Spotlight: Hearings of candidates for UN top job show strong push for geo-gender parity

The first-ever public examination of candidates seeking to become the top leader of the United Nations has shown an emphasis on overall gender and geographical balance in the world body.

"Gender and regional balance is not only right but smart," Candidate Vesna Pusic, deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Croatia, said Wednesday in response to questions about the inequity.

She is one of the four women seeking to become the first female UN secretary-general, a position now held by Ban Ki-moon, who will retire on Dec. 31. There are now nine candidates in the race.

The UN General Assembly kicked off the audition for UN secretary-general candidates earlier Tuesday, during which the candidates were required to present their vision about the world body and also take questions from General Assembly representatives as well as the civil society.

The hearings also revealed great interest in geographical equity in filling UN positions, particularly for senior management in the world organization.

Many countries -- largely lesser developed -- at the candidates' meeting, chaired by UN General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft, complained they were under-represented on the organization's leading jobs.

Several leadership roles in the United Nations traditionally have gone to people, mostly men, from countries among the greatest founders of the organization and the five permanent members of the Security Council, namely Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

"A dialogue with candidates" is the first time candidates have openly campaigned for the top job of UN.

In a Letter to the Editor published in Wednesday's New York Times, Alvaro Desoto, a former UN undersecretary-general, pointed out the post previously had not been sought in a public campaign.

"In fact, there have been at least two cases in which the people selected for the position by the Security Council and approved by the General Assembly did not campaign for the position," he said, referring to Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden, who served from 1953-1963 and was killed in a plane crash during an African peace mission, and Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru, who served from 1982-1991.

"Grilling candidates in public isn't going to bring out whether they have the necessary skills and temperament where they count -- as the Security Council's key partner in the maintenance of peace and security," de Soto said. "Those skills are best assessed away from the public glare, in the penumbra that is the natural habitat of diplomacy."

Candidate Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, director-general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), was questioned Tuesday while Pusic and Natalia Gherman, former deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Moldova shared the spotlight Wednesday with Danilo Turk, a former president of Slovenia and a former UN assistant secretary-general.

The six candidates who appeared before the General Assembly so far all vowed to improve communications, have greater cooperation with regional groups of member states and member states in general -- the real authority in the United Nations -- and used rhetoric similar to that of political candidates, yet with pitches tailored for the world organization.

Turk proposed setting up a new UN health agency to help in emergencies. His idea was prompted by concern over what critics called a slow response by the World Health Organization (WHO) to emergencies like the Ebola outbreak.

Helen Clark of New Zealand, head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), is scheduled to appear Thursday along with Vuk Jeremic of Serbia, a former foreign minister and president of the 67th UN General Assembly, and Srgjan Kerim, a former foreign minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and who served as president of the 62nd General Assembly.

Eastern European candidates dominate the list of candidates overall because it is believed it is the region's turn for a secretary-general -- it never had one -- due to an informal system of geopolitical rotation. Others say the only criteria for choosing a secretary-general should be the one who is the best choice for the top UN position.

The UN Charter says only the Security Council should recommend a candidate to the General Assembly. Endit