Juan Gasparini/Human Rights Tribune - UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is scrutinising the candidates for the extremely difficult post of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Mexico is amongst the frontrunners, putting forward Luis Alfonso de Alba, its ambassador in Geneva since 2004 and the first president of the Human Rights Council in 2006.

At the moment, the Mexican is the favorite. De Alba is the only Latin American in the running. Cuba, the leader of the Non Aligned Group, supports him, as well as a number of African and Asian countries.

His chances are good, according to UN sources, particularly as Asia is not fielding a candidate as the Korean, Kyung wha Kang is the deputy High Commissioner. As for the western group, they recently had Mary Robinson and Louise Arbour in the post. And between the two women, the Brazilian, Sergio Viera de Mello, killed in Bagdad in 2003, only held the post for a couple of months. Africa is calling for its seat, but has not managed to gather behind one particular candidate. The names of a dozen potential African candidates are doing the rounds in the corridors of the UN.

The selection process

But the game is far from over for Luis Alfonso de Alba. He has a number of hurdles to overcome. According to the non written rules of the UN, the UN Secretary General must first of all ask countries to put forward candidates.

Ban Ki-moon must then draw up a short list of his choice and submit it in confidence to the 5 permanent members of the Security Council. This is done to ensure that none of the candidates is going to be vetoed.

Once over this hurdle, Ban Ki moon must consult all the members of the UN in order to identify the person who has the most support. This is before he makes public the man or woman who will be proposed officially to the UN General Assembly.

The American question mark

At the moment, two questions remain. Is Ban Ki moon going to short list De Alba? And above all is the US going to oppose his candidacy? According to diplomatic sources, Washington could well make him pay for his successful role in overseeing the construction of the Human Rights Council until June 2007. The Bush administration had tried to sabotage process.

In fact, Canada, the alter ego of the US at the Human Rights Council – as Washington refused to take part – had tried to tarnish the Mexican’s success by saying after the event that it was against the consensus that de Alba had managed in extremis to get as regards the architecture of the new Council a year ago. If the Mexican’s candidacy manages to get past these two stages, it will no doubt be favoured by the majority of the five regional groups represented at the UN.

Translated from French by Claire Doole