Security Council Programme of Work for February 2026
The UK is the president of the Security Council in February. Council members adopted the provisional programme of work for the month earlier today (2 February).
The UK is planning a particular focus on two specific mandated meetings, which UK Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs Yvette Cooper is likely to chair. The first meeting is the 120-day briefing on the situation in Sudan. Officials from the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) are expected to brief at the meeting. A civil society representative and Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Sudan Ramtane Lamamra may also brief. At today’s press briefing on February’s programme of work, James Kariuki, the Chargé d’Affaires at the UK Mission to the UN, noted that the meeting will focus on the endemic violence against women and girls in the country.
The second meeting is the monthly meeting on “The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question”. Ramiz Alakbarov, the Deputy Special Coordinator and Resident Coordinator at the Office of the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO), is expected to brief. A civil society representative may also brief. According to Kariuki, the UK aims to focus the meeting on implementation of the “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict”.
February marks the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Kariuki noted that the UK will call for a meeting on the file for 24 February. The UK’s Minister of State for Europe, North America and Overseas Territories, Stephen Doughty, is expected to chair the meeting.
In addition to the meeting on “The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question”, other Middle Eastern issues are included on this month’s programme of work.
The Security Council will hold its monthly briefing and consultations on the political and humanitarian situations in Syria. Deputy Special Envoy for Syria Claudio Cordone and an OCHA official are expected to brief. A civil society representative may also brief.
There will also be an open briefing, followed by closed consultations, on Yemen. The anticipated briefers are UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg and an OCHA official.
In addition to Sudan, several other African issues will be discussed in February.
There will be a briefing on the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Lacroix is expected to brief. A civil society representative may also brief. Closed consultations are scheduled to follow the open briefing.
The Security Council will hold its bimonthly briefing and consultations on the situation in Libya. Special Representative and Head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Hanna Serwaa Tetteh will brief on recent political, security, and humanitarian developments in the country. A civil society representative may also brief.
There will be an open briefing, followed by closed consultations, on the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Central African Republic (CAR) and Head of MINUSCA Valentine Rugwabiza is the anticipated briefer.
Council members are also expected to continue negotiating their response letter to the Secretary-General’s 20 January letter, which recommended that the mandate of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) be extended for three years. On 30 January, Council members agreed on a technical rollover of UNOWAS for two weeks, until 14 February, as they needed to continue deliberations on the letter after the mandate’s expiry on 31 January.
Regarding Asian issues, the Security Council is expected to vote on a draft resolution extending the mandate of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team supporting the 1988 Afghanistan Sanctions Committee.
Members are also scheduled to receive a briefing in closed consultations on the work of the 1718 Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) Sanctions Committee. (At the time of writing, the Chair of the 1718 DPRK Sanctions Committee had not been appointed as Council members continue to negotiate this year’s allocation of subsidiary bodies. If the Chair is not appointed by the time the meeting is scheduled to take place, the UK is likely to brief members on the report in its capacity as Council president.)
This month, the Security Council is expected to hold a briefing on threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts based on the Secretary-General’s 22nd strategic-level report on the threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh). The anticipated briefers are Acting Under-Secretary-General for Counter-Terrorism and Head of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) Alexandre Zouev and Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) Natalia Gherman. Chris Elmore, the UK’s Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, is expected to chair the meeting.
The Council will also receive its annual briefing from the heads of police components of UN peace operations. The expected briefers are Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix, UN Police Adviser Faisal Shahkar, Police Commissioner of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) Mamouna Ouedraogo, and Police Commissioner of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Meinolf Schlotmann.
Council members are expected to discuss how to respond to the 31 January attack by militants in the south-western province of Balochistan in Pakistan, which killed 33 people, including civilians.
Other issues could be raised in February depending on developments in contexts such as Iran and the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Members may also begin discussing the modalities for the Council’s involvement in the selection process for the next Secretary-General following the announcement by President of the General Assembly Annalena Baerbock on 14 January that she has scheduled interactive dialogues with candidates for the post of Secretary-General for the week of 20 April.
