United Nations Security Council
Topic B: Peace and Security in West Africa
The image of West Africa may figure between the worst amongst all other places in the world. “The cities of West Africa at night are some of the unsafest places in the world. Streets are unlit; the police often lack gasoline for their vehicles; armed burglars, carjackers, and muggers proliferate”. (KAPLAN, 1994)
Many of the descriptions of the region would be about civil disorder, starvation, refugees, drought, illiteracy, plagues, corruption, and dictatorships maintained at the expense of citizens who live in the poorest conditions. Rebellions and belligerent groups often threat West African governments, which makes the area a reference of inconstancy in matters of politics. Not only are such countries instable, civil wars happening in one of them directly affect the nearest others, creating a massive problem of disorder and chaos that can’t be solved without any kind of help from international organizations, such as ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) and the United Nations.
Another widespread problem for West African countries is poverty, which paired with high population growth rates, is a barrier to innovation and progress in the region. Because of poverty and inefficient State apparatus, diseases already treated in other parts of the world remain disregarded or undiagnosed, tuberculosis and malaria being an example of it. (BROWN, 1999)
Some countries in the region possess huge amounts of natural sources, such as Sierra Leone with its gold and diamonds mines and Nigeria with a wide group of mineral resources, but the income from the utilization of these doesn’t reach the population, that is, most part of the money stays with big exploitation companies and the countries’ elites.
The United Nations Security Council, with the help of international community, has been trying to help this part of the world for years, and although some countries in West Africa are lowering their high indexes of problems, the situation is not that simple. There is still a huge way to go, the problems are far from being solved and civil wars, piracy, poverty, inter alia, are still there.
Topic A: Situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)
From the time when the Armistice Agreement took place in 1953, Korean War has ended and so have the main reasons of the conflict. Although a lot in matters of relations in the Korean Peninsula have improved, no definitive peace has been achieved since then. After years of punctual peace and bellicose periods, the tension rose again in the beginning of 2013, when a North Korean declaration came stating that the country was cancelling all non-aggression pacts with South Korea and closing the most important Panmunjom border passage within the Demilitarized Zone, as well as cutting off the North-South hotline, important ways of communication between the two nations. It all came after the UN Security Council in New York unanimously backed Resolution 2094, imposing the fourth set of sanctions in North Korea due to its current nuclear activities, together with its uranium enrichment program.
Because the United States led the triumphant thrust for sanctions at the United Nations to penalize North Korea, it has been threatened by the latter as a target of attack. DPRK also dislikes cooperative United States-South Korea armed forces training, which it portrays as a hazard when it takes place near its borders. South Korean authorities still defend the maintenance of dialogues, but have informed that at any sign of attack, will turn the presently conducted US-South Korean military into a reprimand response. Authorities in the USA also stated that would defend themselves and their allies in case of an attack, and although it takes the threats seriously, says that North Korea has already used this kind of aggressive speech before. The closing for this entire situation may not end essentially in a war, but it shows an unpredictable and unsteady situation.
Since 2006, three nuclear tests have been made by North Korea. Its capacity of producing at least crude nuclear devices, in addition to its considerable weapon store of short- and medium-range missiles, as well as longer-range missiles development, are a concern for the rest of the world, whose trend has been to decrease nuclear weapons production. Keeping in mind United Nations’ duty to maintain worldwide peace and international safekeeping, PelotasMUN Security Council delegates need to take in hand and engage in the matter, trying to deal with all the troubles regarding this topic.
Created in 1945, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) holds the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, following the aftermath of the Second World War. To properly achieve such goals, the Council was designed as the most important organ of the UN, being the only whose decisions had effective binding power upon all Member States of the UN. Moreover, it is also in the Council’s mandate the right to authorize the use of force through peacekeeping operations or military coalitions and also to impose economic and military sanctions, but always as a last resort when all negotiations have failed.
The UNSC is formed by fifteen members, of which five are permanent and ten are selected by the General Assembly for two year terms. The five permanent members of the Security Council are China, France, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and United States. Since 2012 the first five temporary members of the UNSC are Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo. In 2013, five new members were elected by the General Assembly, namely Argentina, Australia, Rwanda, Luxembourg and South Korea.
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