Rodrigues-Birkett hopes to use ‘good offices’ process to address conflict

United Nations Secretary-General hopeful, Guyanese Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett plans to use the ‘good offices’ mechanism of that global organisation to address growing escalation of conflicts.

“On conflict resolution, all the tools that are available to me as Secretary General, the good offices, I think that this is something we can use more. My own country benefited  from the good offices process of the UN,” she said. The UN Secretary-General’s Good Officer’s process had been used for 50 years to find a solution to the controversy to the Guyana-Venezuela controversy over the validity of the 1899 Arbitral land boundary award. Eventually, Guyana took the matter to the UN’s International Court of Justice and remains optimistic about a favourable outcome. 

She, however, did not pointedly address two aspects – “war-like rhetoric” and “non-use of force” of one Cuba’s questions at the interactive session with member states in her capacity as Guyana’s nominee for the position of UN Chief.

The Cuban representative asked: “Given the growing escalation of conflicts and the proliferation of war-like rhetoric, what action would you take as Secretary General to promote a culture of peace and the peaceful settlement of disputes and respect for the principle of non-use of force?,” he asked.

Cuba’s question came at a time of United States President Donald Trump’s recent suggestions of regime change by force in that communist-run Caribbean island. Several top Cuban officials and state-run entities have since been sanctioned by the US, and the country has been virtually crippled because the US has effectively blocked fuel supplies, except for periodic tanker loads from Russia.

Cuba-Guyana relations have drifted a part in recent years, and Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali earlier this year, on the sidelines of Mr Trump’s Shield of the Americas Summit, had said he believed that it was time for “transition”. “There must be dialogue but those changes must lead to the improvement of the people of Cuba. It must lead to better conditions for the people of Cuba, must lead to a society in which the rule of law, in which democracy, in which freedom is celebrated,” he had said.

Ms Rodrigues-Birkett, who is Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the UN and recently represented Guyana on the UN Security Council, promised to be “proactive” in putting a number of the peace-building and conflict-resolving tools at the disposal of the UN if she is elected to succeed Antonio Guterres whose term ends on December 31, 2026.

Referring to education as a human right, she drew on her experience as a then Minister of Amerindian Affairs in 2001 when there was only one Amerindian doctor. She said that changed with a heavy investment in education after which doctors and other professionals emerged from those remote communities. “I also see the investment in development and the investment in peace and security as also investment in human rights because when conflicts arise, many times, human rights is one of the things that suffer immediately,” she added.