The race to become the next leader of the United Nations moved into a higher gear with the four declared candidates facing hours of questions over two days. Top among them: can the UN be made effective again?
Rafael Grossi, an Argentine diplomat who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, struck a downbeat note about the global body’s future during his interview replace Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
“This election, or selection, process is so consequential, and this is because we are at a time when there are enormous, huge doubts about our institution,” Grossi said on Tuesday. “The direction in which the UN is moving is not the one we would all like to see.”
Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile, had her own gloomy assessment, saying: “our world and the order based on international law that sustains it is under strain as never before”.
The other two candidates, senior UN official Rebeca Grynspan and former Senegal president Macky Sall were similarly pessimistic, with Grynspan saying trust in the organisation “is waning and because time is running out to restore it”.