NEW YORK, April 13 (UPI) — The United Nations began the selection process for choosing its next secretary general on Tuesday with informal dialogues of the candidates.
General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft declared it a “new and transparent process,” and a “potential game-changing exercise,” as the full U.N. membership and the public would have a chance to engage with the eight candidates.
“We are sailing into uncharted waters here,” Lykketoft told the press as the three-day Q and A began.
The candidates will make a short speech, then answer questions on human rights, humanitarian crises like Syria, sustainable development, and creating peace from member states and Lykketoft. The Security Council will then choose the successor to current Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon, according to the U.N. Charter.
“Much of what we are embarking on today is without precedent at the UN,” Lykketoft said.
“For the first time in this Organization’s 70-year history, the process for selecting and appointing the next Secretary-General is being genuinely guided by principles of transparency and inclusivity and the dialogues that we are beginning today are at the very core of this change,” he said.
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