A group of former world political leaders – who call themselves The Elders – has proposed the next U.N. Secretary-General be appointed for a single, non-renewable term of seven years, in order to strengthen his or her independence and avoid the perception of being guided by electoral concerns.

“She or he must not be under pressure, either before or after being appointed, to give posts in the Secretariat to people of any particular nationality in return for political support, since this is clearly contrary to the spirit of the Charter”.

This new process, The Elders say, should be adopted without delay, so that the United Nations can make full use of it to choose the best person to assume the post in January 2017.

The Elders, founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007, include: Martti Ahtisaari, Kofi Annan (Chair), Ela Bhatt, Lakhdar Brahimi, Gro Harlem Brundtland (Deputy Chair), Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jimmy Carter, Hina Jilani, Graça Machel, Mary Robinson and Ernesto Zedillo. Desmond Tutu is an honorary member.

In a statement made at the International Security Conference in Munich, Germany last week, The Elders have made four key recommendations for the reform of the world body, which is commemorating its 70th anniversary this year.

The statement says: The UN was founded seventy years ago in 1945 “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”, and over the decades it has served the people well. But is it fit for purpose in the 21st century?

In Nigeria, in Pakistan, in the Middle East, to name but a few places – far too many people are beginning the year 2015 in grief and suffering, caused by conflict and deliberate violence. The use of the veto by some P5 members has allowed militant groups to further their causes with impunity.

The world’s peoples yearn for a fairer, more peaceful world, where new generations can grow up in confidence. They want a stronger, more agile UN. They do not want to see the UN wither into irrelevance, as the League of Nations did in the 1930s.

We believe timely changes are needed in the composition and working of the UN Security Council, to make it more democratic, more representative of the world of today, and more effective in its mission of preventing and addressing armed conflict.

To that end, The Elders announced four new proposals at the Munich Security Conference.

• A new category of members
In principle, the existing permanent members claim to be ready to welcome new members. But their sincerity has not been tested, because the rest of the membership cannot agree on essential points: which countries, and how many, should be new permanent members, and should they, like the existing ones, be given a veto over the Council’s substantive divisions?

In the view of many, the use or abuse of the veto is responsible for some of the Council’s most conspicuous failures, when it does not intervene in time, or with sufficient force, to protect the victims of genocide and other comparable crimes. Those states are understandably reluctant to give yet more powers the right of veto.

We therefore propose a compromise. Let the states which aspire to permanent membership accept instead, at least for the time being, election to a new category of membership, which would give them a much longer term than the two years served by the non-permanent members, and to which they could be immediately re-elected when that term expires.

This would enable them to become de facto permanent members, but in a more democratic way, since it would depend on them continuing to enjoy the confidence of other member states. By making the Council more democratic, this change would increase its legitimacy in the eyes of the world, thereby enhancing its authority and so also making it more effective.

• A pledge from permanent members
As already noted, on too many issues the Security Council is deadlocked by the failure of its permanent members to agree on a course of action, with the result that millions of people are left to suffer while great powers score debating points off each other. As the UN’s founders understood, without the united support of the permanent members, both material and moral, the Council cannot act.

None of us has forgotten the Holocaust, Rwanda, Srebrenica, Saddam Hussein’s campaign against Iraq’s Kurds, or the killing fields of Cambodia. No part of the world has been spared these horrors. So the political will must be summoned to prevent, or at least limit, their repetition.

We therefore call on the five existing permanent members to pledge themselves to greater and more persistent efforts to find common ground, especially in crises where populations are being subjected to, or threatened with, genocide or other atrocity crimes.

States making this pledge will undertake not to use, or threaten to use, their veto in such crises without explaining, clearly and in public, what alternative course of action they propose, as a credible and efficient way to protect the populations in question.

This explanation must refer to international peace and security, and not to the national interest of the state casting the veto, since any state casting a veto simply to protect its national interests is abusing the privilege of permanent membership.

And when one or more permanent members do feel obliged to cast a veto, and do provide such an explanation, the others must undertake not to abandon the search for common ground but to make even greater efforts to agree on an effective course of action.

• A voice for civil society
When they can agree, the permanent members too often deliberate behind closed doors, without listening to the voices of those most directly affected by their decisions, and present their elected colleagues with ready-made resolutions leaving little room for debate.

To remedy this, we call on all members of the Security Council to make more regular and systematic use of the “Arria formula” (under which, in the last two decades, Security Council members have had meetings with a wide variety of civil society organisations), to give groups representing people in zones of conflict the greatest possible opportunity to inform and influence Council decisions.

At present, meetings under the Arria formula are too often attended only by junior officials, whose reports can easily be ignored. In future, we call on the heads of the delegations of all countries serving on the Security Council, including the permanent members, to attend all meetings held under this formula in person.

Members of the Council must use such meetings to ensure that their decisions are informed by full and clear knowledge of the conditions in the country or region concerned, and of the views of those most directly affected.

• A more independent Secretary-General
At the United Nations, it is the Secretary-General who has to uphold the interests and aspirations of all the world’s peoples. This role requires leadership of the highest calibre. Yet for 70 years the holder of this post has effectively been chosen by the five permanent members of the Security Council, who negotiate among themselves in almost total secrecy. The rest of the world is told little about the process by which candidates are identified, let alone the criteria by which they are judged.

This barely follows the letter, and certainly not the spirit, of the UN Charter, which says the Secretary-General should be appointed by the General Assembly, and only on the recommendation of the Security Council.

To remedy this, we call on the General Assembly to insist that the Security Council recommend more than one candidate for appointment as the Secretary-General of the United Nations, after a timely, equitable and transparent search for the best qualified candidates, irrespective of gender or regional origin.

We suggest that the next Secretary-General be appointed for a single, non-renewable term of seven years, in order to strengthen his or her independence and avoid the perception that he or she is guided by electoral concerns.

She or he must not be under pressure, either before or after being appointed, to give posts in the Secretariat to people of any particular nationality in return for political support, since this is clearly contrary to the spirit of the Charter. This new process should be adopted without delay, so that the United Nations can make full use of it to choose the best person to assume the post in January 2017.”

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says Ebola must be confronted both as a health crisis and a development crisis.

Speaking at a UNDP-hosted briefing for Member States, UNDP Administrator Helen Clark urged the world to stay the course in aiding Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea as they work to rebuild and regain the huge socio-economic losses wrought by the epidemic.

“It is incumbent on us all to support the three countries make the serious development setbacks as short lived as possible,” she added.

Representatives from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea urged ongoing assistance in stamping Ebola out and supporting their full recovery and thanked the UNDP and other international partners for their support, according to a UNDP press release.

“The war on Ebola is not yet won,” said Remongar Dennis, Liberia’s Deputy Representative to the U.N. “The need for robust action from all actors is critical,” he added.

While outlining their governments’ own efforts to combat the disease, the representatives highlighted the need to support them to lead their recoveries and support existing long-term development plans. Special mention was made for targeted assistance to aid vulnerable groups, including women and children, end Ebola–related stigma, strengthen social systems and jump start economic growth, the UNDP press release said.

Amadu Koroma, Sierra Leone’s Deputy Representative to the U.N, underlined the huge economic impact of Ebola on mining, construction and trade, stating that tourism dropped 30 percent in the first six months of the epidemic. “The sooner we end the stigmatization of our countries, the better for us,” he said.

Guinea’s Deputy Representative the U.N. Cheriff Diallo acknowledged that the infection in his country is dropping and that care for the sick is more effective since the outbreak began. He stated that there was still need for response equipment and trained staff to get to zero cases.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has offered the support of the international community and tasked UNDP with leading the initiatives of the UN system on Ebola-related recovery.

Stan Nkwain, UNDP Deputy Assistant Administrator for Policy and Programmes, led a recent multi-party Ebola recovery assessment mission to the region on behalf of the U.N. system and shared preliminary findings at the meeting.

UNDP is working with the African Development Bank, the European Union and the World Bank to support the national Ebola recovery strategies of the affected countries.

“The impact has stretched far beyond health, to social service delivery as a whole, governance, peacebuilding and social cohesion, private sector growth and job creation,” Nkwain said.

He highlighted three key questions arising from the ongoing recovery assessment.

“The first concerns the health and non-health institutional and systemic weaknesses that allowed a disease outbreak to turn into an epidemic that spiraled out of control,” he said.

The second concerns “ways in which already weak and fragile systems and institutions have been furthered impacted” and the third relates to how the hardest hit countries, with international support, can and should beef up institutions and systems to boost resilience to better deal with future shocks.

He highlighted the countries successes and the impact of international support in fighting Ebola. “These countries may not yet be Ebola free, but they have made huge progress towards becoming Ebola safe” he said.

The UNDP said a full report on the Ebola Recovery Assessment will be made available in the coming months.

The World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) says 2014 was a highly successful year for global tourism.

The number of international tourists (overnight visitors) reached 1,138 million in 2014, 51 million more than in 2013. With an increase of 4.7 percent, this is the fifth consecutive year of above average growth since the 2009 economic crisis.

“Over the past years, tourism has proven to be a surprisingly strong and resilient economic activity and a fundamental contributor to the economic recovery by generating billions of dollars in exports and creating millions of jobs. This has been true for destinations all around the world, but particularly for Europe, as the region struggles to consolidate its way out of one of the worst economic periods in its history,” said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, opening the Spain Global Tourism Forum in Madrid last week.

By region, the Americas (+7%) and Asia and the Pacific (+5%) registered the strongest growth, while Europe (+4%), the Middle East (+4%) and Africa (+2%) grew at a slightly more modest pace. By subregion, North America (+8%) saw the best results, followed by North-East Asia, South Asia, Southern and Mediterranean Europe, Northern Europe and the Caribbean, all increasing by 7%.

As in recent years, the growth in international tourism receipts in 2014 is expected to have followed that of arrivals fairly close (the 2014 results for international tourism receipts will be released in April 2015). In 2013, international tourism receipts reached $ 1,187 billion, $230 billion more than in the pre-crisis year of 2008.

For 2015, UNWTO forecasts international tourist arrivals to grow between 3% and 4%. By region, growth is expected to be stronger in Asia and the Pacific (+4% to +5%) and the Americas (+4% to +5%), followed by Europe (+3% to +4%). Arrivals are expected to increase by +3% to +5% in Africa and by +2% to +5% in the Middle East.

“We expect demand to continue growing in 2015 as the global economic situation improves even though there are still plenty of challenges ahead. On the positive side, oil prices have declined to a level not seen since 2009. This will lower transport costs and boost economic growth by lifting purchasing power and private demand in oil importing economies. Yet, it could also negatively impact some of the oil exporting countries which have emerged as strong tourism source markets,” added Rifai.

The positive outlook for 2015 is confirmed by the UNWTO Confidence Index. According to the 300 tourism experts consulted worldwide for the Index, tourism performance is expected to improve in 2015, though expectations are less upbeat than a year ago.World’s governments are failing on protected areas for nature.

Prince Adel El-Hashemite, who claims to be the heir apparent to the British-sponsored Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq from 1921 to 1958, has criticized French president Francois Hollande for referring to a wave of killings in Paris as the work of (Islamic) “fanatics” and “extremists”.

Seventeen people fell victim to terror attacks across the country that began with a shooting at the weekly Charlie Hebdo, known for its satirical attacks on Islam and other religions, as well as politicians.

In an open letter to the French president on January 11, the day when some 50 government leaders, including Muslim and Jewish, marched arm-in-arm under high security to pay tribute to victims of brutal killings, Prince Adel said, the killers were ”French nationals by birth”. He said, “No religious holy books contain verses that indicate or allow for being ‘extremist’ against other ethnic, cultural or religious groups”.

He added: “Poking fun at a religion or religious leaders by way of degrading the symbols of a religion as part of the so-called freedom of speech or of press should be barred. Because the so-called right to poking fun or right to freedom of speech can be classified as libelous.”

Prince Adel, who is a member of the International Association of Prosecutors in The Hague, added: “. . . we must ask ourselves, what went wrong so that French citizens could be brain washed? Where did the local government fault in letting those young French nationals to be brain washed by sick-minded persons up to the point of committing murder?”

Prince Adel, who lives in Germany, is the eldest son of Prince Mohammed, the only survivor of the July 14, 1958 massacre by a secret Iraqi military group, which assassinated King Faisal II and nearly liquidated the Hashemite monarchy. The then 28-year old Prince Mohammed survived the wave of killings, because he was away, travelling in Egypt.