UN chief of staff: refugees will be top priority

The Syrian refugee crisis is one of the greatest challenges to be faced by the new United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, who will take over on January 1st. But according to his future chief of staff, Brazilian diplomat Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, Guterres is ready for the challenge as he has spent the last ten years dealing with this issue.

"He has been the head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees for ten years and witnessed the escalation of the problem very closely, visiting areas of conflict and refugee camps. So he will bring his very direct personal experience of the problem," she said.

Internal Reforms

In an exclusive interview to Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC), Viotti said that Guterres will seek to undertake the necessary internal reforms in the UN. Whether it will effect changes to the composition of the Security Council—for which Brazil stands as candidate for years—, she said the issue is complex.

"The idea that the UN Security Council needs to be reformed has been increasingly accepted and the permanent have also agreed that the reform is needed so that the council can reflect more the current international political reality. But it is a complex issue because in order to reform the Security Council, it is necessary to reform the UN Charter and, for this, two-thirds of the member countries need to approve it and the five permanent need to approve and ratify it," she reported.

Climate change

According to Viotti, sustainable development and climate change are also expected to be part of the new secretary general's agenda. She said that the fact that the Paris Agreement was approved and ratified by the country at top speed is an achievement, but implementing the actions to curb global warming depends on the efforts put in by each country.

“It was an important agreement because it shows the countries' awareness in facing global warming and climate change,” she affirmed. “It's important that the attention level of society and the press should be kept high,” she argued.

The Paris Agreement, signed by 195 world leaders in 2015, establishes devises for all countries to curb the rise in the globe's temperature and to strengthen their defense against the inevitable impact of climate change.

Women

Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti is one of the three women appointed by Guterres to lead his team. The other two are Nigeria's Environment Minister Amina Mohammed, set to take office as the new sub-secretary general; and Korean Kyung-Hwa Kang, soon to become the new secretary general's adviser for political affairs.

Women's representation in prominent positions has grown, but not enough, the Brazilian ambassador argued. “We're making progress, no doubt, but we're still way below the desirable level,” she remarked.

To bring women on par with men in the organization was among the commitments made by Guterres in his inauguration speech, she said. “The secretary general has stressed that a lot more should be done to achieve gender equality in the secretariat, especially higher up in the hierarchy,” she stated.

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta / Fabrício Ferreira