Dear Secretary-General,

In 2022 the Blue Smoke working group was formed by UNA-UK, Plataforma CIPÓ and Strategy for Humanity to shine a light on elections and appointments to senior positions within the United Nations. Working with civil society partners we have established the attached statement of principles which we believe should guide senior appointments at the United Nations and how states engage with appointment processes.

We have the pleasure of sharing this statement with you, alongside the following list of civil society organizations that have endorsed them. Collectively we urge you to put them into practice, and in doing so, put inclusivity, transparency and fairness at the heart of UN appointment processes. We also urge you to champion these principles throughout the wider UN system.