Ban Ki Moon bows out as António Guterres becomes 9th UN scribe

-


The Secretary-General-designate of the United Nations, Mr. António Guterres has taken an oath of office as the ninth Secretary- General of the organisation.
President of the General Assembly, Peter Thomas, administered the oath on Guterres in the presence of the 15 members of the Security Council and other members of the General Assembly present.
He thus succeeds the outgoing Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, who was showered with encomiums by members of the council for his exceptional contributions to the UN and the global community.
Ki Moon is expected to step down on December31, 2016, while Guterres will assume office on Jan. 1. 2017 for a five-year term.
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, 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 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.
By Olaolu Oladipo, Lagos

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rainbow Fm apologize to the Public for bringing false report on Iyabo Obasanjo

-
Image
  Below is the excerpt of the document: "PRESS RELEASE We at Rainbow F.M 94.1 appreciate and respect our audience. Our content is anchored on the principles of fairness, objectivity, Balance and Accur acy. We recognise that this noble practice requires professionalism, and this is the reason we will leave no stone unturned in informing, educating and entertaining you. We are aware of the falsehood that trailed the December 18th, 2013 edition of the Newspaper Headlines and Editorials anchored by Wellington Olaiya, Theophilus Elamah and Dr. Nick Idoko (on the Rainbow Morning Show) We condemn it At NO TIME on the said date did IYABO OBASANJO, daughter of Ex-President Olusegun Obansanjo, visit, call or make any contact on the show, or with any of the presenters. While we acknowledge the efforts of other practitioners in the development process of this country, we appeal to all media organisations to adhere strictly to ALL THE ETHICS of this whole profession. God b
Read more

Was Bobbi Kristina Used for Illuminati Satanic Blood Sacrifice?

-
Image
Bobbi Kristina died on Sunday age 22 six months after she was found face down and unresponsive in the bath-tub of the Roswell, Georgia, home she shared with then boyfriend, Nick Gordon, 25. Gordon is now a person of interest to investigators attempting to piece together the events that led to Bobbi Kristina’s untimely death. But according to TMZ, he has still written to Bobbi Kristina’s father and Pat Houston begging for permission to attend the funeral service. The email states: ‘I loved Krissi with all my heart and I am destroyed that she is gone and I need to say goodbye. ‘Krissi loved me very much and she would want me there’. The chances of him being accepted by the family are, however, slim to none. The Houston family has slapped him with a $10million lawsuit alleging that he abused her and stole her money while she was in a medically induced coma. While Gordon has been a figure of controversy with Bobby Brown banning him first from his daughter’s hospital bedsi
Read more

How Technology Is Killing Eye Contact

-
Image
    Christen had an alarming wake-up call one day about the toll that technology was taking on her life -- and her family. "I realized several years ago that I had stopped looking in my children's eyes," the HopeLab President and CEO said at a Huffington Post panel at Ad Week on Tuesday . "And it was shocking to me." Christen's "a-ha" moment was an alarming one, but it's more common than you might think -- and it points toward a larger, and often undiscussed, byproduct of excessive screen time. The decline of eye contact is well-documented , and as we spend more and more of our time staring at screens, there's less time left over to look into people's eyes -- including the eyes of the people we care about most. Between staring at computers during the work day and regularly gazing down at our phones, Americans spending more time with their eyes glued to their screens than ever before. According to recent estimates ,
Read more