Jamaica is putting its weight behind Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett in the race to become the next secretary general of the United Nations.
Foreign affairs minister, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, made the declaration from the podium of the UN General Assembly in New York over the weekend.
Chevon Campbell tells us more.
Foreign affairs minister, Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, says Jamaica joins its CARICOM partners in supporting Guyanese diplomat, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett as the next secretary general of the United Nations.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, Minister Johnson Smith argues that the candidacy speaks to the role small states play as bridge-builders and consensus-makers in the international system.
Rodrigues-Birkett is Guyana’s permanent representative to the United Nations. She previously served as Guyana’s foreign minister from 2008 to 2015.
A new secretary general is needed because Antonio Guterres completes his second five-year term on December 31. By convention, no secretary general has served more than two terms.
The job rotates informally among the UN’s regional groups, and Latin America and the Caribbean are widely seen as next in line.
The region has not held the post since Peru’s Javier Pérez de Cuellar left office in 1991. No woman has ever led the organisation.
Rodrigues-Birkett faces a crowded field.
The other candidates are Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, former Senegalese president Macky Sall, former General Assembly president Maria Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador, Ugandan diplomat Olara Otunnu and Ecuador’s Ivonne A-Baki.
To win, a candidate needs at least nine votes in the 15-member Security Council and no veto from any of the five permanent members.
The council’s recommendation then goes to the General Assembly for appointment.
