The Security Council began meeting in its chamber this month, complete with plastic dividers, for the first time since the pandemic started: Nicolas de Rivière, France’s ambassador, left, and Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s envoy, right, Oct. 15, 2020. ESKINDER DEBEBE/UN PHOTO
In October 2015, the Security Council held a debate on women, peace and security to review the status of Resolution 1325, which was adopted on Oct. 31, 2000, to recognize the effects of war on women and built on the 1995 Beijing conference for gender equality. The essay’s experts map how the visions of the Beijing conference have been integrated into US foreign policy but the fact is, gender equality remains elusive globally. AMANDA VOISARD/UN PHOTO
Participants in the Windhoek Seminar, held in May 2000, from left: Former SRSG-UNMIBH Elisabeth Rehn; then-Namibian Minister for Women Affairs H.E. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah; author and UNMIK speaker Nina Lahoud; former SRSG-UNAVEM II and chair Margaret Anstee.
Anna Evstigneeva, the new deputy ambassador at the Russian mission to the UN. She is the first woman to have that role there, although she worked at the mission, including as a political coordinator, from 2011 to 2016. She began her diplomatic career in Oslo. JOHN PENNEY
President Carlos Alvarado Quesada of Costa Rica wore a mask during his entire video speech to the UN General Assembly high-level debate this year. Of 190 leaders who spoke, only 9 were women. JOHN PENNEY
Vice President Epsy Campbell Barr of Costa Rica. She was among the numerous women vice presidents from Latin America who spoke at the UN’s Beijing+25 commemoration on Oct. 1.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, who is from the Netherlands, has led the UN political mission in Iraq for nearly two years. The mission includes two women deputies, one from Britain and the other from Germany. A new academic dashboard will track the UN’s executive appointments overall. UNAMI
In Bamako, Mali, women waiting to have their babies vaccinated. Jane Roberts, a Californian who personally helped fund-raise millions of dollars for the UN Population Fund, traveled to Mali and elsewhere in West Africa to understand women’s needs better in the region. UNFPA
In the rubble of what’s left of American commitments to international organizations, one survivor is doing well. The United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA, the perennial target of Republican politicians and presidents since the 1980s, is thriving.
President Zuzana Caputova of Slovakia was the first woman to speak at the opening of the 75th General Assembly session, more than 50 speakers in. The dearth of women speaking at the virtual gathering generated lament if not outrage on social media sites. JOHN PENNEY
A pre-recorded statement from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s President Sefik Dzaferovic kicked off Day 2 of the 75th General Assembly, and like many other world leaders, he called for heightened multilateralism amid today’s pandemic and global conflicts.
Zuzana Caputova, the president of Slovakia, addressing the General Assembly’s 74th session, Sept. 24, 2019. This year, she is the first woman to speak at the opening session, No. 53 on the UN’s provisional list of speakers, reflecting the abysmally low number of female heads of state, 22. CIA PAK/UN PHOTO
