People who know the UN well have written to the members of the Security Council, urging them to select a woman as the next Secretary-General. An Open Letter (text below) from the Campaign to Select a Woman for the Next UN Secretary-General has been signed by 45 UN leaders and by experts on the UN. The signatories include individuals who have served the UN as leaders of UN peacekeeping missions, senior executives and directors in the UN’s funds and agencies, envoys and special rapporteurs, and representatives of member states that have served in their national missions to the UN. Prominent academics and experts on the UN are included too.

United Nations hall of past and present Secretary-Generals. Credit: Andrea Izzotti/Shutterstock.com
The Security Council meets this week for its first informal ‘straw poll’ to clarify the preferences of its members on the current set of 12 candidates. The ‘straw poll’ is a method to avoid early and divisive use of the veto by encouraging some candidates and making it clear whether others stand no chance. The letter insists that the time is more than ripe for the selection of a woman, given the fact that there has never been one in the UN’s past and that in the current gender-balanced candidate list, there is a rich choice of qualified women. The letter also insists that the selection should prioritize a woman with a track record on gender equality. The choice of a feminist woman will send a vitally important signal of the UN’s commitment to adapting itself to the challenges of the 21st century.
The full text of the letter, and the list of signatories, is reproduced here. The letter remains open for signature from UN leaders and experts until the last Security Council meeting to evaluate candidates.
OPEN LETTER
Your Excellency;
All who have signed this letter are current or former senior officials of or scholars and experts on the United Nations, committed as you are to an effective organization, responsive and well-led, as we address the daunting challenges before us.
The selection of the next Secretary-General is a critical choice for the UN and the world. We share your commitment to find the best candidate -- an experienced diplomat, skillful manager, thoughtful mediator and compelling speaker and advocate, a leader of stature who can represent the UN to the world at its best, work well with Member States and embody the core UN principles of peace, justice, development and human rights.
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 galvanize 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.
Among the declared candidates you have a number of outstanding women. We urge you to select one of them to be the next Secretary-General. We are joined in this hope by millions of dedicated NGOs, many Member States, the Elders and many other world leaders. Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to your decision.
Please accept the assurances of our respect and support,
SIGNED:
Philip Alston
Special Rapporteur Extreme Poverty and Human Rights;
John Norton Pomeroy
Professor of Law, Co-Chair, Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, New York University
Fionnuala Ni Aolain
Professor of Law, Transnational Justice Institute, Ulster University
Radhika Balakrishnan
Faculty Director, Center for Women’s annGlobal Leadership, Rutgers University
Marie Louise Baricako
United Nations High Level Panel on Peace Operations
Karima Bennoune
Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights
Charlotte Bunch
Founding Director, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University
Naomi Cahn
Professor, George Washington University Law School
Patrick Cammaert
Former Military Admiral, Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and Police Force Commander
Roxanna Carrillo
Chief Policy and Planning, Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO)
Judy Cheng-Hopkins
Assistant
Secretary-General, Peacebuilding Support Office
Anwarul K. Chowdhury
Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations, 2002-2007; President of the United Nations Security Council, March 2000 and June 2001
Blanche Wiesen Cook
Distinguished Professor at John Jay College and the Graduate Center in the City University of New York
Kathleen Cravero
Director, Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Currently President of Oak Foundation
Bruce Cronin
Chair, Department of Political Science at the City College of New York
Krishanti Dharmaraj
Executive Director, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University
Michael W. Doyle
Special Advisor, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Planning
Hugh T. Dugan
United States Delegate
Frederic Eckhard
United Nations Spokesperson
Anne Marie Goetz, PhD
Chief Advisor, Peace and Security,
UNIFEM and UN Women (2005 - 2014); Currently Clinical Professor, New York
University
Noeleen Heyzer
Under-Secretary-General, 2007-2015
Michelle Jarvis
Principal Legal Council, Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
Angela Kane
Under-Secretary-General,
High Representative for Disarmament Affairs
Jean Krasno, PhD
Colin Powell School for Civic and Global
Leadership, City College of New York and longtime UN scholar
Michiko Kuroda
Senior Policy Officer; Former Chief of Staff, United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET)/United Nations Integrated Mission in East Timor-Leste (UNOTIL)(UNMIT)
Elisabeth Lindenmayer
Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Chief of Staff to the Secretary-General
Carolyn McAskie
Assistant Secretary-General, Peacebuilding Support Office
Youssef Mahmoud
Senior Advisor, International Peace Institute, New York; Former Under-Secretary-General, former Special Representative
Saraswath Menon
Director,
Policy Division, UN Women
Craig Murphy
Betty Freyhold Johnson ’44 Professor of Political Science, Wellesley College
Valerie Oosterveld
Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario
F. John Packer
Professor and Director, Human Rights Research and Education Center, University of Ottawa; Member of the UN Standby Team of Mediation Experts 2012-2014
Richard J. Ponzio
Senior Policy Analyst, Peacebuilding Support Office
Shazia Rafi
Former Secretary-General, Parliamentarians for Global Action
Dr. Bob Reinalda
Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands/IO BIO, Biographical Dictionary of Secretaries-General of International Organizations
Diana Rivington
Former Chair, OECD-DAC Working Party on Gender Equality; Director, Gender Equality, CIDA
Dr. Nafis Sadik
Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
Rakhi Sahi
Security
Advisor for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam
Rima Salah
United Nations High Level Panel on Peace Operations, Deputy Special Representative for the Secretary-General for Chad and Central African Republic
Joanne Sandler
Deputy Executive Director, UNIFEM
Dubravka Šimonović
Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Its Causes and Consequences
Laura Shepherd, PhD
UNSW Australia
Margaret Snyder, PhD
Founding Director, UNIFEM
Gillian Sorensen
Assistant Secretary-General
Kristen Timothy
Deputy Director, Division for the Advancement of Women
Yana van der Meulen Rodgers
Professor, Rutgers University
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