British Queen to Visit Canada, Address UN General Assembly

Queen Elizabeth II of Britain is to address the UN General Assembly for the first time in 50 years. This will be the second time the Queen has addressed the UN.

The Queen, who will be accompanied by her ”consort,” or husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, is scheduled to address the General Assembly on July 6, 2010, the official website of the British Monarchy said. The UN visit will follow an official visit to Canada, where she will undertake a Royal Visit as Queen of Canada, starting June 28, 2010. The first time the Queen addressed the UN was in 1957. She spoke as Head of State of the United Kingdom and also 15 member states of the British Commonwealth. This followed a visit to Canada, during which she opened Canada’s 23rd Parliament, according to Wikipedia. Her short 1957 address to the UN can be seen on WikiSource. The British Commonwealth, now renamed the Commonwealth of Nations, is an association of 54 nations, all of which are also UN members. As head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of State of former Dominions, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. She was Head of State of the Union of South Africa, but that country then became a republic. She is also Head of State of Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. The Queen also rules the British Empire, which – contrary to popular belief – still exists. According to Outposts, by Simon Winchester, Gibraltar, Saint Helena in the Atlantic, Pitcairn Island in the Pacific and the Falkland Islands, where a bitter war was fought between Britain and Argentina in 1982, still form the remnant Empire. Argentina, however, calls the Falklands the Malvinas and claims ownership of them.