The prevailing opinion of the United Nations is that now is the right time for a Secretary-General from Eastern Europe. But the person replacing Ban Ki-moon on 1 January 2017 will have to display exceptional skills in manoeuvring between the interests of the big-power permanent members of the UN Security Council.

At the beginning of December 2015 the UN invited to UN Member States to put forward their candidates for the position of UN Secretary-General. The potential candidates will have during the campaign the opportunity for informal and non-binding dialogues or meetings with UN Member States. Such meetings are planned for the end of March or the beginning of April 2016.

Slovenia puts forward its candidate
Dr. Danilo Türk, former President of the Republic of Slovenia is a credible candidate for the Secretary General of the UN and is internationally highly esteemed. His strong cards are rich experiences with the United Nations, where he worked for years. He is an expert for international law and has managed successfully many international disputes during his term in the UN Security Council. In 1992, Dr Türk assumed the position of Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to the United Nations. Evidence of Slovenia’s success in the UN was its election to the UN Security Council in 1997 and successful work performed in the Security Council between 1998 and 1999 in relation to the crises in Kosovo, Iraq, Libya, East Timor, DR Congo and others.

Following the completion of Slovenia’s term as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, Mr Kofi Annan, then Secretary-General of the United Nations, appointed Dr Türk as Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs.

His only flaw, if we can say this, is that he is not a woman. The UN was never in its history led by a woman and there are some debates that this fact should be taken into serious consideration by the next election.

Opportunity for Slovenia
We argued in previous articles that our efforts will be focused towards enlarging recognisability of Slovenia in the World. A Slovenian at the highest post in the UN would be a good shot to achieve not only better recognisability but a positive image too. Slovenian therefore fully and proudly supports Dr. Türk’s candidacy.

At the end the decision is taken by the permanent members of the UN Security Council. The fact is that big countries don’t want a revolutionary General Secretary, which agitates against individual states. Since Slovenia always puts dialog to the forefront of international dispute settlement and Dr. Türk is a wise and experienced man the chances for his election are real.