Overview

Australia will preside over the Security Council in September.

A debate on small arms is planned during the high-level week of the General Assembly. The Prime Minister of Australia may preside with other members likely to be represented at ministerial or higher levels. The Secretary-General is expected to brief and a resolution is the expected outcome.

The quarterly debate on the situation in Afghanistan is also expected, with Ján Kubiš, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, likely to brief.

A briefing on Yemen is expected by the Secretary-General’s Special Advisor, Jamal Benomar, as well as the Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, and a senior representative of Yemen.

Briefings, followed by consultations, are likely on:

• Liberia by Karin Landgren, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and Ambassador Staffan Tillander (Sweden), chair of the Liberia configuration of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC);
• the Middle East, by Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry;
• Sierra Leone, by Jens Anders Toyberg-Frandzen, the Executive Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone and by the chair of the Sierra Leone configuration of the PBC, Ambassador Guillermo Rishchynski (Canada);
• Libya by Tarek Mitri, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya;
• the work of the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee, by its chair, Ambassador Eugène-Richard Gasana (Rwanda); and
• the Secretary-General’s report on the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia, most likely by its head and Special Representative of the Secretary-General  Nicholas Kay and AU Special Representative Mahamat Saleh Annadif (both likely to brief by videoconferencing).

Briefings in consultations are likely on:

• current issues of concern, under the “horizon scanning” formula, by a top official from the Department of Political Affairs;
• Sudan and South Sudan issues, twice, on at least one of these occasions most likely by Special Envoy of the Secretary-General Haile Menkerios;
• Guinea-Bissau, by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau, José Ramos-Horta;
• the Secretary-General’s report on the UN Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan Heights, most likely by Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous; and
• the work of the 1737 Iran Sanctions Committee by its chair, Ambassador Gary Quinlan (Australia).

Additionally, formal sessions will be needed to adopt resolutions:

• modifying the mandate of the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic (discussions of which have started in August); and
• renewing the mandate of UNMIL.

Throughout the month, Council members will be following closely the developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali and Syria, and meetings on these issues may be scheduled.

Council members will also likely be working on finalising the Council’s annual report to the General Assembly, drafted this year by the US.

Several high-level events on issues of concern to the Security Council are expected in September on the margins of the General Assembly.