What's In Blue: May 2011
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On Tuesday, 31 May, the Council is expected to have an initial discussion on the special report of the Secretary-General containing recommendations on a successor mission to UNMIS. Council members have just got back from Sudan, and impressions from the...
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On Sunday, 22 May, Council members in an unusual move, issued a press statement while in Sudan on the second leg of their mission to Africa. The statement condemned the southern forces’ attack on the UNMIS convoy on 19 May...
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Members of the Security Council and AU Peace and Security Council held a joint consultative meeting on 21 May in Addis Ababa. (These annual consultations alternate between the UN and the AU’s headquarters.) On the agenda were crisis situations, Libya,...
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On Monday, 23 May, the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, will be briefing the Somalia Eritrea Sanctions Committee. This will be her second briefing to a sanctions committee. (Last year in June she briefed the DRC...
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Council members will begin their mission to Africa tomorrow. (The Council itself remains formally at Headquarters in New York and would meet here if required on any issue.) Members will be visiting Nairobi, Juba, Abyei, Khartoum and Addis Ababa. Members...
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Tomorrow (Thursday, 19 May), the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry, will brief the Security Council at its regular monthly meeting on the Middle East which will be followed by consultations. This comes against the...
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It appears that Council members are close to agreement on a press statement following Saturday’s swearing-in of Michel Martelly as Haiti’s new president. Council members had been working on on a possible press statement last month which they had planned...
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Council members expect to get final agreement today on a presidential statement to be issued following tomorrow’s (18 July) open debate on the DRC. The presidential statement was circulated last Wednesday and Council members discussed it last Friday. It seems...
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Tomorrow afternoon B. Lynn Pascoe, head of the Department of Political Affairs (DPA), will brief the Council for the second time this month on a number of issues. It seems that tomorrow’s briefing is likely to include Yemen, Libya, Syria,...
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It seems the 1267 Committee (the Committee on sanctions against the Taliban and Al-Qaida) has deferred a decision on the first delisting request processed by the Office of the Ombudsperson, Kimberly Prost. The Committee met on Tuesday 10 May but...
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The concept paper for the open debate on the DRC, scheduled for Wednesday 18 May, has been circulated to all UN member states. The Minister for Cooperation of the DRC is scheduled to attend the debate, which at this stage...
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It looks like the Council will adopt a resolution on Côte d’Ivoire tomorrow, Friday 13 May, that both authorises a technical rollover of the UN mission in Côte d’Ivoire’s (UNOCI’s) current mandate (which expires at the end of June) to...
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The Secretary-General’s annual report on children and armed conflict was released yesterday. The report provides information on grave violations committed against children, updates on progress made by parties to conflict on dialogue and action plans to halt the recruitment and...
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The escalation of the Syrian government’s suppression of public protests over the past weeks has led to increased pressure against Syria, including from a number of Council members. The UK and France seem interested in initiating a possible Council response...
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It seems that contrary to expectations the draft resolution to extend the temporary transfer of troops and helicopters from the UN mission in Liberia (UNMIL) to the UN mission in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) might be delayed to Friday or even...
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Council members met yesterday, 9 May, to discuss a draft presidential statement for tomorrow’s briefing on Somalia (apparently the UK circulated the draft to other Council members on Friday 6 May). It seems Council members were generally in agreement on...
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It seems the panel of experts that assists the Iran sanctions committee circulated its final report to Council members on Saturday 7 May. The report was due to the Council 30 days before the expiry of the panel’s mandate on...
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The Secretary-General has written to the Council expressing his support for an in-depth, impartial and independent investigation into the allegations of inhuman treatment of people and illicit trafficking in human organs in Kosovo. The Secretary-General’s letter formally transmitted to the...
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On Monday 9 May the Council will hear a briefing from the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos, on the humanitarian situation in Libya. It seems that Amos will also update the Council on the UN office in Libya (following...
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The Council debate on Bosnia and Herzegovina is scheduled for Monday 9 May. The High Representative and EU Special Representative Valentin Inzko gave a speech on 2 May at the French Institute for International Relations which may foreshadow some of...
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It seems the 1267 Committee (the Committee on sanctions against the Taliban and Al-Qaida) will meet on Tuesday, 10 May, to decide upon the first delisting request processed by the Office of the Ombudsperson, Kimberly Prost. Under the terms of...
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It seems that the Council will start negotiations in the next few days on a presidential statement to follow the briefing by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Somalia, Augustine Mahiga, on 11 May. It is thought that a key element...
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Council members met today (Tuesday, 3 May) to discuss the May programme of work. This followed a meeting of the political coordinators late yesterday to finalise the programme. This month France has the presidency and it looks like there will...
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The Council will receive a briefing this afternoon, Tuesday 3 May, from the UN Special Envoy for Libya, Abdel-Elah Al-Khatib, followed by closed consultations. The briefing is expected to focus on Al-Khatib’s recent travel to Libya and participation in the...
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While it seems that Cambodia has no intention of requesting a further meeting of the Security Council at this stage (the only Council meeting on this topic was held on 14 February 2011), Cambodia has applied to the International Court...
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This afternoon (2 May) the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict will have a formal meeting where it is expected to adopt its conclusions on Chad and Afghanistan. At the start of the meeting Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Special Representative...
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South Africa, as Chair of the Council’s Committee on resolution 1540 (on weapons of mass destruction and terrorism), has informed the Council that the Committee has delayed release of its three-year report from 24 April to 24 May. The Committee...
