A United Nations Secretary-General selection was held in June 2021 to choose the

Secretary-General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...

of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

. Incumbent

António Guterres António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres (born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat who is serving as the ninth and current secretary-general of the United Nations since 2017. A member of the Socialist Party (Portugal), ...

was the only official candidate for the position. On June 8, 2021, Guterres was unanimously recommended by the

United Nations Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

(SC) for a second term at the helm of the organisation. His re-election was ratified by the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; , AGNU or AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as its main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ. Currently in its Seventy-ninth session of th ...

(GA) by acclamation on June 18, 2021, without a vote. Guterres commenced his second term on 1 January 2022.

Background

Article 97 of the

United Nations Charter The Charter of the United Nations is the foundational treaty of the United Nations (UN). It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the United Nations System, UN system, including its United Nations System#Six ...

, states "The Secretary-General shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council". As a result, the selection is subject to the veto of any of the five permanent members of the

Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

. The Charter's minimal language has since been supplemented by other procedural rules and accepted practices. Although different regions have held the office, no secretary from

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

has ever been selected Secretary-General. No woman has ever been selected either. In 2016 there were various international campaigns to select an eastern European or a woman. Despite this, the selection was won by the only candidate who was neither female nor from Eastern Europe. In 2021, some groups attempted to revive the campaign to elect a woman at the helm of the United Nations, but no female candidate was nominated by a member state to be considered by the Security Council.

Candidates

In order to be eligible for selection, a candidate must be nominated by at least one member state. On June 8, the day the Security Council convened to recommend a candidate to the General Assembly, there was only one official candidate in the selection process (incumbent Antonio Guterres), and seven additional self-declared applicant candidates.

Official Candidates

The incumbent Secretary General

confirmed he would be seeking a second five-year term.

Other notable declared candidate

Rosalía Arteaga Rosalía Arteaga Serrano (born 5 December 1956) is an Ecuadorian politician who served as the 39th president of Ecuador for two days in 1997 from 9 to 11 February. She previously served as the 40th vice president under President Abdalá Bucaram ...

, President of

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

from February 9, 1997, to February 11, 1997. This candidate was proposed by the Forward campaign, an initiative promoted by Colombe Cahen-Salvador and

Andrea Venzon Andrea Venzon (Milan, 8 January 1992) is an Italian politician. In 2017, following the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, he founded Volt Europa together with Colombe Cahen-Salvador of France and the German Damian Boeselager. Follo ...

of the Atlas Movement.

Campaign

By May 2021, Incumbent Antonio Guterres had already secured the support of all five

permanent members of the United Nations Security Council The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (also known as the Permanent Five, Big Five, or P5) are the five sovereign states to whom the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter of 1945 grants a permanent seat on the United N ...

, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and of the

Non-Aligned Movement The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 121 countries that Non-belligerent, are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. It was founded with the view to advancing interests of developing countries in the context of Cold W ...

, leading some observers to believe that his re-election was almost a certainty.

Endorsements

Results

On June 8, 2021, the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution recommending António Guterres for a second term at the helm of the United Nations. His re-election was ratified by the

by acclamation on June 18, 2021, without a vote.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:United Nations Secretary-General selection, 2021

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

United Nations General Assembly elections 2021 elections 2021 in international relations António Guterres