Thank you, Mr. President, for this open debate.
I would like to commend and thank His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon, on his own behalf and on behalf of the Elders here present, as well as Ms. Anjali Dayal for their lucid and inspiring presentations.
The UN Secretary-General is one of the most exposed global leaders to the upheavals of his time. As the Permanent Representative of Denmark pointed out, Trygve Lie was confronted with the Korean War. Dag Hammarskjöld faced the crisis in the Congo, where he paid for his commitment with his life. For U Thant, it was the culmination of the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis. Javier Perez de Cuellar accompanied the end of the bipolarization of the world and the rebirth of the Security Council. Boutros Boutros-Ghali drew conclusions from this with his agendas for peace, development, and democratization, but he faced the genocides in Srebrenica and Rwanda. Kofi Annan understood the importance of globalization and the need to set the common good as its horizon through the Millennium Development Goals. The September 11 attacks and the war in Iraq marked his term of office. His Excellency Ban Ki-moon promoted the 2030 Agenda, which remains our roadmap, but he saw tensions rise as a result of new unilateralisms. And for nearly 10 years, Antonio Guterres has been a watchful guardian of a world aware of it is finite, a world that aspires to reform global governance, a world that questions the future of the Charter, from which some nations claim to be free.
Mr. President,
The first and most pressing challenge that any Secretary-General needs to address is that of peace and security. Exercising the full prerogatives conferred upon him by the Charter, in particular Article 99, he has an autonomous role in terms of alerting the Security Council, establishing facts, good offices, mediation, prevention of conflicts, and peacebuilding. That is why the French-Mexican initiative to regulate the veto in cases of mass atrocities proposes to give him a role in identifying situations where the exercise of the veto could be subject to collective and voluntary restriction.
The Secretary-General is also the incarnation of an international order based on the rule of law, the guarantor of a form of general interest for humanity. As depositary of treaties under Article 102 of the Charter, providing the International Court of Justice with information that may shed light on a legal question before it, and protector of human rights, particularly at a time when their universal and indivisible nature is being called into question, he presides over the building of a system based on international law and multilateralism.
The world also expects the Secretary-General to be a compass on global issues. Whether it is climate change—the Paris Agreement was recalled—health, or the ocean, it is up to him to inspire and guide the development and implementation of agreements concluded by States. The scope of his action in this area is constantly expanding, as are the aspirations of populations in these areas.
Finally, the next Secretary-General will have to be accountable for the effectiveness of the Organization, but also be the authorizing officer for the United Nations system as a whole. This requires the ability to strengthen the culture of efficiency, accountability, and good management by taking up the UN80 initiative. Our Organization must show it is able to adapt and take action in close proximity to populations that expect sustainable development, within a constrained budgetary context. This task will require determination, courage, and ambition.
Mr. President,
In conclusion, it is because the Secretary-General is this moral voice, the guardian of the principles of the Charter, a pragmatic mediator, a visionary authority on global issues, and a responsible administrator that France will pay the utmost attention to the choice of the person who will be entrusted with this responsibility. This choice must be made in accordance with Article 97 of the Charter and Resolution 79/327, recently adopted by consensus. As for the desired profile, it will not be easy to find someone who, like Mr. Antonio Guterres, has this ability to understand reality in order to move toward the ideal. In this search for a rare personality for a difficult position, France reiterates its desire to see as many female candidates as possible.
Thank you.