Former senior UN official endorses women group’s call for woman Sec-Gen

UNITED NATIONS: Joining other top United Nations officials, the academia and think tank representatives, Malaysian Judy Cheng Hopkins, has signed a petition – a so- called ‘open letter’ – addressed to all the members of the UN Security Council, including Malaysia, urging them to elect a woman candidate for the post of the Secretary- General.

Judy, born in Penang and was until recently the UN Assistant Secretary- General for Peacekeeping Operations before she retired.

The ‘open letter’ was written Thursday by a group called Campaign to Elect a Woman UN Secretary-General.

It is chaired by Dr Jean Krasno who is a Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, City College of New York; and a longtime UN scholar professor at the Columbia University in New York.

She has been passionately campaigning to elect a female UN Secretary General for some time, too.

The petition was sent before the first straw poll was held Thursday at the UNSC on the selection of the next UN Secretary General.

The current incumbent Ban Ki-moon retires after a two-term tenure end of this year.

The selection process for a new United Nations SecretaryGeneral, is traditionally decided behind closed doors.

And, this is for the first time in UN history, public discussions with each candidate campaigning for the world body’s top post is being held.

The process would however remain confidential, Japan’s ambassador Koro Bessho, who is the rotating president of the UNSC for July, told the media outside the chamber.

The envoy emphasised that there would be no discussion in the council “(and) it will just be voting process. We would like to make sure that fairness and confidentiality of voting is ( sic) respected”.

As a tradition, no announcement of the secret balloting is made, but the 15 UNSC members, including Malaysia, would cast ballots which contain indications in three columns such as “encouraged”, “discouraged” and “no opinion expressed” in the case of each candidate.

12 candidates have so far been officially nominated for the UN’s top position.

A 13th candidate, speculated to be former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, also nurses ambitions for the job.

The council’s decision to select the top leader of the world organisation will come later this year.

Under the UN Charter, the UN Secretary- General is endorsed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council – more specifically, the P- 5 – who will make the final choice and send a single candidate to the General Assembly for approval.

There have, however, been some changes for the first time this year breaking away from past traditions.

The candidates have been asked to submit their resumes and take part in open dialogues with the UN 193-member General Assembly, which has been considered as a move to make the selecting process more transparent and inclusive.

Dr Krasno told Bernama that the open letter has been signed by 45 former and current senior UN officials and UN scholars.

“It is an impressive list,” she said.

The open letter states that “Your choice will send a dramatic message to the world. To that end, we urge you to select a woman with all the qualities above and, as well, a demonstrated and sustained commitment to gender equality. After seventy years and eight male leaders in succession, the choice of a woman would send a signal of transformation and would be an important step in correcting a gender bias of many decades. It will galvanise renewed action to implement existing commitments to women’s rights and opportunities.

“It may bring different approaches to UN leadership and new perspectives to the immense challenges of global governance today. It would renew and inspire interest and support of the UN from the larger public.” — Bernama