The United Nations took a historic step Tuesday to open up the usually secret process of selecting the next secretary-general, giving all countries the chance to question candidates on such issues as how they would resist pressure from powerful nations, tackle sex abuse by UN peacekeepers, and improve efforts to achieve peace.

 

联合国公开下任秘书长选举过程，迈出历史性的一步。在此之前，这一事项一直都是秘密进行，从未对外公布。公开选举中，各国降有机会就以下事宜对候选人进行提问。如：他们将如何抵抗各大强国压力？怎样处理联合国维和人员实施性虐待问题？又将如何加强维护世界和平？
 

 

Montenegro's Foreign Minister Igor Luksic was the first of nine candidates to face members of the UN General Assembly, citing his small Balkan nation's multiethnic and multicultural¹ diversity as well as his experience as a former prime minister and defense² minister in seeking the UN's top diplomatic post. UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and former UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres followed.

 

Under the UN Charter, the secretary-general is chosen by the 193-member General Assembly on the recommendation of the 15-member Security Council.

 

In practice, this has meant that the council's five permanent members -- the US, Russia, China, Britain and France -- have veto power over the candidates. That will not change in deciding whom to recommend to succeed Ban, whose second five-year term ends on Dec. 31.

 

But Lykketoft told the assembly Tuesday that he views the question-and-answer sessions, which will continue through Thursday, "as a potential game-changer for the United Nations."

 

"If there is a critical mass of countries supporting one single candidate, I don't think the Security Council will be coming up with quite a different name," he said. But "if there are many, many candidates and no clear favorite, it could very well be that the absolute final word will be from the Security Council."

 

By tradition, the job of secretary-general has rotated among regions and Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe have all held the top UN post. East European nations, including Russia, argue that they have never had a secretary-general and it is their turn. There has also never been a woman secretary-general and a group of 56 nations are campaigning for the first female UN chief.

 

There are currently four women and five men who have thrown their hats in the ring -- seven from Eastern Europe, one from Western Europe and one from the Asia-Pacific region.

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