UN opens up race to be world's top diplomat

The UN General Assembly on Friday decided to shake up the selection process for the next secretary-general, lifting some of the secrecy shrouding the choice of the world's top diplomat.

For the first time candidates are being asked to present their resumes and lay out a vision for the job of UN chief, under a resolution adopted by consensus in the 193-nation assembly.

The choice of the UN chief has for decades been the purview of the five permanent Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- in a selection process kept mostly behind closed doors.

Ban Ki-moon, who steps down at the end of 2016, was chosen by the Security Council which forwarded his name to the General Assembly for endorsement.

Under the new rules, the council and assembly will start looking for candidates now by sending a joint letter to all 193 nations inviting applications and explaining the selection process.

Interested candidates must have "proven leadership and managerial abilities, extensive experience in international relations, and strong diplomatic, communication and multilingual skills," according to the resolution.

Their names will be circulated to the assembly along with full resumes.

In a first, the General Assembly will conduct "informal meetings" with candidates to ask about their vision for leading the world body.

"We have started the race to find the person fit for one of the most important jobs in the world," said British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft.

- Milestone -

The next secretary-general will preside over an organization with more than 40,000 employees, pushing forward a new anti-poverty agenda to be adopted this month and possibly a historic deal on climate change to be decided in December.   

European Union diplomat Gerton Van den Akker called the resolution a "milestone in enhancing the transparency and inclusivity of the selection process" for Ban's successor.
The secrecy surrounding the choice of the secretary-general has long been a thorn in the side of countries that do not sit on the Security Council and non-governmental organizations.

While the measure opens up the selection process, the Security Council will still submit only one name to the General Assembly for approval even if the candidate's credentials will likely be well-known to member-states.

Debate on choosing the next secretary-general has focussed on appointing a woman for the first time, after eight men in the job.

The resolution specifies that governments are invited to present women as candidates.

"The selection of the secretary-general in 2016 will be significantly different from the appointment of any secretary-general since 1945," said William Pace, a leader of the "one for seven billion" campaign of NGOs that lobbied for the changes.

"The ability of the United States, Russia and China, and to some degree the UK and France to control a secret process in which they pick someone who they can control will be significantly challenged by the decision of the General Assembly," said Pace.

Russia has said that the next secretary-general should come from eastern Europe, the only region that has yet to be represented in the top job.

Among the names being floated for the top job are two Bulgarians -- UNESCO chief Irina Bokova and EU budget commissioner Kristalina Georgieva -- along with Croatia's Foreign Minister Vesna Pesic.

Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite has been mentioned but it is doubtful that a candidate from the Baltics would win Russian support.

Among non-eastern Europeans, attention has focused on former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, who now heads the UN Development Program, and Chile's President Michelle Bachelet.
Source: AFP