New York, United States.
The Security Council and the UN General Assembly on Thursday launched the recruitment to elect a secretary general for the period 2022-2026, a mandate to which the current head of the organization, Antonio Guterres, aspires, while Honduras claims female candidacies.
The former Prime Minister of Portugal, 71, has broad support in the Assembly and the Council, especially in front of the five permanent members (United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom). keys to renewing his term for another five years.
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Several oenages, however, are critical of his management and consider that he has not done enough to defend human rights in the world.
In a letter addressed to the 193 members of the UN to which AFP acceded, the General Assembly and the Security Council call for nomination “before the Council begins its selection by May or June “.
Under the UN Charter, the Council must recommend a candidate to the Assembly, which then deals with formally appointing him.
In 2016 the UN installed a process that seeks greater transparency, and which provides for hearings for candidates.
“Candidates must have proven leadership and management skills, extensive experience in international relations and strong diplomatic, communication and multilingual skills,” the letter sent to UN members said.
Guterres, former UN High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005 to 2015, ran for a second term on 11 January. No one else has submitted their candidacy yet.
Since the creation of the UN in 1945, all general secretaries have been men.
In a letter to UN members on Wednesday, obtained by AFP, Honduras calls for the submission of female candidacies.
“I invite you and the States that represent you to genuinely observe your commitments to the UN and to present women candidates, in compliance with the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity,” the Honduran ambassador wrote to the UN, Mary Elizabeth Flors Flake.
It is about “starting a nomination process where equality and inclusiveness are possible and are the norm,” he added.
In 2018 Flors ran as a candidate to chair the UN General Assembly, but lost to former Ecuadorian Chancellor Maria Fernanda Espinosa, the first Latin American woman to chair the Assembly.
Flores, a former congresswoman and the first woman to become her country’s ambassador to the UN, is the daughter of former Honduran President Carlos Flores (1998-2002). During his campaign for the presidency of the General Assembly he said that winning his priority would be the defense of children.