The Week Ahead at the Security Council

12 March - 16 March 2018

Dear Colleague,

On Monday (12 March), there will be a briefing by Secretary-General António Guterres on the implementation of resolution 2401, which was adopted on 24 February and demanded a cessation of hostilities in Syria. The briefing will be followed by consultations.

Also on Monday, Council members are expected to hold an Arria-formula meeting on “Implementing Syria’s Cessation of Hostilities: Syria’s Opposition Speaks”. The meeting will be hosted by the UK, the Netherlands, Poland and France. Two members of the Syria Negotiation Commission (Hadi al Bahra and Fadwa Mahmoud) and a resident of Eastern Ghouta, speaking through video-link, are expected to brief Council members.

The Council expects to receive a briefing in consultations on Tuesday (13 March) from the chair of the 751/1907 Somalia and Eritrea Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Kairat Umarov (Kazakhstan), on the committee’s work.

On Wednesday (14 March), the Security Council will be briefed on the 60-day report of the Secretary-General on the AU/UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) by Joint Special Representative and head of UNAMID Jeremiah Mamabolo via video-link. Ambassador Joanna Wronecka (Poland), chair of the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee, is expected to provide the quarterly briefing to Council members on the Committee’s work. Consultations are expected to follow these briefings.

The Council is scheduled to adopt a resolution renewing the mandate of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) on Thursday (15 March).

Late in the week, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura will provide a briefing, which will be followed by consultations, on political developments regarding Syria.

At press time, Council members continue to negotiate a draft presidential statement on the humanitarian situation in Yemen. A presidential statement on Burundi is also being negotiated.

At the subsidiary body level, the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict will meet on Monday (12 March) for the introduction of the Secretary-General’s report on children and armed conflict in Mali. It will also discuss the Global Horizontal Note for the period of July to September 2017, and hear a briefing from Germany’s Deputy Permanent Representative Ambassador Jürgen Schulz on the Berlin Workshop on Children and Armed Conflict held from 12 -13 February.

On Friday (16 March), there will be a meeting of the 2127 Central African Republic Sanctions Committee during which the Panel of Experts is expected to present its programme of work.

Background information on these and other issues has been published in the March 2018 Monthly Forecast.

Further Council developments will be published on What’s In Blue.