–as part of Guyana’s presidency of the council

APPROXIMATELY 29 meetings are on the agenda for the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), as Guyana assumes the role of president for the month of June.
This was according to the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, who made this disclosure during a media briefing following the presentation of the month’s work plan.
She said that all meetings except the signature event are mandated meetings with specific discussions including Syria, Iraq, Central Africa, Sudan, Libya and Yemen, among others.

Guyana will organise the signature event, which will take the form of a high-level open debate on poverty, underdevelopment, and conflict: implications for the maintenance of International Peace and Security.
“This meeting will be chaired by President, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, with briefers invited from the United Nations system and the African Union. The meeting will build upon previous discussions about the relationship between sustainable development and international peace and security,” Rodrigues-Birkett said.

The Permanent Representative noted that this is not the first time such a meeting has been held, as the council has discussed the security development nexus in the past in the context of peacebuilding.
She added that Sweden, Brazil, and, most recently, China in 2023 have all brought the broader question of security development to the Security Council and to this end, they intend to go a step further, this time paying closer attention to poverty and development as both drivers and consequences of conflict.

“Given the upcoming 80th anniversary of the United Nations, the proliferation of conflicts, one count put this at as more than 120 presently, and the fact that the sustainable development goals are not anywhere close to being achieved by 2030, we believe that this debate, is both timely as it is relevant,” she said.

Meanwhile, during the briefing, Rodrigues-Birkett was asked about her ideas in relation to UNSC reform.
The Permanent Resident speaking in her national capacity stated that the Security Council is the only organ of the United Nations that is not representative of the membership of the UN, and as such, developing countries are not well represented as it is currently.

Against this backdrop, she said: “Guyana advocates for the CARICOM model of reform, and that is an expansion in both categories.”
Further, she remarked that Guyana supports the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration, which espouse the African position and relate to permanent membership for Africa in that category, but also non-permanent membership.

Ambassador Rodrigues-Birkett also told the press that, as Guyana has been on the council for the last several months, it is even more motivated to advocate for Security Council reform.