Lords International Relations Committee to investigate priorities for the next UN Secretary General

The UN will later this year elect a new Secretary-General who will formally take up their position in 2017. The House of Lords International Relations Committee, which was established in May, are holding an inquiry into the UK's priorities for the new Secretary-General.

In the first session, to be held at 10:30am on Wednesday 7 September, in Committee Room 3A of the House of Lords, the Committee will take evidence on this issue from:

• Sir Emyr Jones Parry GCMG, Former UK Ambassador to the United Nations and NATO,
• Lord Malloch-Brown, former Deputy UN General Secretary, Chief of Staff to the UN Secretary-General, and CEO of the UN Development Programme.

The Committee will then hear evidence at 11:30am from Baroness Amos Former UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief.

In the first session the Committee will ask the witnesses whether the UN needs a new vision and if so what role the new Secretary General should play in delivering it and what reforms they should prioritise, the likely impact on the UN of either a Clinton or Trump Presidency in the US and how the UN's peacekeeping service can respond to new threats including non-state forces who do not recognise international law and Security Council Members who act on occasion act outside of that law.

In the session with Baroness Amos the Committee will explore how a new Secretary General can make progress in reforming the UN's development work, how additional funding could be secured for the UN's humanitarian work, which is facing a funding crisis, and what impact Brexit might have on the UK's role in promoting a human rights agenda in the UN.

This will be followed on Monday 12 September at 2:00pm by evidence from Baroness Anelay in Committee Room 3 of the House of Lords.