GA1 (SpecPol and Decolon.) Guide
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Transcript of GA1 (SpecPol and Decolon.) Guide
Belarussian Model United Nations for University Students
2012
[Sustainable development: the way forward]
Instructional Guide
GA1 (Special Political and Decolonization Committee)
Belarusian Model United Nations for University Students 2012
GA 1 (Special Political and Decolonization Committee)
Page 2
Dear delegates of Special Political and
Decolonization Committee!
We are honored to greet you as
participants of Belarusian Model United
Nations for University Students 2012!
During this session of BelaMUN we will
be your Chairs, it means we will lead the work
of GA1 trying to make it as the most organized
and interesting as possible.
My name is Nataliya Kotsikava. I’m a 4-year student of Belarusian State
Economic University. It will be my 3rd
time of being a Chair. All in all during my MUN
experience I participated in this kind of conferences for 8 times in different parts of the
world. Having seen different conferences, I can assert that Belarusian Model United
Nations surpasses many internationals in organizational way. It’s a good chance to
benefit and feel a high-level event!
My name is Vadim Bayandin. I’m a student of the faculty of international
relations (Belarusian State University). I’m sure I’ll do my best to create a businesslike
but at the same time favorable for communication and exchange atmosphere.
The general topic of this BelaMUN session is “Sustainable Development: the way
forward”. Within the limits of this global issue we’ll be working on 2 questions which
are also actively discussed in the real UN structures. They are:
1) Taking Under Control Separatist Movements Claiming to Sovereignty
from Host Governments;
2) The Role of Blue Helmets in Hot Spots.
We strongly call you to participate enthusiastically in the debates during our
working days and we hope that all of us will gain a lot of experience, will learn a lot of
new and interesting facts and, what is more, we’ll develop our communicational skills
for reaching our professional and personal aims. Good luck to all of us!
Best regards,
Nataliya Kotikova and Vadim Bayandin.
Belarusian Model United Nations for University Students 2012
GA 1 (Special Political and Decolonization Committee)
Page 3
1. TAKING UNDER CONTROL SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS CLAIMING
TO SOVEREIGNTY FROM HOST GOVERNMENTS
Sometimes people decide that they cannot secure their rights within the
framework of an existing polity, and must separate from it. Sometimes they live in an
occupied country, and the occupying power has no intention of extending the full
rights of citizenship to them, or of complying with constitutional principles.
The main goal of UN is to prevent such situations, when dissatisfied people
decide that they cannot live under the pressure of existing government anymore. But it
is clear that it is impossible to monitor all the situations all over the world. Moreover,
separatist movements can be a spontaneous phenomenon that comes in sight only
when the people are on strike or even worse, when they take guns in their hands.
Under these circumstances the need of more powerful international diplomatic force
appears that could defuse critic political condition in the region. And this is one of the
most important purposes of the United Nations.
The United Nations generally favors enforcing constitutional compliance within
an existing polity, but sometimes independence is the only way.
During the last fifty years the United Nations has dealt with numerous threats
to world peace. In the process, they have spent thousands of hours debating and
attempting to solve the crises in the Middle East and Southern Africa. The number
of active conflicts all around the world is getting higher. It is clear that each of them
should be defused as quick as possible. But United Nations is not almighty, so
statesmen are bound by divergent national interests, limited time and resources, daily
they have to make the difficult choice: which crisis to resolve immediately and which
is to be deferred. Nationalist-Separatist Movements attempts to accomplish this by
dealing with conflicts which have been discussed in the United Nations, and which
are still unresolved today. The UN points out that they don’t treat separatist
movements as a group, but study them individually.
A first case of separatism was the British colony of India. In the late 1940’s it
fractured into India and Pakistan amidst a blood bath and a refugee crisis unequaled
before or since. Moreover soon the people of Bangladesh launched their own
separatist movement and seceded in 1971. Even today border strife continues as the
three nations’ dispute the frontiers drawn hastily by the departing British in 1947.
Groups seeking to resolve their desire for national identity and establish a true
nation-state often form separatist groups known as National Liberation
Organizations (NLOs). Examples of such groups include the Viet Cong during the
Belarusian Model United Nations for University Students 2012
GA 1 (Special Political and Decolonization Committee)
Page 4
Vietnam War, the Irish Republican Army, the South-West African People’s
Organization, and the Eritrean Liberation Front. NLOs do not possess legal
authority over a specific territory; they are seeking to "liberate" that territory from the
current regime and obtain that authority.
These movements have varying organizational structures and disparate levels of
power and influence.
They may choose nonviolent means, such as the Parti Quebeco did in Canada.
Otherwise, they may choose violence that results in civil war or terrorist attacks
as have the Eritreans in Ethiopia and the Basques in Spain, respectively.
Although nationalism is the driving force behind most NLOs, and all desire an
independent state, they seldom have anything else in common. Some NLOs seek to
overthrow a government viewed as dictatorial, exploitive and under the control of an
external influence. The Sandanistas in Nicaragua were an example of this type of
NLO.
Others pit colonial peoples against colonial powers such as the struggle of the
MauMaus against the British in Kenya.
Many nations resist annexation and absorption by states that they believe will
strip them of their nationality, land and resources, such as the people of East Timor,
whose independence was finally formalized in 2002.
NLOs usually employ a military policy of some type and make extensive use of
the media. Palestinians will not become ethnic «Israelis», and the Oromo will not
become "Ethiopian" despite the efforts to force that outcome. If it was done, it would
erase their nationality, history and country. Yet, these peoples are rarely identified by
their own names in the media; instead they are commonly referred to as rebels,
separatists, extremists, dissidents, insurgents, terrorists, tribals, minorities, or
ethnic groups.
Contemporary research indicates that international wars waged to regain lost
territory and revolutions undertaken by an ethnic minority in the interest of national
self-determination have accounted for 70% of all international conflicts. Most armed
resistance begins as low intensity conflict, in the form of small skirmishes along
borders or at sea, either by individuals or small groups. Such low intensity conflict
presents the danger of escalation to a more destructive level of violence. With the
spread of modern weapon capabilities, it has the potential to become extremely
destructive.
Groups may have one or more motivations for separation, including:
Emotional resentment of rival communities.
Belarusian Model United Nations for University Students 2012
GA 1 (Special Political and Decolonization Committee)
Page 5
Protection from ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Justified resistance by victims of oppression, including denigration of
their language, culture or religion.
Propaganda by those who hope to gain politically from intergroup
conflict and hatred.
The economic and political dominance of one group that does not share
power and privilege in an egalitarian fashion.
Economic motivations: seeking to end economic exploitation by more
powerful group or, conversely, to escape economic redistribution from a richer to a
poorer group.
Preservation of threatened religious, language or other cultural tradition.
Destabilization from one separatist movement giving rise to others.
Geopolitical power vacuum from breakup of larger states or empires.
Continuing fragmentation as more and more states break up.
Feeling that the perceived nation was added to the larger state by
illegitimate means.
The perception that the state can no longer support one's own group or
has betrayed their interests.
Every country tries to defuse separatist movements. In accordance with
resistance that government will show to separatists, we can predict how far these
kinds of movements will go towards. Nowadays there are 5 main ways of responding
for a host government:
1. Accede to separatist demands
2. Improve the circumstances of disadvantaged minorities, so that religious,
ethnic or other interests of these people would be satisfied.
3. Adopt “asymmetric federalism” where different states have different
relations to the central government depending on separatist demands or
considerations.
4. Allow minorities to win in political disputes about which they feel
strongly, through parliamentary voting, referendum, etc.
5. Settle for a confederation or a commonwealth relationship where there
are only limited ties among states.
Belarusian Model United Nations for University Students 2012
GA 1 (Special Political and Decolonization Committee)
Page 6
There are plenty of UN organizations working to prevent conflicts and to
defuse separatist movements worldwide. Here is the list of these organizations:
BNUB, United Nations Office in Burundi
http://bnub.unmissions.org/
BINUCA, United Nations Integrated Peace-building Office in the
Central African Republic
http://binuca.unmissions.org/
UNIOGBIS, United Nations Integrated Peace-building Office in
Guinea-Bissau
http://uniogbis.unmissions.org/
UNOCA, United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa
http://unoca.unmissions.org/
UNOWA, United Nations Office for West Africa
http://unowa.unmissions.org/
UNIPSIL, United Nations Integrated Peace-building Office in Sierra
Leone
http://unipsil.unmissions.org/
UNSMIL, United Nations Support Mission in Libya
http://unsmil.unmissions.org/
UNPOS, United Nations Political Office for Somalia
http://unpos.unmissions.org/
UNRCCA, United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy
for Central Asia
http://unrcca.unmissions.org/
UNAMI, United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq
http://www.uniraq.org/
UNSCO, Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the
Middle East Peace Process
http://www.unsco.org/Default.asp
UNSCOL, Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for
Lebanon
http://unscol.unmissions.org/
Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Greece-FYROM talks
Every year the role of these organizations in the modern world increases, so we
can expect that in the future their activity will be the most important power that can
handle peace building all over the world.
Belarusian Model United Nations for University Students 2012
GA 1 (Special Political and Decolonization Committee)
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2. THE ROLE OF BLUE HELMETS IN HOT SPOTS
“Peacekeeping is one of the
most visible, difficult and critical
roles played by the United Nations.
It is also a role which only the UN
can play in a truly global sense.”
Ban Ki-moon.
Peacekeeping is one among a range of activities undertaken by the United
Nations and other international actors to maintain international peace and security
throughout the world. The people who serve in the peacekeeping troops are called
“peacekeepers” or “blue helmets” which consist the integral part of the peacekeepers’
uniform.
United Nations peacekeeping is a unique and dynamic instrument developed by
the Organization of United Nations as a way to help countries torn by conflict by
creating the conditions for the lasting peace. Peacekeeping has proven to be one of the
most effective tools available to the UN to assist host countries navigate the difficult
path from conflict to peaceful existence.
Over the years, peacekeeping has evolved from a primarily military model of
observing cease-fires and the separation of forces after inter-state wars, to incorporate
a complex model of many elements – military, police and civilian – working together
to help lay the foundations for sustainable peace.
UN Peacekeeping is guided by three basic principles:
Consent of the parties;
Impartiality;
Non-use of force except in self-defense and defense of the mandate.
Belarusian Model United Nations for University Students 2012
GA 1 (Special Political and Decolonization Committee)
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It’s true that the UN peacekeepers work only with the consent of the host
country. They are, by principle, impartial and are able to use force only by mandate or
in instances of self-defense. UN officials are quick to note that the peacekeepers are
there not to establish peace but to support an existing peace process.
United Nations Peacekeeping began in 1948 when the Security
Council authorized the deployment of UN military observers to the Middle East. The
mission's role was to monitor the Armistice Agreement between Israel and its Arab
neighbours – an operation which became known as the (UNTSO).
Since then, 66 peacekeeping operations have been deployed by the UN, 53 of
them since 1988. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of military personnel, as well
as tens of thousands of UN police and other civilians from more than 120
countries have participated in UN peacekeeping operations. More than 2,950 UN
peacekeepers have died while serving under the UN flag.
There are currently 16 active peacekeeping missions.
Africa
United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS)
United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA)
UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (MONUSCO)
African Union-UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID)
UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI)
Belarusian Model United Nations for University Students 2012
GA 1 (Special Political and Decolonization Committee)
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UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL)
UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO)
Americas
UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)
Asia and the Pacific
UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT)
UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP)
UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) *
Europe
UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP)
UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
Middle East
UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF)
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)
UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO)
Belarusian Model United Nations for University Students 2012
GA 1 (Special Political and Decolonization Committee)
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Today peacekeepers undertake a wide variety of complex tasks:
patrolling areas of recent violence,
facilitating of the political process,
clearing land mines,
protecting civilians,
helping to build sustainable institutions of governance,
human rights monitoring,
reforming of the security sector,
assisting in the disarmament,
demobilization and reintegration of former combatants,
helping refugees,
supporting free and fair elections etc.
“A number of peacekeeping operations are on the front line in the international
community’s attempt to combat organized crime in countries recovering from
conflict. Blue helmets have taken part in “gang-clearing” operations in Haiti, and
acted against human trafficking and financial crimes in Kosovo, drug trafficking in
Afghanistan, and the illicit arms trade in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC)”. UN Police Adviser Andrew Hughes.
UN peacekeeping has proved to be a versatile tool for deterring or reversing
inter-state conflict, ending civil wars, mitigating humanitarian crises, and extending
state authority in areas where state capacity is weak or contested.
Mediation and peacekeeping have contributed to an 80% decline in total armed
conflict since the end of the Cold War.
Nevertheless, the presence of the peacekeeping troops doesn’t obligatory implies
the success of the peacekeeping process. Nowadays the United Nations peacekeeping
operations face an extended and dangerous period of strategic uncertainty. A series of
setbacks have coincided with military overstretch and the financial crisis
raising the risk that UN peacekeeping may contract, despite high demand.
The Srebrenica massacre, in which more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and
boys were killed by ethnic Serb forces in July 1995, took place despite being inside a
UN-declared "safe area" and in the presence of 400 Dutch UN peacekeepers, who
failed to prevent the slaughter.
Belarusian Model United Nations for University Students 2012
GA 1 (Special Political and Decolonization Committee)
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A UN peacekeeping operation in Rwanda also failed to prevent the 1994
genocide there, in which an estimated 800,000 people died. Years later, Kofi Annan,
who at the time served as head of the UN peacekeeping forces before going on to
become secretary-general, expressed "bitter regret" over the experience.
Nick Birnback, chief of the Peacekeeping Affairs Unit in the Office of the
Under-Secretary General in the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations,
defends the UN's peacekeeping operations, saying the blue helmets are often put in
the unenviable position of being deployed only when all other options have been
exhausted.
"We are not the first response of the international community. We're usually the
last," he says. "We tend to be what gets sent when nothing else seems to be working.
So we're deployed into a situation when things are already really bad. It's not that we
start from zero, if you like. In some ways, we start from below zero."
The UN peacekeepers are, in a sense, the world's largest volunteer army. Some
115 countries currently provide soldiers and police personnel for peacekeeping
operations, with Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India making up the top three
contributors.
Belarusian Model United Nations for University Students 2012
GA 1 (Special Political and Decolonization Committee)
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If it is developing countries that provide the majority of the personnel,
developed countries cover much of the funding. The United States, which provides 27
percent of the UN's peacekeeping budget, is the single-largest contributor, followed
by Japan, Britain, Germany, and France.
Countries that provide personnel are compensated by the UN at an average of
$1,000 per month per peacekeeper. (The local governments themselves determine
peacekeepers' salaries.). Many national military units return from peacekeeping
missions experienced and better prepared.
At present, only a
handful of UN peacekeepers
are women. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon launched a
global effort to increase the
proportion of women in
peacekeeping operations to 20
percent by 2014.
Clare Hutchinson, the
gender affairs officer at the
department of peacekeeping
operations, says the presence of
women peacekeepers can, in certain countries, help the UN be more effective in its
work with the local population.
"In some cultures - look at Afghanistan or some other cultures - where men
can't connect with women or are not allowed to talk to women, it's important to have
women as peacekeepers, because they can engage the society [in ways] that men
can't," she says.
The UN's peacekeeping forces are the largest and most visible segment of the
world's body global presence. Their significance has dramatically increased in the last
decade and they're expected to take on even larger role in the next.
Belarusian Model United Nations for University Students 2012
GA 1 (Special Political and Decolonization Committee)
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For the further exploration of this topic, we encourage you to look through the
following links which can be useful in your research.
TAKING UNDER CONTROL SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS CLAIMING TO
SOVEREIGNTY FROM HOST GOVERNMENTS
http://www.un.org/en/peacebuilding/
Official UN website about peace building.
http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/undpa/
Official UN website of The Department of Political Affairs
http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/undpa/main/about/field_operations
List of current peace-building operations
http://www.un.org/wcm/webdav/site/undpa/shared/undpa/pdf/UN%20Political%20Mi
ssions%20January%202012.pdf
Fact Sheet on current UN Political and Peacebuilding Missions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separatism
General information about separatism
http://www.un.org/en/peacebuilding/
PBS, United Nations Peacebuilding commission
THE ROLE OF BLUE HELMETS IN HOT SPOTS
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/
Official UN website dedicated to the issue of peacekeeping.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_peacekeeping
General information about peacekeeping.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39391&Cr=peacekeeping&Cr1
Belarusian Model United Nations for University Students 2012
GA 1 (Special Political and Decolonization Committee)
Page 14
An article of the UN News Centre about strengthening the UN peacekeeping
capacities.
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/current.shtml
Current peacekeeping operations
http://www.unis.unvienna.org/pdf/DPKO_factsheet_e.pdf
UN peacekeeping fact sheet
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/resources/statistics/factsheet.shtml
UN peacekeeping statistics
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/about/dpko/
Department of Peacekeeping operations
http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/specpk.htm
Peacekeeping documents