Opinion: Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley for UN Secretary General

With the geographical rotation of the next United Nations (UN) Secretary General’s position, now shifted to the Latin America and the Caribbean region, and calls growing loader for a female leader of the 78-year body, Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Amor Mottley, is gaining traction.

Over the past two years, many UN watchers, especially those in the international media have been reporting that Mottley stands above all the five names that are seen as potential runners to replace António Guterres, whose second term ends in 2026, with the new SG taking office in January 2027.

The other notable names being considered are: Amina J. Mohammed (Nigeria), Alicia Barcena (Mexico), Maria Fernanda Espinosa (Ecuador), Rebeca Grynspan (Costa Rica) and Michelle Bachelet (Chile). Reports have also surfaced that former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, will be launching a campaign for the UN top job.

Aside from the views of many progressive groups, to have, for the first time, a woman at the help of the body responsible for promoting and maintaining peace and equity across the globe, Mottley has captured the attention of individuals and organisations that advocate for “fairer deals” from countries who control all elements of the financial power houses, including the UN itself.

Her very spirited address at the Glasgow COP26 Climate Conference, in 2021, where she challenged the unfairness of the big countries whose industries add more to Climate disasters, and her call for action was followed with the launch of the Bridgetown Initiative, which demands  major reforms of the world’s multilateral financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

Since then, she has been a force in regional and international fora, advocating for the IMF and others to ramp-up their work on Climate Change and other development challenges, as well as to provide more support for the most vulnerable countries, pushing for them to access easier financing at lower interest rates, and for grants, rather loans that choak small developing states.

Her successful advocacy for the establishment of a “loss and damage” fund was agreed on at COP27, in Egypt. It was once considered unachievable due to opposition from the big powers. The breakthrough at COP27 and subsequent progress at COP28 in Dubai, have all positioned the Barbados head of Government, as a visionary and courageous leader in the international arena.

A matter that can work against her ascendancy to becoming SG, is the unending debate to reform the UN Security Council. During Mottley’s 2022 address to the General Assembly, she had this to say, “we believe that a Security Council that retains the power of veto in the hands of a few will still lead us to war as we have seen this year, and therefore the reform cannot simply be in its composition but also the removal of that veto.”

Making her position known on the reform of the UN Security Council, including relinquish of the veto powers of the Big Five permanent members: United States (US), United Kingdom (UK), China, Russia, and France, was a huge gamble, if indeed, she decides to go for the top UN position. For any candidate to succeed, the Big Five must agree on their candidacy, and the General Assembly must then approve it.

The Council is responsible for maintaining global peace and security, it has the power to deploy peacekeeping missions, authorise the use of force, impose sanctions, and pass resolutions, many of which have enjoyed great effectiveness despite high-profile deadlocks on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war.

Outside the five veto-wielding powers, there are ten non-permanent seats, three of which go to Africa, on the Council. The non-permanent seats do not have veto powers and are elected by region by the General Assembly for a two-year term. Brazil and India have been pushing to get permanent seats on the Council, with longtime foes Pakistan and China, uneased over Pakistan’s elevation, and Argentina and Mexico opposed to Brazil’s case.

In the coming months, lobbying in the Manhattan Hall, of the UN headquarters will be intensified as to who should succeed Guterres, while in other quarters, views will increase that the time has long past for the world body to be evolved. But rivalries and national interests among the 193 member states might continue blocked attempts to change as they struggle to agree on which countries to include on the Council, the scale of the enlargement of permanent and non-permanent members, and what their powers on the Council should entail.

Under Article 97 of the UN Charter, the Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly, on the recommendation of the Security Council. The length of the term is discretionary, but all Secretaries-Generals since 1971 have been appointed to five-year terms. All of them since 1961 have been re-selected for a second term, except for Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who was vetoed by the US in the 1996 selection process.  

Secretaries-general generally come from countries considered to be small, or medium-sized neutral powers. All the occupants of the office have been male career diplomats. No national from Eastern European countries, has ascended to the office, and the five permanent members of the Security Council, have so far, avoid nominating their citizens.

PM Mottley who is the eight Prime Minister of Barbados, the first woman to head the Government in that Caribbean Island. She also serves as Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs, and Investment. She is a former Attorney General, and has been Member of Parliament, since 1994. Since taking office, she has moved her country from being a British monarchy, and gained accolades for her stance on slavery reparations, Climate Change, and the need to reform global financial institutions through the multilateral groups.

Addressing a recent meeting of the UN General Assembly, she uttered these words: “how is it possible for Chevron and the European Union to access the oil and gas of Venezuela, but the people of the Caribbean cannot access it at the 35 percent discount offered by the people of Venezuela?”

Another powerful speech that will stand as Mottley’s strength, and how she sees her mission as a global leader, was when she addressed the 20th Nelson Mandel Annual Lecture in 2022, in Soth Africa, where she stated: “working together and making that difference, doing so in the context of calling upon us, to summon that will for moral strategic leadership in what will become not just the battle of our lifetime, but, the battle of planet earth.”

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