Do we like Ban Ki-moon?
Our score: 8 out of 10. A strong record on LGBTQ+ rights, refugees and climate, held back by a Haiti response that fell short and family scandals that touched his name.
Ban Ki-moon is the quiet South Korean career diplomat who ran the UN for a decade, from 2007 to 2016, after a stint as his country's foreign minister. He wasn't a firebrand. He was a patient, careful operator, and on the issues this page cares about he turned out to be braver than most people expected.
On LGBTQ+ rights he was properly in your corner. He backed equal pay and allowances for the same-sex partners of UN staff, even where their home countries didn't recognise the relationship. The UN also created a post responsible for LGBT rights on his watch, and PinkNews called him a champion as he left.
In September 2016 he hosted the first high-level UN meeting on LGBT rights. He told the room he would “always fight for the equality of the LGBT members of our human family”, and he rejected religious or cultural excuses for denying people their rights. He also acknowledged that speaking out had a political cost.
Elsewhere he stood up for refugees and the planet. In 2016 he said Turkey and other hosts of Syrian refugees deserve more help, and called attempts to demonise refugees factually incorrect. After Trump's election he said he hoped Trump would “understand the seriousness and urgency” of climate change.
The messier part is the Haiti cholera outbreak. In December 2016 he said “We apologise to the Haitian people” and promised a fund-raising plan. The UN still refused legal responsibility, and a US appeals court had upheld its immunity that August. So the apology was real, but it stopped short of what many wanted.
Then there's the family trouble. In January 2017 US prosecutors accused his brother and nephew of trying to bribe a Middle Eastern official over a Vietnam property sale. His nephew pleaded guilty in January 2018 and was sentenced to six months in September 2018. Ban isn't named in the indictment. He said he had “absolutely no knowledge” and was embarrassed.