Six candidates are vying for the position of UN Secretary-General to replace Guterres
Six candidates are vying for the position of UN Secretary-General, which António Guterres will leave on December 31 after completing his second term. The winner will be selected by the UN General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. Its permanent members include China, France, the Russian Federation—an aggressor state—the United Kingdom, and the United States, according to Deutsche Welle English.
Among the candidates is former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, who led the country from 2006 to 2010 and from 2014 to 2018. From 2018 to 2022, she served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Bachelet aims to become the first woman to hold the position of UN Secretary-General and considers her experience a significant advantage.
Argentine diplomat Rafael Mariano Grossi has served as Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency since 2019. He has cited his experience in the nuclear sector as an advantage for a candidate for the position of UN head. Grossi also supports the UN80 reform and proposes reducing structural duplication within the organization.
Former Ecuadorian Foreign Minister María Fernanda Espinosa previously served as president of the UN General Assembly. She identified financial difficulties as the organization’s greatest challenge and advocates for closer cooperation with regional organizations. Rebecca Greenspan, former Vice President of Costa Rica, currently serves as Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Her work on an agreement to continue Ukrainian grain exports following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has been highly praised.
Also in the running are former Senegalese President Macky Sall and Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Carolyn Rodriguez-Birchett. Sall served as president of Senegal from 2012 to 2024, and Rodriguez-Birchett previously served as Guyana’s minister of foreign affairs. A debate among the candidates is scheduled for July 23 in the UN General Assembly Hall in New York.
