Choosing the UN's top official is often compared to electing a pope
The head of the United Nations is picked through secret straw polls in the Security Council, where any of five permanent members can kill a candidate with a veto. In 1981 China cast a record 16 vetoes against one incumbent, and no woman has ever held the job.
The secretary-general runs the Secretariat, one of the UN's six principal organs, and acts as executive officer to the Security Council, carrying out its decisions while the council's own president chairs meetings. The Charter sets out the role in Chapter XV, Articles 97 to 101, and calls the office holder the chief administrative officer, with power to hire Secretariat staff and to alert the council to any threat to peace. Much else, including qualifications, tenure and how candidates are chosen, rests on custom rather than written rules.
Formally the General Assembly appoints on the Security Council's recommendation, which hands each permanent member a veto. The result, precedent shows, is usually a compromise figure from a middle power with little prior fame, and never a citizen of one of the five permanent members. A 1997 Assembly resolution asked that regional rotation and gender equality be weighed. Terms have been five years since 1971, and every office holder since 1961 has won a second term except Boutros Boutros-Ghali, blocked by the United States in 1996. Since the 1981 contest, incumbents have steered clear of seeking a third.
The Assembly has never rejected the council's pick, and only in 1950 did it vote on a candidate despite a veto. In 2016 the two bodies invited nominations and held public debates for the first time, but the council still voted privately, prompting the Assembly president to complain that the process fell short of promised openness.
Day to day, the job means overseeing staff, attending UN sessions, meeting leaders and travelling widely, plus an annual report on the organisation's work. Much of its influence comes through good offices, quiet or public efforts to stop disputes from starting or spreading, and holders have ranged from activist to technocratic. Recent initiatives include the Youth 2030 strategy launched in September 2018 and a youth advisory group on climate change formed in July 2020. The official residence is a Manhattan townhouse at 3 Sutton Place, built for Anne Morgan in 1921 and given to the UN in 1972.
Source: Secretary-General of the United Nations
