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Latest post: Tue 24 Jun 2025Insights on the work of the UN Security Council
Children and Armed Conflict: Annual Open Debate
Tomorrow (25 June), the Security Council will hold its annual open debate on children and armed conflict. Vindhya Persaud, Guyana’s Minister of Human Services and Social Security, is expected to chair the meeting. Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba will present the Secretary-General’s annual report on children and armed conflict, dated 17 June. Briefings are also expected from Director of Child Protection and Migration at UNICEF Sheema SenGupta, and a child civil society representative from Syria.
The Secretary-General’s annual report covers the period from January to December 2024 and provides information on the six grave violations against children in situations on the children and armed conflict agenda, which include 25 country situations and one regional monitoring arrangement covering the Lake Chad Basin region. The six grave violations, as determined by the Security Council, are child recruitment and use; killing and maiming; abductions; rape and other forms of sexual violence; attacks on schools and hospitals; and the denial of humanitarian access. With the exception of the denial of humanitarian access, committing any of the other five violations could lead to a party being listed in the annexes of the annual report.
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Tomorrow afternoon (24 June), the Security Council will convene for its biannual briefing on the implementation of resolution 2231 of 20 July 2015, which endorsed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear programme. Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary...
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On Monday morning (23 June), the Security Council will convene for an open briefing on Afghanistan. Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Roza Otunbayeva, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya, and...
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Tomorrow afternoon (20 June), the Security Council will hold an open briefing on Ukraine. The meeting was requested by Ukraine in a 17 June letter following large-scale Russian aerial attacks on Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine on that day. Council...
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Tomorrow morning (20 June), the Security Council will hold an emergency open briefing on the ongoing hostilities between Iran and Israel. The meeting, which will be held under the “Threats to international peace and security” agenda item, was requested by...
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Tomorrow (19 June), the Security Council will hold an open debate on “Poverty, Underdevelopment, and Conflict: Implications for the Maintenance of International Peace and Security”. UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Assistant Secretary-General and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific at...
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Tomorrow morning (17 June), the Security Council will hold its monthly briefing on the political and humanitarian situations in Syria. Deputy Special Envoy for Syria Najat Rochdi and Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya will brief the Council. A civil...
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This afternoon (13 June), the Security Council will hold an emergency open briefing followed by closed consultations on the attack that Israel launched against Iran overnight. The meeting, which will be held under the “Threats to international peace and security”...
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On Monday afternoon (16 June), Security Council members will convene for closed consultations on Sudan. Denmark, Slovenia, and the UK (the penholder on the file) requested the meeting to receive an update on the humanitarian situation in the country. Assistant...
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On Monday morning (16 June), Security Council members will hold closed consultations under the “Protection of civilians in armed conflict” agenda item. Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya is expected to brief members on food insecurity in Gaza, following...
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On Tuesday morning (10 June), the Security Council will convene for an open briefing, followed by closed consultations, on the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI). Special Representative and Head of UNAMI Mohamed Al Hassan is expected to brief on the Secretary-General’s...
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This afternoon (4 June) at 4 pm EST, the Security Council is expected to vote on a draft resolution on the war between Israel and Hamas that was initiated by the Council’s ten elected members (E10). The draft text in...
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Tomorrow (4 June), Russia will convene an Arria-formula meeting on Ukraine titled “Understanding and Resolving the Ideological Roots of the Ukrainian Crisis”. The anticipated briefers are: Edouard Popov, Director of the Center for Public Cooperation and Information “Europe”; Natalya Seluykina, Executive Director...
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Guyana is the president of the Security Council in June. Council members adopted the provisional programme of work for the month earlier today (2 June). Guyana has chosen to organise one signature event, a high-level open debate titled “Poverty, underdevelopment...
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Tomorrow morning (30 May), the Security Council is expected to vote on a draft resolution to renew sanctions on South Sudan—including targeted sanctions (assets freezes and travel bans) and an arms embargo—until 31 May 2026 and the mandate of the Panel...
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Tomorrow afternoon (29 May), the Security Council will hold an open briefing on Ukraine under the “Maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine” agenda item. The Council’s European members—Denmark, France, Greece, Slovenia, and the UK—requested the meeting to receive an...
