Who will be the new UN Secretary General?

What does it take to lead the United Nations? And is the post of UN Secretary General even worth fighting for anymore?

One of the UN’s key mandates is to resolve conflicts which break out, and to prevent others happening at all. And yet the UN has been completely sidelined in the diplomacy over Ukraine, over Gaza, and over Iran. People may disagree over whether this is the UN’s fault for being afraid to take a stand, or too slow to react, or whether the world’s big powers are emboldened by how easy it is to ignore the UN in pursuit of their own unilateral objectives.

Either way, the more the UN is ignored, the less relevant it becomes, even in the minds of ordinary people who once regarded it as important. Meanwhile there is little sign that the big powers even care that much about the UN’s decline. For decades superpowers have viewed the UN secretary general with a kind of exploitative tolerance, to be called on when it suits them, and to be disregarded when it does not.

Former United Kingdom prime minister Margaret Thatcher summed up the attitude perfectly in 1986, when, giving her country’s seal of approval to the Peruvian Javier Perez de Cuellar’s appointment as secretary general for a second five year term, she remarked “he didn’t cause us any trouble last time.”

Listen to the Inside Geneva podcast for an in-depth look at what it’s like to run to be UN secretary general, and hear from three women candidates who hope to get the job.

Chance for change or poisoned chalice?

The campaign to take over from current Secretary General Antonio Guterres — whose term ends in December next year — is now well underway, and despite the challenges, six candidates, four women and two men, have thrown their hats into the ring.

Susana Malcorra is a former foreign minister of Argentina, she also served as chief of staff to former UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon, and in 2016 ran to lead the UN herself. She is convinced that this time, finally, the secretary general really must be a woman.

“This is a moment that requires a different type of leadership,” she told Inside Geneva. “We have tested leadership, nine leaders, throughout 80 years that were all men.”

She believes “there is too much testosterone in the world these days. Too many things are decided based on reactions that are not logical.”

To meet today’s challenges, Malcorra says the next Secretary General will require “a moral compass,” be able “to take certain risks,” to bridge gaps between opposing groups, “to mediate in very, very difficult conflict resolution questions,” and, given the financial cuts the UN Is facing, “somebody who manages resources well.”

That is a long and complicated list; arguably the next UN Secretary General will have a more difficult job than any who came before. Some fear that if a woman is chosen, she is being handed a poisoned chalice, a job it is impossible to succeed in.

Malcorra is more optimistic. A woman, she argues, is likely to have more patience, will “go back again and try again,” to resolve protracted conflicts, or complex multilateral agreements. A woman could, Malcorra is convinced, “bring a light to the UN that will revitalise the UN.”

Three in Geneva

There are now four women running to be Secretary General, and three, Rebeca Grynspan, Maria Fernanda Espinosa and Michelle Bachelet, came to Geneva recently to set out their vision for the job. The fourth, Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett had not yet been nominated, and the two male candidates, Rafael Grossi and Macky Sall, were unable to attend.

Faced with informed questions from a lively audience, the three women were fluent in their answers. Grynspan, from Costa Rica and currently head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, said she was determined to put the UN back at the heart of global challenges, “My criteria of success as secretary general is that nobody will ask me again; where is the UN? If that question continues we will be irrelevant.”

Ecuador’s Maria Fernanda Espinosa, a former president of the UN General Assembly, also stressed making the UN relevant again, by proving it could deliver. “I think the UN does not suffer from a crisis of purpose or principles enshrined in the Charter,” she told the audience. “It suffers from a crisis of delivery of impact, of accountability, and of inclusion.”

And Michelle Bachelet of Chile, who served as UN Human Rights Commissioner, agreed change and improvement were needed, but stressed the positive things the UN has been able to achieve. “Multilateralism has a lot of problems,” she admitted. “But if you didn’t have a multilateral system, children in the refugee camps wouldn’t have vaccines. People in displacement wouldn’t have support. So there’s a lot of things that multilateralism has done.”

The candidates were questioned on how to engage young people with the UN, how to meet the challenge of climate change, and of course on the likelihood of a woman becoming Secretary General. “It’s about time, after 80 years,” responded Espinosa to that question, while Grynspan chose to push her credentials, rather than her gender, “I’m running to be secretary general because I think I am the best person for the job.”

Risk of veto

All the candidates, male and female, have now had their hearings at the UN General Assembly, a process Malcorra remembers as being “quite fun”. Now, the UN Security Council is holding closed door sessions, to assess each candidate and choose one to recommend to member states.

This part of the process is fraught with risk, because at this point any one of the five permanent members of the Security Council can veto a candidate they don’t approve of. Malcorra’s bid to become Secretary General ended when one permanent member, believed to be the UK, expressed reservations about her (Malcorra is from Argentina) position on the Falkland Islands.

This time round, the United States has said openly it intends to veto Bachelet, because of her stance on women’s rights, and reproductive rights – this despite the UN already having multiple agreements upholding women’s rights, in its original charter, in the Beijing Declaration adopted in 1995, and in the sustainable development goals.

Bachelet, clearly aware she is facing a tough campaign, was defiant when asked about this. “I do believe that women’s rights are essential,” she told Swissinfo. “I shouldn’t say this but I’m going to say it because I truly believe it.”

“If somebody vetoes me because I believe in democracy, because I believe in multilateralism, because I believe in women’s rights, because I believe in human rights, I will be honoured.”

Bachelet’s situation illustrates quite neatly the challenges facing the UN as a whole. Member states have deep differences about how to interpret the fundamental rights enshrined in the UN Charter. Increasingly they prioritise their own agendas, and what they think might appeal to their own voter base, rather than the global good.

And so now here we are: a global superpower once famous for championing gender equality is ready to stop someone becoming the first woman to lead the United Nations, because she champions…gender equality.

Can a woman heal these rifts?

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