Overview

The UK will hold the presidency of the Council in November. With several days taken up by the holidays (Eid and Thanksgiving), a retreat and a mission to Timor Leste, the calendar will be very full. The annual retreat with incoming members, organised by Finland, is planned for 18-19 November and the incoming members of the Council–Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal and South Africa–will be invited to Council consultations from 15 November.

There will be a ministerial level debate on Sudan. There will also be debates on Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Two open debates are planned on:

• protection of civilians in armed conflict, most likely with the participation of the Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Director General of the International Committee of the Red Cross; and
• counterterrorism, following the briefing by the chairs of the Council’s three counter-terrorism committees.

There will be several briefings in November on:

• Somalia piracy, the Council expects to be briefed by B. Lynn Pascoe (followed by consultations);
• the Development Fund for Iraq, a briefing is expected from the UN Controller (followed by a private meeting);
• Guinea-Bissau, by the head of UNIOGBIS, Joseph Mutaboba (followed by consultations);
• the Middle East (a monthly briefing by Secretariat, followed by consultations); and
• by the chairs of the three counterterrorism committees (CTC, 1267 and 1540).

A new development is that some of the briefings will include input by videoconferencing to enable real-time (and cost-efficient) interactions with peace missions on the ground, allowing UN officials in the field to brief the Council more expeditiously. In this regard:

• It is possible that the head of UNMIS, Haile Menkerios, may brief the Council via teleconference during the ministerial level debate which will fall two days after the start of registration for the southern Sudan referendum.
• Similarly, the head of UNOCI, Choi Young-jin, may brief by videoconference in the aftermath of the long-anticipated elections in Cote d’Ivoire(followed by consultations).

A number of briefings are expected in consultations on:

• the good offices in Cyprus, by the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser, Alexander Downer;
• Western Sahara developments by the personal envoy of the Secretary-General, Christopher Ross;
• the implementation of resolution 1701, most likely by UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams; and
• possibly Myanmar following the elections.

Consultations will also be held on several other topics:

• A “horizon scanning” session with Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe, focusing on wider issues of concern in November, in a move to enhance the Council’s conflict prevention capacities.
• Developments in peacekeeping with the heads of the Peacekeeping and Field Support departments, in late November.
• The report of the DRC sanctions panel of experts.
• The briefing by the chair of the DPRK Sanctions Committee.
• The briefing by the chair of the Somalia/Eritrea Sanctions Committee.

Formal Council sessions will be held to adopt resolutions on:

• Somalia piracy;
• the authorisation for the European force in Bosnia and Herzegovina, EUFOR;
• the renewal of the mandate of the office in Guinea-Bissau, UNIOGBIS; and
• the DRCsanctions as well as the mandate of the DRC sanctions committee’s panel of experts.

On 11 November the Council president is scheduled to present the Council’s annual report to the General Assembly.

Full forecast