Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Who will succeed Kofi Annan





Secretary General to the United Nations Kofi Annan's second and final five-year term in Office ends on December 31, 2006. His successor, who will be chosen by the Council around October, will take over on January 1, 2007 just who might that be?

According to a time-honored convention, the secretary-general position has not been held by any of the world's major political or economic powers, thus in the past ruling out nations like the U.S., Japan, Russia, France, Germany, India and China.

U.N. General Assembly resolution 51/241 of 1997 states that attention should be paid to regional rotation and gender equality. Although its Asia's turn by convention, eastern European nations are now saying that they should be given a shot at the top U.N. spot, as no one from that bloc of nations has ever held it before; unlike Asia, Latin America, Africa and western Europe.

Some candidates being mentioned are, Surakiart Sathirathai of Thailand, Ban Ki-Moon of South Korea, Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, Nafis Sadik of Pakistan and Shashi Tharoor of India.

Due to the U.N.'s resolutions for regional rotation and gender equality and also the time-honored convention that no one from a world major political or economic power hold the position of secretary-general former U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton can not be considered.

Annan's final term in Office has been plagued with scandal and mismanagement, Oil-for-food program, sweetheart deals for his son Cojo and U.N. Corruption and sexual charges have be characteristic under his leadership.

Also the U.N. Did not seem at all effective at keeping world peace the next secretary-general will have a tremendous undertaking setting the world body's affairs in order.