Misplaced Pages

Secretary-General of the United Nations: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from[REDACTED] with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 09:12, 25 November 2008 editThijs!bot (talk | contribs)470,128 editsm robot Adding: uk:Генеральний секретар ООН← Previous edit Revision as of 17:46, 25 November 2008 edit undo206.251.16.235 (talk) ←Redirected page to General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet UnionNext edit →
Line 1: Line 1:
#REDIRECT ]
], the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations]]
The '''Secretary-General of the United Nations''' is the head of the ], one of the principal organs of the ]. The Secretary-General also acts as the ''de facto'' spokesperson and leader of the United Nations.

The current Secretary-General is ] of ], 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 ] as a "world moderator," but the office was defined in the ] 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 ] in the ] neighborhood of ] in ]. The townhouse was built for ] in 1921, and donated to the United Nations in 1972.<ref>Teltsch, kathleen. , '']'', 15 July 1972. Accessed 27 December 2007.</ref>

==Term and selection ==
] was an unusually active UN Secretary-General from 1953 to his death in 1961. Hammarskjöld acted as a mediator during the ] and the 1960 capture of a US reconnaissance plane by the USSR. He also established the ].]]

{{see also|United Nations Secretary-General selection, 2006}}
Secretaries-General serve for renewable five-year terms; most have served two terms. The ] provides for the Secretary-General to be appointed by the ] upon the nomination of the ]. Therefore, the selection is subject to the ] of any of the five permanent members of the Security Council.

The U.N. 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 ] and ] is also considered an unofficial qualification for the office.

No one from the ] alliance has ever been chosen, nor has anyone from the ], or a former Warsaw Pact country ever been chosen.

Most Secretaries-General are compromise-candidates from ]s 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 ], ], and ] were considered for the first Secretary-General position, but were rejected in favor of the uncontroversial ] ]. Due to ] and the mechanicisms of ] ], 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 the ] in the ], or the Premier of the former ].

Only one Secretary-General, ], has died in office.

In the early 1960s, ] ruler ] led an effort to abolish the Secretary-General position. The numerical superiority of the Western powers combined with the ] 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 "]"): one member from the ], one from the ], and one from the ] powers. This idea failed because the neutral powers failed to back the Soviet proposal.

==Secretaries-General==
Note: ] was Secretary-General of the ], held in April to June 1945.

{| border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 class="wikitable"
|-align="center"
!#!!Secretary-General!!Dates in office!!Country of origin!! Reason of withdrawal !!Ref.
|-
|||''']'''||24 October 1945 &ndash; <br>1 February 1946||{{flagicon|United Kingdom}} ]<br > ''(Europe)''||Served as ] Secretary-General until Lie's election||
|-
|||colspan="5"| After ], 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. <ref>{{cite web | url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9403E2D61E30F935A15753C1A960958260 |title=Lord Gladwyn Is Dead at 96; Briton Helped Found the U.N. | publisher=NY Times | access-date=2008-10-31}}</ref>
|-
|1||''']'''||1 February 1946 &ndash; <br>10 November 1952||{{flagicon|Norway}} ]<br > ''(Europe)''||Resigned||<ref>The United Nations: . Accessed 13 December 2006.</ref>
|-
|||colspan="5"| Lie, a foreign minister and former labor leader, was recommended by the Soviet Union to fill the post. After the U.N. involvement in the Korean War, the Soviet Union vetoed Lie's reappointment in 1951. The U.S. circumvented the Soviet Union's veto and recommended reappointment directly to the General Assembly. Lie was reappointed by a vote of 46 to five, with eight abstentions. The Soviet Union remained hostile to Lie, and he resigned in 1952. <ref name="una-usa-fact">{{cite web | url=http://www.unausa.org/atf/cf/%7B49C555AC-20C8-4B43-8483-A2D4C1808E4E%7D/SG%20Reform%20Fact%20Sheet-fina-logol.pdf |title=An Historical Overview on the Selection of United Nations Secretaries-General | publisher=UNA-USA | access-date=2007-09-30}}</ref>
|-
|2||''']'''||10 April 1953 &ndash; <br>18 September 1961||{{flagicon|Sweden}} ]<br > ''(Europe)''||Died in a plane crash in ] (now ]), while on a peacekeeping mission to the Congo||<ref>The United Nations: . Accessed 13 December 2006.</ref>
|-
|||colspan="5"| 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 U.N. during the ], and suggested that the position of Secretary-General be replaced by a ], 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 ] (now ]) in 1961. <ref name="una-usa-fact"/> ] ] called Hammarskjöld "the greatest statesman of our century."<ref>''Linnér, S. (2007). ''''. Page 28. Uppsala University. (2008-07-22).</ref>
|-
|3||''']'''<br/>||30 November 1961 &ndash; <br>31 December 1971||] ]<br > ''(Asia)''||Declined to be considered for another term.||<ref>The United Nations: . Accessed 13 December 2006.</ref>
|-
|||colspan="5"| 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 ]n 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.<ref name="una-usa-fact"/>
|-
|4||''']'''||1 January 1972 &ndash; <br>31 December 1981||{{flagicon|Austria}} ]<br > ''(Europe)''|| ] ]ed his third term||<ref>The United Nations: . Accessed 13 December 2006.</ref>
|-
|||colspan="5"| 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-] UN War Crimes Commission had labeled Waldheim as a suspected ] - based on his forced involvement with the Nazi German army. The files had been stored in the UN archive.<ref name="una-usa-fact"/>
|-
|5||''']'''||1 January 1982 &ndash; <br>31 December 1991||{{flagicon|Peru}} ]<br > ''(South America)''||Refused to be considered for a third term.||<ref>The United Nations: . Accessed 13 December 2006.</ref>
|-
|||colspan="5"| Pérez de Cuéllar was selected after a six-week deadlock between the re-election of Waldheim and China's candidate, ] of ]. Pérez de Cuéllar, a ]vian diplomat, was a compromise candidate, and the first Secretary General from ]. He was re-elected unanimously in 1986.<ref name="una-usa-fact"/>
|-
|6||''']'''<br/>({{lang-ar|بطرس بطرس غالي}})||1 January 1992 &ndash; <br>31 December 1996||{{flagicon|Egypt}} ]<br > ''(Africa)''||The ] vetoed his second term.||<ref>The United Nations: . Accessed 13 December 2006.</ref>
|-
|||colspan="5"| The 102 member ] 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 ]s - a first for the council. Boutros-Ghali emerged with 11 votes on the fifth round. In 1996 the U.S. vetoed the re-appointment of Boutros-Ghali, claiming he had failed in implementing necessary reforms to the UN. Boutros-Ghali responded saying he was given insufficient resources caused in large part by countries with large debts owed to the U.N., such as the U.S.<ref name="una-usa-fact"/> On his watch the UN suffered two of the worst humiliations in its history, the massacre of almost a million people in the 1994 Rwanda genocide, under the impotent eye of a UN mission, and the massacre in 1995 of tens of thousands of Bosniaques (Muslims) in UN safe zones, including Srebrenica, in ex-Yugoslavia, creating the phrase "ethnic cleansing". In both cases the UN judged itself to be at fault.<ref>Report Sec-Gen Fall of Srebrenica - 15 nov 1999"</ref>
|-
|7||''']'''||1 January 1997 &ndash; <br> 31 December 2006 ||{{flagicon|Ghana}} ]<br > ''(Africa)''||Retired after two full terms||<ref>The United Nations: . Accessed 13 December 2006.</ref>
|-
|||colspan="5"|Annan was head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations before being selected as the Secretary-General. In 2001, after implementing changes such as a more fiscally responsible budget, Annan was unanimously re-elected to a second term.<ref name="una-usa-fact"/>Mr. Annan, an ]n, was also selected in an informal "rotation between continents" because Mr. Boutros-Ghali had only served for one term in the office.
|-
|8||''']'''<br/>({{lang-ko|반기문;潘基文}})||1 January 2007&ndash;<br> ||{{flagicon|South Korea}} ]<br > ''(Asia)''||Currently Serving||<ref></ref>.
|-
|||colspan="5"|
Mr. Ban became the second ]n to be selected as the Secretary General. The rotation among continents skipped ] for several reasons: a candidate from the ] is looked on unfavorably by many nations, there are few countries in North America to choose from, and ] and ] have not put forward a favored candidate for the role. Mr. Ban overcame the prejudices of being from strife-torn ].
|}

{| class="wikitable"
!width=45% | ''']'''
!width=45% | '''Secretaries-General'''
!width=10% | '''Terms'''
|-
| '''Western European and Others''' ||align="center"| 3 ||align="center"| 5
|-
| '''Eastern European Group''' ||align="center"| 0 ||align="center"| 0
|-
| '''Latin American and Caribbean Group''' ||align="center"| 1 ||align="center"| 2
|-
| '''Asian Group''' ||align="center"| 2 ||align="center"| 3
|-
| '''African Group''' ||align="center"| 2 ||align="center"| 3
|}

==See also==
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]

==References==
<div class="references-small" style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;">
<references/>
</div>

==External links==
*
**
**
*
*
* - a campaign for a more democratic selection process

{{United Nations|state=autocollapse}}

]
]
]

]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]

Revision as of 17:46, 25 November 2008

Redirect to:

Secretary-General of the United Nations: Difference between revisions Add topic