Philip Alston
John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law, Co-Chair, Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, New York University;
Special Rapporteur Extreme Poverty and Human Rights
​
Fionnuala Ni Aolain
Professor of Law, Transnational Justice Institute, Ulster University
Radhika Balakrishnan
Faculty Director, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University
Marie Louise Baricako
United Nations High Level Panel on Peace Operations (2014-2015)
Karima Bennoune
Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights
Marion Boeker
Board Member, Regional Vice President Europe, International Alliance of Women (IAW)
​
Emily Bove
Executive Director, Women Thrive Alliance
​
Charlotte Bunch
Founding Director, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University
​
Florence Butegwa
Former Regional Advisor, UN Women
​
Winnie Byanyima
Executive Director, Oxfam International;
Former Director, Gender and Development, United Nations Development Programme
Naomi Cahn
Professor, George Washington University Law School
Patrick Cammaert
Former Military Advisor, Department of Peacekeeping Operations;
Former UN Force Commander
​
Roxanna Carrillo
Former Chief Policy and Planning, Peacebuilding Support Office
Hilary Charlesworth
Laureate Professor, Melbourne Law School
​
Judy Cheng-Hopkins
Former Assistant Secretary-General, Peacebuilding Support Office
Anwarul K. Chowdhury
Former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations (2002-2007);
President of the United Nations Security Council (March 2000 and June 2001)
​
Carol Cohn, PhD
Director, Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights
Ken Conca
Professor of International Relations, American University
​
Blanche Wiesen Cook
Distinguished Professor at John Jay College and the Graduate Center in the City University of New York
Kathleen Cravero
President, Oak Foundation;
Former Director, Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, United Nations Development Programme
Bruce Cronin
Chair, Department of Political Science at the City College of New York
Pinar de Neve
Project Manager, Environment and Natural Resources Program, Harvard Kennedy School
​
Krishanti Dharmaraj
Executive Director, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Rutgers University
​
Paula Donovan
Co-Director, AIDS-Free World; Former Special Advisor to UN Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa
Michael W. Doyle
Professor, Director, Columbia Global Policy Initiative, Columbia University;
Former Special Advisor, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Planning
Hugh T. Dugan
Sharkey Distinguished Visiting Scholar and Fellow, The Center for United Nations and Global Governance Studies, The School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University;
Former United States Delegate
​
Shirin Ebadi
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (2003)
​
Frederic Eckhard
Former UN Spokesperson
​
Diane Elson
Member of UN Committee for Development Policy
Yakın Ertürk
Former UN Special Rapporteur Violence Against Women (2003-2009)
​
Vivian Fankhauser-Feitknecht
Judge at the Supreme Court of Lucerne, Switzerland;
President of the NGO-Coordination post Beijing Switzerland (NGO with ECOSOC-Status);
Member of the Swiss federal commission for women’s issues
​
Jacques Fomerand
Director, UN University’s North America Office (1992-2003)
​
Leymah Gbowee
Nobel Peace Laureate (2011)
​
Thomas Gregory
Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, University of Auckland
​
Anne Marie Goetz, PhD
Clinical Professor, New York University
Former Chief Advisor, Peace and Security, UNIFEM and UN Women (2005 - 2014)
​
Claudette Hayle
Founder & CEO SME HUB International, Inc.
Dina Francesca Haynes
Professor of Law, New England Law
​
Noeleen Heyzer
Former Under-Secretary-General (2007-2015)
​
Erica Higbie
Treasurer, NGO Committee on the Status of Women NY;
CoChair Mission Advocacy, The Working Group on Girls;
Director on the Board of the DPI NGO
​
Natalie Hudson
Associate Professor and Director of Human Rights Studies, University of Dayton
​
Brigid Inder
Executive Director, Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice
Michelle Jarvis
Principal Legal Counsel, Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
​
Naila Kabeer
Advisory Group Member, UN Women; SDG Monitory Report
Angela Kane
Former Under-Secretary-General, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs
​
Tawakkol Karman
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (2011)
​
Herta Kaschitz-Wüstenhagen
Former Officer, Division for the Advancement of Women
Jean Krasno, PhD
Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, City College of New York; longtime UN scholar
Audrey Kuhler-Oostra
Member of Graduate Women International, Geneva
​
Michiko Kuroda
Former Senior Policy Officer;
Former Chief of Staff, United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET)/United Nations Integrated Mission in East Timor-Leste (UNOTIL)(UNMIT)
​
Melissa Labonte
Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Associate Professor of Political Science, Fordham University
​
Nina Lahoud
Principal Officer, Office of Operations, UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations
Patricia Lecomte du Nouy
Former Director of the Interpretation, Meetings and Publications Division, UN
​
Stephen Lewis
Former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa (2001-2006)
​
Elisabeth Lindenmayer
Former Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Chief of Staff to the Secretary-General
​
Linda MacDonald, MEd, BN, RN
Cofounder of Persons Against Non-State Torture
Carolyn McAskie
Former Assistant Secretary-General, Peacebuilding Support Office
Youssef Mahmoud
Senior Advisor, International Peace Institute, New York;
Former Under-Secretary-General, former Special Representative
Saraswath Menon
Former Director, Policy Division, UN Women
Suzette Mitchell
Former Country Representative, UN Women, Vietnam
​
Craig Murphy
Betty Freyhold Johnson ’44 Professor of Political Science, Wellesley College
​
Jessica Neuwirth
Former Director, NY Office, OHCHR;
Founder, Equality Now
Eva Nowotny
President of the Austrian UNESCO Commission
​
Jennifer Olmsted
Former Gender Advisor UNFPA
​
Susan O’Malley
Chair, NGO CSW/NY
Valerie Oosterveld
Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario
​
Dianne Otto
Francine V. McNiff Chair in Human Rights Law, Melbourne Law School
​
Hilarie Owen
Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Leadership
F. John Packer
Professor and Director, Human Rights Research and Education Center, University of Ottawa;
Former Member of the UN Standby Team of Mediation Experts (2012-2014)
​
Pramila Patten
United Nations CEDAW Expert
​
Navanethem (Navi) Pillay
Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (2008-2014)
Erica Pinsky
Co-Chair, Status of Women and Human Rights Committee, Univeristy Women's Club of Vancouver, Member CFVWE GWI
​
Richard J. Ponzio
Former Senior Policy Analyst, Peacebuilding Support Office
Shazia Rafi
Former Secretary-General, Parliamentarians for Global Action
​
Linda C. Reif
Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Alberta
Dr. Bob Reinalda
Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands/IO BIO, Biographical Dictionary of Secretaries-General of International Organizations
​
Socorro Reyes
Former Chief, Asia-Pacific and Arab States, UNIFEM
​
Bill Richardson
Former US Ambassador to the UN (1997-1998)
​
Laurie Richardson
NGO Committee on the Status of Women Vienna
​
Diana Rivington
Former Chair, OECD-DAC Working Party on Gender Equality; Director, Gender Equality, CIDA
Dr. Nafis Sadik
Former Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
Rakhi Sahi
Security Advisor for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam;
Former Commander, all-female Formed Police Unit, deployed to Liberia
​
Rima Salah
United Nations High Level Panel on Peace Operations (2014-2015);
Former Deputy Special Representative for the Secretary-General for Chad and Central African Republic
​
Lucía Salamea-Palacios
Former UN Women Representative for Ecuador
​
Joanne Sandler
Former Deputy Executive Director, UNIFEM
​
Jeanne Sarson, MEd, BScN, RN
Cofounder of Persons Against Non-State Torture
Dubravka Šimonović
Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Its Causes and Consequences
Laura Shepherd, PhD
Assoc. Professor International, Relations, University of New South Wales, Australia
Heisoo Shin
Member, UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
​
Margaret Snyder, PhD
Founding Director, UNIFEM
Gillian Sorensen
Former Assistant Secretary-General
​
Iris Spellings
Main Representative to the UN for Peace Through Unity
​
Dr. Cassandra Steer
Wainwright Fellow, McGill University Faculty of Law
Kristen Timothy
Deputy Director, Division for the Advancement of Women
David Tolbert
Former Assistant-Secretary-General
President, International Center for Transitional Justice
​
Aminata Touré
Former Chief, Gender and Human Rights Branch, UNFPA;
Former Prime Minister, Senegal
​
Kazuto Tsuruga
Strategic Planning Officer, UNDP Afghanistan;
Former First Secretary at the Japanese Permanent Mission to the UN
​
Yana van der Meulen Rodgers
Professor, Rutgers University
​
Jessica A. Volz, PhD
Editor and International Communications Scholar
​
Jody Williams
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (1997)
​
Justice Renate Winter
Member of the Appeals Chamber of the Special Court of Sierra Leone
​
Your Excellencies,
​
The straw polls have begun and the critical decision-making process is underway to select the next UN Secretary-General. This is one of the most significant decisions the Council will make in guiding the Organization through the next decade and we feel we must reach out to you.
​
All who have signed this letter are current or former senior officials of the UN or scholars and experts on the United Nations, committed as you are to an effective organization, responsive and well-led, as we address the daunting challenges before us.
The selection of the next Secretary-General is a critical choice for the UN and the world. We share your commitment to find the best candidate -- an experienced diplomat, skillful manager, thoughtful mediator and compelling speaker and advocate, a leader of stature who can represent the UN to the world at its best, work well with Member States and embody the core UN principles of peace, justice, development and human rights.
Your choice will send a dramatic message to the world. To that end, we urge you to select a woman with all the qualities above and, as well, a demonstrated and sustained commitment to gender equality. After seventy years and eight male leaders in succession, the choice of a woman would send a signal of transformation and would be an important step in correcting a gender bias of many decades. It will galvanize renewed action to implement existing commitments to women's rights and opportunities. It may bring different approaches to UN leadership and new perspectives to the immense challenges of global governance today. It would renew and inspire interest and support of the UN from the larger public.
Among the declared candidates you have a number of outstanding women. We urge you to select one of them to be the next Secretary-General. We are joined in this hope by thousands of dedicated NGOs, many Member States, individual members of civil society, and many other world leaders. Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to your decision.
Please accept the assurances of our respect and support,
Open Letter to the United Nations Security Council from the WomanSG Campaign
IMPORTANT: We are still accepting signatures from those who qualify. If you wish to sign your name to the Open Letter to the Security Council from the WomanSG Campaign please contact Kristen Cruzata at kamiller3@gmail.com.
​
The first letter, bearing 45 signatures, was sent July 20, 2016, to the Members of the Security Council just ahead of the first Security Council straw poll conducted on July 21. The language was slightly modified on August 2 to include an acknowledgment of the first straw poll and the addition of just under 90 signatures. The second letter was sent August 2, 2016, to the Members of the Security Council and their respective heads of government to reach them before the August 5th second straw poll.
Angola
China
Egypt
France
Japan
Malaysia
New Zealand
Russian Federation
Senegal
Spain
Ukraine
The United Kingdom
The United States
Uruguay
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)
Security Council Membership:
Letter to President Barack Obama from the WomanSG Campaign
Below is the letter that the WomanSG Campaign sent to President Barack Obama on September 15, 2016. As the 71st session of the UN General Assembly began the Campaign wrote the President, the leader of a permanement member state of the Security Council with veto power, urging him to support a woman as the nest Secretary-General. The Campaign hopes that he includes this language in his address to the General Assembly. Please, feel free to use any part of the letter below to draft your own letter to the President encouraging him to do the same.
​
You can contact the White House online using this link: www.whitehouse.gov/contact.
Is the US Doing Enough to Push for a Female Leader of the UN?
By Shazia Z. Rafi | September 12, 2016
Letters to 70th and 71st Presidents of the UN General Assembly from the WomanSG Campaign
