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Resolutions of the World Health Organization on the Election of the Director-General

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Gian Luca Burci
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Extract

The election of the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General is governed by its Constitution in Article 31. Candidates must be appointed by the Health Assembly on the nomination of the Executive Board. Unlike other international organizations in which the decision-making process is largely informal—such as the IAEA and WTO—the WHO procedures were formalized in the 1990s to include: clear deadlines; an initial screening of all candidates; short-listing by secret ballot in case of more than five candidates; compulsory secret ballot voting both in the Board and the Assembly; and a limit of two terms of office of five years each. However, beginning in 2006, some regional groups strongly demanded the introduction of a compulsory rotation of the post of Director-General among the WHO’s regions. The equally strong rejection of that request by other regional groups led to an increasingly polarized debate in the governing bodies of the WHO.

Type
International Legal Documents
Information
International Legal Materials , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , August 2013 , pp. 998 - 1019
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2013

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References

1 Constitution of the World Health Organization [WHO], 62 Stat. 2679, 14 U.N.T.S. 185 (July 27, 1946) [hereinafter WHO Constitution].

2 WHO Executive Board, Nomination of the Director-General: Nomination for the Post, EB130/INF.DOC/1 (Nov. 15, 2011)Google Scholar, http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB130/B130_ID1-en.pdf (a recent summary of the overall process, reproducing the relevant decisions and reports). See also United Nations Joint Inspection Unit, Selection and Conditions of Service of Executive Heads in the United Nations System Organization, JIU/REP/2009/8 (2009)Google Scholar, https://www.unjiu.org/en/reports-notes/archive/Selection%20and%20conditions%20of%20service%20of%20Executive%20Heads%20in%20the%20United%20Nations%20system%20organizations.pdf (implicitly recognizing that the WHO process embodied what it considered a number of best practices in the election of the Director-General).

3 The membership of WHO is divided into six regions instead of the five recognized by the United Nations. Besides the three regions noted above, the other three are Europe, Western Pacific and the Americas. WHO, WHO Regional Offices, http://www.who.int/about/regions/en/index.html.

4 See, e.g., WHO Executive Board, 120th session, Summary Record of the Twelfth Meeting, EB120/SR/12, at 32 (statement by Liberia).

5 WHO Constitution, supra note 1, at art. 35 (“The Director-General shall appoint the staff of the Secretariat in accordance with staff regulations established by the Health Assembly. The paramount consideration in the employment of the staff shall be to assure that the efficiency, integrity and internationally representative character of the Secretariat shall be maintained at the highest level.”).

6 WHO Executive Board, Director-General and Deputy Director-General of the World Health Organization: report in accordance with resolution EB120.R19, ¶¶ 4-6, EB121/4 (May 8, 2007).

7 WHO Executive Board, Director-General and Deputy Director-General of the World Health Organization: Report in Accordance with Resolution EB120.R19: Report by the Secretariat, EB121/4 (May 8, 2007), http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB121/B121_4-en.pdf.

8 World Health Assembly, Election of the Director-General of the World Health Organization: Report of the Working Group, ¶¶ 1(a)-(b), WHA65.15 (May 26, 2012) http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA65/A65_R15-en.pdf (“[D]ue regard shall be paid to the principle of equitable geographical representation in the overall process of nomination, election and appointment of the Director-General of the World Health Organization, being mindful at the same time that candidates appointed to this post have so far only come from three out of the six regions of the Organization, and that the paramount consideration of the necessity of securing the highest standard of efficiency, competence and integrity in the election and appointment of the Director-General shall be maintained . . . .”).

9 WHO Working Group of Member States on the Process and Methods of the Election of the Director-General of the WHO [WHO Working Group], A Legal Opinion on the Implications of Sending More Than One Candidate from the Executive Board to the Health Assembly with Reference to Article 31 of the Constitution of the World Health Organization on the Process of Nomination and Appointment of the Director-General, EB/EDG/WG/2/4 (Oct. 26, 2011), http://apps.who.int/gb/edg/pdf_files/EB_EDG_WG2_4-en.pdf.

10 World Health Assembly, Follow-up of the Report of the Working Group on the Election of the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Annex 4, WHA66.18 (May 27, 2013) [hereinafter Resolution WHA66.18], http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA66/A66_R18-en.pdf.

11 Code of Conduct for the Election of the Director-General of the World Health Organization, id. at Annex 1.

12 WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific, Nomination of the Regional Director: Code of Conduct, WPR/RC63. R7 (Sep. 27, 2012), http://www.wpro.who.int/about/regional_committee/63/resolutions/WPR_RC63_R7_RD_Nomination_code_of_conduct_complete_with_annex.pdf.

13 Due to the absence of immediately applicable precedents within international organizations, the Secretariat relied on the principles and provisions underlying national electoral codes, a study by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and ethical codes of organizations such as the International Federation of Football Associations and the International Olympic Committee. See also WHO Working Group, A Review of Best Practices with Regard to Codes of Conduct for Electoral Campaigns, Annex, EB/EDG/WG/2/3 (Oct. 26, 2011), http://apps.who.int/gb/edg/pdf_files/EB_EDG_WG2_3-en.pdf (listing the sources of the WHO Code of Conduct).

14 Resolution WHA66.18, supra note 10, at Annex 2. If one includes the question-and-answer web forum established by the Code of Conduct and open to all candidates, as well as the structured interviews by the Board of shortlisted candidates, some candidates will have to undergo an interview process no less than three times in four months.