What's In Blue: March 2019
-
Today (29 March), the Security Council is set to adopt a resolution renewing the mandate of MONUSCO, until 20 December 2019. The draft resolution was circulated by France, the penholder, on 18 March. Three meetings were held to negotiate the text along with bilateral discussions.
-
Tomorrow (28 March), the Security Council will hold an open debate on combatting the financing of terrorism. France’s Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian will preside and briefers include Under-Secretary-General of the UN Counter-Terrorism Office, Vladimir Voronkov...
-
Tomorrow (27 March), the Security Council is expected to renew the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) for an additional year. It appears that there was consensus among Council members that UNSOM should maintain its core mandate....
-
Council members arrived in Ouagadoudou yesterday morning (24 March) for the final day of their visiting mission, with the objective of assessing the situation in Burkina Faso and discussing the work of the G5 Sahel, whose rotating presidency Burkina Faso...
-
For the last one and a half days, Council members have held several meetings in Bamako focusing on the situation in Mali, the role of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), and the operationalisation of the...
-
This evening (21 March), Security Council members are leaving New York on a visiting mission to Mali and Burkina Faso. There are three main objectives of the visiting mission, which is co-led by Côte d’Ivoire, France and Germany. First, it aims at assessing progress and encouraging further implementation of the 2015 Peace and Reconciliation Agreement in Mali. Second, it aims at assessing the status of the operationalisation of the joint force of the G5 Sahel (FC-G5S) after a six-month hiatus following a terrorist attack against its headquarters in central Mali in June 2018. Third, it seeks to focus on the degradation of the security situation in Burkina Faso.
-
Tomorrow morning (21 March), Security Council members will have an informal interactive dialogue on “Fostering dialogue and cooperation as a response to conflicts and common challenges in the Middle-East and North Africa” to explore ways on how to better take into account...
-
Tomorrow afternoon (20 March), the Security Council is holding an informal interactive dialogue with the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) on the Sahel. Germany, as the informal coordinator between the Council and the PBC, is organising the meeting in preparation for the...
-
This afternoon (15 March), the Security Council is expected to vote on a “technical rollover” resolution to extend the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) for six months until 17 September. While five rounds of negotiations of...
-
Tomorrow (15 March), the Security Council is scheduled to vote on a draft resolution renewing the mandate of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) for an additional year. The initial draft was circulated by the US, the penholder on...
-
Tomorrow (15 March), an open Arria-formula meeting will be held in the ECOSOC chamber from 10 am to 1 pm on Crimea. The meeting has been organised by Council members Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, the UK, and the US, in...
-
Tomorrow morning (13 March), Council members will hold consultations to hear briefings from Martin Griffiths, the Special Envoy for Yemen, and General Michael Lollesgaard, the chair of the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC) and head of the UN Mission to support...
-
Tomorrow (13 March), there will be an open Arria-formula meeting from 3pm-6pm in the ECOSOC chamber on the inequalities between women and men in political processes. France (Council president this month) and Germany organised the meeting. (France and Germany, which will be Council president next month, have been describing March and April as their “joint presidencies” of the Council.) Tomorrow’s meeting takes place in the midst of the 63rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women, convened from 11-22 March at UN headquarters.
-
On Monday (11 March), France and Peru will co-host an Arria-formula meeting on “Human rights, accountability and justice: contributions to international peace and security”. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Miguel de Serpa Soares, and former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) Theodor Meron, will brief Council members. This will mark the first time Bachelet has briefed Council members in her current capacity.
-
Tomorrow (8 March), the Security Council is scheduled to receive a briefing from Special Representative and head of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) David Shearer on the situation in South Sudan. A civil society representative based in South Sudan...
-
Tomorrow (6 March), Security Council members will receive a briefing in consultations from the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, on the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The meeting is expected to focus on the 1 March report...
-
France holds the presidency in March. France and Germany, which will be Council president in April, have chosen to hold “joint presidencies” covering both months. The March programme has been adopted, while members have taken note of and welcomed the...