Week 24 14 - 18 June 2021

Recent developments at the UNSC

• Ireland addressed the Security Council at a meeting of troop-contributing countries to the UN Mission in Mali on Monday 7 June 2021.
• Ireland co-sponsored a Security Council resolution which recommended UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for a 2nd term on Tuesday 8 June 2021. The final decision will be made by the UN General Assembly.
• Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason called for continued support for the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in a Security Council briefing on Tuesday 8 June 2021.
• Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason called for an end to violence in Darfur in a briefing with outgoing ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, on Wednesday 9 June 2021.
• Ireland called for a meeting of the Security Council to address the dire humanitarian situation in Tigray on Thursday 10 June 2021.
• EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, briefed the Security Council in the annual debate on co-operation between the UNSC and the EU on Thursday 10 June 2021. Ireland reaffirmed its support for the EU’s commitment to building back better to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The UN elected five new members of the Security Council on Friday 11 June 2021. Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates will begin their terms on 1 January 2022 and serve until 31 December 2023.

Monday – 14^th June

• Quarterly briefing on Mali. El-Ghassim Wane, Special Representative and head of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), and Fatima Maiga, founding member and President of the Coalition des Femmes Leaders Nord, Sud et Centre du Mali (NSC), are the expected briefers.
• Briefing by the chair of 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Sven Jürgenson of Estonia.
• Briefing by the chair of the 751 Somalia Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason, on the periodic report of the committee’s activities.
• Closed consultations on the UN Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan Heights (UNDOF), including a briefing from Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

Tuesday – 15^th June

• Open briefing and closed consultations on Yemen, including briefings from Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock.
• Meeting under “any other business” to discuss the humanitarian situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in the wake of the volcanic eruption on 22 May 2021, at the request of France and the “A3 plus one” (Kenya, Niger, Tunisia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines).
• Informal interactive dialogue on the situation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, at the request of Ireland. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock and WFP Executive Director David Beasley have been invited to brief.

Wednesday – 16^th June

• Annual open debate on working methods, including briefings from: Ambassador I. Rhonda King (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) as the chair of the Informal Working Group on Working Methods; Loraine Sievers, co-author of “The Procedure of the UN Security Council (4th edition)”; and Karin Landgren, Executive Director of Security Council Report.

Thursday – 17^th June

• Open briefing on the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH). Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of BINUH Helen La Lime is expected to brief.

Friday – 18^th June

• Closed meeting on the situation in Myanmar.
• Arria-formula meeting on mercenaries in Libya, co-organised by the “A3 plus one”.

---