‘Where are the women?’ At the UN, now there’s an answer.
Ameerah Haq still recalls with a bit of incredulity the day a decade ago when she realized that the lofty commitments the United Nations had made for years – to place women in senior peace and security positions – had been largely lip service.
Assembling for a group photo with other special representatives for the U.N. secretary-general like herself, the Bangladeshi diplomat looked around and realized she was the only woman in a sea of men.
“I recall thinking, ‘This is 2010. It’s not 1950 or 1960,’” says the former special representative for East Timor. “‘Can we not do better than this?’”
As it turns out, yes we – or rather the U.N. – can.
Less than four years after Secretary-General António Guterres took up his post in January 2017 with a
