European Union

Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, addresses the Security Council warning the Council it risks irrelevance without reform. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe 15 December 2025

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 19 2025 (IPS)

A long-standing proposal going back to 1996—to establish a single non-renewable seven-year term for the Secretary-General of the United Nations—has been resurrected by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The original proposal was part of a study sponsored by the Dag Hammarskjold and Ford Foundations. According to the proposal, the seven-year term “ would give the SG the opportunity to undertake far-reaching plans free from undesirable pressures.”

Ban has said a single, nonrenewable seven-year term will strengthen the independence of the office. The current practice of two five-year terms, he said, leaves Secretaries-General “overly dependent on this Council’s Permanent Members for an extension.”

A former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt was deprived of a second five-year term when the US was the only permanent member state to veto his second term despite the fact that he received 14 of the 15 votes in the Security Council.

“As the highest policy-making organ of the United Nations, and as the ultimate appointing body, the General Assembly should adopt a comprehensive resolution establishing a single seven-year term and all key features of an improved process of appointing the Secretary-General,” the study said.

The same seven-year term, according to the 1996 study authored by Sir Brian Urquhart and Erskine Childers, should also apply to heads of UN agencies and UN programmes.

The study was titled “A World in Need of Leadership: Tomorrow’s United Nations. A Fresh Appraisal.” Sir Brian was a former UN Under-Secretary-General (USG) for Special Political Affairs and Childers was a former Senior Advisor to the UN Director-General for Development and International Economic Affairs.

Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN, told IPS that, in keeping with the best interest of the operational credibility of the world’s most universal multilateral body with a global mandate, and as a conscientious UN insider, “I believe very strongly and quite comfortably that there is substantive merit in the long-standing, but surprisingly undervalued, proposal to establish a single non-renewable seven-year term of office for the Secretary-General of the United Nations.”

In an op-ed published on 20 June 2011 in IPS on Ban’s second term, and commenting in general on the re-election process, he wrote, “This unclear, closed-door, behind-the-scenes and exclusionary process results in the recommendation of a person who is dreaming of re-election for a second term from the very first day in office.”

Ambassador Chowdhury went on to underscore that “This very human temptation for a second term is so overwhelming, so intoxicating that the incoming secretary-general’s main effort in office is wholly conditioned by this desire.” Keeping fully in perspective the “veto element,” the wishes and inclinations of the P5 get the priority attention of the “Chief Administrative Officer” of the UN.

“I fully agree,” he said, “with the conventional understanding in the corridors of the UN that the debt that an SG accrues from the P5 during his first term for his re-election gets paid off during the second term. This arrangement serves both the secretary-general and the P5 well.”

More so, he noted, because they know full well that the broader membership of the UN is never able to agree to long overdue reforms of the unacceptable electoral process for the head of the secretariat. This encourages the possibility of a lacklustre leader to emerge, particularly if a P5 representative engages in the selection process at the instructions from the capital which is not supportive of the centrality of the UN’s global role.

Asked if the current Secretary-General António Guterres agrees with the proposal, UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters last week:

“Well, the current Secretary-General respects his role as Secretary-General to stay outside of the process of the Member States’ discussions. Obviously, any change in the terms of a Secretary-General would need to be agreed to by the Member States, and he trusts that they will work this out amongst themselves and find a solution.”

Haq said Guterres thinks that there are a number of reform steps that can be taken. Obviously, since he is the sitting Secretary-General, he’s not going to voice his views on this right now, while the Member States are considering it. And of course, you’ve seen his own support for the idea to have the first female Secretary-General. “But again, these are decisions that are not in our hands,” said Haq.

Dr. Palitha Kohona, a former Chief of the UN Treaty Section, told IPS some see merit in extending the term of office of the SG to seven years. But would such an extension add value? An effective SG could always seek re-election under the current set up and the GA has given a second term to most SGs.

The Member States could also refrain from re-electing an ineffective SG. If an ineffective SG were to be given a seven year term, the most important international organization in the world will have to suffer the burden of such an individual for an unfairly long and painful period, he pointed out.

An effective SG, subject to the political and financial constraints that he/she operates under, could achieve much in five years. What is required is the ability to operate in an volatile global environment, superior management skills and the knack for picking excellent staff, especially as USGs and ASGs. The current tendency to accept whomever big powers foist on the SG and to appoint lacklusture performers tends to reflect poorly on the leader of this august body and the Member States pay a heavy price, said Dr Kohona, a former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN.

“What is really needed is the institutionalisation of a system that enables the UN to pick potentially efficient performers without the need to depend on whimsies of the P5. Major corporations operate in this manner. Successful performers will be retained for five or ten years. Those who fail will be dropped. The member states will be the best judges, he declared.

Sanam B. Anderlini, Founder and CEO, International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN), told IPS: “I think a 7 year term is an excellent idea – it would enable the SG to be courageous and imaginative in vision and practice. They would not be encumbered with the tasks of currying favour with member states or campaigning for votes for a second term.”

Additionally, with a seven-year horizon, they’d be compelled and motivated to ensure change and impact, because everyone ultimately wishes to have a good legacy, she pointed out.

But the key is ensuring that the selected leaders have the necessary courage, vision and values, she said

The 7-year terms should be staggered so we don’t lose the entire UN systems leadership team in one go. The idea of extending the United Nations Secretary-General’s term in office is a proposal that has been discussed as a reform idea, but the current, standard term remains five years, renewable once, declared Anderlini.

Recounting his IPS op-ed, Ambassador Chowdhury said he had underscored that “Another important idea to ensure independence of the Secretary-General would be to make the office restricted to one term for each incumbent.”

The seven-year term is adequate for any leader worth the name to deliver positive results and show what can be achieved for any global institution. Any change in the tenure of office and in the re-election process will require the amendment of the UN Charter and therefore the concurrence of the P5, said Ambassador Chowdhury, initiator of the UNSCR 1325 as President of the UN Security Council in March 2000, Chairman of the UN General Assembly’s Main Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Matters and Founder of the Global Movement for The Cultural of Peace (GMCoP).

On 30 October 2023, in another op-ed in IPS, Ambassador Chowdhury recommended that “… in the future the Secretary-General would have only one term of seven years, as opposed to the current practice of automatically renewing the Secretary-General’s tenure for a second five-year term, without even evaluating his performance.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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