United Nations Secretary-General

The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the head of the Secretariat, one of the principal organs of the United Nations. The Secretary-General also acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the United Nations.

Role

The Secretary-General was envisioned by Franklin D. Roosevelt as a "world moderator," but the office was defined in the UN Charter as the organization's "chief administrative officer" (Article 97). Nevertheless, this more restricted description has not prevented the office holders from speaking out and playing important roles on global issues, to various degrees.

The official residence of the Secretary-General is a five-story townhouse in the Sutton Place neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The townhouse was built for Anne Morgan in 1921, and donated to the United Nations in 1972.^[1]

Term and selection

Dag Hammarskjöld was an unusually active UN Secretary-General from 1953 to his death in 1961. Hammarskjöld acted as a mediator during the Suez Crisis and the 1960 capture of a US reconnaissance plane by the USSR. He also established the first UN peacekeeping force.

Secretaries-General serve for renewable five-year terms; most have served two terms. The Charter provides for the Secretary-General to be appointed by the General Assembly upon the nomination of the Security Council. Therefore, the selection is subject to the veto of any of the five permanent members of the Security Council.

The Charter's minimal language has since been supplemented by other procedural rules and accepted practices. In practice, the Secretary-General cannot be a national of any of the permanent members of the Security Council. An accepted practice of regional rotation has also been adopted in the selection of successive candidates. The ability of candidates to converse in both English and French is also considered an unofficial qualification for the office.

Most Secretaries-General are compromise-candidates from middle powers and with little prior fame. High-profile candidates are often touted for the job, but are almost always rejected as unpalatable to some. For instance, figures like Charles de Gaulle, Dwight Eisenhower and Anthony Eden were considered for the first Secretary-General position, but were rejected in favour of the uncontroversial Norwegian Trygve Lie. Due to international politics and mechanicisms of political compromise, there are many similarities between the process and ideals for selecting the Secretary-General and those of selecting leading figures in other international organizations, including the election of Popes in the Roman Catholic Church. Only one Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld, has died in office.

In the early 1960s, Soviet ruler Nikita Khrushchev led an effort to abolish the Secretary-General position. The numerical superiority of the Western powers combined with the one state, one vote system meant that the Secretary-General would come from one of them, and would typically be sympathetic towards the West. Khrushchev advanced a proposal to replace the Secretary-General with a three-person leading council (a "troika"): one member from the West, one from the Communist states, and one from the Non-Aligned powers. This idea failed because the neutral powers failed to back the Soviet proposal.

Secretaries-General

Secretary-General

Dates in office

Country of origin

Reason of withdrawal

Ref.

Gladwyn Jebb

24 October 1945 –
1 February 1946

United Kingdom
(Europe)

Served as acting Secretary-General until Lie's election

Trygve Lie

1 February 1946 –
10 November 1952

Norway
(Europe)

Resigned

^[2]

Lie, a foreign minister and former labour leader, was recommended by the Soviet Union to fill the post. After UN involvement in the Korean War, the Soviet Union vetoed Lie's reappointment in 1951. The U.S. circumvented the Soviet Union's veto and recommended reappointment to the General Assembly. Lie was reappointed by a vote of 46 to five, with eight abstentions. The Soviet Union remained hostile to Lie and he subsequently resigned in 1952. ^[3]

Dag Hammarskjöld

10 April 1953 –
18 September 1961

Sweden
(Europe)

Died in a plane crash in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia)

^[4]

After a series of candidates were vetoed, Hammarskjöld emerged as an option that was acceptable to the Security Council. Hammarskjöld was re-elected unanimously to a second term in 1957. The Soviet Union was angered by Hammarskjöld's leadership of the UN during the Congo crisis, and suggested that the position of Secretary-General be replaced by a troika, or three person executive. Facing opposition from the Western nations, the Soviet Union gave up on its suggestion. Hammarskjöld was killed in a plane crash over Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in 1961. ^[3] U.S. President John F. Kennedy has called Hammarskjöld “the greatest statesman of our century.”^[5]

U Thant

30 November 1961 –
31 December 1971

Burma
(Asia)

Retired after second term for personal reasons

^[6]

In the process of replacing Hammarskjöld, the developing world insisted on a non-European. U Thant was recommended; however, due to opposition from the French (Thant had chaired a committee on Algerian independence) and the Arabs (Burma supported Israel), he was only appointed for the remainder of Hammarskjöld's term. The following year, Thant was unanimously re-elected to a full five year term. He was similarly re-elected in 1966. Thant did not seek a third term.^[3]

Kurt Waldheim

1 January 1972 –
31 December 1981

Austria
(Europe)

China vetoed his third term

^[7]

Waldheim launched a discreet but effective campaign to become the Secretary-General. Despite initial vetoes from China and the United Kingdom, on the third round Waldheim was selected to become the Secretary-General. In 1976 China initially blocked Waldheim's reappointment, but relented on the second ballot. In 1981, Waldheim's re-election for a third term was blocked by China, which vetoed his selection through 15 rounds. In the mid 1980s it would be revealed that a post WWII UN War Crimes Commission had labeled Waldheim a suspected war criminal based on his involvement with the German army. The files had been stored in the UN archive.^[3]

Javier Pérez de Cuéllar

1 January 1982 –
31 December 1991

Peru
(South America)

Refused a third term

^[8]

Pérez de Cuéllar was selected after a six week deadlock between the selection of Waldheim and China's candidate, Salim Salim of Tanzania. Pérez de Cuéllar, a Peruvian diplomat, was a compromise candidate. He was re-elected unanimously in 1986.^[3]

Boutros Boutros-Ghali
(Arabic: بطرس بطرس غالي‎)

1 January 1992 –
31 December 1996

Egypt
(Africa)

The United States vetoed his second term

^[9]

The 102 member Non-Aligned Movement insisted that the next Secretary-General come from Africa. With a majority in the General Assembly and the support of China, the Non-Aligned Movement had the votes necessary to block any unfavourable candidate. The Security Council conducted five anonymous straw polls - a first for the council. Boutros-Ghali emerged with 11 votes on the fifth round. In 1996 the U.S. vetoed the re-appointment of Boutros-Ghali, claiming he had failed in implementing necessary reforms to the UN. Boutros-Ghali responded saying he was given insufficient resources caused in large part by countries with large debts owed to the UN, such as the U.S.^[3] On his "watch" the UN suffered two of the worst humiliations in its history, the massacre of almost a million people in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, under the impotent eye of a UN mission, and the massacre in 1995 of tens of thousands of Bosniaques (Muslims) in UN "safe zones", including Srebrenica, in ex-Yugoslavia, creating the phrase "ethnic cleansing". In both cases the UN judged itself to be at fault.^[10]

Kofi Annan

1 January 1997 –
31 December 2006

Ghana
(Africa)

Retired

^[11]

Annan was head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations before being selected as Secretary-General. In 2001, after implementing changes such as a more fiscally responsible budget, Annan was unanimously re-elected to a second term.^[3]

Ban Ki-moon
(Korean: 반기문;潘基文)

1 January 2007–

South Korea
(Asia)

Currently Serving

^[12]

UN Regional Group

Secretaries-General

Terms

Western European and Others

Eastern European Group

Latin American and Caribbean Group

Asian Group

African Group

Contents

Role

Term and selection

Secretaries-General

See also

References

External links