Paul J.F. Lusaka (Zambia)
Elected President of the thirty-ninth session of the General Assembly
Paul J.F. Lusaka was elected President of the thirty-ninth session of the General Assembly. Mr. Lusaka has been his country's Permanent Representative to the United Nations since 1979. He has also served as President of the United Nations Council for Namibia since 1979.
Mr. Lusaka was President of the Economic and Social Council in 1981, having served in 1980 as a Vice-President. He also served as Zambia's chief representative at the Security Council in 1979 and 1980. He was a Vice-President of the thirty-seventh Assembly session.
Born at Moomba Village near Lusaka, an 10 January 1935, Mr. Lusaka received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and geography (1959) at Rows University College, Lesotho. In 1960-1961, h e attended the University of Minnesota, United States, as an exchange student on a Ford Foundation scholarship. He received a Master's Degree in Political Geography from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, in 1963.
Mr. Lusaka received training in foreign service in 1964 through attachment to the Canadian Mission to the United Nations and later at the Canadian Ministry of External Affairs. He was then appointed Second Secretary at the Zambian High Commission in London, where he served in 1964 and 1965 and where he acted for a period as First Secretary. He became Deputy High Commissioner at the same mission, serving in that capacity from 1965 to 1968.
From June 1968 to February 1972, he served as Ambassador to the Soviet Union. At the same time, he also served as Ambassador to Romania and Yugoslavia on a non-resident basis.
Mr. Lusaka first served as Permanent Representative to the United Nations in 1972-1973, during which time he was also appointed High Commissioner to Canada, Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, as well as Ambassador to Cuba, on a non-residential basis.
During 1973-1978, he was nominated as Member of Parliament and served at different periods as Minister of Rural Development; Minister of Power, Transport and Communications; and Minister of Health.
Mr. Lusaka is married and has four children.
