What's In Blue

Posted Mon 2 Jul 2018

Security Council Programme of Work in July

Sweden is the Security Council president this month.

Sweden plans to hold a high-level open debate on children and armed conflict with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven chairing. Briefings are anticipated from Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba; UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore; and Yenny Londoño, a civil society representative from Colombia. A resolution is expected to be adopted.

Sweden will also hold a debate on climate-related security risks. Briefers are expected to include Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and Hindou Ibrahim of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change. Iraqi Minister of Water Resources Hassan Janabi and Nigerien Foreign Minister Kalla Ankourao may brief as well. Sweden plans to produce a chair’s summary of the meeting.

Several African issues are on the programme of work. The annual consultative meeting between members of the Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council will be held this month.

There will also be a briefing on the Secretary-General’s annual report on ways to strengthen the partnership between the UN and the AU. Special Representative to the AU and Head of the UN Office to the AU (UNOAU) Sahle-Work Zewde and an AU representative are expected to brief.

There will be a briefing on the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin focused on women, peace and security issues. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and AU Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security Bineta Diop are expected to provide the briefing, following their joint mission to the region.

Special Representative and head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) Mohammed Ibn Chambas will brief the Council on the semi-annual UNOWAS report and recent developments in the region.

A briefing, followed by consultations, is scheduled on developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the work of the 1533 DRC Sanctions Committee. Special Representative and head of UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the DRC Leila Zerrougui is expected to brief on MONUSCO. Justine Masika Bihamba of Synergy of Women for Victims of Sexual Violence, a DRC-based civil society coalition, is also expected to brief. It is anticipated that Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix will participate in consultations. Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi (Kuwait) will brief on the work of the 1533 DRC Sanctions Committee.

The Council is expected to receive briefings by the Special Representative and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Ghassan Salamé, and a civil society briefer on the situation in Libya. The chair of the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Olof Skoog (Sweden), is also scheduled to brief on the work of the Sanctions Committee. Consultations will follow these briefings.

Ambassador Kairat Umarov (Kazakhstan), the chair of the 751/1907 Somalia/Eritrea Sanctions Committee, is expected to brief on the Committee’s recent work. The briefing will be followed by consultations.

The Council is expected to renew its authorisation of the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

An adoption is scheduled on the South Sudan sanctions regime and the mandate of the South Sudan Sanctions Committee’s Panel of Experts. Ahead of this, the Council will receive a briefing in consultations on South Sudan sanctions from a DPKO official.

The Council will also renew the mandate of the UN-AU Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) this month, following a brief technical roll-over in late June.

The Middle East will be a key focus of the Council’s work in July. The Council will receive the monthly briefings on the use of chemical weapons and political and humanitarian developments in Syria. High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu will brief in consultations on the use of chemical weapons. Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura may brief members in consultations on political matters in Syria. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock and Gamba are expected to provide a briefing, followed by consultations, on the humanitarian situation in the country.

Consultations are scheduled early in the month on Yemen. Special Envoy Martin Griffiths will brief via video-teleconference. Lowcock may brief as well.

Acting UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Pernille Dahler Kardel and Lacroix will brief Council members in consultations on the latest Secretary-General’s report on the implementation of resolution 1701, which called for a cessation of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

The quarterly open debate on the Middle East (Israel/Palestine) is scheduled this month. Special Coordinator Nickolay Mladenov may provide the briefing.

Council members expect to hold consultations on Myanmar. Possible briefers include the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, who was in Myanmar from 12 to 21 June, and High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.

The Council is expected to renew the mandate of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP). Special Representative and head of mission Elizabeth Spehar is expected to brief on the latest UNFICYP report and recent developments.

There will be a briefing this month from Special Representative Jean Arnault on the Secretary-General’s 90-day report on the UN Verification Mission in Colombia. Consultations are expected to follow the briefing.

An Arria-formula meeting will be held early in the month on “UN Security Council-ICC relations: achievements, challenges and synergies”, organised by Bolivia, France, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Sweden and the UK.

Non-proliferation and Ukraine are in the footnotes of the programme of work. Meetings on these and other issues could be scheduled during the month.

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