“The United Nations and Secretary Geneal”;
1 INTRODUCTION ABOUT UNITED NATIONS (UN)
From Leagues of Nations the weakness and failure clearly see after the Second World War. The Allies won World War II plans to establish a new international organization with one central mission: to maintain the international peace and security. The United Nations was established in October 1945. UN has an organizational structure, principles, and goals, as well as a more robust set of skills in comparison with the League of Nations. The original UN headquarters is located in San Francisco, United States. The United Nations now operates in New York, which is the headquarters since 1946.
1.1 HISTORY OF UN
From the first United Nations known as the United Nations Alliance. This alliance joined by 26 countries in favor of the Allied Powers in the fight oppose the Axis Powers during World War II. In January 1942, the Declaration of the United Nations Alliance signed in Washington. The declaration received the Atlantic Charter declared by the United States and Britain on August 14, 1941. According to the Atlantic Charter, the main purpose of the countries that opposed the Axis Powers was to establish peace throughout the world and foster international cooperation in the economic field. Axis Powers included Germany, Italy, and Japan. It is also known as the Tripartite Pact (Tripartite Pact). The alliance was established in 1940.
The first meeting to form the Organisation of the United Nations was held at Dumbarton Oaks, United States from August 21 to October 7, 1944. The meeting was attended by the experts from the four big power diplomacy, the United States, Britain, Russia, and China. The proposals that put forward in the Dumbarton Oaks basis for drafting the Charter of the United Nations. The proposed establishment of the United Nations approved by the United States, Britain, and Russia at the Yalta Conference in February 1945.
Draft Charter of the United Nations has been deliberated and agreed upon by representatives of 51 countries at the Conference in San Francisco on April 25 to June 25, 1945. This conference is the first international conference was not dominated by the European powers. The conference was also attended by the country's enemies be regarded by the Allied Powers, which is Italy, Germany, Japan, Hungary, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland, and Thai. Eight countries are considered neutral countries participated in this conference included Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Ireland, Afghanistan, Iceland, and Yemen. On 26 June 1945, 51 countries had signed the UN Charter in San Francisco. UN formally began operations on 24 October 1945. The admission of new members, with the support of the Security Council and the approval of two thirds of the members of the General Assembly Council. On October 1991, the UN has 166 members. In April 2004, a total of 191 countries have joined the United Nations.
1.2 THE GOALS AND PRINCIPLES
The fundamental goals of the United Nations are; maintain peace and national security; establishing friendly relations among international countries; solve the problem of social, economic, cultural, humanitarian and international; encourage international cooperation in the economic, social, and cultural; protecting human rights, regardless of race, gender or religion; preventing wars; comes to hardware repair standard of living throughout the world, and to ensure respect for international law.
The principles that form the basis of friendly relations among nations are; the principle of equality; the principle of self-determination; the principle of international cooperation, and the principle of equal sovereignty.
These principles are enshrined in article 2, of the Charter. The UN is also founded based on the principles of equal sovereignty among its members. The UN would not intervene in the affairs of a country except for the purpose of implementing the decisions of the United Nations.
2 CHALLENGES THAT FACED BY UNITED NATIONS
The UN makes all its work more effective and efficient because by keeping the peace, the Organization can more focus on solving global issues, instead of resolving conflicts for maintaining international peace and security. Unfortunately, their ability to maintain the peace have tested. Recently, the peace and security was challenged in areas where the organizations has a limited presence. In areas where the UN has a presence, they will be attacked.
As we know, the UN’s responsible to maintain international peace and security in a world where security threats have become more complex. Nothing in this world is perfect. Although the Organization has had many successes, unfortunately, there are some recent tragic cases where the United Nations has not been so successful. Hundreds of thousands have died around the world as the conflicts have recently becomes more bigger.
From the article written by Xinhua, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon did the press conference following his briefing to the General Assembly for his priorities in 2016 at the UN headquarters in New York, January 14, 2016. Ban Ki Moon also stated that one of his biggest priorities for 2016 will be getting off to a start implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and also the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
2.1 REFUGEES CRISIS
Related on the refugee crisis, Ban Ki Moon urged the UN member states to gather and not to forget the world's 60 million refugees and displaced people, where the majority of whom are hosted in developing countries. The fact is refugees arrivals in Europe were less than two percent of the world's where there have 60 million refugees and displaced people. While four out of five refugees was hosted in some developing countries.
Refugees were not just only Syrians, but also Afghans, Somalis, the Rohingya of Myanmar, Congolese and Eritreans among others who are seeking safety for themselves and their children. Meanwhile, Ban Ki Moon strongly condemned the denial food to Syrian towns under siege as a war crime on crisis in Syria. This matter goes beyond the town of Madaya, where some men, women and children are in incredible danger of dying from starvation. The total number is 400,000 Syrians in similar conditions of isolation.
2.2 E-BOLA VIRUS
Ban Ki Moon stated that Liberia country is the third and probably the final Ebola-affected to become free of transmission after Sierra Leone and Guinea country. Earlier in the day the end of the most recent flare-up of Ebola virus disease in Liberia, from all known chains of transmission have been stopped in West Africa was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO).
2.3 WARS
From the global, a war crime happened when the cluster munitions attacks in Yemen in recent weeks. Ban Ki Moon also expressed his deep concern about the critically unstable and unpredictable situation in Burundi. The UN’s full of human rights violations at the bottom of the Syrian crisis, has called for an immediate end to violence; ensure accountability and bring perpetrators to justice; release of political prisoners; impartial investigations to end impunity, and reparations for the victims.
3 THE ROLE OF SECRETARY-GENERAL
Secretary-generals basically comes from the countries with a small to medium sized neutral powers, are career diplomats, and absolutely serve not more than five-year terms. The main task of the Secretary-General is bringing international issues that threaten the world peace and security to the attention of the United Nations. Other than that, to monitor the economic and social problems of the world and they also administering the peacekeeping mission. Besides, Secretary-General also controls the international conference regarding world issues and mediate in international disputes.
The first UN Secretary-General appointed in 1946 is Trygve Lie from Norway. Here is a list of the Secretary-General as follows:
Secretary General Country Years
Trygve Lie Norway 1946-1952
Dag. Hammarskjold Sweden 1953-1961
U. Thant Myanmar 1962-1971
Kurt Waldheim Austria 1972-1981
Javier Perez de Cuellar Peru 1982-1996
Kofi Annan Ghana 1997-2006
Ban Ki Moon Korea 2007 until now
Trygve Lie, the UN’s first Secretary-General, said that it is the most difficult job in the world. He made an observation iterated by most of his seven successors before this. By the way, he mentioned that some of the difficulty lies in the job description itself. What a surprise is several years before the UN's creation, the U.S President Franklin D. Roosevelt, saw the Secretary-General's role as that of "world moderator." Even the UN charter refers to it as "Chief Administrative Officer."
As the symbolic head of the UN, the Secretary-General serves for both its top diplomat and also its chief administrative officer. On top of that, as the UN Charter postulates, he/she is responsible for performing various functions entrusted to him/her by UN bodies, and also for bringing to the attention of the Security Council for any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of the global peace and security.
For the formal description, the Secretary-General for it’s ideal balance of qualifications always become a subject matters to debate. Apparently, the former officeholders have adapted their mandate to their own specific style of leadership as well. Some peoples such as Kofi Annan have been known for their strong public image as advocates. But the matter is as the current Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, are seen more as bridge-builders or bureaucrats.
Secretary-General, what is the special is it is a symbol of the United Nations ideals and a creatives spokesperson for the interests of the entire world's peoples, in particular the poor and vulnerable among them. From the UN website, they considered that the Secretary-General is “equal parts in diplomat and advocate, CEO and also civil servant.â€
The Charter describes that the Secretary-General as a "chief administrative officer" of the Organization. For the Security Council, General Assembly, Economic and Social Council and some other United Nations organs, the Secretary-General is the one who shall act in that capacity and perform " like other functions as are entrusted " to him or her. The Secretary-General who was empowered by the Charter to "bring the attention of the Security Council for any matter which in his opinion may be threaten the maintenance of global peace and security". The powers of the office and also grant it considerable scope for action are both define by the guidelines. The Secretary-General should give more attention of the concerns of Member States if he do not want to fail. He also must uphold the values and moral authority of the United Nations, and speak honestly and act for peace, even at the risk, from time by time, of the challenging with those same Member States.
3.1 PROPER ROLE OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
“The modern UN is one of the ultimate bureaucracy. As a chief administrative officer, the Secretary-General must be capable of managing the organisations’s complex administrative arrangement. The next Secretary-General needs to possess the qualities of statesperson, administrator, innovator, and savvy political operator all in one†From The Lowy Institute’s written by Peter Nadin.
From the use of his “good offices†it is one of the most vital roles played by the Secretary-General which is steps taken publicly and in private, impartiality and integrity, drawing upon his independence, to prevent international disputes from arising or spreading.
What is the proper role of Secretary-General exactly?
3.1.1 PEACEKEEPING
Of course the main responsibility of the secretary-general for overseeing peacekeeping missions and appoints the under-secretary in charge of that department, which is involving some 16 operations worldwide as of September 2008. Although the General Assembly or Security Council may begin a peacekeeping mission, operational control acquired with the Secretariat.
3.1.2 MEDIATION
The secretary-general's role as a mediator between parties in conflict is the function of mediation. The role of secretary-general makes use of his independence and impartiality as the head of a global organization to prevent and stop the spread of conflict is the part of his “good officesâ€. For example, the UN leaders taking on mediation roles in the past including Hammarskjöld's promotion of an armistice between Israel and Arab states and also Javier Perez de Cuellar's negotiation of a ceasefire to end the Iraq-Iran War.
3.2 HOW SECRETARY-GENERAL OVERCOME THE CHALLEGES
From the proper role that had stated, that is only for the general. But what about the reality? What was the world facing today? How the current Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon faced today and what did he do?
3.2.1 REFUGEES CRISIS
Recently, we heard, we see and we pray about the refugees. On 19 February 2016, from looking the average since September 2015, two children have drowned every day because their families try to across the eastern Mediterranean. Now the number is growing non-stop. Three United Nations humanitarian agencies calling for enhancing the safety of those escaping the conflict and despair from their country.
The most shocking and captured the world’s attention about the tragic death of toddler Aylan Kurdi. The statement from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned that since this past September, more than 340 children many of them babies and toddlers have drowned in the eastern Mediterranean. Excluded the number of some bodies have been lost at sea, the total number may be even greater.
Between Turkey and Greece, the stretch of the Aegean Sea is among the deadliest routes in the world for refugees and migrants. Furthermore, the winter's rough seas, the poor quality of boats, overloading, and lifesaving equipment increase the risk of boat capsized, making the journey significantly more dangerous. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi stated that, “ These incredible tragic deaths in the Mediterranean are unbearable and must stop â€. He also said that if we want to reduce the death toll, absolutely we should do more efforts to combat smuggling and trafficking. This is because so many children and adults have died while trying to join relatives in Europe. For examples, we must organizing ways for people to travel with legally and safely, through the resettlement and family reunions programmes.
The IOM’s Director General, William Lacy Swing claimed that we should not only counting lives, but we must act. This incident is not only a Mediterranean problem, or even a European one. It is a humanitarian disaster in the making that demands the entire world's engagement.
The following up from this incidents, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with responsibility has called for a high-level meeting on global responsibility for sharing through legal pathways for admission of Syrian refugees.
3.2.2 E-BOLA VIRUS
On November 22, 2014, UN Secretary-General claimed that the deadly Ebola outbreak can be ended "by the middle of next year" if the world gives more speeds up its response. But unfortunately, in Mali, six people have died even though the rate of new cases was slowing in parts of West Africa. Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have been worst hit by the Ebola outbreak. Furthermore, Anthony Banbury, the head of the UN Ebola mission, stated that the world was "far away" from beating this virus.
Ban Ki Moon stressing that a lot of workers were needed in the worst-hit countries in West Africa. They give more focus to the situation in Mali’s. The chief Margaret Chan (WHO) is travel to Mali as a leadership for this cases and the UN effectively announced a special taskforce for the country to deal with the outbreak.
There are so many peoples get engagement in this crisis. The UN’s Secretary-General managed to urge the World Bank President, and the IMF Managing Director and many international and regional development banks, including the African Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank, and the European Union for accepting his invitation to participate and to show their solidarity for the people affected by this Ebola virus.
Ban Ki Moon also successfully got many donors, along with governments, national and international responders, civil society organizations, development banks and foundations, as part of a broad-based global coalition to support the nationally-led response efforts.
Besides, President of the General Assembly, also took a decisive action for endorsing the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response – UNMEER. By this, UN will always maintain the high-level leadership under WHO together with the UN country teams, in its support to help the affected countries get to zero.
For all the impacts of the Ebola crisis have been far-reaching and exactly more work is needed to support the countries such as Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
3.2.3 WARS
About the wars, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the Security Council to take action and overcome divisions to end the war in Syria because the conflict almost entered its fifth year with some prospect for peace. Ban Ki Moon stated that the Syrian people feel damnly abandoned by the world because they almost enter the fifth year of the war that has broken their country apart.
The Security Council was urged to take determined measures to resolve this crisis now until the future. This is because the Syrians people suffering continues "under the eyes of the international community, still divided and unbearable of taking collective action to stop the killing and destruction.
The Security Council also plan on how to put Syria on the road of peace, with Russia blocking moves to punish its ally President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.
To bring those responsible for atrocities to justice, the UN chief called on all the international community to "unite and lend its full support" so that UN efforts to forge a deal for a political transition in Syria. Ban Ki Moon also said that everyday they looking the reports full of fresh horrors such as citing executions, arbitrary arrests, abductions and torture. He mentioned that UN’s have the obligation to the Syrian people to ensure that serious crimes committed over the past four years will be punished.
4 THE QUALITIES OF PERSON NEXT BAN KI-MOON
Everyone knows that Secretary-General play the important roles in driving governments to overcome the climate change, tackle mass atrocities, promote sustainable development, and protect fundamental of human rights. From the UN Charter, following to their mediation efforts they can help to prevent and stop the wars, and even, they serve to uphold the ideals and values of humankind.
By the end of this year, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon’s term will expire. Now the election process on how to find a successor usually plays out behind closed doors. This year, in 2016, the U.N is trying to do something new, a very challenging task. Now, they are giving a required task to the candidates especially a woman a chance to make their case in public.
All this while, the U.N has had eight Secretary-General in its 70 years history. Not to shock. But all of them men. Recently, many people demands the ninth Secretary-General to be a woman.
4.1 WOMAN
Amazingly, gender is one of the top qualities required by many people in this century. They think woman should have the chance to give a voice for the voiceless. There are so many incredible woman in this world. They also capable in doing a leadership. Perhaps, woman can bear a hardship patiently. The argument that no many qualified and weakness women to choose from is no longer valid.
4.2 MANAGERIAL ABILITY
Managerial ability are seen as fundamental requirements. This is one of the professional skills should have in the Secretary-General role. He/she must know how to manage the operations in the United Nations whether on top until he lower layer in the organisations. The Secretary-General of course must be able to manage the world peace from the wars, frauds, refugees, and many more challenges. By this, people can see how is their potential in this professional skills. He or she perhaps, must be able to maintaince a sustainable development not even for their country, but absolutelly all around the world.
4.3 USE THE MANDATE PROPERLY
For the more inclusive and more open selection process that requires all Member States to be involved, a stronger mandate should be given to the future Secretary-General. Who knows, by giving full mandate to he or she, they could boost their ability to mobilise support and can drive forward the United Nations agenda. The candidates might thinking all the right ways so that he or she can perform incredibly with the given mandate in the organisations. With greater uniques process, it would help revitalise the United Nations, even becomes more enhance its effectiveness and credibilty, as well as Secretary-General before this. From the mandate, the future candidates might develop annd implement a greater independent, long-term and visionary agenda.
4.4 PROVEN MULTICULTURAL UNDERSTANDING AND SENSITIVITY TO EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY
In growing globalization processes place on intercultural competencies, the future Secretary-General should be the individual and collective, which enable to manage cultural diversity more effectively and can lead cultural change globally. The strenghtening of these competencies is the middle to the recommendations of the govermental and non-govermental organisations, the private sector and also civil society should seek to implement as a main point of priority.
As a future Secretary-General, he or she must move beyond a focus on differences that can lead a problem such as conflict, ignorance and misunderstanding. In U.N, the value of this new approach can helps to renew the organizations strategies across the world in all its other fields of competence. With the possession and display of the highest qualities of understanding and sensitivity to equality and diversity will make the future Secretary-General more independence, integrity and courage.
By this criterias, we know that the new UN Secretary-General compulsory to adopt a set of formal criteria and unique qualifications. In proposing candidates and in selecting the best-qualified person to become the Secretary-General of the United Nations, this should be made public and the guide from all of the stakeholders. The candidate should be more active, more creative, more brilliant to organize the United Nations as well as the other Secretary-General. World’s hope that the new one could be able to maintain the peace and security in this international globalization.