World: Rights Group Says It's Time For A Woman To Lead The UN

by Golnaz Esfandiari

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, seen here in 2002 (epa)

An international effort is afoot to encourage the selection of a woman to serve as the next secretary-general of the United Nations. Equality Now, a public-awareness group to combat violence and discrimination against women, is behind the campaign. Organizers are asking how a multilateral organization dedicated to equality, development, and peace can justify 60 years of strictly male leadership. With less than a year remaining in Secretary-General Kofi Annan's stewardship, Equality Now has issued a list of women it thinks are well suited for the job.

PRAGUE, 26 January 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Jackie Hunt, Equality Now's director in London, is quick to point out that the UN has never elected a woman to be secretary-general despite the number of qualified candidates. The result, she says, potentially reduces UN effectiveness.

”The United Nations is losing out by not really embracing the fact that there are several qualified women around the world -- it might be missing out on huge potential," Hunt says. "What we are saying is, 'Let’s have a transparent process' -- which there isn’t at the moment -- 'Let’s see what qualified candidates are around the world' -- including women -- and, 'Let’s make the best choice.'”

Abandoned Goals

More than a decade after the Fourth UN Conference on Women in Beijing, Equality Now says the goals of that meeting remain unmet. Figures from June show that only about 16 percent of UN undersecretaries are women.

Hunt says such unequal access to the decision-making process hinders progress toward declared UN goals.

“In the General Assembly every year, there is a resolution on trying to get more women involved -- certainly that’s the goal," Hunt says. "In Beijing, in the platform for action, they called for the development of mechanisms to nominate women candidates for appointments to senior posts of the UN. And they set a target by the year 2000 for overall general equality, particularly at the professional level and above.”

Jockeying Already Under Way

The push to appoint a woman to the UN’s top post comes with lobbying already under way and interviewing of potential candidates just around the corner.

Carne Ross is an expert on UN affairs at the Chatham House and director of Independent Diplomat, a nonprofit diplomatic-consultancy group. He tells RFE/RL that the UN secretary-general is appointed for five years by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. But Ross adds that -- in reality -- the process is much more complicated.

“It’s a fairly mysterious process; the real election is one of private consultation, above all, with the permanent five members of the Security Council," Ross says. "But technically there is voting in the General Assembly, which endorses him. In reality, the process is one of some kind of magical political consensus on who the figure should be.”

British Ambassador to the UN Emyr Jones Parry was quoted by the "London Times" on 4 January as saying that the selection should be able to meet the demands of the job, including leading UN reforms. If that analysis produces a woman, he said, then "there we are."

Naming Names

Equality Now‘s list of women with the relevant experience identifies current and former senior UN officials, heads of state, and ministers.

The names include: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour; a former executive director of the UN Population Fund, Nafis Sadik; and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyiof Burma.

Hunt says the list represents just a small sampling, but drives home the point that there are clearly women who could fill the post.

“We didn’t contact them about including them on our list, and they haven’t indicated whether or not they wish to be considered," Hunt says. "What we were trying to do was just to point out that around the world there are very many qualified women, and it wouldn’t take much to look around and to find a suitably qualified woman candidate.”

Political Support

But consultant Ross says he doubts that a woman will be chosen as the next UN secretary-general. He points out that the candidates proposed by Equality Now are lacking the necessary political support.

“I think it would be wonderful if it were [a woman elected], and it would send a very powerful message to the world," Ross says. "And my experience with women diplomats and women statepersons is that they are extremely good, but unfortunately I think it’s unlikely to happen. I think it’s going to be very, very difficult to select the next UN secretary-general in the very charged and divided world that we have today. It [will] be very hard to find any figure who carries the support of all the main powers in the UN.”

Ross also notes that the informal tradition of rotating the top UN spot according to region suggests an Asian will be selected to succeed Kofi Annan, whose term comes to a close at the end of December.