The selection process for a successor to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has formally begun, as demands grow for a more open process that emphasizes geographic and gender parity.
The U.N. Security Council confirmed on Friday that a joint invitation letter with the General Assembly inviting countries to nominate their candidates will soon be sent out, and it will reflect the intense pressure that has been building up among the world body's 193 member nations for more equal representation. Since 1946, a woman has never been chosen for the top leadership job, and four of the nine U.N. chiefs have been Europeans.
The election process and rules
The process of replacing the secretary-general begins with the invitation to nations to put forward candidates. After the council recommends someone, the General Assembly, as the U.N.’s most representative body, makes the appointment. The next five-year term begins in Jan. 2027, once Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, leaves office.
"As the year draws to a close, the council approaches one of its most significant responsibilities, namely this process of selections of the next secretary-general," said Denmark's U.N. Ambassador Christina Markus Lassen, speaking as co-chair, with Pakistan's U.N. Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, of a council working group on procedural questions.
"In the coming months, the council will be discussing how it votes, how it engages candidates, how it informs the wider membership of its progress and its outcomes," she told the 15-nation council, the U.N.'s most powerful arm. "These are fundamentally questions of process and working methods, and we believe they should be guided by the principles of transparency, inclusivity and predictability. That the process should be structured and timely. That all council members engage actively and equally."
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said the council's work on the joint invitation letter with the General Assembly started in October, while his nation held the council's monthly rotating presidency. "We trust that the document will be adopted in short time to formally start this important process," he said, adding that the council's members also expect these efforts will "help to facilitate the selection of the worthiest candidate."
A revised rule adopted by the General Assembly in September emphasizes greater openness and accountability in what has historically been an opaque council-driven affair. However, advocates note that the council's five permanent members, known as the P5, blocked more proposals to strengthen the General Assembly's role in the selection.
The definitive power to select the candidate remains firmly with the council as dictated by the U.N. Charter's Article 97, which mandates that the General Assembly’s appointment follow the council's recommendation. But the council's traditional process of recommending a candidate for the position can include secret ballots and straw polls, and at least nine of its members, including all five that hold permanent, veto-wielding seats – China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. – must come to an agreement.
Each contender for the job must be formally nominated by at least one member nation and submit a vision statement. In a new transparency measure, all candidates are now mandated to disclose their campaign's sources of funding upon nomination. Also new is a recommendation that candidates who already hold a U.N. position should consider suspending their duties during the campaign to avoid conflicts of interest.
Beyond diplomatic skills, candidates are required to be fluent in English and French, the working languages of the U.N. The U.N. Charter defines the role as the chief administrative officer, though it functions as equal parts diplomat and advocate, civil servant and CEO.
Aside from the P5, the 10 elected council members holding a vote in 2026 are Bahrain, Colombia, Congo, Denmark, Greece, Latvia, Liberia, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia. A single "discourage" vote cast by any of the P5 nations constitutes an effective veto.
Straw polling continues until a candidate secures the minimum nine votes, with no P5 vetoes. Guterres' selection required six rounds of straw polls before consensus was reached. The General Assembly vote traditionally is confirmed by acclamation. New procedures recommend the swearing-in should occur in the final quarter of 2026 for an effective transition.
Political dynamics and candidates
Whoever succeeds Guterres, nearing the end of his second five-year term, will immediately have to steer a global organization through the latest geopolitical and financial upheaval. U.S. President Donald Trump's return to the White House, in particular, could upend a recent popular sentiment that the next U.N. leader should be a woman from Latin America.
The emerging field of candidates is complicated by the competing informal conventions of regional rotation. The U.N. uses five geopolitical regional groups to facilitate the equitable distribution of seats and rotation of leadership positions in its various bodies.
Diplomats widely acknowledge the Eastern European group has the strongest historical claim, as it remains the only U.N. regional group never to have held the top post. However, the Latin America and the Caribbean group is also heavily in contention, citing its region's 34-year absence from the leadership role.
Intense pressure from member nations and civil society organizations is mounting to appoint a woman to be secretary-general. A General Assembly resolution specifically notes "with regret that no woman has ever held the position," and encourages nations to "strongly consider nominating women." The candidates who have officially declared or been nominated hold diverse experience in diplomacy and high-level governance, and feature a strong Latin American contingent.
This includes Michelle Bachelet of Chile, a former president and U.N. high commissioner for human rights. Her experience includes serving as the first executive director of U.N. Women. Her candidacy has been officially endorsed by Chile's President Gabriel Boric, who said "parity is not a symbolic gesture; it improves both effectiveness and legitimacy."
Also running is Rafael Mariano Grossi of Argentina, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose campaign is built on his experience in nuclear security and crisis diplomacy. Grossi, who officially confirmed his bid in August at a press conference in Washington, has said he does not believe that gender should be a determining factor in the race.
Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica, UNCTAD's secretary-general, is a key figure. Her credentials include serving as vice president of her country and helping negotiate the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the former agreement to ensure safe export of grain and foodstuffs from three of Ukraine's ports. Her platform explicitly stresses a need for multilateral reform.
Rounding out the declared list are David Choquehuanca, the vice president of Bolivia, and Bruno Donat of Mauritius, a U.N. diplomat from the African group. The field of potential female candidates is also expanding, with Mexico's Environment Secretary Alicia Barcena, and Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley frequently mentioned in diplomatic circles.
A proponent of pragmatic statecraft
Guterres’ tenure as secretary-general has been centered on three main priorities. Declaring the climate crisis the U.N.’s most urgent existential threat, he has persistently pushed nations to adopt stronger mitigation targets and increase climate justice funding.
He has championed major U.N. reforms to improve organizational efficiency, transparency, and accountability, successfully achieving greater gender parity in senior leadership.
Guterres also has advocated for a fundamental overhaul of the global financial architecture and multilateral institutions — outlined in his "Our Common Agenda" — in an effort to address rising inequality, pandemic-scale threats, and geopolitical fragmentation in the 21st century.
He is seen as a highly competent, politically astute, and diligent U.N. administrator and reformer, but one who often prioritizes quiet diplomacy over public moral authority. He receives praise for managing internal U.N. structural reforms, driving gender parity in senior leadership, and acting as the world’s most outspoken advocate on the climate crisis.
He has faced persistent criticism, particularly from human rights groups, for what they see as a reluctance to forcefully condemn severe human rights abuses by powerful member nations, especially the P5.
His approach is viewed by supporters as pragmatic statecraft — maintaining dialogue to achieve humanitarian and diplomatic goals — but by critics as diminishing the secretary-general's moral voice during a period of rising global autocracy and conflict.
There are no formal term limits for the secretary-general, but the position is typically limited to two five-year terms. While a third term has been blocked by a veto in the past, leading to a historical precedent of only serving two terms, this is not a formal rule.
