UN Secretary General hopefuls to be quizzed

For the first time in the 70- year history of the UN, 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. 

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 UN, through that also the influence of a broader public on what we do here,” General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft said. 

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 organisation in its 70-year-old history, there is an unprecedented call from nations and civil societies to select a woman to lead the organisation. 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 UN official. 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 UN 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.