UN secretary general Guterres appoints women for three top UN positions

United Nations: Building on his promise to ensure gender parity and geographical diversity at the UN, Secretary-General-designate Antonio Guterres has appointed three women from Nigeria, Brazil and South Korea for top positions at the world body.

Guterres announced he will be appointing Amina Mohammed of Nigeria as the UN Deputy Secretary-General on his assumption of office as the 9th chief of the United Nations in January 2017. He appointed Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti of Brazil as his Chef de Cabinet and said he intends to create the position of Special Advisor on Policy, and to appoint Kyung-wha Kang of South Korea to this new role.

"I am happy to count on the efforts of these three highly competent women, whom I have chosen for their strong backgrounds in global affairs, development, diplomacy, human rights and humanitarian action," he said in a statement here yesterday.

Guterres, who will succeed Ban Ki-moon as the world’s top diplomat, said "these appointments are the foundations of my team, which I will continue to build, respecting my pledges on gender parity and geographical diversity."

The former Portuguese Prime Minister and UN High Commissioner for Refugees had remained the front-runner in the election to choose Ban's successor amid growing calls by civil society and several UN member states to elect a woman Secretary General.

In his address to the General Assembly after taking the Oath of Office this week, he had emphasised the need for gender empowerment and equality in the UN as well as across the globe, pledging to respect gender parity from the start in all appointments to the Senior Management Group and the Chief Executives Board.

Mohammed, 55 is currently the Minister of Environment of Nigeria, where she steers the country’s efforts to protect the natural environment and conserve resources for sustainable development. She also served as Special Advisor to Ban on

Post-2015 Development Planning, where she was instrumental in bringing about the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Before joining the UN, Mohammed worked for three successive administrations in Nigeria, serving as Special Advisor on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Viotti, 62, is presently the Under-Secretary for Asia and the Pacific at the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she has special responsibility for work on the BRICS. A career diplomat since 1976, she served most recently as Brazil’s Ambassador of to Germany (from 2013 to 2016) and as Brazil’s Permanent Representative to the UN (from 2007 to  2011).

Kang, 61, is currently the Chief of the Secretary-General-designate's Transition Team. She has served as Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy

Emergency Relief Coordinator since April 2013, and was Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights from January 2007 to March 2013.