Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett, Guyana’s permanent representative to the United Nations and her country’s nominee to lead the organization, presented herself on June 18 as the first “she” secretary-general that should head the world body after 80 years of men at the helm.
Rodrigues Birkett, speaking at the UN General Assembly’s informal dialogue for candidates vying to be the next UN boss, used a female pronoun to describe the kind of leader the world body needs as its top public servant.
“She must be an administrator, peacemaker, mediator, broker, negotiator, convener and spokesperson,” Rodrigues Birkett, 52, said. “More importantly, she must be able to discern which role is most appropriate in any given situation. I do believe that I am ready for the task ahead.”
During the three-hour long interactive session to field questions lobbed by UN diplomats and others, Rodrigues Birkett, who threw her hat in the ring late last week, characterized herself as a principled, pragmatic reformer who would pursue equal treatment of the UN’s three pillars — peace and security, development and human rights — while acknowledging the organization’s financial and institutional crises.
She projected herself easily as an advocate for small states, given that Guyana, a South American nation with Caribbean ties, falls neatly into that category with a population of just under one million. Mostly, member states know Rodrigues Birkett from her time as Guyana’s envoy in the UN Security Council, from 2024 to 2025, amid emotional debates on the Gaza war. (She has been ambassador to the UN for the last five years. Previously, she served as a minister of Amerindian Affairs and of foreign affairs for Guyana.)
“The vision I have outlined is principled, pragmatic and responsive to the needs of the organization,” she said at the June 18 dialogue.
Across the array of questions posed by diplomats and civil society representatives in the latest secretary-general candidacy dialogue, organized by the president of the General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock, respect for international law, conflict resolution and preservation of the UN Charter were prominently cited during the conversation.
No questions were about the just-signed Iran-United States peace framework and only one came up about Palestine. Rodrigues Birkett referred to the women, peace and security agenda — primarily mandating women’s equal rights in peace negotiations — as “important.”
Like other candidates in the General Assembly setting, Rodrigues Birkett was measured, offering borderline responses when asked specific questions, particularly on Russia’s war in Ukraine and the impact of nonpayment or delayed mandatory dues payments by the two biggest contributors — China and the US — to the UN’s main budgets.
The topic of the organization’s liquidity straits surfaced repeatedly, which she deflected with answers about working on efficiencies while ensuring the UN does not roll back its gains without detailing them.
Overall, candidates are keenly aware that the success of their race rests heavily on the power of the permanent members of the Security Council (Britain, China, France, Russia and the US), who ultimately decide who will be the next secretary-general just as their veto can end anyone’s ambition.
Several moments that stood out in the dialogues were her fellow diplomats commending her values, conduct and personality as an ambassador at the UN.
“Dear Carolyn, congratulations, and thank you very much for coming forward,” Samuel Zbogar, Slovenia’s envoy, said. “All of us who have been working with you closely have really high respect for you, respect for you as a diplomat, as a politician, as negotiator, consensus builder, but most of all I think as a human being.”
Zbogar, who served in the Council at the same time as Rodrigues Birkett, added: “Today’s discussion, what came out very clearly is your passion for the UN, your trust in the UN, and your commitment to the UN, and I think these are the qualities that we are looking for in the new secretary-general.”
Yet, she had to answer to tough questions on development, human rights and global peace and security. The representative of the European Union asked whether Rodrigues Birkett agreed that the promotion of human rights was indispensable to achieving both sustainable development and peace and security.
Uganda, speaking on behalf of the Non‑Aligned Movement of 120 developing nations, wanted her views on the right to development and how she would push its implementation.
The Arab Group, led by Saudi Arabia, queried her on the “selective application of international law,” respect for international humanitarian law, support to humanitarian actors and how she would use her office to ensure that relevant resolutions on the Palestinian issue would be carried out. Liechtenstein asked how she would use the UN Charter’s Article 99, including formats short of formal invocation, in situations of severe humanitarian crises.
In responding to the myriad questions, Rodrigues Birkett drew examples from her time as a government minister in her country and the positive role the UN played in shaping peace and development there. She noted, for example, that at one point there was only one Indigenous doctor in Guyana but educational investments over 15 years produced a surge in Indigenous professionals. She cited Guyana’s own fiscal history to make the case for the UN’s growing collective voice on debt relief.
In 1992, she said, her country was paying 94 cents on every dollar it earned toward debt service, leaving no viable path out without external relief. It was only when the UN began to speak up, she said, that creditors listened and Guyana could find a path out of the red.
“I see the investment in development and the investment in peace and security as also investment in human rights, because when conflicts arise, many times human rights is one of the things that suffer immediately,” she said.
She added: “I think we all will agree in this room that development is a vector for peace, and so we must never forget the interlinkages between the three, development, human rights and peace and security . . .”
Five promises made:
Engage proactively on global peace and security: Rodrigues Birkett said she would use all the tools available as the UN chief to advance peace, including calling relevant parties directly when early-warning information suggested a crisis was imminent. “Not being afraid to be rejected, not being afraid to fail, but always being ready and willing to make that call,” she said.
Prioritize structural reform under UN80: She pledged to make the ongoing structural, programmatic realignment of the UN system a top priority.
Ensure geographic/gender balance in senior appointments: Rodrigues Birkett said Article 101 of the Charter, which calls for merit alongside geographic representation, would be “the first point of reference” in her hiring and that she would bring unrepresented and underrepresented countries, including small island developing states and developing nations, into the Secretariat pipeline at professional and senior levels.
Engage individually with member states that do not pay their assessed UN contributions: She promised to engage directly with nonpaying member states to work out payment plans, while clarifying that financial contributions remain a Charter obligation.
Improve the UN’s global communications: She said she would make public messaging a “centerpiece” of her tenure, arguing that a gap exists between what the UN is doing and what is being conveyed to the world, and that closing the gap will naturally build broader support for the organization.
Damilola Banjo is an award-winning staff reporter for PassBlue who has covered a wide range of topics, from Africa-centered stories to gender equality to UN peacekeeping and US-UN relations. She also oversees all video production for PassBlue. She was a Dag Hammarskjold fellow in 2023 and a Pulitzer Center postgraduate fellow in 2021. She was part of the BBC Africa team that produced the Emmy-nominated documentary, “Sex for Grades.” In addition, she worked for WFAE, an NPR affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. Banjo has a master’s of science degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and an undergraduate degree from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
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Congratulations Guyana and wishing success to Carolyn for a better humanity!