Secretary-General of the United Nations the appointee's national origin and to gender equality, although no woman has yet served as Secretary-General. The length of the term is discretionary, but all Secretaries-General since 1971 have been appointed to five-year terms. Every Secretary-General since 1961 has been re-selected for a second term, with the exception of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who was vetoed by the United States in the 1996 selection. There is a term limit of two full terms, established when China cast a record 16 vetoes against Kurt Waldheim's third term in the 1981 selection. No Secretary-General since 1981 has attempted to secure a third term. The
Secretary-General of the United Nations to the expectations of the membership and the new standard of openness and transparency". The official residence of the Secretary-General is a townhouse at 3 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. This is a graphical lifespan timeline of the Secretaries-General of the United Nations. They are listed in order of office. <div style="overflow:auto"> As of 2019, the only former Secretaries-General that are alive are Javier Pérez de Cuéllar and Ban Ki-moon. The most recent death of a former Secretary-General was