The search has begun for a new head of the United Nations.

This year member countries will decide who will be the organisation’s next Secretary-General when Antonio Guterres’ term ends on December 31.

Whoever assumes the role on January 1, 2022 will have their work cut out improving the UN’s performance and relevance in an increasingly fractious world; and also in upholding human rights.

Observers are worried that the growing influence of autocratic states will see the selection process become less than competitive and transparent.

News reports say that Mr Guterres will seek another five-year term.

If confirmed, he will not be handed a new term as a fait accompli.

NGOs and other observers have said he process should include multiple candidates all presenting concrete plans to improve the UN, including how to reinforce its human rights pillar at a time when some governments are actively working to undermine them.

They say Mr Guterres’ performance on human rights over the past four years has been mixed and largely characterized by his unwillingness to publicly criticise rights-abusing governments by name as well as a preference for closed-door diplomacy.

The NGO Human Rights Watch and other aid agencies have called on the incumbent Secretary General to publicly criticise the Chinese government over the treatment of Uighur minority group and call on it to release more than a million of the Turkic Muslims arbitrarily detained in so-called education camps.

They also want an envoy appointed to monitor rights abuses in China.

Mr Guterres has done none of these things nor has he, the groups say, used his authority to launch investigations into events such as the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Instead, the groups argue, he has succumbed to pressure from member states, such as when he ordered a limited probe into attacks on humanitarian facilities in Syria.

Mr Guterres did, however, take an important step last year with his ‘Call to Action on Human Rights’.

While the initiative sets out a plan to bolster the UN’s commitment to human rights, it is still very much a work in progress.

The selection of the secretary-general is largely in the hands of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, as the council nominates a leading candidate for members of the General Assembly to confirm.

Human Rights Watch has called on UN member states to affirm that they will consider only candidates who make credible commitments to resist the efforts of governments seeking to sideline human rights considerations.

Mr Guterres is a former Portuguese politician and diplomat and is the ninth Secretary General of the UN. He was a member of the Portuguese Socialist Party and served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002

Prior to becoming Secretary General, he was the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees and was an outspoken advocate for a more coordinated and humane approach by European countries to the Mediterranean refugee crisis of 2015 and in June 2013, he launched a US$5 billion aid effort, its biggest ever, to help up to 10.25 million displaced Syrians,