PTI
UNITED NATIONS, April 10
For the first time in the 70-year-history of the United Nations, candidates for Secretary-General will participate in public discussions and be questioned by member-states, “a game changing process” aimed at increasing transparency on how the world body’s top diplomat is selected.
Each of the current eight candidates will be formally introduced to the General Assembly, which includes representatives from all 193 Member States and two Observers — the State of Palestine and the Holy See — in three days of informal dialogues beginning from April 12.
Public can ask questions
The general public can ask questions through civil society members and social media.
“This is a potentially game changing process. This will be yet another occasion to increase transparency around the whole machinery of the U.N., through that also the influence of a broader public on what we do here,” General Assembly president Mogens Lykketoft said in an interview to the U.N. News Centre.
Hitherto, a closed-door affair
The Secretary-General has traditionally been selected behind closed-doors by a few powerful countries but for the first time in its history, this year the selection will involve public discussions with each candidate campaigning for the world’s top diplomatic post.
With no woman leading the organisationy, there is an unprecedented call from nations and civil societies to select a woman to lead the organisation.
Four are women
Of the current eight candidates, four are women — former Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pucic, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova from Bulgaria, former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark who heads the UN Development Program and former Moldovan Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman.
Three of the candidates are from Eastern Europe, one of whom is a current U.N. official.
The other candidates
The other candidates are former Macedonian Foreign Minister Srgjan Kerim, former Montenegro Prime Minister and current Foreign Minister Igor Luksic, former Slovenian President Danilo Turk and former U.N. refugee chief and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (71) will step down from the post at the end of this year.
“While on the surface, informal public discussions do not seem revolutionary, for a 70-year-old Organisation that has until now had only eight Secretaries-General, all of whom were selected in a relatively closed process by the 15-member U.N. Security Council, this is unchartered territory,” the U.N. said.
India’s call
India has repeatedly called for changing and improving the existing process of selecting the world body’s chief, with its former U.N. envoy Asoke Mukerji saying last year that gender equality and regional rotation should be given due regard.
Informal dialogues with the candidates will begin on April 12 and continue for two days. The next round of dialogues will be in June and the Security Council will begin deliberations in July.
Opening up the selection process, each candidate will have a televised and webcast two-hour timeslot, starting with a short oral presentation. In addition, each candidate has already submitted, or will submit, a written statement layout of his or her vision for 2017 and beyond.
Following introductory remarks by each candidate, U.N. member-states will have either two or three minutes to ask questions on behalf of their countries or geographic grouping.
Candidates have also been encouraged to take to social media and more than 500 questions have already been submitted for the candidates, ranging from ‘what criteria would the candidate use to make senior appointments’ to ‘how will your measures end world poverty’ and ‘how will you bring peace to the Middle- East.’
“Social media will play a very important role in this whole process. You will see civil society take a lot of additional initiatives to bring discussions with the candidates, maybe also between the candidates, in and outside these walls,” Mr. Lykketoft said, adding that he hopes the candidates will take the time to answer all the questions in the coming weeks and months.
Mr. Lykketoft expressed optimism that all this will culminate “for the first time in United Nations history, in a very transparent process which hopefully also will lead to a much clearer formulation of what are we expecting from the membership of the U.N. of the challenges and competencies of the next Secretary-General.”
