UN workers want open race for next secretary general, survey reveals
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Version 0 of 1. Pressure is mounting for the election of the next head of the United Nations to be freed from the grip of a small group of powerful countries, with a survey showing that the majority of people working with or for the UN want an open race for the job. The search for a successor to Ban Ki-moon, who steps down at the end of this year, comes amid warnings that the UN is in danger of becoming marginalised unless the sprawling institution is reformed. In a survey of more than 700 people, a clear majority of those who work for the UN, and others closely associated with the organisation – including academics – urged the five permanent members of the security council to encourage more female candidates for the top job, and allow public scrutiny of candidates. The secretary general has always been selected in a secretive process orchestrated by the security council’s permanent members, Britain, China, France, Russia and the US. Officially, this time looks like being no different. But in an effort to make the process more open, the Guardian is hosting public meetings for the candidates in the spring in New York and London. The survey, covering 114 countries, was carried out by a pressure group for reform, the Future United Nations Development System (Funds), which will help host the debates. It is pressing for the security council to give the general assembly more than one candidate and to include a woman on the list. In 70 years, the assembly has always ratified the sole candidate. All eight have been men. “Hopefully this continuing insistence on reform will help the UN to save itself and stop becoming more and more marginalised,” said Stephen Browne, the co-director of Funds. The Elders group, set up by Nelson Mandela, and including the former US president Jimmy Carter and the former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, previously warned the UN would struggle to remain “credible” unless it reformed the election process. It wants the assembly to vote on three names, and for the next secretary general to serve one seven-year term rather than the traditional two five-year stints, to make him or her more independent of permanent members. However, expectations of significant reform this year are mixed. The former under-secretary general Michael Williams warned campaigners had only months until the election to push for change against the “entrenched” interests of permanent security council members, who would not want to dilute their power. There is expected to be particular opposition from Russia which, in keeping with the tradition of rotating the top job between regions, expects to nominate the candidate from eastern Europe. Reform is therefore likely to be limited to some form of interviewing candidates, and favouring a woman, according to Lord Williams. “My fear is [that] in appointing a woman they’ll hide behind that,” he added. Browne points, however, to developments indicating wider support for changes this year. Funds is sponsored by major UN funders Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway, and the organisation has had indirect support from Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. The general assembly is also “radicalising”, said Browne. And the presidents of both the assembly and security council have written to member states urging them to nominate candidates – interpreted as a move to widen selection. Changes have also been debated by the UN’s economic and social council, the sub-committee responsible for internal reform. “Hopefully there will be some sense that the next secretary general has to be a reformer, and the most reform-minded of the candidates will get more attention,” said Browne. It’s “not inconceivable” the security council could put forward two candidates – a man and a woman – if they are deadlocked. The survey found greatest support for the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, as the next secretary general, followed by the former New Zealand president Helen Clark – though neither has announced their candidacy. The highest placed eastern European nominee was Irina Bokova, the Bulgarian director general of Unesco. So far six candidates, all from eastern Europe, have announced they are standing. |