Meeting of the UN Security Council. The Security Council is preparing for the procedure for selecting a new UN Secretary-General UN
The UN Security Council on Friday held its annual debate on working methods, including the process for selecting the next Secretary-General in 2026.
Governments will soon begin sending nomination letters for candidates to lead the 80-year-old organization, whose top job traditionally rotates between geographic regions. Moreover, the highest post in the UN has so far been occupied only by men.
The Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly – the most representative body of the UN – on the recommendation of 15 members of the Security Council.
“Significant” responsibility
“As As the year draws to a close, the Security Council approaches one of its most significant responsibilities – the process of selecting the next Secretary-General,” said Ambassador of Denmark Christina Markus Lassen, Co-Chair of the Informal Working Group on Documentation and Other Procedural Matters.
In the coming months, she said, the Security Council will discuss how voting and interaction with candidates will take place and how other UN member countries will receive information about this work and its results. candidates. “
We expect that the document will be adopted in a short time to formally begin this important process,” he noted. “We hope that the efforts of the Security Council will help facilitate the selection of a worthy candidate for the post of future head of the Secretariat.”
A woman as Secretary General?
The next UN Secretary-General will take office in January 2027 and will serve a five-year term.
Since the post has never been held by a woman, Chile’s representative advocated for an “open, inclusive and gender-inclusive process.” “After 80 years, the time has come for a woman to lead this organization – a woman who, through her leadership and vision, can give the multilateral system the credibility it needs to meet the challenges of our time,” he said, recalling that “it is now the turn of the Latin American and Caribbean region to take up this position.”
Order meetings
More than 40 countries took part in the debate, which discussed the updated consolidated guidance on the working methods of the Security Council, known as Note 507, adopted last December.
How exactly Council meetings are conducted has become especially important over the past year, given the scale of the crises, said Lorraine Sievers, co-author book “UN Security Council Procedure.”
“Of course, the primary focus is on the statements that are made here and the voting on draft resolutions,” she said. “But even when Council members and non-Council members exhibit sharply divergent positions, the Security Council and the UN itself can gain or lose trust depending on how well the Council meets in an orderly and professional manner.”