US-UN Relations

Who Is Kelly Knight Craft? A Podcast to Get to Know the New US Ambassador to the UN

Kelly Knight Craft, the newly confirmed US ambassador to the UN, with members of the Youth Ambassadors Program at the US embassy in Ottawa, in her former role as US diplomat to Canada, July 16, 2019.
She calls herself a homemaker, a philanthropist and a consultant, but who, exactly, is Kelly Knight Craft, the newly confirmed United States ambassador to the United Nations?

Pompeo Finds Little Appetite at the UN for His Iran Strategy

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, second from left, and his entourage about to attend the UN Security Council meeting on peace and security in the Middle East. He talked about Iran’s role in sowing unrest in the region. MANUEL ELIAS/UN PHOTO
In the middle of a muggy August afternoon in New York, the United Nations Security Council gathered once more to figure out how to “maintain peace and security” in the Middle East. But the recurring topic always leaves conversations wide open for interpretation by the Council’s 15 members.

Strongmen to Kick Off the UN General Assembly Session in September

President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil with President Donald Trump of the United States, March 19, 2019, in the White House. Both men are scheduled to attend the annual opening session of the UN General Assembly, which will feature not only the parade of leaders but also a climate-change conference. ALAN SANTOS/PR
Donald Trump will shake hands with Emmanuel Macron, Jair Bolsonaro and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. But will Benjamin Netanyahu; Boris Johnson and Angela Merkel be there, too?

The UN Palestinian Refugee Agency Is in Hot Water, Again

Pierre Krahenbuhl, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency, which administers to Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, at a conference in Rome, March 2018. The agency, which was significantly rocked by the withdrawal of American donations last year, is now caught up in a possible ethics scandal.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which has been undermined by a sharp cut in United States contributions, has been embroiled in a scandal that threatens to jeopardize its very future.

Kelly Knight Craft: A ‘Very Impressive Individual’ or ‘Unfit to Serve’?

Kelly Knight Craft, hosting an event in Ottawa, June 26, 2019, as US ambassador to Canada. On July 31, she was confirmed by the US Senate to be the next US ambassador to the UN, moving on to New York.
The Senate has confirmed Kelly Knight Craft to be Washington’s top ambassador to the United Nations, even as a key Democrat pronounced her “unfit to serve.” The move ends a seven-month vacancy in one of the country’s most senior diplomatic posts.

Dear UN Security Council: Remember to Protect the Children

Members of the child-protection team from the UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo, participating in a soccer match. The player’s shirt, translated from French, says “child recruitment is a crime.”
Every time the budget committee of the United Nations meets, as it did in June, child-protection advocates enter a familiar existential crisis: will the United States and China cut UN budgets specifically allocated to specialists on child protection in peacekeeping missions?

Unesco: Teach Children How to Understand Migrants’ Lives, Before It’s Too Late

A Syrian refugee in Turkey, originally from a small town in Aleppo. A new generation of children living in countries that are receiving migrants needs to learn about those people and their worth, says a new report from Unesco, in order to counter misunderstandings. MUSE MOHAMMED/IOM
As outrage and horror build around stories of refugee children, some still in diapers, seized from their parents and suffering neglect and abuse along the United States border with Mexico, Unesco, the United Nations organization with education in its mandate, is looking ahead.