On Tuesday, Germany’s Annalena Baerbock will grow to be the primary European lady 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 lady from Latin America and the Caribbean to take action.
Exhausting work and expert diplomacy
Espinosa described the General Assembly as “the laboratory of worldwide legislation,” noting that the function of President calls for “onerous work, good diplomacy, and the flexibility to conduct truthful negotiations.”
The final lady to preside over the Meeting stated she sees in Annalena Baerbock all of the qualities wanted for a “good efficiency” as the subsequent President. She burdened that the German chief takes workplace at a time of “profound structural change throughout the establishment, linked partly 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 Common Meeting, addresses the reporters following her election.
‘Why not a lady as Secretary-Common?’
Whereas welcoming the election of the Meeting’s fifth feminine President in New York, Espinosa stated this restructuring additionally offers a chance to rethink management kinds and to lastly think about a lady for the publish of Secretary-Common. The subsequent appointment is anticipated in 2026.
“The true query is: why not?” she requested, stressing {that a} lady might carry qualities equivalent to “sturdy administration and bridge-building.” She added {that a} feminine Secretary-Common would additionally signify 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 Common Meeting and their translation into nationwide insurance policies and rules. This, she stated, prevents multilateral selections from producing tangible enhancements in folks’s lives.
To deal with this, she referred to as for a “extra inclusive and networked multilateralism,” wherein residents are knowledgeable about, engaged with, and in a position to monitor the worldwide selections being made.
Constructing consensus behind the scenes
Espinosa emphasised that “a lot 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 obligations linked to peace and safety, in addition to sustainable growth.
Espinosa recalled that the very first decision adopted by the Common Meeting involved the invention of atomic power, underscoring the necessity to adapt to a brand new power 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 Global Compact for Migration in 2018.
The diplomat additionally expressed delight in inside advances, equivalent to the choice to part out single-use plastics on the UN, recognizing the hurt they trigger to human well being and ecosystems.
