Victor Madrigal-Borloz, a Costa Rican and current UN independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity. The expert’s role was loudly protested by countries in the Middle East-North Africa region and elsewhere when it was established in 2016. Yet some nations in that area are now progressing on LGBTQ rights, the writer says.
Sir Brian Urquhart, who spent his much of his adult life in service to the UN, speaking at the General Assembly’s commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, Jan. 24, 2005. He turned 100 years old on Feb. 28, 2019. ESKINDER DEBEBE/UN PHOTO
Drought results in Mauritania, the Sahel region of West Africa, 2012. More evidence is showing that extreme weather and slower forms of climate change can produce more risks of conflict and other violence, a fact clear in such parts of the world as the Sahel. CREATIVE COMMONS
A new Security Council resolution recognizes for the first time that men and boys are victims of sexual violence in conflicts, reflecting more attention to this problem in addition to the work being done for female victims. Here, a scene from Aleppo, Syria. CREATIVE COMMONS
A resident returned to his home in the Mopti region of Mali after attacks in February 2019 in the Bankass Circle area, where at least 18 people died by shooting and burning. Deadly violence is increasing in central Mali, targeting civilians, Malian soldiers and peacekeepers with no resolution in sight.
In a refugee camp in South Sudan, people escape the fighting in the country’s civil war, including rampant rape by militias and national armed forces. Members of the UN Security Council are drafting a resolution to strengthen such victims’ rights, but the United States is refusing language on sexual and reproductive health services. GEOFF PUGH
In a refugee camp in South Sudan, people escape the fighting in the country’s civil war, including rampant rape by militias and national armed forces. Members of the UN Security Council are drafting a resolution to strengthen victims’ rights, but the United States is resisting language on sexual and reproductive health services. GEOFF PUGH
President Trump with Prime Minister Netanyahu at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, May 2017. From the start of his presidency, Trump’s Middle East policies have amounted to a “bromance” with the Israeli leader, the author writes, but where is the mysterious peace plan for Israel and Palestine, and who will gain from it the most?
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, it’s not really “America First.”
It’s “Donald Trump First.”
In Aleppo, another victim in the Syrian war, led by President Bashar al-Assad against his own people since March 2011. The UN Security Council recently passed a resolution that ensures that countries’ counterterrorism measures comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law, ensuring stronger protection of aid groups and their work.
The grave of Robert Bowie, the author’s paternal grandfather and a doctor who lived in Nagasaki, above, and died in 1911. The gravesite survived the American atomic bombing of the city, Aug. 9, 1945. BRIAN BURKE-GAFFNEY
