Non-Aligned Movement facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
Member countries     Observer countries
Coordinating Bureau	New York City, New York, U.S.
Membership	125 members 25 observers
Leaders
• Principal decision- making organ	Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries
• Chairperson	Nicolas Maduro
Establishment	1961 in Belgrade as the Conference of Heads of State of Government of Non-Aligned Countries

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is an international organization (group of countries) who do not want to be officially aligned with or against any major power bloc (group of countries). In 2018, the movement had 125 members and 25 observer countries.

The group was started in Belgrade in 1961. It was created by Yugoslavia's President, Josip Broz Tito, India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, Egypt's second President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah, and Indonesia's first President, Sukarno. All five leaders believed that developing countries should not help either the Western or Eastern blocs in the Cold War. They also believed that developing countries should not be capitalist or communist, but should try to find a different way to help their people.

The Havana Declaration of 1979 said that the purpose of the organization is to help countries keep their "the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries" in their "struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neocolonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics." This means that they wanted to govern their countries without the main capitalist powers nor the major socialist states telling them how.

The countries of the non-aligned movement are nearly two-thirds of the United Nations's members and 55% of the world population.

Secretaries-General

Between summits, the Non-Aligned Movement is run by the secretary-general elected at last summit meeting. As a considerable part of the movement's work is undertaken at the United Nations in New York, the chair country's ambassador to the UN is expected to devote time and effort to matters concerning the Non-Aligned Movement. The Coordinating Bureau, also based at the UN, is the main instrument for directing the work of the movement's task forces, committees and working groups.

Secretaries-General of the Non-Aligned Movement
Name	Country	Party	From	To
Josip Broz Tito	Yugoslavia	League of Communists of Yugoslavia	1961	1964
Gamal Abdel Nasser	United Arab Republic	Arab Socialist Union	1964	1970
Kenneth Kaunda	Zambia	United National Independence Party	1970	1973
Houari Boumediène	Algeria	Revolutionary Council	1973	1976
William Gopallawa	Sri Lanka	Independent	1976	1978
Junius Richard Jayewardene		United National Party	1978	1979
Fidel Castro	Cuba	Communist Party of Cuba	1979	1983
Neelam Sanjiva Reddy	India	Janata Party	1983
Zail Singh		Congress Party	1983	1986
Robert Mugabe	Zimbabwe	ZANU-PF	1986	1989
Janez Drnovšek	Yugoslavia	League of Communists of Yugoslavia	1989	1990
Borisav Jović		Socialist Party of Serbia	1990	1991
Stjepan (Stipe) Mesić		Croatian Democratic Union	1991
Branko Kostić		Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro	1991	1992
Dobrica Ćosić		Independent	1992
Suharto	Indonesia	Partai Golongan Karya	1992	1995
Ernesto Samper	Colombia	Colombian Liberal Party	1995	1998
Andrés Pastrana Arango		Colombian Conservative Party	1998
Nelson Mandela	South Africa	African National Congress	1998	1999
Thabo Mbeki			1999	2003
Mahathir Mohamad	Malaysia	United Malays National Organisation	2003
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi			2003	2006
Fidel Castro	Cuba	Communist Party of Cuba	2006	2008
Raúl Castro			2008	2009
Hosni Mubarak	Egypt	National Democratic Party	2009	2011
Mohamed Hussein Tantawi		Independent	2011	2012
Mohamed Morsi		Freedom and Justice Party	2012
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad	Iran	Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran	2012	2013
Hassan Rouhani		Combatant Clergy Association	2013	2016
Nicolás Maduro	Venezuela	United Socialist Party of Venezuela	2016	2019
Ilham Aliyev	Azerbaijan	New Azerbaijan Party	2019	(2022)

Members

Full Members

Member states of the Non-Aligned Movement (2018). Light blue states have observer status.

Former members

1.  Cyprus Cyprus is a founding member of NAM and on 2004 Cyprus ceased their membership along with Malta until they became a member of the European Union.
2.  Malta Malta officially joined the Non Aligned Movement in 1974 and on 2004 Malta ceased their membership along with Cyprus until they became a member of the European Union.
3.  Poland Poland officially joined the Non Aligned Movement in 1989 and on 2004 Poland ceased their membership along with Cyprus and Malta until they became a member of the European Union.
4.  Yugoslavia Yugoslavia is a founding member of NAM. The Yugoslavian capital, Belgrade, is the birthplace of NAM. Yugoslavia hosted NAM's summits from 1961 to 1964 and 1989 to 1992. They withdrew from the Non Aligned Movement in 1992 along with their dissolution. Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only part of the Former Yugoslavia that currently joined the Non Aligned Movement.
5.  Ukraine (Dropped Observer Status)

Observers

The following countries and organizations have observer status: