Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS, Egypt: A group of poor nations might reject the next candidate for UN secretary-general in protest unless it gets more say in finding Kofi Annan s replacement, Egypt s ambassador said Thursday.
Developing nations that make up the majority of the 191-nation UN General Assembly believe their opinions are being ignored in the scramble to name a successor to Annan, whose term runs out at the end of the year, Maged Abdelaziz said.
According to the UN Charter, the General Assembly appoints the secretary-general on the Security Council s recommendation. Because of their veto power, the five permanent members of the council – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – end up having the most say, and the General Assembly does not debate their choice.
We feel isolated, we feel that we are not being consulted, we feel that we are just rubber stamps of whatever the (permanent five) decide in the Security Council, said Abdelaziz, who has emerged as a hard-line advocate for poor nations at the UN.
He said the bloc of developing nations, known as the Group of 77, is drafting a nonbinding General Assembly resolution that would seek more discussions between the Security Council and the General Assembly in choosing a new UN chief.
Most U.N. nations have acknowledged for years that the secretary-general selection process is not transparent and the choice is made at the last minute. Annan himself won the job in December, 1996 after the U.S. vetoed a second five-year term for Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
Yet the question of how to overhaul the process has itself become the latest battle ground in a dispute between poor nations and the few rich nations that pay the bulk of the UN finances and wield most of the power in the Security Council.
The dispute burst into the open last month, when the Group of 77 and China used their greater numbers to block U.S. and European-backed reform proposals that would have given Annan more budget power. The G-77 said the reforms, part of a larger package put forward by Annan in March, would strip them of some authority.
Abdelaziz warned that the Group of 77 could break with tradition and use their power in the General Assembly, where each nation gets one vote, to oppose the Security Council s selection.
If this matter is not resolved there might be a possibility that a candidate, even though [he] might be an excellent candidate, might suffer in the struggle between the General Assembly and the Security Council on the issue, Abdelaziz said. He might be voted down.
Annan s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, declined to comment on the debate, saying the issue was for member states to decide.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton has called for formal discussion about the issue in June or July, with a decision by September or October. Asked Thursday if he could see a scenario where the General Assembly was given more power in choosing the next secretary-general, he said: I d be surprised at that.
Bolton has also rejected the notion that the post of secretary-general should rotate by region and that the job should go to someone from Asia this time around, an idea supported by most of the poor nations. Bolton said all qualified candidates should be considered.
The United States also wants someone from outside the organization to get the job.
I think there s a broad view that getting somebody from outside the UN system would be appropriate at this point, Bolton said. But again, what we want is the best qualified person; you have to look at the person s entire resume.
Earlier Thursday, Canada s Ambassador Allan Rock put forward several proposals to reform the selection process. They include allowing the secretary-general just one term instead of two and clearly defining the job. Rock also wants to see a more clear-cut search process that might include a search committee and a chance for member states to ask questions of the candidates.
We believe the post of secretary-general is simply too important for the person to be chosen by the current process, a process that is opaque, ill-defined, unpredictable and unsatisfactory, Rock said.
