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Secretary-General of the United Nations

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Secretary-General of the
United Nations
Emblem of the United Nations
Incumbent
Ban Ki-moon
since 1 January 2007
ResidenceSutton Place, Manhattan, New York, US
Term lengthFive years, renewable indefinitely
Inaugural holderGladwyn Jebb
24 October 1945 (Acting)
Trygve Lie
1 February 1946
FormationUnited Nations Charter,
26 June 1945
WebsiteUN Secretary-General webpage

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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.

The current Secretary-General is Ban Ki-moon of South Korea, who took office on 1 January 2007. His first term will expire on 31 December 2011, and he will be eligible for reappointment.

Role

The Secretary-General was envisioned by US President 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, Manhattan, in New York City, USA. The townhouse was built for Anne Morgan in 1921, and donated to the United Nations in 1972.[1]

Term and selection

File:Dag Hammarskjold.jpg
Dag Hammarskjöld was a particularly active UN Secretary-General from 1953 until 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 that had been proposed by Canadian Minister of External Affairs, Lester B. Pearson.
See also: United Nations Secretary-General selection, 2006

Secretaries-General serve for five-year terms that can be renewed indefinitely, although none so far has held office for more than two terms;[2] most have served two terms. The United Nations 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 UN Charter's terse language has since been supplemented by other procedural rules and also 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 (continental) 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 Sir 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 the 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, such as the election of Popes in the Roman Catholic Church, or the Premier of the former Soviet Union.[citation needed] Dag Hammarskjöld remains the only Secretary-General to have 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

Note: Alger Hiss was Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, held in April to June 1945.

# Portrait Secretary-General Dates in office Country of origin Reason of withdrawal Ref.
– Gladwyn Jebb 24 October 1945 –
1 February 1946		  United Kingdom Served as Acting Secretary-General until Lie's election
After World War II, he served as Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission of the United Nations in August 1945, being appointed Acting United Nations Secretary-General from October 1945 to February 1946 until the appointment of the first Secretary-General Trygve Lie.[3]
1 Trygve Lie 1 February 1946 –
10 November 1952		  Norway Resigned [4]
Lie, a foreign minister and former labour leader, was recommended by the Soviet Union to fill the post. After the UN involvement in the Korean War, the Soviet Union vetoed Lie's reappointment in 1951. The US circumvented the Soviet Union's veto and recommended reappointment directly to the General Assembly. Lie was reappointed by a vote of forty-six to five, with eight abstentions. The Soviet Union remained hostile to Lie, and he resigned in 1952.[5]
2 File:Dag Hammarskjöld cropped.JPG Dag Hammarskjöld 10 April 1953 –
18 September 1961		  Sweden Died in a plane crash in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), while on a peacekeeping mission to the Congo [6]
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-man executive. Facing great opposition from the Western nations, the Soviet Union gave up on its suggestion. Hammarskjöld was killed in a plane crash in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in 1961.[5] US President John F. Kennedy called Hammarskjöld "the greatest statesman of our century."[7]
3 U Thant
 30 November 1961 –
31 December 1971		  Burma Declined to be considered for another term. [8]
In the process of replacing Hammarskjöld, the developing world insisted on a non-European and non-American. U Thant was nominated. However, due to opposition from the French (Thant had chaired a committee on Algerian independence) and the Arabs (Burma was supporting Israel), Thant was only appointed for the remainder of Hammarskjöld's term. Thant was the first Asian Secretary General. 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.[5]
4 Kurt Waldheim 1 January 1972 –
31 December 1981		  Austria China vetoed his third term. [9]
Waldheim launched a discreet but effective campaign to become the Secretary-General. Despite initial vetoes from China and the United Kingdom, in the third round Waldheim was selected to become the new Secretary-General. In 1976, China initially blocked Waldheim's re-election, but it 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 was revealed that a post-World War II UN War Crimes Commission had labelled Waldheim as a suspected war criminal – based on his involvement with the Nazi German army. The files had been stored in the UN archive.[5]
5 Javier Pérez de Cuéllar 1 January 1982 –
31 December 1991		  Peru Refused to be considered for a third term. [10]
Pérez de Cuéllar was selected after a five-week deadlock between the re-election of Waldheim and China's candidate, Salim Ahmed Salim of Tanzania. Pérez de Cuéllar, a Peruvian diplomat, was a compromise candidate, and the first Secretary General from Latin America. He was re-elected unanimously in 1986.[5]
6 File:Boutros Boutros-Ghali.jpg Boutros Boutros-Ghali
 1 January 1992 –
31 December 1996		  Egypt The United States vetoed his second term. [11]
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 US vetoed the re-appointment of Boutros-Ghali, claiming he had failed in implementing necessary reforms to the UN.[5]
7 Kofi Annan 1 January 1997 –
31 December 2006		  Ghana Retired after two full terms [12]
On 13 December 1996, the United Nations Security Council recommended Annan.[13][14] Confirmed four days later by the vote of the General Assembly,[15] he started his first term as Secretary-General on 1 January 1997.
8 Ban Ki-moon 1 January 2007–
present		  South Korea Incumbent .[16]
Ban became the second Asian to be selected as the Secretary-General. Prior to his selection, he was the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea from January 2004 to November 2006.
UN Regional Group Secretaries-General Terms
Western European and Others 4 7
Eastern European Group 0 0
Latin American and Caribbean Group 1 2
Asian Group 2 3
African Group 2 3
A map showing what nations have had a national serving as Secretary-General of the United Nations as of November 2010

See also

References

  1. ^ Teltsch, Kathleen. "Town House Offered to U. N.", The New York Times, 15 July 1972. Accessed 27 December 2007.
  2. ^ Secretary-General Appointment Process
  3. ^ Stout, David (26 October 1996). "Lord Gladwyn Is Dead at 96; Briton Helped Found the U.N." NY Times. Retrieved 31 October 2008.
  4. ^ The United Nations: Trygve Haldvan Lie (Norway). Accessed 13 December 2006.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "An Historical Overview on the Selection of United Nations Secretaries-General" (PDF). UNA-USA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 October 2007. Retrieved 30 September 2007.
  6. ^ The United Nations: Dag Hammarskjöld (Sweden). Accessed 13 December 2006.
  7. ^ Linnér, S. (2007). Dag Hammarskjöld and the Congo crisis, 1960–61. Page 28. Uppsala University. (22 July 2008).
  8. ^ The United Nations: U Thant (Myanmar). Accessed 13 December 2006.
  9. ^ The United Nations: Kurt Waldheim (Austria). Accessed 13 December 2006.
  10. ^ The United Nations: Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (Peru). Accessed 13 December 2006.
  11. ^ The United Nations: Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Egypt). Accessed 13 December 2006.
  12. ^ The United Nations: The Biography of Kofi A. Annan. Accessed 13 December 2006.
  13. ^ "BIO/3051 - "Kofi Annan of Ghana recommended by Security Council for appointment as Secretary-General of United Nations"" (Press release). United Nations. 13 December 1996. Retrieved 12 December 2006.
  14. ^ Traub, James (2006). The Best Intentions. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 66–67. ISBN 978-0-374-18220-5.
  15. ^ "GA/9208 -"General Assembly appoints Kofi Annan of Ghana as seventh Secretary-General"" (Press release). United Nations. 17 December 1996. Retrieved 12 December 2006.
  16. ^ Ban Ki-moon is sworn in as next Secretary-General of the United Nations
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