Rebeca Grynspan, the candidate seeking to become the first woman to serve as secretary-general of the United Nations, has called for a reform of the organisation to make it more agile, more closely connected to conflicts and better able to cooperate with other institutions. Speaking at the World in Progress forum in Barcelona, she said the UN was more necessary than ever, despite the weakening effectiveness of international peace efforts and the loss of important lessons from the past.
Grynspan, who has led the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development since September 2021 and previously served as vice-president of Costa Rica, used the event to present her candidacy to succeed António Guterres. She described herself as a “daughter of peace”, drawing on her family history: her grandparents died in the Holocaust, while her parents survived and built their lives in peaceful Costa Rica. She said this background had created a personal commitment to the principles of the UN Charter.
After more than eight decades, Grynspan acknowledged that the organisation needs to improve. She said many people ask where the UN is in current conflict zones, arguing that it is increasingly absent from mediation, negotiations and preventive diplomacy. In her view, the organisation has become too unwilling to take risks, while its secretary-general must be prepared to accept the political cost of failure or rejection.
Grynspan pointed to the Black Sea grain agreement as an example of what the UN can achieve. She said the negotiations, in which she took part, enabled the export of 33 million tonnes of grain. Although the agreement did not end the war, she said it addressed a problem of global importance and created an opportunity for further action.
She also acknowledged the organisation’s inability to help find a solution when the Strait of Hormuz was blocked, saying it had failed to bring the relevant actors together. On Gaza, she argued that the UN Security Council resolution calling for unrestricted humanitarian aid, the disarmament of Hamas and Israel’s withdrawal to the lines set out in the plan must be implemented.
The candidate stressed that the UN does not have a monopoly on peace. She advocated working with organisations and actors that have stronger positions on the ground, arguing that not every initiative has to be directed from New York. Her proposed model would combine greater speed, cooperation with third parties and a clearer understanding of when the UN should lead and when it should support others.
Vetoes in the Security Council and opposition to the organisation from some member states remain major obstacles. Grynspan said the UN’s universality means it is not a club of countries with identical views, and that the secretary-general should act as a moral anchor for the values established in its founding Charter.
She also reflected on the creation of the Charter after the Second World War. According to Grynspan, the countries that signed it did not give up their power, but recognised that unlimited power could lead to unlimited destruction. She said that principle remains relevant and that trust must be rebuilt to prevent another world war. Although she accepts criticism of the UN, she rejected the idea that destruction is inevitable, arguing that crises always contain different possible choices and that catastrophic outcomes can also result from poor decisions by otherwise well-intentioned people.
Sources: El País Internacional.