Former Prime Minister of Portugal António Guterres is sworn in as the new United Nations Secretary-General, succeeding Ban Ki-moon.
Mr. Guterres, 67, was Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to December 2015.
He will hold that post for the next five years.
He was formally appointed by the General Assembly on 13 October in what was the culmination of an historic process Member States set in motion late last year.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations (UNSG or just SG) is the head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the principal organs of the United Nations. The Secretary-General also acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the United Nations.
The role of the United Nations Secretariat, and of the Secretary-General in particular, is laid out by Chapter XV (Articles 97 to 101) of the United Nations Charter.
The official residence of the Secretary-General is a townhouse in Sutton Place, Manhattan, in New York City, United States. The townhouse was built for Anne Morgan in 1921, and donated to the United Nations in 1972.
United Nations Secretaries-Generals
| Secretary-General | Nationality | Dates in Office |
| Trygve Halvdan Lie | Norwegian | 1946–53 |
| Dag Hammarskjöld | Swedish | 1953–61 |
| U Thant | Burmese | 1962–71 |
| Kurt Waldheim | Austrian | 1972–81 |
| Javier Pérez de Cuéllar | Peruvian | 1982–91 |
| Boutros Boutros-Ghali | Egyptian | 1992–96 |
| Kofi Annan | Ghanaian | 1997–2006 |
| Ban Ki-Moon | South Korean | 2007–2016 |
| Antonio Guterres | Portugal | 2016—– |
