Photo courtesy of Belarus' Ministry of Foreign Affairs
MINSK, 2 March (BelTA) – Belarus calls for avoiding overregulation in the election process of the UN Secretary General, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Belarus to the UN Andrei Dapkiunas said during the discussion of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Revitalization of the Work of the General Assembly in New York, BelTA learnt from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The discussion was dedicated to the process of the selection and appointment of the next Secretary General of the United Nations. “Andrei Dapkiunas called for building more mutual trust between the members of the General Assembly and the Security Council that could help to avoid overregulating the Secretary General's appointment process,” the ministry's press service said.
The group talked over the possibility of establishing a single non-renewable term of service for the chief administrative officer of the UN (the current practice is two five-year terms) and submitting of several candidates (instead of a traditional single candidate) by the Security Council to the General Assembly for appointment.
In view of the widely discussed issue of elections in the UN as the main tool to ensure accountability of the Secretary General to the UN member states, Andrei Dapkiunas stressed that the most effective way to ensure such accountability of the UN Secretary General is not through elections held once every five to seven years, but rather through practical steps taken by the members states and the UN main bodies in accordance with their respective authority under the UN Charter.
Andrei Dapkiunas reiterated that the secret ballot on the next Secretary General, which is to take place in autumn 2016 for the first time in 50 years, will be the most effective way to ensure the participation of all UN member states in the appointment of a new chief administrative officer of the Organization. “The proposal put forward by Belarus two years ago to conduct secret ballot in the General Assembly on the candidate of the UN Secretary General, as it is required by the UN Rules of Procedure, is supported and actively promoted by the Non-Aligned Movement, Brazil, Columbia, Egypt, Ecuador and South Africa,” the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted.
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