The UN General Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly elected Ecuador\u2019s Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces as its next president, making her only the fourth woman to lead the 193-member world body in its 73-year history.<\/p>\n
She defeated another woman Honduras\u2019 UN Ambassador Mary Elizabeth Flores Flake by 128-62 with two abstentions in the secret-ballot vote.<\/p>\n
The current assembly president, Miroslav Lajcak of Slovakia, announced the results to loud applause, saying, \u201cFrankly, 4 out of 73 is not a record to be proud of, but I\u2019m glad we are getting ourselves on track.\u201d<\/p>\n
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who defeated several female candidates and continues the male domination of the UN\u2019s top post, echoed Lajcak, saying, \u201cWe can and we must do better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Espinosa Garces expressed hope that gender parity continues to make progress and dedicated her election to \u201call the women in the world who participate in politics today and who face political and media attacks marked by machismo and discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to pay a special tribute to the women who struggle every day to access jobs on equal terms, to women and girls who are victims of violence, to girls and adolescents who demand access to quality information and education,\u201d she said. \u201cMy commitment will always be to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the presidency of the General Assembly is largely ceremonial, it is also prestigious.<\/p>\n
The world body controls the UN budget, adopts treaties, addresses global issues from poverty to climate change, and passes numerous resolutions that while not legally binding almost always reflect global opinion. It is also the UN organ where countries large and small can speak \u2014 and the scene of the annual gathering of world leaders in September.<\/p>\n
The selection of the assembly president follows a regional rotation mandated by the world body, and it was the turn of Latin America and the Caribbean to preside over the next yearlong session which starts just before September\u2019s global gathering.<\/p>\n
By tradition, the UN\u2019s regional groups usually nominate a single candidate who is then rubber-stamped by the assembly. But this year the election was contested \u2014 as it was in 1991, 2012 and 2016 \u2014 according to the UN, because Latin American countries couldn\u2019t agree on a nominee.<\/p>\n
Espinosa Garces noted after her victory that she will also be the first woman from Latin America and the Caribbean to preside over the assembly starting in September.<\/p>\n
\u201cI offered an open door presidency and I will hold to that promise,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a poet as well as a politician,\u201d Espinosa Garces said. \u201cAs such, I am fully aware that no view is useful if we do not see, and no word has any value if we do not listen. I will be ready to listen to you all and to work for you and with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the first time this year, assembly president Lajcak decided to follow a new practice that was also used to choose secretary-general Guterres.<\/p>\n
He invited both candidates to appear before assembly members for two hours May 4 to present their vision for the presidency and answer questions from diplomats and civil society representatives. The issues raised ranged from conflict prevention and financing UN goals for 2030 to ending poverty and sustaining the planet to transparency in the president\u2019s office, UN reforms, and gender equality.<\/p>\n
Espinosa Garces said then that she would focus on \u201cdelivery, implementation and accountability\u201d to bring the UN\u2019s work closer to people everywhere and convince them that what the United Nations does \u201ctouches upon their daily lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Tuesday\u2019s election, she stressed that \u201cstrengthening multilateralism is not an option, it\u2019s an obligation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Therefore, Espinosa Garces said, it\u2019s urgent that the United Nations responds to major global challenges and does more to bring the organization closer to all citizens of the world.<\/p>\n
She told reporters later that her priorities will be to finalize negotiations for a global compact on migration, promoting action on climate change, implementing UN reforms, and looking for new ways to finance economic development.<\/p>\n
Diplomats said before the vote that the views of the governments of Ecuador and Honduras would likely play a significant role in Tuesday\u2019s voting.<\/p>\n
One issue they pointed to that could have an impact was December\u2019s General Assembly resolution condemning the United States for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel\u2019s capital, which was adopted overwhelmingly.<\/p>\n
Ecuador supported it. Honduras was one of only nine countries that supported the United States and voted against the resolution, a decision that angered the Palestinians\u2019 many supporters. Honduras has also said it is considering following in the footsteps of the United States and moving its embassy to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The UN General Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly elected Ecuador\u2019s Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces as its next president, making her only the fourth woman to lead the 193-member world body in its 73-year history. She defeated another woman Honduras\u2019 UN Ambassador Mary Elizabeth Flores Flake by 128-62 with two abstentions in the secret-ballot vote. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33245,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33246,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33244\/revisions\/33246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}