UN General Assembly appointed Ban Ki-moon to Second Consecutive Term as Secretary-General

The United Nations General Assembly on 21 June 2011 agreed to appoint former South Korean foreign minister Ban Ki-moon to a second consecutive term as the Secretary-General of the 192-member Organization. Under the resolution adopted by acclamation, Ban’s second term will run from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2016.

The decision to appoint him for the second term was taken following follows a recommendation by members of the Security Council that Ban be re-appointed. He has been in office since January 2007. He had succeeded Kofi Annan of Ghana. Ban is the eighth person to serve as UN chief.
Ban took the oath of office, placing his hand on the original UN Charter and promised to discharge his functions in the interests of the entire UN and to not seek or accept instructions from any government.

Ban in the past had faced criticism for not adequately addressing human rights violations in countries like Sri Lanka and China, but has been seen as championing the cause of climate change, women's rights and more recently against the crackdown on protesters in the Middle East and North Africa. His role in backing decisive action by the Security Council in Libya and Ivory Coast also went down well with the international community.

Among other agendas, the UN chief will oversee Rio+20 next year in 2012 which is being dubbed as the most important environmental summit in recent times.