“The next general secretary has to be a woman”

September 27 () –

The German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, has joined the idea of ​​the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, about female leadership in the UN by maintaining this Thursday that “the next Secretary General of the United Nations has to be a woman” in order to advance in matters of female representation.

“Women represent 50 percent of the population of each country, but in 80 years this organization has never had a general secretary. Therefore, if this organization calls for equality and justice in the world, we should have demonstrated it from here a long time ago , in New York,” he declared during his speech at the 79th session of the UN General Assembly.

Baerbock has acknowledged that “that alone will not immediately end all the inequality that still exists for women” in each country, but has considered that since none of them have achieved “full” gender equality, they can “achieve it together by learning from each other.” others and defending women’s rights” “everywhere” by “women’s rights are Human Rights and they are not specific to the north, the west, the east or the south: they are universal.”

These statements come after Sánchez asked, within the framework of the Future Summit, to elect the first woman general secretary of the organization after the mandate of António Guterres (which ends in 2026) and for there to be gender alternation in the presidency of the Assembly General. So far there have been nine heads of the international organization, all men.

He has also advocated reforming the organizations of the international organization, which is one of the eternal demands of the countries and regions that were left out of the first great distribution of power after the Second World War. “Our multilateral system still reflects a time in which almost none of us present here were born,” he criticized, before referring to the underrepresentation of African countries.

SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

On the other hand, regarding the situation in the Middle East, he has asked Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia party Hezbollah to accept the proposal for a 21-day truce, stating that “a broader regional escalation would not give anyone lasting security”. Although he noted that the lack of progress is frustrating, he indicated that they will not give up the search for “a political vision so that Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace side by side in two states.”

“For me, resignation is simply not an option, because that would mean that the playbook of terrorism and extremism takes over. We have to recognize the pain of others, the interests of others and, yes, also openly listen to the complaints from others if we want to move forward. And if we do, we may sometimes hear things we don’t want to hear,” he said.