NEW YORK, Feb 21 (IPS) – The collection of the following UN Secretary-Common (UNSG) can be a pivotal second in world efforts to withstand authoritarianism and work collectively to handle shared issues. The place do UN Member States stand on appointing a feminist lady to this position?
Casual campaigning is already underway for the place of the following UN Secretary-Common. The race will formally kick off in direction of the top of the yr; the profitable candidate will take workplace on 1 January 2027. A decade in the past, state after state stood up and stated the following Secretary-Common needs to be a lady. Then they voted for a person.
This time, civil society is just not taking good intentions at face worth, and needs concrete actions. The best solution to break the 80-year outdated glass ceiling is that if states commit publicly to solely take into account nominating girls candidates – hardly a problem given the plethora of gifted leaders obtainable.
The Accountability, Coherence and Transparency (ACT) coalition of 27 nations has included this situation to their record of key areas for revitalizing the UN’s effectiveness, insisting, final November: “We can’t miss the transformative alternative to nominate the UN’s first lady SG.”
Civil society teams such because the 1 for 8 Billion coalition and the International Community of Girls Peacebuilders (GNWP) level out that the appointment gained’t be ‘transformative’ until the following SG isn’t just a lady however a feminist.
A latest research by the International Community of Girls Peacebuilders, 1 for 8 Billion, and college students on the Middle for International Affairs, College of Skilled Research, New York College, confirmed that solely three UN Member States – Costa Rica, Spain and Slovenia – have backed up their emphatic help for a lady SG with concrete reform proposals to deliver gender equality to the SG choice course of.
The research is predicated on evaluation of Member State public statements on the UN, as an example on the Common Meeting in September final yr and the assembly of the Advert Hoc Committee on the Revitalization of the Work of the Common Meeting final November.
Past particular person nation positions, the analysis analyzed joint statements by collectivities such because the Non-Aligned Motion, the ACT group, the European Union, the Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations, and a bunch of 78 states coordinated by Mexico, Slovenia and Spain on the illustration of ladies at UN management. Statements are assessed as ‘Very Robust’, ‘Robust’, ‘Oblique/Implied’, or ‘Opposed’.
Fifty states have indicated ‘Robust’ help, which suggests they’ve stated that the following SG needs to be a lady, however they haven’t outlined particular actions to extend the probabilities of this end result. One other 124 states have proven oblique help by saying that gender equality needs to be certainly one of a number of concerns within the subsequent choice spherical.
Within the supply materials studied, not a single UN Member State has referred to as explicitly for a feminist lady SG. Of the 15 nations that align with ‘feminist overseas coverage’, solely 5 – Canada, Chile, Spain, Slovenia and Germany – made a degree of mentioning the significance of choosing a lady SG in the course of the opening of the 79th Common Meeting in September.
A lone lady chief will be unable to repair what ails the UN. To name for a feminist lady SG is to invoke the broader adjustments that the following SG should be empowered by Member States and work collectively to undertake. Gender equality has been confirmed to be an accelerator of all UN priorities, together with the Sustainable Growth Objectives (SDGs).
Nonetheless, there’s a severe assault on feminist pondering and activism by autocratic populists and non secular fundamentalists. From Undertaking 2025 to the edicts of the Taliban, weaponized misogyny – or the ‘gender ideology backlash’, in addition to assaults on range, fairness and inclusion – are used to revive vintage variations of patriarchal management and get rid of opposition to unbridled militarization.
This makes the centering of gender equality by the primary Madam Secretary-Common crucial each substantively and symbolically.
Past calling for feminist girls candidates with reform agendas, there are requires an open choice course of to allow candidates to construct a broad help base for his or her visions. Carrying this help by way of to the thirty eighth flooring as soon as in position can be very important, as the primary Madam Secretary-Common might want to work creatively to get issues completed within the present surroundings, reaching past Member States to attach immediately with civil society and the worldwide public.
With no highly effective mandate to steer, the primary lady SG can be arrange for failure, appointed to the sting of a glass cliff as polarization in geopolitics splinters the group.
Doorways are closing quick to alternatives to democratize the choice course of and to make sure that a lady is chosen. 1 for 8 Billion has set out possible strikes to help an inclusive and honest course of. The Common Meeting has the possibility over the following few months to implement this agenda, when all states get a platform to publicly touch upon the SG choice course of on the assembly of the Advert Hoc Working Group on the Revitalization of the Common Meeting.
The analysis talked about above can be obtainable on an Interactive Map monitoring UN Member States’ positions on the appointment of a feminist lady SG. This can be launched on March fifth. GNWP’s web site to register for the occasion.
Mavic Cabrera Ballez is Founder and Chief Govt Officer, International Community of Girls Peacebuilders; Ben Donaldson is Advisor, 1 for 8 Billion marketing campaign; Anne Marie Goetz is Medical Professor, Middle for International Affairs, College of Skilled Research, New York College
Supply: UN Affiliation of the UK
IPS UN Bureau
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