UN Leadership and Judicial/Economic Bodies

Nine people have served as UN Secretary-General. Trygve Lie of Norway, the first, held office from 1946 to 1952 and resigned under pressure after clashing with the Soviet Union over the Korean War. Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden (1953–1961) died in a plane crash near Ndola, in what is now Zambia, in September 1961 while engaged in mediation efforts during the Congo crisis, and was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. U Thant of Burma (1961–1971) helped mediate the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis; Kurt Waldheim of Austria (1972–1981) later faced controversy over his wartime service in the German army; and Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru served from 1982 to 1991. Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt (1992–1996), author of the influential 1992 report "An Agenda for Peace," presided over the UN during the Rwandan genocide and became the only Secretary-General denied a second term, after a United States veto. Kofi Annan of Ghana (1997–2006) shared the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize with the organization and later described the 2003 invasion of Iraq as inconsistent with the Charter; Ban Ki-moon of South Korea served from 2007 to 2016; and António Guterres of Portugal has held the office since 2017.