As we went to press in our final newsletter of 2023, Azerbaijan was appointed host of the 2024 UN Climate Summit as part of a deal that may have been made to help bring some peace to the region. Moreover, against all odds, the UAE-hosted COP28 actually agreed to certain outcomes which, while far from what the climate emergency requires, avoided the complete collapse of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process, as many were predicting.
But if last year ended with cautious progress, this year begins with a demonstration of how quickly and badly things can go wrong. First, another oilman was appointed as president of COP29: Mukhtar Babayev, who has worked with the Azerbaijani state oil company for 26 years. Then, extraordinarily, in January, Azerbaijan appointed an all-male 28-member organising committee for the global climate summit. If Azerbaijan had picked its panel randomly, it would only achieve such an exceptional panel once every 270 million times. As this edition went to press, we heard the news that Azerbaijan has now scrambled to make amends, adding 12 women to the panel (and another man for good measure). It shows that reporting and scrutiny on appointments can make a difference: Blue Smoke looks forward to playing its part in 2024.
Looking at current UN senior appointment processes:
Last year, we reported that after the abrupt ousting of the popular head of UN Habitat, Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Secretary-General António Guterres was rushing to recommend someone to the General Assembly and have the person be confirmed before Sharif’s term expired on 19 January. It seems the task wasn’t so straightforward, and Guterres had to extend his application deadline to 8 January, making it almost certain that interim arrangements will be required. So far, there is no word about when the appointment will be announced, and we understand that member states have not yet been consulted regarding specific potential candidates.
The process, which we believe is being overseen by Under-Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, is opaque even to member states. However, one candidate has emerged as a frontrunner: Anacláudia Rossbach. We have received reports that she is backed by her country, Brazil, and the numerous states who were most critical of Guterres’s decision to truncate Sharif’s second term. In addition, the Forum of Ministers and High-Level Authorities of Housing and Urbanism of Latin America and the Caribbean (MINURVI), held a forum in Buenos Aires on 9 and 10 November 2023, during which they declared that member governments would ask Guterres to appoint a candidate from Latin America and the Caribbean, a region that has never held that role.
Amid the crisis in Gaza and the perhaps all-time low point in the relationship between the UN and Israel, the UN has refreshed its team in the region, appointing several well-regarded senior officials:
• Sigrid Kaag of the Netherlands is the new, vitally needed Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza, pursuant to Security Council Resolution 2720. Her job, supported by the UN Office for Project Services, will be to establish and manage humanitarian relief and rehabilitation mechanisms. She started on 8 January.
• James McGoldrick of Ireland returns to his role of Deputy Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace Process and Ad Interim Humanitarian Coordinator. He succeeds Lynn Hastings of Canada, who succeeded McGoldrick in 2020 and could not remain in the post following Israel’s decision to revoke her visa in late 2023.
• UNRWA is splitting the role of Deputy Commissioner-General in two. The previous deputy, Leni Stenseth of Norway, left in July, and Natalie Boucly of France had been filling in on an acting basis since then. Boucly is now Deputy Commissioner-General (Programmes and Partnerships) on a permanent basis, and Antonia Marie De Meo of the United States is appointed to the new role of Deputy Commissioner-General (Operational Support).
It must be said, however, that some powerful men are still allowed to fail upwards in the international humanitarian system. Less than four years ago, then-UNRWA chief and Swiss national Pierre Krähenbühl resigned following an ethics report showing that on his watch, UNRWA senior leadership “engaged in misconduct, nepotism, retaliation . . . and other abuses of authority” and that Krähenbühl himself developed a relationship with a junior colleague that went “beyond the professional” and created a “toxic environment.” On 22 December 2023, Krähenbühl was named as the new Director General of the Geneva-based ICRC.
Guterres finally has a new Personal Envoy for Cyprus, following, as we reported, a protracted struggle. María Angela Holguín Cuéllar of Colombia gets the role.
He also has a Personal Envoy for Sudan: Ramtane Lamamra of Algeria. As we mentioned previously, there is a risk that recategorising this position from that of Special Representative of the Secretary-General to personal envoy (and not special envoy) — an ill-defined term — could reduce formal reporting and possibly the remit of the envoy. Lamamra will not be based in Sudan. So, it is important that states, particularly those in the Security Council, request regular briefings from the personal envoy and press him to engage on difficult subjects, such as human rights, which Sudanese forces were hoping to exclude from his work.
Guterres does not yet have a Special Envoy for Afghanistan, but his search is ongoing. On 12 January, PassBlue reported a string of names – some high profile – of diplomats who could be considered.
A summit, any future?
Opportunities to jolt the UN towards a fairer system for appointing senior leaders are rare, but the upcoming Pact for the Future offers hope — if states use the opportunity. Germany and Namibia bravely volunteered to run the negotiations for the Pact, which will be adopted at the Summit of the Future this September. We’ve already seen Singapore organise a new group of 55 small states to push for a “more inclusive, transparent and equitable” UN, and to use UN reform discussions leading up to and at the summit to do so. The Pact’s zero draft is expected to be released at the end of January, when negotiations begin in earnest. Watch this space!
Tips
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