Informal Hearings of Candidates for UN Chief to be Held on April 12-14

Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova. Photo: EPA

Between April 12 and 14, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly will hold informal dialogues with the seven candidates for UN Secretary-General who have been nominated so far.

This was stated in a letter released by UN General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft, outlining the rules and schedule of hearings.

The Bulgarian candidate, Irina Bokova, will be the second nominee to participate in the dialogues. Bulgaria nominated the incumbent Director-General of UNESCO on February 9.

The informal meetings will be held in compliance with the established practice for informal meetings of the General Assembly.

The hearing of each candidate will last for two hours, with nominees presenting their opening statements for the duration of ten minutes, followed by questions from member states.

The meetings will be open and broadcasted on the internet with interpretation provided in all six official languages of the UN.

Bokova will be the second candidate to be heard in the morning session on April 12, preceded by Igor Luksic, former prime minister and incumbent foreign minister of Montenegro.

Former Portuguese prime minister and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres will be heard in the afternoon session on April 12.

The morning session on April 13 will begin with a hearing of former Slovenian president Danilo Turk, followed by Croatia's former foreign minister Vesna Pusic.

The hearing of former Moldovan prime minister and foreign minister Natalia Gherman is scheduled to take place in the afternoon session on April 13.

The only hearing on April 14 will be that of former Macedonian foreign minister Srgjan Kerim.

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