In Parliament on Aug. 6, 2019, Imran Khan, Pakistan’s leader, called the move by Narendra Modi of India to end the special status of Kashmir “racist.” The UN Security Council met on Aug. 16 to debate the crisis.
Police in Kashmir confronting protesters in December 2018. The new plan by India to take full control of Jammu and Kashmir will remake the map of the Himalayan border areas. Pakistan is working on bringing the highly disputed action by India into the UN Security Council. CREATIVE COMMONS
General Balla Keïta, force commander of the UN mission in Central African Republic, right, awarded a medal of honor from the Portuguese contingent, led by Admiral António Silva Ribeiro, April 13, 2019. The author of the essay foresees no exit strategies for UN peacekeeping missions because of national interests of some permanent members of the Security Council. LEONEL GROTHE/MINUSCA
A demonstration outside the Organization of American States in Washington, April 5, 2016, protesting the murder of the Honduran rights defender Berta Cáceres, who was killed a month earlier. Her daughter, Berta Zúñiga Cáceres, is part of the protests. The author of the essay suggests that instead of women’s rights activists being called on to “push back” against oppression, it’s time for others to “join us”?
Gustavo Meza-Cuadra, Peru’s ambassador to the UN since 2013. His country has been representing the Latin America and Caribbean region on the Security Council for the last year and a half, but it is Colombia and its young peace pact that his delegation is most focused on as president of the Council in July 2019.
The aftermath of a terrorist attack in northern Mali. A new survey of Malians finds that they back their own armed forces more than they do the UN peacekeepers in their nation, revealing frustrations about their role.
Kelly Knight Craft, shown here as the American ambassador to Canada, is Trump’s nominee for the top envoy role at the United Nations. Her Senate confirmation hearing, held June 19, 2019, for the UN ambassadorship elicited many questions from senators regarding her posture on climate change. She and her husband, Joseph Craft III, have extensive coal investments.
Karen Pierce, Britain’s ambassador to the United Nations, mixes a dashing clothing style with a pronounced, articulate voice on her country’s policies as the only female diplomat among the permanent-five members, Britain, China, France, Russia and America, on the Security Council. UN WEBTV
Michael Sharp and Zaida Catalán in a UN conference room in New York, date unknown. The two UN experts were murdered in 2017 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and their deaths have never been fully solved. Zobel Behalal, nameplate above, was also a member of the UN experts group working in the country.
Vice President Pence suddenly showed up at the UN on April 10, 2019, to demand that the Security Council strip the current Venezuelan ambassador’s UN credentials. That has not happened. The US mission to the UN lacks a permanent representative amid an outflow of a range of personnel. Some UN diplomats say, “There is no one left.” MANUEL ELIAS/UN PHOTO
