Talk:United Nations Secretary-General

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1 Title of Page
2 Why Asia's Turn?
3 Rumors about Bill Clinton
4 First Secretary General
5 Plagiarism
6 Zimbabwe instead of Zambia
7 Zimbabwe instead of Zambia
8 Why so male-dominated?
9 Election process
10 Role and Powers
11 Opening Sentence
12 Image:Boutros Boutros-Ghali.jpg

[edit] Title of Page

As most leadership lists are named [position] of [country] - such as Prime Minister of Egypt or President of Ecuador. Shouldn't, logically' this page be entitled Secretary-General of the United Nations.--[[User:OldakQuill|Oldak Quill]] 09:19, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Why Asia's Turn?

Can someone explain to me why Asia is next in the "rotation" even though there has already been a Secretary-General from Asia, and none from North America or Oceania? Just curious. It might make sense to explain it in the article too. --68.43.122.174 20:54, 5 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Hi, well first you must know that North America is part of the Americas and, it has been represented by peruvian Javier Perez de Cuellar. About Oceania, I don't know, we should investigate that. Anyway that's why! --Gonzalo

This is a complicated one, everyone says that there is an informal tradition that the post of Secretary-General (SG) "rotates" by continent. In effect, however, this has never really been the case. Former SGs (in chronological order) have been from the continents of Europe, Europe, Asia, Europe, Americas, Africa, Africa. Somehow now everyone says that it's Asia's turn. This probably reflects the growing influence of Asia geo-politically (China, India etc) and by percentage of the world's population, more than any informal tradition.

However, the Asian candidates are quite weak and the US and UK (both veto-wielders) are pushing heavily for appointment by merit, so I doubt that any of the current Asian candidates will get the job. Inevitably they'll be a compromise and it's highly unlikely that any of the candidates mentioned in this article will get the job. That's half the fun of making a prediction!

FYI: Oceania is considered to be part of Asia, just as North America is part of the Americas and Russia is part of Europe. That said, some of the supporters of Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga are saying that Eastern Europe has never had a Secretary-General before so its rotation right is higher than Asia's. Considering that Europe has already had three SGs and has two seats on the Security Council, it's unlikely there would be broad-enough support for another European as SG. Especially because of opposition from the developing world, which sees the Secretary-Generalship as a key counter-weight to the financial and political-clout of the developed world. --RingoStarr 07:21, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

I can clear this up. (Most of the responses above are wrong or only partly correct.)

The proposal that it is "Asia's turn" does indeed come from a "tradition" (more or less) of rotating between regional groups at the UN (not quite the same as continents). These five recognized regional groups are used to geographically balance almost all leadership posts in the UN system - including position among the elected Security Council members, the new Human Rights Council, etc.

North America is not part of the Americas, as suggested, but rather part of the Western Europe and Others regional group, or WEOG. (There is no Americas regional group, but rather a Latin American and Caribbean group). Most countries in Oceania are indeed part of the Asian regional group (Australia and New Zealand are also in WEOG). The idea that Eastern Europe has yet to have a turn has merit in this regard, in that Eastern Europe is in fact a recognized regional group, established at the insistence most likely of the Soviet Union during the Cold War as being distinct from Western Europe. In regards to electing an East European as the next UNSG, Russia has stated clearly that it would oppose any nominee from its former sphere of influence for the post.[1]

Reforming these groups, such as merging Eastern Europe into WEOG, giving Oceania its own has been suggested, but has not garned the political will for implementation yet Tfleming 16:09, 31 March 2007 (UTC) (originally posted 5 October 2006)

[edit] Rumors about Bill Clinton

Those rumors about Bill Clinton wanting the UNSG job have been circulating since Clinton's second term as President. Remember me 09:33, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)

any idea why bit of rumours about Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga and the job were removed? Markizs 19:27, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

It might be nice for someone to mention when this "recent" talk in Halifax took place. Relative time is a difficult thing on wikip. ub3rm4th 22:26, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] First Secretary General

What this page does not care to explain is the very fact that Alger Hiss, famous for being a convicted russian spy, was the very first secretary general. He also wrote the charter for the UN.

there was another SG that was a fmr SA member and alleged neo-nazi

Alger Hiss was never Secretary-General of the UN. He was a US State Department official who was was the secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on International Organization (the United Nations Charter Conference) in San Francisco in 1945. This is probably where the confusion arises even though his role was purely administrative and not a leadership position. However, he never held the post of Secretary-General or an equivilant, in either a full or acting capacity. --RingoStarr 07:21, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Plagiarism

The following sentences from the third paragraph of the Term and Selection section have been directly copied from the first paragraph of the Accepted Practices section at http://www.unsg.org/role.html

Most Secretaries-General are compromise-candidates from middle powers and with little prior fame. High-profile candidates are often touted for the job, but are almost always rejected as unpalatable to some.

I'm not sure of wikipedia's policies regarding this, so I'll leave it to someone else to fix it, and I'll keep an eye out for other portions that may be plagiarized Uniqueuponhim 16:46, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

I am the author of UNSG.org, and appreciate the note that this text was lifted from my site. I don't mind, as long as reference is made back to UNSG.org, and hope the material is useful to others. Tfleming 01:13, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Zimbabwe instead of Zambia

I believe that the reference to Rhodesia and Zambia may be incorrect as shown regarding the place where the plane crash occured that killed Dag Hammarskjöld.

See your reference: "Dag Hammarskjöld 10 April 1953 – 18 September 1961 Sweden Died in a plane crash in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia)"

Please verify and change as necessary.

Thank you

C. Hamilton, St. Kitts and Nevis West Indies

[edit] Zimbabwe instead of Zambia

I have double-checked for myself and you were correct. It was Zambia.

C. Hamilton

[edit] Why so male-dominated?

Why is the position of Secretary General so male-dominated? There has never been a female SG and in the most recent contest only one serious candidate was female. I think the article needs to explain or discuss this issue. There must be some reason for it. 128.232.242.178 12:38, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

I see no reason to believe that there is any particular reason for this. Given that UNSG is a lesser position than, for example, Prime Minister of a sovereign nation, I don't see any inherent sexism leaping to mind here. If there is some particular reason that there hasn't been a female UNSG, then the article should include it. However, there's no particular reason to believe that there is. --Don Sowell 21:26, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Election process

I'd be interested to see some description of exactly how candidates get nominated, by whom, etc. Brettz9 19:17, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Role and Powers

This article says next to nothing about the SG's formal role and what his powers are under the Charter, or how much influence he has over the UN. I would add it myself but I would rather that someone who already knows a bit about this did it instead. Richard75 20:14, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Opening Sentence

" The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the head of the Secretariat, one of the principal organs of the United Nations. "

Er... anyone wanting to reword that? (the word "organs" gives an interesting first impression upon reading). Colonel Marksman 16:16, 13 February 2007 (UTC)