international issues of their concern. The General Debate will occur from 25 September to 1 October 2018, with the exception of the intervening Sunday.[5] The theme for this year's debate was chosen by President María Fernanda Espinosa as “Making the United Nations relevant to all people: Global leadership and shared responsibilities for peaceful, equitable and sustainable societies”.[6]

The order of speakers is given first to member states, then observer states and supranational bodies. Any other observers entities will have a chance to speak at the end of the debate, if they so choose. Speakers will be put on the list in the order of their request, with special consideration for ministers and other government officials of similar or higher rank. According to the rules in place for the General Debate, the statements should be in one of the United Nations official languages of Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian or Spanish, and will be translated by the United Nations translators. Each speaker is requested to provide 20 advance copies of their statements to the conference officers to facilitate translation and to be presented at the podium. Speeches are requested to be limited to five minutes, with seven minutes for supranational bodies.[4]

Foreign ministers and high representatives participating in the General Debate signed the Code of Conduct Towards Achieving a World Free of Terrorism. The Code of Conduct was the brainchild of Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The main goal of the document is implementation of a wide range of international commitments to counter terrorism and establishing a broad global coalition towards achieving a world free of terrorism by 2045.[7]