Overview
Togo will have the presidency of the Security Council in February. Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbé is likely to preside over a high-level debate on the impact of transnational organised crime on peace, security and stability in West Africa and the Sahel, as well as on the growing piracy problem in West Africa. The Secretary-General and representatives of ECOWAS and ECCAS are expected to brief. A presidential statement is a possible outcome.
A debate is also expected on women, peace and security, with a focus on the newly released Secretary-General’s report on conflict-related sexual violence and a briefing by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on this issue, Margot Wallström. The expected outcome is a presidential statement or possibly a resolution.
Also planned is a debate on Kosovo, preceded by a briefing by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of UNMIK, Farid Zarif.
Several more briefings are expected during the month:
- on the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), either by its head, Roger Meece, or Hervé Ladsous, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, to be followed by consultations;
- on the Middle East, by the Secretariat, to be followed by consultations;
- on the Secretary-General’s report on specialised anti-piracy tribunals in Somalia, by the Secretariat;
- on the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) by its head, Ian Martin, to be followed by consultations, and a briefing from the chair of the Libya Sanctions Committee, also to be followed by consultations;
- on the Secretary-General’s report on the UN Interim Security Force in Abyei (UNISFA), to be followed by consultations;
- on the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) by its head, Special Representative of the Secretary-General Ameerah Haq, with Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão or President José Ramos-Horta also addressing the Council, to be followed by consultations;
- on the work of the DPRK Sanctions Committee (in consultations) by its chair, Ambassador José Filipe Moraes Cabral (Portugal);
- on developments in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) by its Chairperson-in-Office, Irish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Eamon Gilmore; and
- on issues of current concern, as part of the monthly horizon scanning practice (in consultations), by the head of the DPA, B. Lynn Pascoe.
Formal sessions will be needed to adopt a resolution renewing the mandate of the Panel of Experts of the Sudan Sanctions Committee and a resolution on the enhancement of the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).
The Council is also likely to undertake a trip to Haiti in mid-February.
