Learn more about the Secretary-General of the United Nations

The Secretary-General of the United Nations (UNSG) is the head of the executive branch of the United Nations, namely the United Nations Secretariat, and is thus regarded as the chief administrative officer of the United Nations, as per the UN Charter.

As per the United Nations official website, the Secretary-General is “Equal parts diplomat and advocate, civil servant and CEO”.

As per the United Nations Charter, the Secretary-General must perform “such other functions as are entrusted” to him or her by the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the other United Nations organs.

In addition to administrative functions, one of the most important duties of the Secretary-General is to use his/her “good offices” and maintain impartiality and independence to prevent international conflicts from arising and escalating.

As a matter of fact, Article 99 of the UN Charter also requires the Secretary-General to “bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”

As a part of their mediation efforts, the UN Secretary-General must appoint envoys to broker peace deals.

To monitor the implementation of such peace deals in post-conflict areas, the United Nations establishes peacekeeping missions, and the UN Secretary-General and his team are required to control the operations of all of these UN peacekeeping missions.

In addition to the above mentioned roles, the Secretary-General of the United Nations must also appoint undersecretaries for approximately fifty UN posts, including the heads of UN funds such as the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and UN Development Program (UNDP), and must ensure diversified representation in UN leadership.

Furthermore, if any of the member states of the United Nations raise any concerns with the UN, the Secretary-General is bound to address these concerns.

Currently, the United Nations Secretary General is “selected” during closed-door meetings of the members of the United Nations Security Council.

However, there are growing calls from Member States to make the process of the selection and the appointment of the UNSG more transparent.

We, at JacindaArdernForUNSG.org, are going one step further! We the People, should decide on who becomes the United Nations Secretary-General!

Here is how the “selection” process works and should work:

We, the Citizens of the Member States of United Nations, vote for the candidate of our choice for the UNSG. Our choice then becomes the choice of our Government. 

Since the UNSG fulfils one of the most important and powerful roles in the world, we the citizens of the world should have a say in who gets to hold such a crucial position. Unfortunately, this stage of getting approval from the people, is completely ommitted.

This is why we refer to this as “Stage 0”.

Our countries, which are Member States of the United Nations, send letters to nominate the candidates which we have selected.

The Security Council conducts a meeting to decide on and pick the ideal candidate.

The Security Council adopts a resolution to recommend their selected candidate.

The Security Council conveys the recommendation to the General Assembly.

The General Assembly meets to consider the recommendation of the Security Council.

The General Assembly adopts a resolution to appoint the Secretary-General.

Here's what we are doing to get her elected as the next UNSG:

1. We are collecting as many signatures as possible from people all over the world.
2. We'll deliver these signatures to the United Nations Security Council, the United Nations General assembly, and to the Governments of countries whose citizens and residents have signed the petition.
3. We are running a campaign to encourage all Member States of the United Nations to consider the candidacy of Jacinda Ardern for the post of the UN Secretary General.