Overview
There will be two open debates during Malaysia’s August presidency. Malaysia, also the chair of the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, has organised an open debate on the Secretary-General’s annual report on this thematic issue. Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman is expected to chair the second open debate focused on preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Council members will continue to hold straw polls to gauge the viability of candidates that have been nominated for the position of the next Secretary-General.
In August, Council members will be closely following developments in South Sudan and Syria. On South Sudan, at press time, the Council was due to briefly roll over the mandate of UNMISS, which expires on 31 July. It is expected that Council members will continue to monitor the situation following last month’s outbreak of violence in Juba and will adopt a resolution modifying the mandate of UNMISS to enable it to address the latest developments. On Syria, Council members will receive their regular monthly briefings regarding the humanitarian and chemical weapons tracks. They will also be watching to see if the intra-Syrian political process will resume in August.
There will be discussions on several other African issues this month:
- Guinea-Bissau, on the activities of UNIOGBIS and a review of the 2048 sanctions regime in the post-election environment;
- Liberia, an update on UNMIL ahead of the mission’s mandate renewal in September; and
- Sudan/South Sudan, the quarterly briefing north/south issues.
Other Middle East issues that will be considered this month are:
- Israel/Palestine, the regular monthly meeting;
- the renewal of UNIFIL in Lebanon; and
- an update on the Yemen political talks and the 2140 sanctions regime.
The Council will hold its quarterly meetings on UNMIK in Kosovo and another on the activities of the 1718 DPRK Sanctions Committee.
On 22 July, the Council received the Secretary-General’s recommendations for a political mission to monitor the ceasefire in Colombia, but it is unclear what the next steps will be in taking up the recommendations.
