Former Swiss Leader to be Next General Assembly President at the UN

New York, NY (June 12) – Joseph Deiss, a former leader of Switzerland instrumental in joining his country with the United Nations was selected yesterday to serve as the next President of the General Assembly at the United Nations.

Mr. Deiss accepted the post with, “with great hope and solid conviction,” adding that the world has entered an era of increasing independence.

“Everything is moving faster and coming closer,” he said. “New global challenges have also emerged – climate change, economic and financial crises, terrorism, and global crime, extremism of all kinds – in addition to the perennial problems of war and poverty. They all require collective and urgent responses. More than ever before, we need to act together to be effective.”

Mr. Deiss’s has stated his first major task at the United Nations will be the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) summit in September. At the summit, world leaders will be requested to accelerate anti-poverty goals ahead of their 2015 target date.

Mr. Deiss, a former economics professor, and will focus the Assembly’s agenda in the 2010.11 on global governance in general and economic development.

Switzerland always maintained an office for the United Nations in Geneva however, never signed on until 2002 as to not jeopardize their neutrality.