UN Secretary-General roots for woman successor
By Lobsang Tenchoe
DHARAMSALA, August 17: The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon is rooting for a female successor as his second term nears completion.
The Secretary-Seneral said it was “high time” for a female head, after more than 70 years of the UN and eight male leaders, reports BBC August 16.
Favouring a woman to succeed him, he said “we have many distinguished and eminent women leaders in national governments or other organisations or even business communities, political communities, and cultural and every aspect of our life. There’s no reason why not in the United Nations,” reports The Guardian, Aug 16.
Apart from Ban, a group of 56 nations are also campaigning for the first female UN Chief.
Currently, there are 11 candidates running to succeed him, six men and five women.
But he stressed that the decision isn’t up to him, it’s up to the 15-member Security Council which must recommend a candidate to the 193-member General Assembly for its approval, the report adds.
Irina Bokova and Susana Malcorra are frontrunners among the women who are vying to be the next Secretary-General of the UN.
Based on the two informal polls conducted by the Security Council, Antonio Guterres, former Prime Minister of Portugal and former head of the UN’s refugee agency has emerged as the favourite to take on the role.
Irina Bokova of Bulgaria and Susana Malcorra of Argentina were tied at third place in the rankings.
Ban was 18 when he came to the States as a student from South Korea. His first term expired on Dec 31, 2011 after which he was re-elected unopposed to a second term on June 21, 2011.
