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A Better Process, a Stronger UN Secretary-General: How Historic Change Was Forged and What Comes Next

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2017

Yvonne Terlingen
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Extract

When on October 13, 2016, the General Assembly appointed by acclamation António Guterres of Portugal as the United Nations’ ninth secretary-general, there was a sense of excitement among the organization's 193 members. For once, so it seemed, they felt they had played an important role not only in choosing the secretary-general but also in appointing a man generally considered to be an outstanding candidate for a position memorably described as “the most impossible job on this earth.” The five permanent, veto-wielding members of the Security Council (Perm Five) still exercised the greatest power in the selection process, as they always had in the past. Yet the candidate chosen appears, surprisingly, not to have been the first choice of either the United States or Russia, two of the Perm Five that until then had effectively chosen the secretary-general between them in an opaque and outdated process. It is doubtful that António Guterres would have been appointed if the General Assembly had not embarked on a novel process to select him.

Type
Essays
Information
Ethics & International Affairs , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , Summer 2017 , pp. 115 - 127
Copyright
Copyright © Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs 2017 

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References

NOTES

1 Trygve Lie, the first UN secretary-general, greeting his successor, Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden, at Idlewild Airport in New York on April 9, 1953.

2 Trygve Lie was reappointed by the General Assembly in 1950 without a recommendation from the Security Council, two of its members having consistently blocked his reappointment.

3 Brian Urquhart and Erskine Childers, “A World in Need of Leadership: Tomorrow's United Nations,” Dag Hammarskjold Foundation (1990), p. 25. John Bolton, a former U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN, recalled that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told him during the then selection of a new secretary-general, “I am not sure we want a strong secretary-general.” See Bolton, John, Surrender is Not an Option (New York: Threshold Editions, 2007) p. 279Google Scholar.

4 Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (India) in 1953, Gro Harlem Brundtland (Norway) in 1991, and Vaira Vike-Freiberga (Latvia) in 2006.

5 For example, France effectively vetoed Kofi Annan's appointment by casting negative votes many times in the Security Council in 1996 until he agreed that a French national be appointed to head the UN peacekeeping department.

6 Brian Urquhart, “Selecting the World's CEO,” Foreign Affairs 74, no. 3 (May/June 1995).

7 Several permanent representatives of missions at the United Nations told the author they believed that some (weaker) previous secretaries-general would never have been appointed had this new process been in place.

8 These included a candidate who embodies the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity and who possesses proven leadership and managerial abilities, extensive experience in international relations, and strong diplomatic, communication, and multilingual skills, as specified in General Assembly Res. 69/321, para. 39.

9 Srgjan Kerim (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) and Miroslav Lajčák (Slovakia).

10 To underline their opposition, the Russian deputy permanent representative did not speak at the dialogues with candidates or in the private one-hour meetings that the Security Council offered all candidates. China was present at the General Assembly meetings and, although not speaking for itself, associated itself with questions put by the G77 group of countries. To their credit, the permanent representatives (or their deputies) of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States all took an active part in the meetings with candidates.

11 Samantha Power, “Ambassador Power Remarks to the UN General Assembly on the Appointment of António Guterres as the Next Secretary-General of the United Nations,” October 13, 2016.

12 See for example, General Assembly Resolutions 51/241 (1997), 60/286 (2006), 64/301 (2010), and 67/297 (2013).

13 The thirteen founder NGOs of the 2006 campaign were: Amnesty International, Center of Concern, CIVICUS, Equality Now, FEMNET (African Women's Development and Communication Network), Forum–Asia, Global Policy Forum, Committee for Nuclear Policy, Social Watch, Third World Network, UBUNTU–World Forum of Civil Society Networks, Women's Environment and Development Organization, and the World Federalist Movement–Institute for Global Policy. All but the Center for Concern and UBUNTU joined the 1 for 7 Billion campaign.

14 The long-awaited entry of Kristalina Georgieva (European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources)—which complicated matters because another Bulgarian national (Irina Bokova) was already in the race—only materialized on September 29, 2016, when the Security Council had already conducted most of its informal straw polls. UN observers felt her late candidacy hindered her chances of becoming secretary-general and probably hastened the selection of Mr. Guterres.

15 At the closing of dialogues in the General Assembly, the president of the Assembly summarized the debates on June 7, 2016: “You are looking for a strong, independent, and courageous secretary-general who will make full use of the powers provided for in the UN Charter. You would most certainly welcome the first-ever female secretary-general and, more broadly, a person committed to ensuring that this organization promotes and embodies gender equality at all levels. And, finally, you are looking for a candidate who has the skills to transform this organization's tools, capacity, and culture—so as to respond to today's peace and security challenges, to drive forward implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement, to ensure greater respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and to give due priority to the world's most vulnerable countries and peoples.” Looking back, that description fits the newly appointed secretary-general, apart from his not being a woman.

16 The “1 for 7 Billion” campaign, www.1for7billion.org.

17 Eleven of the NGOs of the 2006 campaign (see endnote 13) were joined by the social campaigning organization AVAAZ and the World Federation of United Nations Associations.

18 The proposals of 1 for 7 Billion included formal selection criteria, a call for nominations, a clear timetable and deadline for nominations, publication of an official list of candidates with their CVs and vision statements, and open hearings for candidates with all members of the General Assembly and with civil society participation. The campaign also argued for multiple candidates for the General Assembly to choose from, and for secretaries-general to serve a longer, single term—possibly of seven years—to enhance their independence. It opposed candidates having to make promises on senior UN posts in exchange for support. The campaign called especially for qualified female candidates, but also for the most highly qualified person to be appointed, regardless of gender or region. For the text of the 1 for 7 Billion Policy Platform, see www.1for7billion.org/s/1for7billion-policy-platform.pdf.

19 For the text of the Commentary on the 1 for 7 Billion Policy Platform, see www.1for7billion.org/s/1for7billion-commentary-principles-and-recommendations.pdf/.

20 For a lucid explanation of the Council's polling practice and a concise historical background, see Security Council Report, Special Research Report: Appointing the UN Secretary-General: The Challenge for the Security Council, June 30, 2016, www.securitycouncilreport.org/special-research-report/appointing-the-un-secretary-general-the-challenge-for-the-security-council.php.

21 World Health Assembly, “Follow-Up of the Report of the Working Group on the Election of the Director-General of the World Health Organization,” May 27, 2013, document WHA66.18 in WHA66/2013/REC/1, p. 34.

22 Some member states, including those with a candidate, identified problems with candidates running for secretary-general while continuing to hold a senior UN or comparable international position. They and others raised concerns about the ability of such candidates to satisfactorily carry out their duties while running for the secretary-general's position or feared that such candidates took advantage of their position to gain access for lobbying that was not available to others. (Two candidates kept their senior UN position throughout the race, whereas a senior EU official suspended her work on declaring her candidacy). Questions also arose about campaign financing and government funding.

23 World Bank, “World Bank Board Launches Presidential Selection Process,” August 23, 2016.

24 Shawn Donnan, “World Bank Staff Challenge Jim Yong Kim's Second Term,” Financial Times, August 9, 2016; “Lucky Jim,” Economist, September 15, 2016.