The New UN chief:  A backroom deal by the five permanent members

by Tauqeer Abbas
114 views

UN

For the first time in the history of the United Nations all member states will get a chance to question the candidates for secretary general, in a move designed to make the usually secret selection process for the world’s top diplomatic post more transparent. The eight hopefuls for one of the world’s most high-profile jobs will also hold town hall meetings with the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. They will each pitch their credentials and then answer questions in a two-hour session. Last year, the General Assembly responded to a demand from many countries that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s successor be chosen in a more open process, unanimously adopting a resolution allowing public hearings on how candidates would respond to global crises and run the UN’s far-flung bureaucracy. Under the UN Charter, the secretary general is chosen by the 193-member General Assembly on the recommendation of the 15-member Security Council (SC), which in practice means that the five permanent members of the SC effectively have a veto over who gets the top job. Let us not be deceived into thinking that there is an outbreak of democracy at the UN. The result is just as likely to be stitched up in a backroom deal by the five permanent members of the SC much as it has been for the last 70-odd years, but it does seem that there is a chink in the SC armour for the first time. The Q&A sessions are being billed as a potential game changer and that may be so if there develops a critical mass of countries that are lining up behind a single candidate. In that event, it may be difficult for the SC to sideline them and impose its own choice. Traditionally the post rotates by region, and the east European nations are arguing that it is ‘their turn.’ Watch this space, goes the saying.

 

pk.shafaqna.com

 

 

You may also like