Security Council Working Methods
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Tomorrow (21 February), there will be a ministerial-level briefing on the “purposes and principles of the UN Charter in the maintenance of international peace and security”. Secretary-General António Guterres and former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon are expected to brief. Kuwaiti Deputy...
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Tomorrow (6 February), the Security Council will hold an open debate on working methods. The Executive Director of Security Council Report, Ian Martin, will be the briefer. While no formal outcome is anticipated, Council president Kuwait, which is the chair...
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Kuwait, the 2018 chair of the Informal Working Group on Documentation and Other Procedural Questions, is planning an open debate on the Council’s working methods during its presidency in February. This will be the first such open debate since July 2016. No outcome is expected at this stage.
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The charts in this Forecast provide an update on Security Council penholders and chairs of subsidiary bodies as of January 2018. The charts do not cover all the agenda items of which the Council is currently seized; rather, they focus on items with regular outcomes or those for which a subsidiary body has been established. For the full names of agenda items, please refer to the latest summary statement by the Secretary-General of matters of which the Security Council is seized (S/2018/10). The list of chairs of subsidiary bodies is contained in a 2 January note by the Council President (S/2018/2).
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This is Security Council Report’s fourth Research Report on the working methods of the Security Council.
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The 15th annual workshop for incoming members of the UN Security Council will be held on 2-3 November, commencing this evening (2 November) in Long Island, New York. The workshop is convened by the government of Finland in cooperation with...
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Italy is the president of the Security Council this month. It is planning to hold a ministerial-level briefing presided over by its Foreign Minister, Angelino Alfano, on the root causes of the security challenges in the Mediterranean. The Secretary-General is...
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Following weeks of negotiations over most of the summer, the Council reached agreement on 30 August on a new version of the compendium of its working methods, commonly referred to as “Note 507”. The document was elaborated under the leadership of Japan, in its capacity as chair of the Informal Working Group on Documentation and Other Procedural Questions, the venue for most discussions regarding the Council’s working methods.
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In the past few years, the Security Council has devoted more and more time to open debates. From 90 hours in 2013, the cumulative duration went up gradually to more than 160 hours in 2016. Most open debates in the last several years have been thematic, with situation-specific ones, other than the quarterly Middle East open debate, being rare exceptions.
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The 14th annual workshop for incoming members of the UN Security Council will be held on 3-4 November, commencing this evening (3 November) in Long Island, New York. The workshop is convened by the government of Finland in cooperation with...
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On 13 October, António Guterres was appointed as the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. The General Assembly has appointed eight other Secretaries-General, but the road to this decision was a very different one from previous years, when the selection of the Secretary-General was opaque and tightly controlled by the permanent members. This time, active involvement of civil society and members of the General Assembly in insisting on greater transparency and a more clearly defined selection process led to substantial changes that allowed both the General Assembly and elected members of the Security Council to play significant roles in the process.
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Contrary to a widespread assumption, the Security Council’s so-called penholder system is not a longstanding practice. Rather, it is still in its first decade. Under the current arrangement, most Council outcomes (including resolutions, presidential statements or press statements) are drafted by one of the P3 (France, the UK and the US) which are the penholders on most situation-specific issues on the Council’s agenda. As of early 2016, the US was serving as the penholder for eight of these situation-specific agenda items, the UK for seven and France for six. Elected members have been serving as penholders on Afghanistan and Guinea-Bissau and on some thematic issues.
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Tomorrow (19 July), the Japanese Presidency will hold an open debate on the working methods of the Security Council. The debate is taking place on the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Note by the President of the Security...
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On 19 July, as one of the highlights of its presidency of the Council and to mark the tenth anniversary of the culmination of its first working methods initiative, Japan is organising an open debate on working methods.
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In mid-April, the General Assembly held three days of hearings with the nine candidates who had been formally nominated, and further hearings are expected in early June. The activity in the General Assembly appears to have prompted Council members to begin informal discussions on the next steps for the Council in the Secretary-General appointment process.
