Assembly Holds Informal Dialogues with Candidates for Next Secretary-General, Danilo Türk

Candidate: Danilo Türk is a former President of Slovenia.

• Categories: Meetings & Events / General Assembly
• Video Length: 02:03:14
• Production Date: 13 April 2016
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: MOGENS LYKKETOFT
• Subject Topical: ELECTIONS; SECRETARY-GENERAL
• MAMS Id: 1601740
• Parent Id: 1600942

Description

Three more candidates for the position of the next United Nations Secretary-General will be heard today, answering questions on how they would promote sustainable development, improve efforts to create peace, protect human rights, and deal with huge humanitarian catastrophes should they be selected to lead the 193-member Organization.

The current Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, is the eighth occupant of the Organization's 70-year history. He took office in January 2007 and will be ending his 10-year tenure on 31 December 2016.

Yesterday's candidates – three of the nine who have so far been officially nominated by their home countries – included Igor Luksic, the current Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Montenegro; Irina Bokova the current Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), nominated by Bulgaria; and Antonio Guterres, who was most recently the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, nominated by Portugal.

Describing the three days of informal dialogues as a “new and transparent process,” UN General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft underlined that it is the first time the opportunity presents itself for substantive and open engagement with the candidates – for the full UN membership and the public.

Each candidate will have a televised and webcast two-hour timeslot, starting with a short oral presentation. Representatives from Member States will then ask questions, followed by the President of the General Assembly, who will ask a few of the more than 1,000 questions submitted by the general public on social media under the hashtag #UNSGcandidates.

The three candidates who will go before the General Assembly today are listed below, in order of appearance. They will present their 'vision statements,' which address the challenges and opportunities facing the UN and the next Secretary-General, and answer questions from the audience.