The Week Ahead at the UN Security Council

29 October 2018 – 2 November 2018

Dear Colleague,

On Monday (29 October), Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock is expected to brief on the humanitarian situation in Syria. This will be followed by consultations.

Consultations are also scheduled on the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) and Sudan/South Sudan on Monday, during which Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix is expected to brief.

On Tuesday (30 October), Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo is expected to brief members in consultations on Cyprus.

Consultations are also planned on Tuesday on the implementation of resolution 1701, which called for the disarmament of all militias and the extension of government control over all Lebanese territory.

China assumes the presidency of the Council on Thursday (1 November).

The Council is further expected to adopt a resolution renewing the authorisation for anti-piracy measures off the coast of Somalia on Friday (2 November).

Also on Friday, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is expected to deliver the semi-annual briefing on recent developments concerning cases in Libya.

The Council is planning to adopt a resolution this week renewing the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) before its 31 October expiration.

The Council also continues to negotiate two draft resolutions—one extending the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee and renewing measures related to the illicit export of crude oil from Libya, and another on Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo—that could be adopted during the week.

At the subsidiary body level, a meeting of one of the working groups of the 1540 Committee, which focuses on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, is scheduled for Tuesday (30 October).

Background information on several of these issues has been published in the October 2018 Monthly Forecast. Further Council developments will be posted to What’s In Blue or published in the upcoming November 2018 Monthly Forecast.