By Ramesh Jaura* – rjaura.substack.com
A milestone year brings calls for gender parity, regional equity, and bold leadership at the helm of the UN.
As the United Nations prepares to celebrate its 80th anniversary in 2025, the milestone presents an opportunity to reflect not only on past achievements but also on the future. It presents a pivotal opportunity to ask whether the UN, born from the ashes of World War II, is still equipped to meet the unprecedented challenges of the 21st century.
Global crises—from protracted wars and mass displacement to climate breakdown, inequality, and a fraying multilateral order—have laid bare the urgent need for bold, legitimate, and inclusive leadership. At the heart of this reckoning lies a powerful and increasingly resonant question: Why has the world’s most important diplomatic institution never had a woman as its Secretary-General?
As momentum builds toward the selection of the UN’s next top official, a chorus of voices—from civil society to senior diplomats—is urging that the 80th anniversary be marked by a transformative breakthrough: the appointment of the first-ever female Secretary-General in UN history.
This call has been given renewed weight by a coordinated declaration from former Foreign Ministers of Latin America and the Caribbean, who argue that both gender parity and regional rotation must guide the 2025 selection process. With António Guterres’s second and final term set to end on 31 December 2026, the world will spend much of late 2025 looking toward the Security Council and General Assembly, where the next leader of the UN will be chosen.
“It is time for a woman to lead the United Nations,” the former ministers assert. “Our region is home to many distinguished women who could redefine international leadership and bring new perspectives to global governance.”
Their statement represents a powerful convergence: a call for justice, representation, and institutional reform—all grounded in the principles enshrined in the UN Charter itself.
A Legacy of Aspirations—and Unfulfilled Promises
The UN Charter, signed on June 26, 1945, in San Francisco, committed the international community to pursuing peace and security, development, and human rights as inseparable global goods. Eight decades on, those goals remain critical—and increasingly contested.
“There is no peace without development, no development without peace, and no lasting peace or sustainable development without respect for human rights and the rule of law,” the former ministers reaffirm.
This foundational vision will be celebrated across multiple events in 2025. A commemorative plenary of the General Assembly, a public display of the original Charter at UN Headquarters in New York, and the UN’s active participation in Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, are planned. There, the Organization will showcase efforts to tackle today’s most pressing challenges—from climate change and digital inequality to global health and sustainable development.
However, many believe that the most consequential moment of the anniversary year will be the appointment process for the next Secretary-General. This decision could shape the UN’s credibility for a generation.
The Case for Change: A Woman and a Latin American
Despite steady advocacy over the past two decades, no woman has ever led the United Nations. Several distinguished female candidates have come close—including Gro Harlem Brundtland, Helen Clark, and Irina Bokova—but all were ultimately passed over. In a time when the UN actively champions gender equality through initiatives like UN Women and SDG 5, its top post remains a glaring exception.
At the same time, regional rotation has long served as a guiding—if unofficial—principle for choosing a Secretary-General. And yet, in 80 years, only one Secretary-General has come from Latin America and the Caribbean: Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru, who served from 1982 to 1991. Since then, the region has been bypassed in favour of candidates from Africa, Asia, and Europe.
The former foreign ministers argue that this is not just a matter of fairness—it is a matter of vision and capacity. Latin America and the Caribbean have demonstrated strong multilateral credentials, including championing disarmament through the Treaty of Tlatelolco, advancing climate diplomacy, and embracing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with innovative homegrown policies.
They contend that the region is ready to provide transformational leadership—rooted in principles of peace, solidarity, and inclusion. And this time, that leadership should come in the form of a woman.
The Security Council and the Politics of the Veto
However, even the most qualified and widely supported candidate—whether female or male—must pass a formidable gatekeeper: the UN Security Council, and more specifically, its five permanent members (P5): the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China.
Thalif Deen, a senior UN correspondent who has covered the Organization since the 1970s, warns that despite growing global support for a woman Secretary-General, the outcome hinges on realpolitik and the veto power held by the P5.
“The campaign for a female Secretary-General—if successful, for the first time in the history of the 80-year-old United Nations—now has the support of former foreign ministers of the 33-member Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (GRULAC),” Deen said. “This endorsement is a reflection of the gathering momentum.”
Yet, he cautions, “the most crucial support has to come from the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council.”
Deen points to a striking historical precedent: Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the Egyptian Secretary-General who served from 1992 to 1996, was blocked from a second term despite receiving 14 out of 15 votes in the Security Council. The United States alone vetoed his reappointment—even though the other four permanent members supported him.
“In such circumstances, tradition would demand the dissenting country abstain on the vote—respecting the overwhelming majority,” Deen noted. “But it never happened. The U.S. exercised its veto unilaterally, effectively overruling the will of the Council.”
This example underscores a sobering reality: the power of the veto can override even the strongest consensus. And that power will almost certainly play a decisive role in 2025–26.
“The same veto logic will apply to the selection of a female Secretary-General,” Deen warned. “Without the backing—or at least the non-opposition—of all five permanent members, the campaign, however popular, could be derailed.”
*Ramesh Jaura has worked as a professional journalist for nearly sixty years. His career includes roles as a freelancer, head of Inter Press Service, and Editor-in-Chief of International Press Syndicate and IDN-InDepthNews.