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The UN Secretary-General-designate, António Guterres, on Monday,
December 12, took oath of office as the ninth Secretary-General of the
UN, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
The President of the General Assembly, Peter Thomas, administered the
oath to Mr. Guterres in the presence of the 15 members of the Security
Council and other members of the General Assembly.
The General Assembly earlier paid glowing tributes to outgoing
Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, for his exceptional contributions to the
UN and the global community.
The outgoing Secretary-General will step down on December 31, 2016,
while Mr. Guterres will assume office on January 1, 2017 for a five-year
term.
Mr. Guterres, 67, was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to
2002, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees from June 2005 to
December 2015.
He was formally appointed by the General Assembly on October 13 in
what was the culmination of historic process member states set in motion
late last year.
The historic process for the selection of a new UN Secretary-General,
traditionally decided behind closed-doors by a few powerful countries,
for the first time in history, involved public discussions with each
candidate campaigning for the UN’s ninth chief.
The “informal briefings” between the candidates, UN Member States and
civil society representatives kicked off on April 12 when the first
three candidates presented their ‘vision statements’.
They answered questions on how they would promote sustainable
development, improve efforts to create peace, protect human rights, and
deal with huge humanitarian challenges should they be selected to lead
the UN.
In October, thanking the Assembly for appointing him as the next
secretary-general, Mr. Guterres said he was grateful to the member
states for their trust in him, as well as for the transparent and open
selection process they undertook.
The Secretary-General-designate said: “I believe this process means that the true winner today is the credibility of the UN.
“And it also made very clear to me that as secretary-general, having
been chosen by all member states, I must be at the service of them all
equally and with no agenda but the one enshrined in the UN Charter.”
Monday’s ceremony, at which Mr. Guterres would take the oath of
office, would also see the 193-member General Assembly pay tribute to
outgoing secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, for his exceptional
contributions to the work of the UN over the past decade.
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