Katalin Bogyay, the ambassador of Hungary to the UN, about to cast her secret ballots for the elections in the General Assembly Hall, June 17, 2020. The process required new procedures amid the pandemic, but it went well by all accounts. ESKINDER DEBEBE/UN PHOTO
Kelly Craft, the US envoy to the UN, arriving in the morning at the General Assembly Hall to cast her country’s secret ballot for various UN elections, June 17, 2020. By the afternoon, the new members of the Security Council were announced: India, Ireland, Mexico and Norway. The race between Djibouti and Kenya for the African seat goes to another round. ESKINDER DEBEBE/UN PHOTO
Whatever corner of the world one happens to live in, the most pressing issues of the day affect everyone. Pandemics/epidemics and the environmental emergency; war and terrorism; poverty and food insecurity; overpopulation and the displacement of persons. Such crises cannot be limited by borders or controlled by nation states; no government or corporate power can manage them. They are interconnected global issues and they require a coordinated global response.
The Palestinian solidarity movement is unsettling Canada’s diplomatic apparatus. In the final week of their multi-year campaign for a seat on the United Nations Security Council they’ve been forced to respond to a well-documented, strong campaign in defense of Palestinian rights.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, at UN headquarters after King was awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize. With them is Ralph Bunche, a UN official who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. Bunche, an American, marched with the Kings in civil rights protests in Alabama in 1965. YUTAKA NAGATA/UN PHOTO
Justin Trudeau is campaigning aggressively for a seat on the UN Security Council. Over the past month he has called about two dozen world leaders and recently organized calls with groupings of UN ambassadors from the Americas, Africa, Arab states and Asia. Just prior to the pandemic the PM attended the African Union Summit in Ethiopia and met with all African ambassadors in Ottawa to make his pitch for Canada’s Security Council bid.
Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, May 2020. One new report from the UN agency expresses concern about Iran’s blocking access to certain sites and another report confirms the country’s increased uranium enrichment activities. DEAN CALMA/IAEA
VIENNA — The International Atomic Energy Agency issued an alarming report on June 5, voicing “serious concern” over Iran’s refusal to allow the agency’s inspectors to investigate two sites where the country is suspected of having conducted undeclared nuclear activities in the past.
Protesters in Washington Square Park, Manhattan, one of dozens of such gatherings throughout New York City in the last week responding to the murder of George Floyd, the African-American, on May. 25. The UN kept its distance from the protests. ISABELLA PENNEY
Starting in June, a summary of the most important news on the United Nations’ work in New York City and across the world will be highlighted weekly. The news will be drawn from the UN spokesperson’s media briefings, which are held daily during the workweek, as well as our original reporting and other sources.
A view of the General Assembly Hall through an interpreters’ booth, before the opening of the general debate of the 74th session, Sept. 24, 2019. It is unclear how world leaders will meet this year, but more important, diplomacy-as-usual practices are over, the authors say. MANUEL ELIAS/UN PHOTO
In New York City, protesters swarm the roadway portion of the Brooklyn Bridge, heading from the City Hall area of lower Manhattan into Brooklyn. The crowd stopped incoming traffic, but there was no violence, May 30, 2020. JOHN PENNEY
