Provisional Program of Work of the PSC for June 2018

Automatic Heading TextDate | June 2018

Sierra Leone assumes the role of the monthly chairpersonship of the Peace and Security Council (PSC) for the month of June when the monthly program of work of the PSC commences on 1st of June. Compared to the last two months and owing to the African Union (AU) summit, the June program is relatively light. The plan includes six substantive sessions and other sessions for consideration of the report on the activities of the PSC to be submitted to the AU summit, taking place from 25 June.

The program of the month starts with an open session on ‘the Delimitation and Demarcation of Boundaries in Africa the way forward to resolve interstate Conflict in Africa’. The meeting
commemorates the Africa Border Day, which is celebrated on 7 June. The African Union Border Program (AUBP) of the Peace and Security Department (PSD) will brief the session. The informal consultative discussions between the PSC Committee of Experts and the UNSC Experts will take much of the first week of the month. The event that will take place in New York from 4-8 June will discuss range of issues including the institutionalization of the relationship between the two bodies and the preparation for the annual consultative meeting between the PSC and the UNSC scheduled for July 2018.

On 11 June the PSC will to hold a session on two agenda items. The first is on the PSC field missions and follow up on implementation of decisions from missions. The second item is consideration and adoption of the provisional program of work for the month of July, this is important considering that the end of June would be taken up by activities of the AU summit.

On 12 June the PSC will have its session on UNAMID and the renewal of its mandate. Building on the early April joint visit to Darfur and UNAMID by Smaïl Chergui, African Union (AU) Commissioner for Peace and Security and Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the United Nations (UN) Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, and the PSC field mission to Sudan that took place from 5 to 9 May 2018, this session will consider the special report of the Chairperson of the AU Commission and the Secretary General of the UN on the Strategic Review of the UNAMID.

The PSC will receive a briefing on the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo on 13 June. Recent events of instability and the status of preparation and the conditions for holding the muchanticipated national elections are expected to dominate the agenda. It is during the course of June that the candidatures for the presidential elections will be known. Following this items, the 13 June meeting will also look at the preparations for the PSC’s 12th Annual Joint Consultative Meeting with the UNSC. This is expected to focus on the agenda for the consultative meeting.

On 18 June, the PSC will meet on two agenda items. The first will consider the Draft Report of the Peace and Security Council on its Activities and the State of Peace and Security in Africa. This report will look at the status and updates of major conflict situations on the continent and the outcome of the various activities of the PSC. The Draft Report of the PSC on the Implementation of the AU Master Roadmap of the Practical Steps to Silence the Guns in Africa by the year 2020. These two reports will feature again on the 21 June meeting of the PSC.

In commemoration of African Refugee Day, the PSC is scheduled to hold the second open session of the month on Refugee Protection, Migration and Human Rights in Africa on 20 June. The last session of the PSC is scheduled to convene on 30 June 2018 on the sidelines of the AU summit in Nouakchott, Mauritania. As a follow up to Heads of State meeting of the High Level Ad Hoc Committee of five African states expected to take place earlier on 30 June, this session will review the situation in South Sudan in terms of the implementation of the PSC Communiqué [PSC/MIN/COMM.(DCCXX) adopted at its 720 meeting held on 20 September 2017.