H.E. President Salim Ahmed Salim

President of the 34th Session, 6th and 7th Emergency Special Sessions, and Eleventh Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly

President Salim was the Permanent Representative of the United Republic of Tanzania to the United Nations from 1970 until his election to the General Assembly in 1979, and Chairman of the Special Committee of 24 on decolonization since 1972. President Salim is also the first Tanzanian Ambassador to Cuba (since July 1970), as well as High Commissioner to Guyana (from December 1970), Barbados (March 1971), Jamaica (April 1971) and Trinidad and Tobago (July 1971).

Prior to his assignment at the United Nations, President Salim served in 1969 as Ambassador to the People's Republic of China and to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Earlier, he served as Director of the African and Middle East Affairs Division of the Tanzanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1968 and 1969, High Commissioner to India from 1965 to 1568, and Ambassador of Zanzibar to Egypt in 1964 and 1965.

President Salim served as Conference Director of the Ministerial Meeting of East and Central African States, held in Dar es Salaam in January 1969, and Secretary-General at the Ministerial Conference of Non-Aligned States, held in Dar es Salaam in April of the following year. While serving at the United Nations, he was Chairman of the United Nations Special Mission to Niue in June/July 1972; Drafting Committee Chairman of the Political Committee of the Ministerial Conference of Non-Aligned States, Georgetown, Guyana (August 1972); Chairman of the Political Committee of the International Conference of Experts in Support of the Victims of Colonialism and Apartheid in southern Africa, Oslo (April 1973); 1975 Chairman of the Security Council's Committee on Sanctions against Southern Rhodesia; President of the Security Council (January 1976); Chairman of the high-level Ad HOC Group of the Special Committee of 24 visiting the United Kingdom, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique and Ethiopia (April/May 1976); Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Fifth Conference of Heads of State or Government of the non-Aligned States, Colombo (August1976), and Vice-President of the International Conference in support of the people of Zimbabwe arid Namibia and Chairman of the Committee of the Whole of that Conference, held in Maputo, Mozambique (May 1977).

Born in Zanzibar on 23 January 1942, President Salim was educated at Lumumba college, Zanzibar; the University of Delhi; and the School of International Affairs at Columbia University, New York, where he received a master's degree in international affairs in January 1975. He served early in his political career as founder and First Vice-President of the All-Zanzibar Students Union (1960) and later (1961-1962) as Deputy Chief Representative of the Zanzibar Office in Havana. In 1963, he was Chief Editor of a Zanzibar daily paper and was Secretary-General of the All-Zanzibar Journalists Organization. He has attended every regular session of the General Assembly since 1966 except for the twenty-fourth session in 1969.

President Salim is married and has two children.