Global Policy Forum

By James Bone

Since 1945, the world's top diplomatic job has been held by three Europeans, two Africans, one Latin American, but no women. Kofi Annan is due to step down as UN Secretary-General at the end of the year, or even earlier, and women's groups have begun lobbying for a woman to succeed him.

Their campaign has taken on new urgency with the recent announcement that Mr Annan's deputy, Louise Fréchette, appointed in 1998 partly because she was a woman, will leave in April to return to her native Canada. "Starting with the Charter of the UN, it has always been among their goals to reach gender parity," Taina Bien-Aime of the women's rights group Equality Now, which is leading the effort, said.

"Every year, there is a resolution on efforts to reach gender parity in the UN secretariat. "People tend to hire people who look like them. It is important for women to get beyond that, and to be seen to get beyond that."

The UN is reeling from allegations of corruption in the Oil-for-Food programme for Iraq and the race to become the new secretary-general could be decided earlier than usual. John Bolton, Washington's hawkish UN envoy, has told fellow diplomats that he wants to settle on a successor by July, a move interpreted by many as undermining Mr Annan. This has led to speculation among insiders that Mr Annan, whose second five-year term expires on December 31, may step down several months early so that he can leave before the next General Assembly session in September. US diplomats are said to have already started "pre-screening" interviews with potential candidates.

Resurgent Asian countries insist that it is an Asia's turn to hold the job under an informal practice of rotation among the main regional groupings. The last Asian Secretary-General was U Thant, of Burma, who left office in 1971. But newly free East European countries say that they want their first chance to take the top slot.

Britain and the US are sceptical of a "buggins's turn" system that would award the job to an Asian simply because of geographical rotation. Both powers hold a veto on the selection through their permanent membership of the 15-nation Security Council. But it is unlikely that the two allies can muster the votes to block a qualified Asian winning in the 191-member General Assembly, which must confirm the Security Council 's choice.

"We are looking for the best person capable of meeting the demands of the job, including the capability to lead the reform of the UN," Sir Emyr Jones Parry, the British UN Ambassador, said. "If this analysis produces the best person being a woman, there we are."

Several candidates have already thrown their hats into the ring — but all of them are men: Surakiart Sathirathai, 47, a Harvard-educated lawyer and Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand; Jayantha Dhanapala, Mr Annan's former Under-Secretary-General for disarmament and now a senior adviser to the new Sri Lankan President; Ban Ki Moon, the South Korean Foreign Minister; and Aleksandr Kwasniewski, the former Polish President.

The latest figures from June show that only six out of the 37 under-secretaries-general in the UN secretariat, or 16.2 per cent, are female. One more woman, Inga-Britt Ahlenius of Sweden, has since joined at that rank as the internal watchdog. But Ms Fréchette and Brigita Schmí¶gnerova, the head of the Economic Commission for Europe, will be leaving soon.

Diplomats and UN officials expect Mr Annan to name his British chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, a former head of the UN Development Programme, as Ms Fréchette's successor. Ms Schmí¶gnerova is to be replaced by Marek Belka, the former, male, Polish Prime Minister. Equality Now has drawn up a list of 18 potential female candidates. Several Asians are on the list, but the group's most provocative proposal is to name Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Burmese pro-democracy leader, to the post. That is unlikely to say the least, and not only because she would be the second Burmese to hold the job.

THE CANDIDATES

AUNG SAN SUU KYI

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader of the Burmese pro-democracy movement, aged 60, has been under house arrest by the military junta on and off since 1989. Her National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in 1990, but the military refused to turn over power.

GRO HARLEM BRUNDTLAND

A former health service doctor in Norway, Mrs Brundtland, 66, was Prime Minister and head of the World Health Organisation. She chaired the UN World Commission on Environment and Development.

HELEN CLARK

A former political science lecturer, 55, who has been New Zealand's Prime Minister since 1999, through a time of economic growth. In October she became the first Labour leader to win a third consecutive term.

THORAYA OBAID

The first Saudi woman to receive a government scholarship to study at a university in the US, Ms Obaid, 60, has run the UN Population Fund since 2001 and is the first Saudi citizen to head a UN agency.

VAIRA VIKE-FREIBERGA

The Latvian President, 68, nicknamed the "Baltic Iron Lady", has called the secretary-generalship of the UN "not a bad job", but her ardent support for the war in Iraq would make her a rather controversial choice.

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