Olara Otunnu Kampala, Uganda | URN | The Government of Uganda has officially nominated veteran diplomat and former United Nations Under-Secretary-General Ambassador Olara Otunnu for the position of Secretary-General of the United Nations, describing him as a distinguished international civil servant with more than four decades of experience in diplomacy, peacebuilding and global governance. In a press statement issued by Bagiire Vincent Waiswa, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday July 26, 2026, the government said Otunnu’s experience at the highest levels of the UN system, national government, academia and civil society makes him well suited to lead the world body when the term of the current Secretary-General, António Guterres, expires this December 31. Otunnu served as the first UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict from 1998 to 2005 at the rank of Under-Secretary-General.
During his tenure under Secretary-General Kofi Annan, he was among the highest-ranking African officials in the UN Secretariat, second only to Annan himself in the organization’s executive leadership. The government says he transformed the newly established office into one of the UN’s most influential mandates by placing the protection of children affected by armed conflict firmly on the agenda of the Security Council. His tenure also saw the creation of the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism on grave violations against children in armed conflict under UN Security Council Resolution 1612 (2005), a framework that continues to guide international efforts to protect children in conflict zones.
Before joining the UN Secretariat, Otunnu served as Uganda’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations between 1980 and 1985. In December 1981, while serving as President of the UN Security Council, he introduced the informal straw-balloting procedure for selecting the UN Secretary-General, a process that later became known as the “Otunnu Formula” and has since been used in every Secretary-General selection. At the national level, Otunnu served as Uganda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1985 and 1986 and was a member of the Uganda National Consultative Council during the country’s transition following the fall of Idi Amin.
Following the completion of his UN assignment in 2005, Otunnu continued his work in …
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