Guyana assumes UN Security Council presidency for June

HAMILTON, Canada

The South American country of Guyana took control of the rotational presidency of the UN Security Council from Greece on Monday for the month of June.

Guyana's UN Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett said at a news conference that the focus will be on the protection of children in armed conflict, conflict prevention as well as peace and security.

Rodrigues-Birkett said the "signature event" is to be held June 19 and "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 His Excellency president, Dr. Mohammed Irfan Ali, with briefers invited from the United Nations system and the African Union," she said, noting that the meeting aims to "build upon previous discussions about the relationship between sustainable development and international peace and security."

She said other meetings will focus on Syria, Iraq, Central Africa, Sudan, Libya, and Yemen, as well as focus on major topics such as chemical weapons in Syria and illegal Israeli settlements.

Asked about Guyana's stance at the Security Council in support of Palestinian self-determination, she said: "We have been vocal on the issue of Palestine long before we came on the Security Council."

"Guyana, as you know, is one of the founding members of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People so our advocacy for this is rooted in our belief that occupation is wrong, that colonization is wrong, and that the self determination of the people of Palestine must be exercised, and this is what we brought to the Security Council," Rodrigues-Birkett added.

On the upcoming conference on Palestinian statehood in New York, she stressed that "there can be no security guarantees if an entire people does not have their homeland, and this cycle of violence will continue."

"So we really believe that this conference should not be just another conference, and we are hopeful that it would have the kind of outcome that will move the needle on the two state solution," she added.

The Security Council presidency will pass from Guyana to Pakistan in July.