Dear Martin,

We saw your recent blog post and wanted to raise to your attention a few important details. The election of Member States to the UNICEF Executive Board as well as the nomination of the four Vice Presidents and President are UN Member State driven decisions and processes. UNICEF cannot and does not input or have any influence into these decisions or into the processes of regional groups leading to these nominations. The election of the newly elected Member States to the Executive Board, including Eritrea, was determined by the results of elections to ECOSOC subsidiary and related bodies, which were held on 9 April 2024 at its twelfth and thirteenth plenary meetings of 2024 and on 16 December 2024 at its fourth plenary meeting of 2025. The nomination of the Permanent Representative of Eritrea to the UN to become a member and Vice President of the Bureau for 2025, for its part, came from the Chair of the African Group in the month of September 2024. Members of the Executive Board endorsed this nomination on January 10, 2025, and elected Ambassador Tesfamariam as Vice President representing the African Group.

I hope this clarifies things.

UNICEF