Background Guide. The UN Peacebuilding Commission. TOPIC 1: Sustaining Peace in South Sudan. TOPIC 2: Humanitarian Crisis in Venezuela

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1 Background Guide The UN Peacebuilding Commission TOPIC 1: Sustaining Peace in South Sudan TOPIC 2: Humanitarian Crisis in Venezuela Director: Maddie Yee TAEMUN VI December 14-15, 2018

2 Hello Delegates, My name is Maddie Yee and I am a freshman at Thomas Edison. I joined model united nations this year and so far it has been a blast! Outside of MUN, I am part of the debate club and the indoor track team. Some of my interests include playing softball, playing the piano, and watching Netflix (I love Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt!). I am currently in honors classes and I am looking towards pursuing the IB diploma. This committee is a double delegation committee. Positions paper ARE REQUIRED to be a part of this committee. I will be your director of UN peacebuilding and I am excited to see you at TAEMUN VI! If you have any questions or concerns don t hesitate to contact me. Maddie Yee Director of UN Peacebuilding at TAEMUN VI madyee2016@gmail.com

3 Introduction and Background The Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) was established in 2005 by the Security Council and General Assembly as a body of the UN that supports peace efforts. The central part of the PBC is it s Organizational Committee. This committee is made up of 31 members formed from four categories. Each member serves two year terms (renewable). The members are divided up by: the Security Council and Social and Economic Council each have seven members, five of the top donors to the UN s budget, five top providers of police and military for UN missions, and seven further UN members of which have experience in recovering from conflict. The PBC is also able to meet under country-specific meetings. This means that the country being considered, members of the organizational committee, other countries that are involved in the peacebuilding of that country, relevant institutions, and UN members. The Peacebuilding Fund is the Secretary General s fund that provides money towards activities, actions, and programs that help the PBC. The Peacebuilding Support Office is responsible for managing the fund and monitors implementation. All decisions for the PBC have to be reached through a consensus. Topic 1: Sustaining peace in Southern Sudan Background and Introduction South Sudan is one of the most diverse countries in Africa and also one of the poorest. Although it was formed as an end to a long running civil war, conflict is still a great issue. In December of 2013, conflict between government opposing forces caused tens of thousands of people to be killed. Because of this conflict, many people were left without access to food, were displaced, thus creating the humanitarian crisis. In 2015, the belligerent forces signed an agreement that led to transitional government and national unity. The ongoing tensions about land borders and oil revenues is a driving point for this conflict. Although this lead to lots

4 of change, the country has not developed substantially. A majority of the population lives off of farming and more than 80% of the inhabitants live in rural areas. Since there is a lack of schools, teachers, and materials, less than a third of the population is literate. Many adults missed their chance at education because of war and conflict. After all of this, more than half of the population is living below the poverty line. The topic of South Sudan has been hot for the past few years. A sustainable political resolution of the conflict is also the only avenue to chalk out a viable exit strategy says Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bintou Keita. Since political turmoil and war has been a primary cause for the poverty level in South Sudan, this could be a viable answer to solving the problem. So until the UN can solve that, their main goal is to protect the civilians. Some topics I think would be interesting to hear are resolutions to the political solutions, how to help all of the displaced people, and raising the educations rate. Topic 2: Humanitarian Crisis in Venezuela Introduction and Background Venezuela is a country on the north part of South America and is home to over 31 million people. Under the rule of Hugo Chavez, the president from 1999 to 2013, the country of Venezuela suffered from political turmoil. As soon as he became the leader, he immediately started taking all of the country s money and concentrated the government s power towards himself. Social investment in Venezuela during the Chavez administration reduced poverty from nearly 50% in 1999 to about 27% in 2011, increased school enrollment, substantially decreased infant and child mortality, and improved access to portable water and sanitation through social investment.

5 Although this seems like a positive change, the social investment from Chavez s time in office caused a collapse in the economy the inflation rate is up one million percent! This leads to an enormously high amount of people leaving Venezuela. About 2.6 million people have left Venezuela in the past two years. Since this has happened, the government has become extremely more oppressive than it was. The man-made humanitarian crisis has not only led to severe medicine and food shortages, but also a high percentage of malnourished people, and thousands of children dying of malnutrition. The food and medicine shortages has caused a great crisis in public health. For Venezuelans, each day brings a new barrage of propaganda on state media depicting a country that few of them recognize. The Venezuelan government is trying to show the world that there is nothing wrong with Venezuela, although many people are fleeing and a large sum of Venezuelans are in poor condition. Some topics that I would like to see be discussed are how to stop the shortage of food and medicine, how to convince the government to accept help that could greatly increase the living conditions of the people, and what actions the UN can take to decrease the high percentage of people leaving the country. Works Cited "What Is Peacebuilding?" United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, Peacebuilding support office, 2011, what-is-peacebuilding/#fn Accessed 4 Nov "Peacebuilding Commission." United Nations Peacebuilding Commission, United Nations, Accessed 4 Nov Charlesworth, Hilary. "The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission." Australasian Legal Information Institute, by University of Technology Sydney and University of New South Wales, ALTA Law Research Series, classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/alrs/2011/3.html. Accessed 4 Nov "The World Factbook: South Sudan." Central Intelligence Agency, US Government, 1 Nov. 2018, od.html. Accessed 4 Nov "South Sudan: UN peacekeeping review urges emphasis on supporting political

6 process." United Nations, news.un.org/en/story/2018/02/ Accessed 4 Nov Krygier, Rachelle, and Anthony Faiola. "A humanitarian crisis in Venezuela? Nothing to see here, government says." Washington Post [Washington D.C.], 13 Oct. 2018, a-humanitarian-crisis-in-venezuela-nothing-to-see-here-government-says/2018/10/ 12/6ebd1aa6-c2ac-11e e878f96be19b_story.html?utm_term=.75561bb16a4a. Accessed 5 Nov