On 1 November, Australia assumed the Presidency of the United Nations Security Council for the month ahead.

The Security Council President is responsible for managing the Council agenda, calling and chairing Council meetings, and working towards common ground on issues before the Council. The President also acts as the body's public representative, delivering statements and conveying decisions on behalf of the Security Council. The role rotates among members of the Security Council each month in alphabetical order.

In addition to overseeing a busy programme of regular Council meetings, briefings and peacekeeping mandate renewals, Australia will hold an Open Debate on Counter-Terrorism on 19 November. The aim of the debate is to maintain the Council's strong focus on degrading terrorist organisations and combatting foreign terrorist fighters – and to build on the two significant resolutions (Resolution 2170 and Resolution 2178 [possibly including links to those resolutions]) adopted in recent months. The reports that were requested by the Council in those resolutions will be considered, and the Council will examine international cooperation to degrade terrorist organisations – including cutting off their funding streams, and countering their extremist ideologies.

Australia will also hold the first ever dedicated Security Council session on policing issues on 20 November. The meeting will focus on the increasingly important role that Police Components play in peacekeeping and peacebuilding, in particular for post-conflict stabilisation, security sector reform, protection of civilians and the rule of law.

And on November 25, Australia will hold a meeting to discuss practical steps for improving the implementation of UN sanctions – a key tool for conflict prevention and starving armed groups and terrorists of funds, weapons and recruits.

The full Programme of Work for the month is available here: http://www.un.org/en/sc/inc/pages/pdf/pow/powmonthly.pdf

Australia last held the Presidency of the Security Council in September 2013, at the height of the crisis over the use of chemical weapons in Syria. That month also saw the passage of a landmark resolution on the use of small arms and light weapons, when Foreign Minister Julie Bishop became the first Australian Foreign Minister ever to preside at the Security Council.