21 June 2006
On 21 June 2006, the Center organized a panel discussion on the selection process of the UN Secretary General. Sir Brian Urquhart, Barbara Crossette and Ayca Aryoruk discussed the candidates for the position of UN Secretary General, the flaws of the selection process, and the challenges he/she will have to face during his/her mandate.
SIR BRIAN URQUHART
The role of the Secretary General has expanded and greatly changed during the organization’s 60 year existence. The first Secretary General Trygve Lie made useful suggestions on political matters which were frowned upon by European countries. His successor, Dag Hammarskjold was considered a very able Swedish civil servant, unlikely to take dashing initiatives. This was a delightful misapprehension by the members of the Security Council, because they believed he would not intervene in the political matters of member states. Unexpectedly, he developed into a charismatic world leader. It was then that the Eisenhower administration realized that it preferred an active and independent Secretary General. When the Security Council was paralyzed by the veto, Dag Hammarskjold demonstrated he could be above the fray of the Cold War: someone who was able to propose agreements which both sides of the Security Council could accept.
The tenure of Dag Hammarskjold represents an enormous turning point in the history of the Secretary General. He transformed an office that did not have physical and political power into a more effective one; it became a job that entailed a great deal of political initiative. What type of person do you need for such an endeavor? The current selection process will not necessarily lead to the selection of an able candidate. In 1992 Erskine Childers and I suggested that the institution of a Search Committee, and/or Nominating Committee be established to have some order in the way the candidates emerge to the position. The Security Council should ideally have a Search Committee in place 18 months before the appointment.
First and foremost, the Secretary General should be a “political genius;” however, it is extremely difficult to tell at the beginning of a career if a candidate will demonstrate such skill during his/her tenure. The position of the Secretary General is an extremely difficult one to have because it is unlike any other. It is a job in which one must not only represent an ideal, but at the same time work under the direction of 191 member states.
“What we should do is to try and get the Council interested in getting a really good person, someone under fifty, [since] the job of Secretary General is a very rough one. We do not expect a genius, but rather someone that can develop into one, someone who has the signs of great versatility and very strong character and integrity. That is what they should be looking for.”
AYCA ARIYORUK
The office of the Secretary General, and the UN as a whole, could greatly be strengthened if the process of selection for the position was beyond criticism. The fact that the UN’s top official is appointed rather than elected, does not mean that the process cannot become more transparent, more inclusive and more merit based. It is important in this sense to separate the measures that can be implemented in the next few months from those that can be promoted in the following years, so that in 2012 there will be a better process in place. There are already some significant differences and improvements between the process that took place in 1996, leading to the appointment of Kofi Annan, and the process started in January of 2006. First of all, there is a more visible public element. Many candidates have publicly declared their candidacy and made their platforms known through interviews and public appearances. Some of the candidates have personal websites; a series of independent blogs are monitoring the various candidates
There is also more communication between the Security Council and the General Assembly on the issue than ever before. In fact, the Security Council wrote to the General Assembly to advise that discussion and consideration of potential candidates would begin in July. This might be a symbolic communique, but it is still very important. Indeed, the fact that the Security Council is encouraging the candidates into discussion at a relatively early stage represents a step forward in comparison to previous selections. Furthermore, because of the proposed management reforms that are threatening the powers of the General Assembly over the organization’s administration, the General Assembly appears to be more alert and more willing to decide on the parameters of the selection process.
The selection process of the Secretary General is based on a GA resolution dating back to 1946; the General Assembly could recommend amending it, setting a time limit within which candidatures can be proposed. This would avoid the possibility of a non-transparent decision, in which someone completely unknown could suddenly emerge as a candidate during the final stages of decision-making.
Another matter that should be revised is the habit of linking the candidates to their nationality. It diverts the attention from the candidates and their qualities to national politics. Lastly, the UN should breakaway from the practice of regional rotation. Regional rotation does not ensure representation because the regions are not fully defined. It also discriminates, for example, against some of the countries that are technically in Asia, but share traditions of governance with other countries. This is a kind of “regional discrimination” within the UN system. Thus, when interviewing the candidates, the challenge was to keep the focus on their qualities rather than on the political standing of their countries.
BARBARA CROSSETTE
The new secretary general will have to face a number of issues of extreme gravity. The North-South divide, a divide that appeared increasingly more evident since the end of the Cold War, has widened. The Group of 77, a coalition of developing countries, continues to see the West as its enemy.
In terms of global social reform, following the wave of efforts on social reforms during the 70’s, state leaders now seem exhausted or somehow unwilling to continue work on such issues. The World Summit in 2005 was really a capstone to an age rather than a platform for a new era for social reform. In this context, the UN must bring forward a plan to address a global social reform and demonstrate how it intends to execute it.
Updating the UN culture also seems increasingly necessary in an age of globalization, taking into account society’s views on UN management and decision making. As such, if this issue is not dealt with properly, it could potentially contribute to exacerbating the North- South divide.
The UN’s weak ability to positively project itself also needs to be addressed. In this age of mass information outpour, the UN is an organization that continues to remain inaccessible to the public. Thus, there is a need to reformulate the image that the UN projects to civil society.
Another issue that the new Secretary General will have to tackle is coordinating UN funds and programs and avoiding their duplication. He/she will also have to deal with serious problems such as the oil for food scandal and the abuses perpetrated on local populations by UN peacekeeping forces.
The tragedy could be that a lot of issues that Kofi Annan proposed will be lost in the miasma that has been the oil for food scandal, which was not really a problem of corruption of the UN, but rather of its member states. Oil for food was clearly a case of information mismanagement which could have been avoided.
Finally, the new Secretary General will have to face an extremely important “Ethics” challenge because abuse need to be punished. The fact that such abuses have been often extremely localized does not make the UN any less responsible. This is a huge challenge for the UN because it is often judged on issues that are actually national problems. UN peacekeepers come from all over the world, and in some countries there are no sanctions for that kind of behavior. Thus, the UN and its Secretary General need to promote a culture of respect and abidance to international laws and customary practices by those who represent it worldwide.