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
Special Envoy of the Secretary-General Special Envoy of the Secretary-General A Special Envoy of the Secretary-General (SESG) is a senior United Nations official appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General to deal with a set of specific issues. Examples include the SESGs on Children affected by Armed Conflict, on HIV/AIDS in Africa, on LRA-affected areas, on indigenous people, to a specific country etc. Bill Clinton, a former president of the United States, was named the special envoy to Haiti in 2009, and for much of 2012 Kofi Annan, the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, was Joint Special Representative for the United Nations and the Arab