Clark, Cartwright in line to replace Kofi Annan 

January 4, 2006
National Business Review (New Zealand)
Original Source: http://www.nbr.co.nz/home/column_article.asp?id=13967&cid=15&cname=Politics

International women's rights organisation Equality Now is lobbying for a woman to replace out-going UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan -- and two prominent New Zealand women, Helen Clark and Silvia Cartwright, are high on their list of proposed candidates. 

Speculation has swirled for more than a year that Helen Clark hopes for a top UN post when she exits her role as Prime Minister, although few would have thought she had the props for the top UN job. 

But Equality Now names her -- and Governor-General Silvia Cartwright -- among 18 women it says are all qualified to take over the helm at the UN. 

The 18 women named are a representative sample of the talent pool available, the group says, and none of them have indicated they are in the running for the job. 

The group says it is time for a woman to lead the organisation after sixty years of institutional life and notes that women generally do not fare well in the upper reaches of the UN career tree. 

As of 30 June 2005, women occupied only 37.1 per cent of professional and higher positions and only 16.2 per cent of the Under-Secretaries General were women. Women’s unequal access to positions of decision-making power around the world hinders progress toward all the United Nations’ goals, including equality, development and peace, the group says. 

Mr Annan is scheduled to step down toward the end of the year but some speculation is building that he may choose an early exit. 

According to Times Online, much of the talk of an early departure stems from John Bolton having told fellow diplomats that he wants to settle on a successor by July. 

That is seen as a move that will further undermine Mr Annan's already thinly stretched credibility and could force his hand to avoid some sort of showdown when the General Assembly next meets in September. 

It will be rough sledding for any candidate, regardless of gender, because international forces are lining up behind special interest candidates based on region. 

Asia and the newly emerging states of Eastern Europe want a shot at the job but a rotation based purely on geographical region is likely to draw a veto from either the US or Britain, or both. 

“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, told Times Online. “If this analysis produces the best person being a woman, there we are.” 

And, possibly, there goes Clark.