What's In Blue

Posted Wed 16 Nov 2011
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Workshop for New Members

Starting tomorrow afternoon (Thursday, 17 November) the current 15 members of the Council and the five new Council members (Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo) who begin their term on the Council on 1 January 2012 will participate in a two day workshop in a conference centre outside of New York City. Since 2003, this workshop for newly elected members called “Hitting the Ground Running” has been convened by the Government of Finland in cooperation with Dr. Edward C. Luck and the Security Council Affairs Division of the Secretariat.

The workshop provides incoming Council members with an opportunity to interact informally with their Council counterparts. It has also afforded Council members a forum to frankly discuss the issues it has faced in the preceding year , as well as a chance to reflect on what might be expected on the Council’s agenda in the year ahead. The discussions also traditionally cover the Council’s working methods and subsidiary bodies and give current Council members an opportunity to share lessons learned with the newly elected members.

Subjects to be covered during the seminar are likely to include some of the key issues the Council has faced in the course of 2011 such as responses to the “Arab Spring”, its relationship with regional and sub-regional organisations or the use of preventive diplomacy and mediation tools. Some thematic issues, such as protection of civilians, and ways of improving the Council’s working methods may also come up as discussion topics.

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