The Secretary-General holds the most important office in the UN, acting as chief administrative officer, leader on important issues, and world moderator in global disputes. Far from being political superstars, most Secretaries-General are candidates from countries not considered major players and by tradition not from countries that are permanent members of the Security Council, the most powerful branch of the UN. Even as some analysts throw out a name like Bill Clinton, most UN experts and insiders expect a lesser-known candidate. Eschewing political celebrities has its roots in the first search for a Secretary-General. Charles de Gaulle and Dwight Eisenhower were passed over for Trygve Lie, the foreign minister of the Norwegian government-in-exile during World War II. So one can expect several dark horses to enter the race.
The five permanent Security Council members (China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States) have begun searching for candidates, as have the 10 elected council members (Argentina, Denmark, Ghana, Greece, Japan, Peru, Qatar, Republic of the Congo, Slovakia and Tanzania).
"Geographical Rotation" is the hot button issue in the current selection. Rotation would require that every Secretary-General come from a different region of the world so that all continents would be represented, avoiding domination by one group. Annan, who is Ghanaian, succeeded Boutros Boutros-Ghali from Egypt, who in turn succeeded Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, hailing from Peru. The consensus says that this next candidate should come from Asia.
"We believe, with more than two billion people, definitely Asia can provide the best qualified candidates for the UN," China’s UN ambassador told reporters, adding that China’s support for an Asian candidate was "firm."
An Asian has not held the UN’s top position since 1971 when U Thant of Burma stepped down. Certainly, there is a need to recognize half the world’s population. And yes, it would be prudent to ensure that white men are not always in power, particularly when they dominate the permanent seats on the Security Council. But the Security Council should not close the door to qualified candidates who might be better equipped to steer the UN through the many reforms recently proposed by Annan, the development of a new Human Rights Council, and through international crises such as the genocide in Darfur, Sudan and the conÂicts in Congo and Iraq.
It is only by tradition, not mandate, that candidates are chosen within a specific rotating region. There has been very little rotation geo-graphically: of the seven past Secretaries-General, three have come from Western Europe, two from Africa, one from Latin America, and one from Asia. There has never been a North American, Eastern European, or Oceanic (from the Pacific islands, including Australia and New Zealand) Secretary-General. And while it would be imprudent to have a candidate from a permanent member of the Security Council (i.e. the United States), that does not explain why a qualified Canadian, Mexican, Australian or New Zealander has not been proposed as a serious contender. Eastern Europe seems the most likely to get a nod, as former Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski is rumored to be the Bush Administration’s preferred candidate because of his support for free markets and for the Iraq invasion, for which he offered Polish troops.
Recently Kofi Annan himself added a new coal into the fire that may indeed trump geography—that of gender.
"There are now 11 women heads of state or government in countries on every continent. And three countries – Chile, Spain and Sweden – now have gender parity in government. The world is ready for a woman Secretary-General," Annan said at a symposium on women ’s participation in the decision-making process in honor of International Women’s Day. He added jokingly, "Some of my male colleagues are going to kill me, but that’s okay."
This comes just as the U.S. and other nations are arguing that not only should a person’s country of origin not disqualify them if they are an ideal candidate, but neither should being female be a reason for dismissal. And there are plenty of qualified female candidates.
Equality Now, a New York-based women’s rights organization, has issued a list of 18 women, including four from Asia, two from New Zealand, one from Canada and one from Eastern Europe. One name that is a crossover from this list as well as other methods of public speculation is that of Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the current president of Latvia who has pushed for her country’s entry into NATO and the European Union. Equality Now ’s Executive Director Taina Bien-Aimé has argued, "Women ’s unequal access to positions of decision-making power in the UN and around the world hinders progress toward all the United Nations ’ goals, including equality, development and peace."
In the 1990’s, the UN had a pledge to reach equality in number of men and women employed by the organization by the year 2000. But the institution fell well short of its goal. In its report on this topic in the UN Commission on the Status of Women "…despite real progress at the junior level and improvements in the middle ranks, there were not enough qualified women in senior decision-making only 16% of the UN Undersecretaries-General are women.
Eleanor Roosevelt was the former first Lady and chair of the committee that drafted and approved the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In she addressed the UN General Assembly "Too often the great decisions are originated and given form in bodies made up wholly of men, or so completely dominated by them that whatever of special value women have to offer is shunted aside without expression." Perhaps in the coming months the Security Council will heed her words.
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