Overview

Togo will preside over the Security Council in May.

Togo’s President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé will preside over a debate on “Peace and Security in Africa: the challenges of the fight against terrorism in Africa in the context of maintaining international peace and security” with the Secretary-General providing a briefing.

The quarterly debate on Kosovo with a briefing by Farid Zarif, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), and the semi-annual debate on Bosnia-Herzegovina, with a briefing by the High Representative Valentin Inzko, are also expected.

Briefings are expected on:

• the work of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe by its Chairperson-in-Office Leonid Kozhara;
• the work of the counterterrorism subsidiary bodies—the 1267/1989 Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee; the 1373 Counter-Terrorism Committee; and the 1540 Committee on the weapons of mass destruction—by their respective chairs, Ambassador Gary Quinlan (Australia); Ambassador Mohammed Loulichki (Morocco); and Ambassador Kim Sook (Republic of Korea);
• the Secretary-General’s report on the Lord’s Resistance Army and on the UN Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA) by Abou Moussa, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of UNOCA; and
• on the situation in Libya and the proceedings of the International Criminal Court (ICC) by ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.

Briefings, followed by consultations, are likely on:

• the Secretary-General’s report on the integrated strategy for the Sahel by the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Sahel Romano Prodi;
• the Secretary-General’s report and developments in the Central African Republic by Margaret Vogt, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic (BINUCA);
• the Secretary-General’s consolidated report on Guinea-Bissau by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS) José Ramos-Horta; and
• the situation in the Middle East, by Under-Secretary-General  for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman.

Briefings in consultations are likely on:

• developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, by the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy Mary Robinson;
• Sudan and South Sudan issues, twice, most likely by, respectively, the Secretary General’s Special Envoy Haile Menkerios and Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Edmond Mulet;
• the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) by Mulet;
• the implementation of resolution 1559, by Special Envoy Terje Rød-Larsen;
• Sudan sanctions, by the chair of the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee Ambassador María Cristina Perceval (Argentina); and
• the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) by the chair of the 1718 DPRK Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Sylvie Lucas (Luxembourg).

Formal sessions will need to be held to adopt resolutions to:

• establish a new UN assistance mission in Somalia;
• renew the mandate of UNISFA;
• revise  the mandate of BINUCA; and
• renew the mandate of UNIOGBIS.

A wrap-up session in a private meeting is planned by Togo at the end of the month.

Throughout the month, Council members will be following closely the developments in Syria, and a meeting on this issue may be scheduled.