The United Nations Security Council decided Tuesday to re-appoint Secretary General Antonio Guterres for a second term, with conflict resolution at the top of his to-do list as head of the international organisation.
The 72-year-old former Portuguese prime minister has been in office since 2017 and has faced no opposition for the upcoming term.
Despite a more competitive and open selection procedure introduced in the 2016 election for Secretary General, Mr. Guterres, 72, was the sole officially recognised contender this year for the 2022—2027 term.
Activists who had hoped for a woman to be chosen argued before the Security Council’s proposal that Mr. Guterres had an edge since he was the incumbent.
Around ten additional persons applied for the job, but none of the 193 UN member states backed them, therefore they were not considered formal contenders.
The Security Council unanimously decided to propose to the General Assembly that Guterres be given another term, according to the council’s current president, Estonian ambassador Sven Jurgenson.
The General Assembly’s approval is considered as a formality, and it is likely to happen shortly.
During Guterres’ first term, he was compelled to focus on mitigating the harm that Donald Trump’s unilateral, nationalist, and alliance-wary foreign policy may do.
As he begins a new term, Guterres will require “a battle strategy” for all of the world’s challenges, according to one official.
The selection of a secretary general is now significantly more transparent than it has been for much of the UN’s existence, when it was cloaked in secrecy and reserved for the permanent members of the Security Council. In the beginning, they met in private to debate and choose individuals who had no idea they were being considered.
