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Veteran Labour MP Tim Barnett - who is retiring from Parliament - has been recommended by the UNAIDS Programme coordinating board to replace its current executive director, Peter Piot.
Mr Barnett, whose highest political role was as senior government whip, was one of four people recommended by the board for the job, the British medical journal, the Lancet, reported.
Mr Piot has been the UNAIDS executive director since 1995 and "has raised the profile of HIV/AIDS so successfully that the epidemic has remained a high priority on health, political and security agendas", the journal said in an editorial.
According to the Lancet, UNAIDS set up a search committee after Mr Piot announced his resignation and interviewed seven candidates from 117 applicants, recommending four, including Mr Barnett.
The former MP has previously worked for non-government organisations (NGOs) in Britain and elsewhere.
The Lancet said his "particular strengths lie in participative democracy, citizens' access, partnerships with NGOs and innovative law reform".
Mr Barnett was elected as the Labour MP for the Christchurch Central electorate in 1996, and was active in promoting equal rights - he was the parliamentary promoter of the Prostitution Law Reform Bill and a vigorous advocate for the Civil Union Bill.
He recently recalled that when he came to Parliament he was its only openly gay MP: "I was labelled by the Evening Post as Parliament's gay pom - as though every institution needed one," he said.
He said people who were or lesbian gained special insight and strength from their journeys of self-discovery, and of public advancement.
Other contenders for the UN job are HIV/AIDS researcher Stefano Bertozzi, director of health economics and policy at Mexico's National Institute of Public Health, Michel Sidibe, the deputy executive director for UNAIDS, and Debrework Zewdie, director of the Global HIV/AIDS Program at the World Bank.
The Lancet called for re-positioning of the response to HIV/AIDS to re-inforce plurality and justice and protect minorities.
"UNAIDS needs to abandon AIDS exceptionalism," the journal said in its editorial.
"The new executive director will need to work with others from the non-HIV world and be big on prevention and access to all essential medicines, including anti-retrovirals".
- NZPA
