New York, United States.
The Security Council and the UN General Assembly on Thursday began recruiting a Secretary General for the period 2022-2026, a mandate to which the current head of the organization, Antonio Guterres, is aiming, while Honduras is calling for female candidates.
The 71-year-old former Prime Minister of Portugal has widespread support within the Assembly and Council, especially in the presence of the five permanent members (United States, Russia, China, France and United Kingdom), the key to meeting his term for five extend. more years.
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However, several NGOs are critical of his management and believe 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 the AFP agreed, the General Assembly and the Security Council call on nominating candidates “before the Council begins its selection between now and May or June”.
Under the UN Charter, the Council must recommend a candidate to the Assembly, who is then formally appointed.
In 2016, the UN instituted a process that seeks greater transparency and provides hearings for candidates.
“Candidates must have proven leadership and management skills, extensive experience in international relations and solid diplomatic, communication and multilingual skills,” said the letter to UN members.
Guterres, a former UN Commissioner for Refugees from 2005 to 2015, ran for a second term on January 11. No one else has submitted his candidacy yet.
Since the founding of the UN in 1945, all Secretaries General have been men.
In a letter addressed to UN members on Wednesday, obtained by AFP, Honduras calls for the presentation of female candidates.
“I invite you and the states representing you to honestly fulfill your obligations to the UN and to propose women candidates, in accordance with the highest standards of effectiveness, competence and integrity,” wrote the Honduran Ambassador to the UN, Mary Elizabeth Flores Flake. .
It’s about “starting a nomination process where equality and inclusion are possible and the norm,” he added.
In 2018, Flores ran for president of the UN General Assembly, but lost to former Ecuadorian Secretary of State María Fernanda Espinosa, the first Hispanic woman to chair the General Assembly.
A former Congressman and the first woman to become her country’s ambassador to the UN, Flores is the daughter of former Honduran President Carlos Flores (1998-2002). During his campaign for the General Assembly presidency, he said that if he won, his priority would be to defend children.