UN secretary-general: How is the top job decided?

[Bagamoyo]

Ban Ki-moon's 10-year tenure as the Secretary-General of the UN will end in December 2016 and there are several global figures nominated to replace him as the world's top diplomat.

Candidates
The letters submitted by Member States following the procedure laid out in the joint letter of 15 December 2015 for presenting candidates for the position of the next United Nations Secretary-General is published here : Click the link for Names submitted : Procedure of Selecting and Appointing the next UN Secretary-General

The process is basically this:

• UN member states (of which there are 193) nominate their top diplomats by submitting a letter to the presidents of the General Assembly and Security Council
• There will be a round of informal talks and meetings between those UN officials and the candidates
• The Security Council will deliberate over the candidates and adopt a resolution setting out its recommendation to the General Assembly
• The General Assembly will consider that recommendation and vote on it in a secret ballot

How important is the opinion of the Security Council?

"The secretary-general's selection is therefore subject to the veto of any of the five permanent members of the Security Council."

That group is made up of the permanent so-called Big Five — China, France, the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom.

There are also 10 non-permanent members elected for two-year Security Council terms.

At the moment they are: Angola, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal, Spain, Ukraine, Uruguay and Venezuela.

How long will the new secretary-general serve for?
Technically, there's no limit but history tells us, it's unlikely to be longer than 10 years.

"When adopting its resolution, the practice of the Council has been to specify the term of office for its recommended candidate," according to information published by the UN.

"And the Assembly acts similarly when adopting its resolution appointing the secretary-general.

"Except for some adjustments during the early years of the UN, the terms of office of secretaries-general have been fixed at five years."

Although there is technically no limit to number of five-year terms a secretary-general may serve, none so far has held office for more than two term.

Source: How is the UN top job decided?

 

[Kking]

It is a time now to debate if there is a need to have a vote powered nationals

 

[Bagamoyo]

The Right to Veto
The creators of the United Nations Charter conceived that five countries — China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) [which was succeeded in 1990 by the Russian Federation], the United Kingdom and the United States —, because of their key roles in the establishment of the United Nations, would continue to play important roles in the maintenance of international peace and security. They were granted the special status of Permanent Member States at the Security Council, along with a special voting power known as the "right to veto". It was agreed by the drafters that if any one of the five permanent members cast a negative vote in the 15-member Security Council, the resolution or decision would not be approved.

All five permanent members have exercised the right of veto at one time or another. If a permanent member does not fully agree with a proposed resolution but does notwish to cast a veto, it may choose to abstain, thus allowing the resolution to be adopted if it obtains the required number of nine favourable votes. Voting System and Records for the United Nations Security Council