UN Secretary General Candidate Ivonne Baki Urges Urgent Security Council Reform to End Global Deadlock

Ecuadorian diplomat Ivonne Baki, running for the next UN Secretary General, argued on Thursday that the Security Council's current structure featuring five permanent members has failed to keep pace with a global population that has grown 40-fold since 1945.

Speaking during an informal General Assembly discussion, Ms Baki pointed out that continents experiencing the sharpest declines in their share of the global population still retain the same number of permanent seats, whereas Africa, the fastest-growing region, holds none, resulting in severe council paralysis.

“It's the primary reason the council so frequently collapses into deadlock, never agreeing,” she stated. The five permanent members of the Security Council consist of China, Russia, the UK, France, and the US.

Ms Baki, who previously served as an Ecuadorian government minister and as ambassador to France, Qatar, and the US, was nominated by the Pacific island nation of Tonga. She stands as the second candidate from Ecuador, joining former foreign affairs and defence minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa.

Having previously informed Ecuadorian radio that her candidacy enjoys Washington’s backing, Ms Baki also publicly acknowledged her friendship with US President Donald Trump. Of Lebanese heritage, she traced her dedication to peacemaking back to her experiences surviving Lebanon's civil war over four decades ago.

“In a basement in Beirut, where I lived all through the war, I held my three children as bombs fell around us,” Ms Baki recalled. “In that moment, I made a promise that if they were spared, I would devote my life for peace. I've kept that promise ever since.”

Highlighting her active background, she pointed to her role in helping to broker Ecuador's 1998 peace treaty with Peru—which successfully ended a decades-long border conflict—as proof of her track record, while pledging to act as a hands-on mediator.

“I intend to personally use that power the SG possesses to build peace to the more than 60 state-level conflicts we see around the world today,” Ms Baki said, adding that her efforts would extend beyond her New York office to war zones and areas of tension.

Furthermore, Ms Baki criticized the low representation of women in conflict resolution efforts, including Russia's war in Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza conflict, arguing that female leaders bring vital perspectives that can help parties reach compromises.

“We are almost at the brink of a third world war,” she warned, noting that civilians, particularly women and children, bear the heaviest toll.

She shared an anecdote about her seven-year-old grandson reacting to news coverage of the Ukraine war by suggesting she invite Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for dinner to make them friends, quoting him as saying, "It’s not difficult.”

Additional candidates vying for the UN's top post include Rafael Grossi of Argentina, former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, former Senegalese President Macky Sall, and Ugandan diplomat Olara Otunnu.