The Women’s March, 2017, above. A new campaign led by women in the United States with global experience are advocating that a feminist foreign policy be instituted in all branches of the federal government, regardless of national politics. JOHN JACK/CREATIVE COMMONS
Samantha Buonvino, above, is a civilian peacekeeper working for the UN in Mali. Her job is to get to know the community of Gao, where she is based, but the UN is under lockdown there, presenting not more “suffering,” she said, but just an “extra challenge.”
Michael Edeh, a peacekeeping officer enhancing his skills working for the UN-African Union mission in Darfur, Sudan, through an e-learning program. Demand for virtual training has become suddenly more critical as Covid-19 keeps spreading and national training centers are being shut down.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres received an honorary degree from the New School university in New York City on Feb. 17. He spoke at length on “women and power,” blaming patriarchy for the injustices inflicted on women and girls. MARK GARTEN/UN PHOTO
The Democratic presidential debate in Iowa, Jan. 14, 2020, Drake University. Few of the candidates have uttered the words “United Nations,” but a close reading of their speeches and other sources reveals a range of positions on “how they would operate in the international system,” the author writes. The unifying topic for the candidates is mitigating climate change.
In 2017, a contingent of UN peacekeepers in Haiti holding a closing ceremony to their operations and the start of peacekeepers’ overall withdrawal from the country that year. New research focusing on how sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers in Haiti has affected women and girls there has revealed a nuanced situation linked to extreme, pervasive poverty. LOGAN ABASSI/UN PHOTO
The chorus of New York City’s Public School 22 performing at the General Assembly celebration marking the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Nov. 29, 2019. The US and five other countries that make up the bulk of dues to the UN general budget are behind on payments, some for years. MARK GARTEN/UN PHOTO
Refugees, above, from the territory of Western Sahara have been living in Tindouf, Algeria, for decades. Western Sahara is the last colonial outpost in Africa, now occupied by Morocco. Former US National Security Adviser John Bolton tried to resolve the situation, but his departure from the White House leaves the territory’s future seriously adrift, the author says.
The flag of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, embedded in the mountains, can be seen from everywhere in Nicosia, the capital of the Republic of Cyprus. It is a stark reminder of the Mediterranean island’s division for the last 55 years. CREATIVE COMMONS
Anywhere from the capital of Nicosia, day and night, Greek Cypriots can see a giant flag painted into the mountains in the north, in a separate region that calls itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. It is an area that is recognized only by Turkey and isolated internationally.
Ambassador Jerry Matthews Matjila of South Africa speaking to reporters outside the UN Security Council, Oct. 9, 2019. As president of the Council for the month, he is taking its members on a trip to Ethiopia and South Sudan. STEPHANIE FILLION
