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.
Christoph Heusgen, Germany’s ambassador to the UN and rotating president of the Security Council for April, introduced a German-made hourglass in Council meetings to keep speeches to five minutes each. The Russian ambassador asked in one instance that the timer be laid flat when he spoke. ESKINDER DEBEBE/UN PHOTO
Hasmik Egian, center, director of the Security Council Affairs Division of the UN, receiving requests from diplomats who want to speak at the emergency Council session on Venezuela, Jan. 26, 2019. MANUEL ELIAS/UN PHOTO
Jockeying for a two-year seat on the United Nations Security Council starts early — way early. Three countries are already vying for the two open seats in the regional group known as Weog — Western Europe and Others — for the 2021-22 term. The election is June 2020, and the “others” are Australia, Canada, Israel and New Zealand.
Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2011 in Washington. As president, he has let the US ambassadorship to the UN, the country’s second-most important foreign policy role, sit empty for months. GAGE SKIDMORE/CREATIVE COMMONS
François Delattre, left, the French ambassador to the UN and president of the Security Council for March, with Christoph Heusgen, Germany’s UN ambassador and president of the Council in April. They presented the agenda of the Council’s first twin presidencies to the media on March 1, 2019.
Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the UN, and Karen Pierce, the British ambassador, right, in the Security Council before a meeting on Libya, Jan. 18, 2019. The authors of the op-ed essay argue that Britain’s role in the UN may diminish as Brexit unfolds. LOEY FELIPE/UN PHOTO
In Dakar, staff members from UN Women Senegal and other UN agencies attend a presentation on sexual harassment in the workplace, part of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, 2016.
As multilateralism takes a beating from President Trump amid the “new world disorder,” as one European diplomat put it, three women who know the United Nations inside and out through previous top leadership jobs have originated a Group of Women Leaders for Change and Inclusion.
From the White House, Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris climate agreement on June, 1, 2017, claiming, among other misleading information, that the pact could impinge on America’s sovereignty.
THE HAGUE — It is now well documented that global warming is a multiplier of insecurity and conflict, but holding debates on the topic presents ever-more complex challenges as multilateralism and climate change are increasingly questioned if not dismissed by some of the world’s top leaders and biggest polluting nations.
U.S. Department of State Follow Spokesperson Nauert Delivers Remarks at a Reception in Support of the United States’ Bid to Host the 2023 World’s Fair at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. on October 26, 2017. [State Department Photo/ Public Domain]Heather Nauert, who was nominated by President Trump in early December to succeed Nikki Haley as the United States ambassador to the United Nations, has withdrawn from consideration as of Feb. 16, 2018.
Ambassador Anatolio Ndong Mba of Equatorial Guinea in his office in New York, Jan. 30, 2019. On the wall is a portrait of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. The country is leading a Security Council trip in February to its fellow West African nations of Ivory Coast and Guinea-Bissau. STÉPHANIE FILLION
