Overview

Jordan will preside over the Security Council in January.

The presidency is planning an open debate on “War, its lessons, and the search for a permanent peace” under the agenda item “Maintenance of International Peace and Security”, with historian Margaret MacMillan (Canada) as the main briefer. An open debate on the Middle East is also planned and the Secretary-General is expected to brief.

Briefings, followed by consultations, are likely on:

• the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by the Special Representative and head of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC, Martin Kobler, and the Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region, Mary Robinson;
• the situation in the Central African Republic (CAR) and needed changes in the mandate of the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the CAR (BINUCA) by Special Representative and BINUCA head Babacar Gaye;
• the situation in Mali by Albert Gerard Koenders, the Special Representative and head of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali;
• the Secretary-General’s report on the AU/UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur, by the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous;
• developments in Burundi by the Special Representative and head of the UN Office in Burundi, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, as well as by the chair of the Peacebuilding Commission’s Burundi configuration, Ambassador Paul Seger (Switzerland); and
• the Secretary-General’s report on the UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI), by the Special Representative and UNOCI head, Aïchatou Mindaoudou, via videoconferencing (VTC).

Briefings in consultations are likely on:

• the work in Syria of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons-UN Joint Mission by its Special Coordinator Sigrid Kaag;
• the situation in Sudan and South Sudan by Special Envoy Haile Menkerios, most likely by VTC;
• the work of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) by Special Representative and UNFICYP head Lisa Buttenheim;
• the work of the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia by its head Miroslav Jenča;
• the situation in Yemen by Special Adviser Jamal Benomar; and
• developments in the 1533 DRC Sanctions Committee by its chair. A successor to the departing chair, Ambassador Agshin Mehdiyev (Azerbaijan) had not been named at press time.

Formal sessions will be needed to adopt resolutions to renew:

• the mandate of BINUCA;
• the mandate of UNFICYP; and
• the DRC sanctions regime and the mandate of the Group of Experts assisting the 1533 DRC Sanctions Committee.

An Arria formula meeting is planned by Luxembourg and the UK on women’s participation in the Syrian transition.

In addition to Jordan, four more elected members are joining the Council on 1 January: Chad, Chile, Lithuania and Nigeria (succeeding Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo).