Health and Population

The UNTV studio in New York, where technicians produced a virtual press briefing with Secretary-General António Guterres (on screens), focusing on the coronavirus outbreak, March 19, 2020. Who is next in line to Guterres, should be become suddenly incapacitated? EVAN SCHNEIDER/UN PHOTO
António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, continues to go into the UN headquarters building in New York City to work — even as Covid-19 races throughout the region.

Passenger screening at Maya Maya International Airport, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. As a continent, Africa currently has the lowest number of reported coronavirus cases, but the World Health Organization has now released evidence of local community transmissions for the first time. ELOMBAT D./WHO

The state of affairs in New York City, March 18, 2020, as the metropolis practices social distancing, self-isolating and working from home. Our new podcast episode reveals how four ambassadors who represent their country at the UN are navigating digital diplomacy. EVAN SCHNEIDER/UN PHOTO

The UN’s main lobby in New York, March 11, 2020. By Friday evening, March 13, the UN announced that virtually all personnel working at New York headquarters were being ordered to telecommute for four weeks, after a Filipino diplomat confirmed that a colleague had Covid-19. MARK GARTEN/UN PHOTO

A Filipino diplomat sent a letter to fellow diplomats on March 12 that a colleague at the country’s mission to the UN had tested positive for the coronavirus. The UN says it is following up but has not said it is closing the building. The scene above, March 11. MARK GARTEN/UN PHOTO

In the United Nations Security Council, experts briefing the members remotely from South Sudan. The Council has test-run a simulated cybermeeting, prepping for a potential shutdown of the UN building amid the coronavirus outbreak in New York. ESKINDER DEBEBE/UN PHOTO

This year, the status of women on many fronts, from political involvement to personal justice, will be evaluated in international forums. It is widely recognized, for starters, that women in poor countries need more access to information on basic health care for themselves and their families. Here, polio vaccination in Afghanistan. CREATIVE COMMONS

President Trump with UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, at the 74th session of the General Assembly, Sept. 24, 2019. Melania Trump is in the center. The US is blocking progress on women’s reproductive rights globally. ARIANA LINDQUIST/UN PHOTO
It did not take long after the 74th General Assembly session opened this fall for the Trump team to signal that its strategy in key United Nations meetings would be to act as uncooperative and obstructive as possible, especially on human-rights agendas.

At the Nairobi summit marking the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population Development, a session focusing on indigenous women and girls featured Tarcila Rivera Zea Chirapaq of Chirapaq, a nonprofit group in Lima, Peru.
NAIROBI, Kenya — More than 6,000 delegates in the population development sector are gathering in the Kenyan capital here this week to renew the promise made to girls and women 25 years ago in Cairo.

A new free dedicated hotline in Britain for women to report sexual harassment at work has been inundated with calls from women of all ages, suggesting the problem may be pervasive. 
A new hotline is offering free, confidential legal advice to women in England and Wales who are experiencing sexual harassment at work. Launched in August, it is the only hotline of its kind dedicated to addressing a problem affecting women from all walks of life.