Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is the hero of 2023. He is using his position to bring major reforms to the United Nations while also calling upon Israel to end the onslaught of Gaza and introduce a humanitarian ceasefire.
I admire his courage to speak up in defense of the civilian population in Gaza and his unwavering commitment to achieve peace. Despite Israeli demands that he should resign, he said last week: “As the conflict intensifies and the horror grows, we will continue to do our part. We will not give up.”
Trust in the U.N. was seriously undermined after the peacekeeping failures in Srebrenica and Rwanda in the 1990s, and little was achieved in the years after to reinvigorate the institution. That changed when Guterres became secretary-general on Jan 1, 2017, following his election by the U.N. General Assembly on Oct. 13, 2016. He came in determined to reform the organization by improving transparency, accountability, and efficiency. However, Donald Trump became president on Jan. 20, 2017, an isolationist who was calling for massive cuts to foreign aid and contributions to international organizations such as the United Nations. Guterres realized the global political situation was fragile.