UN chief race enters decisive phase as new contender arrives
The race to elect the next UN Secretary-General enters its final phase with former Costa Rican Vice President Rebeca Grynspan holding a challenging lead, while UAE Minister of State Lana Nusseibeh emerges as a new contender.
The race to elect the next UN Secretary-General enters its final phase with former Costa Rican Vice President Rebeca Grynspan holding a challenging lead, while UAE Minister of State Lana Nusseibeh emerges as a new contender. The growing excitement around the race is fueled by the prospect of a female UN secretary-general, something that has never happened in the UN's more than 80-year history.
As part of a complex election process, an informal straw poll of officials in the deciding United Nations Security Council last week gave Grynspan a narrow lead over her closest competitors: Guyana's former Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett and Argentina's International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi. However, after receiving two opposing votes, the race has been relaunched, allowing new candidates to participate.
New UAE contender energizes race
Senior UAE diplomat and Minister of State Lana Nusseibeh energized the race when her nomination was announced this week. Known for her versatility in 'quiet diplomacy' in the campaign for peace and for creating space for wider political settlements, Nusseibeh brings a fresh perspective to the competition.
I have spent much of my professional life working in and around the United Nations, and I have seen first-hand what determined diplomacy can achieve - countries with profound differences finding common ground, and agreement where people said agreement was impossible.
In her vision statement, she puts peace and security at the core while also promising to deliver across the board on development and human rights, as well as reform the organization around focus and results. The 48-year-old diplomat, who grew up between Abu Dhabi and the UK in a family of well-known political figures, previously served as the UAE ambassador to the UN and is credited with elevating the UAE's profile during that time.
Historic potential of Nusseibeh candidacy
If she succeeds, Nusseibeh would become the first woman to lead the United Nations since its establishment in 1945, the first of Palestinian descent, and the second Secretary-General from the Arabic-speaking world after Egypt's Boutros Boutros-Ghali. She led the UAE's successful bid for a Security Council seat and secured the adoption of Resolution 2720, which opened the way for humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza during the country's 2022-2023 term.
Nusseibeh, a Hebrew speaker, said she secured support for the resolution by arranging visits from Council members to the Rafah border crossing. Several countries approached her during the last UN General Assembly and urged her to stand, recognizing the need for someone who offers generational change for the organization.
I think it would be great if the next secretary-general is a woman, but I am not running because I am a woman, I am running because I am stubbornly optimistic about the future of the United Nations and I believe we need someone who is relentless in the pursuit of diplomacy to open doors.
Grynspan's vision for UN reform
Costa Rica's former Vice President Rebeca Grynspan, 70, currently Secretary-General of the UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), holds a challenging lead in the race. Born to Jewish parents who fled Poland before World War II, she lost her grandparents in the Holocaust after they decided to remain in Poland. Her personal experience with war's impact drives her candidacy.
I know exactly what wars take away from you and what peace allows you to do. I am a generation that have lived in peace. I have never experienced war directly. But millions of people in the world today live in war zones, in conflict. And that is why I am running, because I know the difference, what peace and opportunity can do for you and your family.
Grynspan agrees with US President Donald Trump's 'constructive' criticism that 'the UN has great potential, but it's not living up to that potential,' and believes a reformed UN can make a difference. She warns that in our multipolar world, the choice is between 'multipolarity with multilateralism that bears the promise of prosperity and cooperation, or if we will have multipolarity without multilateralism that will lead us to fragmentation into a world that will be more unstable, more prone to conflict, and less prosper.'
The winner needs at least nine votes from the 15-member UN Security Council without opposition from any of the five permanent members — the US, the UK, France, China and Russia — and they have until the end of December to choose the successor to current UN chief Antonio Gutteres, before the UN General Assembly confirms the appointment.
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