UN's
Meeting on
Next SG Is
Called
"Closed," But
Reported Here
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April
27, updated --
How should the
next UN
Secretary
General be
selected, to
improve the
Organization?
That was the question
on the afternoon
of April 27 in
what was
called a "closed"
meeting in
the
Trusteeship
Council
Chamber. The
meeting being
label closed,
and not on UN
webcast, is a
bad beginning,
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
believes.
To
counter-act
this Inner
City Press did
its reporting
about the
meeting, from
India urging
that there be
more than one
- a panel - of
candidates
proposed, to
Moldova
emphasizing
that the next
SG should come
from Eastern Europe.
Canada
said regional
rotation
should inform
but not
determine the
selection. The
UK to its
credit
released a
copy of the
speech by new
Permanent
Representative
Matthew
Rycroft - but
how to square
its proposals
with David
Cameron
nominating Andrew
Lansley to
replace
Valerie Amos
as Emergency
Relief
Coordinator,
then insisting
that the UK
should have
the post, now
in the person
of Stephen
O'Brien.
Update:
With only a
few dozen
states
choosing to
speak, the
chair decided
to try to
finish them
all -- five
states in
twelve
minutes? -- to
end the debate
on April 27.
This too may
not be the
right spirit.
Update
II: And when
the rushed
session ended,
the next one
was announced
for May 12, on
the
"institutional
memory" of the
Office of the
President of
the General
Assembly.
Earlier in a
10 am press
conference by
the campaign
called "1 for
7 Billion:
Find the Best
UN Leader."
At the April
27 UN noon
briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
Ban Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesperson
for Ban's
views on
needed
reforms.
Apparently
there are
none: it is up
to member
states, he
said, adding
that selecting
a women would
be good. What
about pay to
play?
Inner City
Press asked
the panel if,
as happened
last time,
increase trade
and aid
funding by a
candidates'
country should
at least be
disclosed, if
not
prohibited.
William Pace
of WFM replied
not only about
countries
spending
hundreds of
million of
Euros, but
also about the
heads of
international
agencies using
their posts to
campaign.
Since UNDP's
Helen Clark is
known to have
told
associates and
underlings she
would like to
be the next
SG, Inner City
Press asked
the panel for
comment. They
were
diplomatic,
including on
the UK, said
to be a
reformer on
the SG post,
having
insisted it
retain the
Emergency
Relief
Coordinator
positioon,
albeit in the
person of
Stephen
O'Brien and
not Cameron's
first nominee
(and National
Health Service
destroyer)
Andrew
Lansley.
Natalie
Samarasinghe
of UNA-UK said
the campaign
around (well,
against)
Lansley was a
positive step
forward; she
said that
social media
makes secret
processes less
possible. (But
see the
replacement at
Yemen envoy of
Jamal Benomar
by a
Mauritanian
official who
has not made
public
financial
disclosure).
Yvonne
Terlingen, now
Senior Policy
Adviser at
WFM,
also cited the
OCHA process
or campaign.
WFM's Pace
seemed to
conflate the
entire UN
press corps
with the UN
Correspondents
Association,
a group that
for example tried to
censor Press
coverage of
how Under
Secretary
General Herve
Ladsous got
the job, then
tried
to get
the Press
thrown out.
The new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
seeks to open
the UN and
these
processes -
watch this
site.
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