Fresh Row Over United Nations Scribe's Appointment

African Union chairman and Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, spoke before the United Nations on its undemocratic character.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Fresh row over UN scribe's appointment

From Laolu Akande, New York
Nigerian Guardian

A radical idea that is fast gaining popularity that the election of the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) should be directly conducted by the General Assembly instead of only a few members of the Security Council as is currently done, could form part of the forthcoming reforms of the world body.

The new President of the General Assembly, Dr. Ali Abdussalam Treki of Libya, made this disclosure over the weekend when addressing the press at the UN. He was speaking over the outcome of the summit of the General Assembly which ended early last week in New York.

The idea came to the fore last when the Foreign Minister of Iran, Manouchehr Mottaki, raised it last week at the UN. However the President of the Assembly, who holds office for a year, said other delegations had also raised the issue.

A UN reporter had raised the question at the press conference concerning the Iranian Foreign Minister's view that the Secretary-General's post should be elected directly by the Assembly, rather than the Security Council. In his response, Dr. Treki noted that other delegations had raised the same point.

According to the General Assembly President: "It would be the Assembly's decision to take up that aspect of reform when it tackles the overall issue of the Organization's revitalization later."

As it is now, only the Security Council of the UN elects the Secretary-General, who is the chief executive of the world body. The Security Council is composed of five permanent members : United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China, and 10 non-permanent seats rotated every two years by other UN member-states.

But there are now openly expressed dissatisfaction that the permanent members of the Council, especially the U.S., with their veto powers exercise too much control and influence on the choice of the Secretary-General.

Like every other UN Secretary-General, the incumbent Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was elected late 2006 and the office will not be up for another election until late 2011, towards the end of the five year first term of Ban.

On the other hand, the General Assembly of the UN is composed of all the 192 member-states of the UN with equal vote of one each. While the Assembly is seen as the parliamentary arm of the UN, the Security Council is often perceived as its most powerful organ, since only it can impose sanctions and even declare war.

Commenting on other fallouts of the UN summit which ended last week, Treki, in his first press conference since the close of the Assembly's yearly general debate, said this year's gathering, had drawn more than 100 world leaders "who had demonstrated their sustained interest in the UN and a wide array of crucial issues -- from climate change to the financial crisis to human rights."

"I was very happy with the debate," Dr. Treki said today at the UN headquarters before he fielded questions from the press. "It was very constructive, and the statements showed that the world was very interested in the Assembly and the United Nations and reform of the UN."

On a question of interest for Africa, - the Assembly's decision on October 25 to block the self-proclaimed President of Madagascar's High Transitional Authority from addressing the general debate, Treki said he and a UN legal adviser had met beforehand with representatives of the African countries concerned with Andry Nirina Rajoelina's upcoming speech. The Transitional Government of Mr. Rajoelina came to power in Madagascar following a military-backed coup in March.

The legal adviser had said that Rajoelina had the right to speak under Rule 29 of the General Assembly's Procedures. It was agreed, Treki continued, that Rajoelina would speak following interventions made by Heads of States, and that the African Group could then explain its views through a point of order.

Yet, during the debate on 25 September, the representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, speaking on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Comoros, had raised a point of order objecting to Mr. Rajoelina's participation and requesting a vote under Article 71.

Subsequently, he said, Rajoelina's participation in the debate was denied by a recorded vote of 23 against four in favour (Denmark, Ecuador, Jamaica, Madagascar), with six abstentions (Cameroun, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Mali, Trinidad and Tobago, Vanuatu).

Coming from Libya where he was a minister before he was elected earlier this year as president of the 64th session of the UNGA, reporters pressed Treki to comment on the futile requests by Libyan Leader Muammar Al-Qadhafi to pitch a tent in various locales in and around New York and New Jersey during his stay last week, or his long speech before the Assembly on 23 September, had distracted from the general debate. But Treki declined saying those questions were outside his competence as Assembly President.

Treki said the legitimate Honduran Government headed by ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales had received much visibility recently and he hoped an agreement could be reached.

He added that he thought all countries respected the UN decision regarding Honduras. In a unanimously adopted 30 June resolution, the Assembly deplored the coup and stressed that it would not recognize any government other than that of Mr. Zelaya's.