Several human rights groups on Tuesday urged countries to reject Emirati official Lana Nusseibeh for the UN's top job, over United Arab Emirates' alleged financing of paramilitary forces in Sudan.
The 48-year-old Nusseibeh is vying to become the first woman and only the second Arab to become the United Nations secretary-general.
Since her official nomination last week, she has garnered the backing of Gulf states but also faced scrutiny over her country's normalization with Israel and Abu Dhabi's alleged role in Sudan's war.
Sudan has been engulfed in war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since 2023, with UAE accused of funding the militants, an accusation the country denies.
"I think that Lana Nusseibeh is utterly inappropriate as a candidate for UN Secretary General," Ken Roth, head of Human Rights Watch, told journalists.
"Not just once, but repeatedly she has been asked about the UAE's role in arming and supporting the RSF and she just blatantly denies it without regard to the facts," he added.
On Tuesday, Nusseibeh said she has taken "a leave of absence from my post as a minister of the UAE" to be "mindful of the obligations of independence" the role would entail, adding that "the horrific conflict in Sudan will be the litmus test of the success of an incoming Secretary General."
Kate Ferguson, co-director of the British NGO Protection Approaches, also raised concerns. "There is not, as far as I have seen, sufficient evidence that this candidate is independent from the state from which she comes," she said.
Secretary-general candidates are supposed to be independent from the governments of their home countries given that they are to lead an international body.
Nusseibeh is seasoned diplomat who has also served as the UAE's permanent representative to the UN from 2013 to 2024, the first woman to hold the post.
Speaking on Sudan, specifically, Nusseibeh said "the loss of human life on the ground is a tragedy."
"The atrocities committed by the RSF are atrocious, and I would support the work of all UN fact-finding missions for accountability and transitional justice," she said, adding the first thing the global organization must do "is stop the conflict."
To win the race for UN chief, a candidate must secure nine out of 15 votes on the Security Council and avoid a veto from one of its five permanent members: the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia.
Nusseibeh comes from a prominent Palestinian family of statesmen, uprooted by the creation of Israel in 1948.
Her family traditionally held the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the walled Old City of Jerusalem, the holiest site in Christianity that Christians believe marks the spot where Jesus was crucified.
rh/yad/mjf/sla/msp