Ecuadorian diplomat Ivonne Baki, a candidate to become the next UN Secretary General, on Thursday said the Security Council's structure with five permanent members failed to keep pace with a world population that has grown 40-fold since 1945.
Ms Baki told an informal General Assembly discussion that the continents with the sharpest declines in share of the global population still hold the same number of permanent seats, while Africa, the fastest-growing, holds none – a situation leading to "council paralysis".
“It's the primary reason the council so frequently collapses into deadlock, never agreeing,” she said.
The five permanent members of the Security Council are China, Russia, the UK, France and the US.
Ms Baki, who was an Ecuadorian government minister and ambassador to France, Qatar and the US, was nominated by the Pacific island nation of Tonga and is the second candidate from Ecuador, alongside former foreign affairs and defence minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa.
Ms Baki had told Ecuadorian radio that her candidacy has Washington’s support, and she publicly acknowledged her friendship with US President Donald Trump.
She is of Lebanese heritage and traced her commitment to peacemaking to living through Lebanon's civil war more than 40 years 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 said. “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.”
She spoke of her role in helping to broker Ecuador's 1998 peace treaty with Peru, ending a decades-long border conflict, as evidence of her record, and pledged to be 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.
She added that she would work “not just at the desk in New York and the 38th floor, but in war zones, in areas of tension”.
Ms Baki criticised the lack of women involved in efforts to resolve conflicts including Russia's war in Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza conflict. She said women could bring a different perspective to peace talks and help parties to reach compromises.
“We are almost at the brink of a third world war,” she said. Ms Baki said civilians, particularly women and children, are paying the price.
She recounted how her seven-year-old grandson reacted to television news coverage of the Ukraine war by asking her to invite “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy for dinner … and make them be friends".
"It’s not difficult,” she quoted him as saying.
The other candidates for the UN's top job include Rafael Grossi of Argentina, former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, former Senegalese President Macky Sall and Ugandan diplomat Olara Otunnu.
