Thread by @EgarciaVirtual

Some friends asked me for an English version of my thread on why Brazil is the first to speak in the annual General Debate of the UN General Assembly. Here it is.

Why is Brazil the first to speak at the UN General Assembly? Every year in September people ask themselves this question. Time to dispel a few myths about this tradition.

Myth 1: The tradition began in 1946 during the 1st General Assembly.
Not really. Brazil was not even the first Member State to speak in 1946. The customary practice will be established a few years later.

Myth 2: Oswaldo Aranha was the President of the GA in 1947, so that should be the reason.
There is no connection between these issues. Presiding over the 2nd Session, Aranha was not a member of the Brazilian delegation (Ambassador João Carlos Muniz made the statement instead).

Myth 3: It was like a “consolation prize”, since Brazil did not become a permanent member of the Security Council in 1945.
Highly unlikely. The P5 were chosen well before the UN Charter was signed. When the tradition started, this topic was not on the agenda.

Now that we have dismissed these myths, let us recall a few facts. Brazil did deliver the first statement in 1949 during the 4th General Assembly, read by Ambassador Cyro de Freitas-Valle, followed by the US, Cuba, India, and others.

In 1950, Freitas-Valle again opened the General Debate, which Mario de Pimentel Brandão also did in 1951. In 1952, however, the sequence was interrupted. The same happened in 1953 and 1954, when Brazil did not appear as the first delegation on the speakers list.

Only in 1955, during the 10th GA Session, with the return of Freitas-Valle as head of the Brazilian delegation, did Brazil become the first again, followed by the US, Costa Rica, Egypt and others.

From then on, Brazil opened the General Debate every year. In 1956, again Freitas-Valle. In 1957, Oswaldo Aranha. In 1958, Francisco Negrão de Lima. In 1959, Augusto Frederico Schmidt. In 1960, Horácio Lafer. And so on.

Former Foreign Minister Saraiva Guerreiro wrote in his memoirs that, in the middle of the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union were at odds over the speakers list and Brazil was considered as a compromise solution. They called Freitas-Valle, who accepted the responsibility.

Since then, the tradition has gradually been consolidated. The UN Secretariat now considers it an “established practice”. GA Resolution 51/241 (1997) recognizes the importance of “existing traditions” for drawing up the list of speakers.

If you can read Portuguese, please check my book on Brazil's role in the creation of the United Nations. Link to my academic website:
eugeniovargasgarcia.academia.edu/research#books…