On Tuesday, Germany’s Annalena Baerbock will develop into the primary European girl to carry the publish and solely the fifth feminine President within the Meeting’s historical past.
On the eve of Baerbock’s inauguration, UN Information spoke with one in every of her predecessors. María Fernanda Espinosa, a former Minister of Defence and International Affairs of Ecuador, led the Meeting from 2018 to 2019 as the primary girl from Latin America and the Caribbean to take action.
Arduous work and expert diplomacy
Espinosa described the Normal Meeting as “the laboratory of worldwide regulation,” noting that the function of President calls for “exhausting work, good diplomacy, and the power to conduct honest negotiations.”
The final girl to preside over the Meeting stated she sees in Annalena Baerbock all of the qualities wanted for a “sensible efficiency” as the following President. She harassed that the German chief takes workplace at a time of “profound structural change throughout the establishment, linked partially to monetary challenges.”
Espinosa believes Baerbock will play an “completely central” function in implementing reforms beneath the UN80 course of, in addition to advancing commitments associated to the Pact for the Future, adopted in 2024.
For Espinosa, the UN’s personal historical past proves that it’s “an irreplaceable group, one humanity can’t do with out – however which nonetheless should be reinvented.”
Annalena Baerbock, President-elect of the eightieth session of the UN Normal Meeting, addresses the reporters following her election.
‘Why not a girl as Secretary-Normal?’
Whereas welcoming the election of the Meeting’s fifth feminine President in New York, Espinosa stated this restructuring additionally supplies a possibility to rethink management types and to lastly contemplate a girl for the publish of Secretary-Normal. The subsequent appointment is anticipated in 2026.
“The true query is: why not?” she requested, stressing {that a} girl may convey qualities corresponding to “sturdy administration and bridge-building.” She added {that a} feminine Secretary-Normal would additionally symbolize an act of “historic justice,” after 80 years of male management on the UN’s helm.
The previous Ecuadorian diplomat acknowledged one of many UN’s largest challenges: the hole between resolutions adopted within the Normal Meeting and their translation into nationwide insurance policies and laws. This, she stated, prevents multilateral choices from producing tangible enhancements in individuals’s lives.
To deal with this, she known as for a “extra inclusive and networked multilateralism,” during which residents are knowledgeable about, engaged with, and in a position to monitor the worldwide choices being made.
Constructing consensus behind the scenes
Espinosa emphasised that “many of the work of the Presidency takes place behind the scenes,” coping with divisions and forging consensus.
She famous that the incoming President will more and more face tasks linked to peace and safety, in addition to sustainable growth.
Espinosa recalled that the very first decision adopted by the Normal Meeting involved the invention of atomic vitality, underscoring the necessity to adapt to a brand new drive that may very well be harnessed for peaceable functions but in addition trigger “horrible results.”
She highlighted defining moments throughout her personal presidency, together with the troublesome negotiations that led to the adoption of the primary World Compact for Migration in 2018.
The diplomat additionally expressed pleasure in inner advances, corresponding to the choice to part out single-use plastics on the UN, recognizing the hurt they trigger to human well being and ecosystems.
