BUSUN XXI NOVEMBER 10-12, 2017 PROVIDENCE, RI

Transcription

1 BUSUN XXI NOVEMBER 10-12, 2017 PROVIDENCE, RI GA Plenary

2 Letter from the Chair Dear Delegates, Welcome to the General Assembly of the United Nations at the Twenty-First Annual Brown University Simulation of the United Nations (BUSUN). We look forward to meeting all of you soon and would like to introduce ourselves first. My name is Ishan Sahoo and I am a sophomore from Atlanta, Georgia! This will be my first year chairing at BUSUN. I have participated in Model UN since my junior year in high school and directed this assembly last year. At Brown, I am a pre-med student concentrating in neuroscience and economics. I currently participate in South Asian Students Association, cognitive neuroscience research, and intramural basketball in addition to Model UN. Some of my favorite pastimes include playing pickup basketball games and producing music. My name is Amy Liu and I am also a sophomore from Chapel Hill, North Carolina! This will be my first year as well chairing at BUSUN. I am majoring in Applied Math. I am a part of Chinese Students of America, Asian American Students of America, Brown Elementary After School Mentoring, New Scientist Catalyst, and play intramural volleyball. Some of my favorite pastimes are exploring new restaurants and reading. Information on position papers and preparing for BUSUN conference can be found on the official website. Please use this background guide as a starting point and supplementary aid to your research on the topics; however, be sure to look into additional resources for a thorough understanding of each topic, especially in relation to your delegation. As a reminder, BUSUN has a strict policy against pre-written resolutions as we encourage delegates to collaborate and form proposals within the conference. Please refrain from bringing pre-written resolutions and/or clauses to the conference. Please feel free to us if you have any questions pertaining to your preparation for the conference. Best of luck, and we look forward to engaging with the General Assembly of BUSUN XXI! Sincerely, Ishan Sahoo and Amy Liu plenary@busun.org 2

3 Rules of Procedure This committee will follow follow standard BUSUN parliamentary procedure. Details on BUSUN parliamentary procedure can be found at conference/preparation. Position papers should be 1-2 pages in length, single spaced. They should provide an outline of your country s stance on each issue, as well as potential solutions your delegation would like to see adopted. The deadline for submission of your position paper via is 11:59 PM on October 27, and they will be returned to you with feedback at least 3 days prior to the start of the conference. You will still be eligible for awards if you turn in your position paper before the first committee session. History of the GA Plenary In 1945, the United Nations GA was established by the Charter of the United Nations. For this committee, each Member State has a permanent seat. The GA occupies a central position as the chief deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the United Nations. 18 The GA covers all issues of global importance. One of the GA s primary challenges is in regards to its relation with the Security Council. The two committees are often at odds in regards to which of them gets a first say on security issues and the idea of whether the General Assembly can reform individual aspects of the United Nations. Each of the five permanent members of the Security Council has only one vote and no veto in the GA. The power of the GA to call emergency sessions has been called 10 times and historically the United States has requested its use the most. On January 10, 1946, the first session of the UN General Assembly took place in the Methodist Central Hall in London and included representatives of 51 nations. Since 1946, the UN and the GA have expanded from the original 51 nations to 193 members. In addition to its physical growth, the globalization of the world economy and rise of transnational challenges, among other factors, have expanded the GA s scope and agenda far beyond what it was in

4 4 Topic 1: Creating preventative measures to ensure the protection of refugees of climate change Introduction Climate change is one of the major problems that scientists predict will affect future policy and humanitarian rights issues. As its effects become more widespread, countries will face a number of pressing issues that they will have to deal with, and eventually the international community will need to step in to mediate conflict in a number of broad respects. One of the major issues that we are already facing that will only continue to grow in relevance is the problem of how to approach resettlement and aid of refugees of climate change. Although the UNHCR does not currently recognize those affected by global-warming specific conflicts as refugees they do recognize a number of the consequences of global warming as refugee-bearing crises (for example, conflict due natural disaster). This being said, it is important for this committee to work to reframe the conversation on refugees of climate change and develop a framework for how to deal with a major population of displaced people the international community will likely have to aid more and more frequently in the future. A Brief Explanation of the Basics of Climate change Since the 1700s, the industrial revolution has led to high levels of production. This, in turn, has led to increasingly high levels of CO2 production. Added CO2 has contributed to the greenhouse effect by trapping heat within our atmosphere, thus increasing Earth s surface temperature. 1 A positive feedback loop is present in the greenhouse effect. The increase in Earth s surface temperature can cause changes in natural sources of gases, thus further contributing to the release of these gases and the heating of the planet. 2 This heating leads to large ice sheets melting throughout the planet, which affects weather 1 EPA, Causes of Climate Change, Ibid. patterns. These in turn are detrimental to people who may be affected by hazardous climate change effects. Background Climate change has been a major topic of debate in recent years. With increased production and industrial growth, the need to act to change the course of this crisis is becoming more and more apparent. Rising CO 2 levels along with chlorofluorocarbons have allowed heat to be trapped within the atmosphere. This has caused a whole scale warming of the Earth, leading to a large range of effects that the scientific community is still working to understand. The major effect of the global warming that is occurring is the sea level rising, a phenomenon primarily caused by the melting of the ice caps as a result of the more than two degree increase in Antarctic average surface temperature over the last few decades. 3 In addition to this, abnormal weather patterns are becoming more and more noticeable throughout the world. Droughts have been appearing at a rapid pace, the consequences of which have been dire for people living in people who live in rural areas and depend on rainfall for farming. Delegations such as Chile, Bolivia, Bangladesh, China, Argentina, India, and parts of Southeast Asia and Central Europe are likely to experience a surge of refugees due to climate change inhibiting the ability to partake in subsistence agriculture, therefore making many parts of these countries virtually uninhabitable or steeped in poverty unless massive infrastructural changes are undertaken. 4 Rising sea levels threaten the physical location of people in two major ways. Firstly, many important coastal areas will likely be underwater due to these rising levels if the current trends continue. Although these people will likely fall under the category of those affected by natural disaster, the increase in sea level could happen gradually enough to have this definition not apply. This would mean that even though over a series of years many hundreds of homes and communities would have effectively sunk, there will be no measures in place to protect those affected according 3 Global Warming: background. Eartheasy Blog. May 04, Accessed October 01, com/2009/03/global-warming-background/. 4 Christopher Lant, Agriculture and Water, 2009.

5 5 to international protocol. It is important to note that island nations (such as the Maldives) and delegations that are located at relatively low altitudes are not the only ones who could experience mass floods, and that all delegations should be looking to safeguard themselves against such threats. At the current rate, oceans could rise 2.5 to 6.5 feet by 2100, which could completely submerge many cities across the United States; some estimates even say that a complete meltdown of Greenland could raise the tide level to submerge London. 5 Rising sea levels are also closely tied to other natural disasters. More than 20 million people are being displaced due to natural disasters, and more than half of these people are in Asia. With four decades of data, the Norwegian Refugee Council found that floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts and other hazards now cause twice as many people to lose their homes compared to the 1970s. With relatively little previous UN action, protocols need to be put in place in order to accommodate the relocation of people affected by climate change. Delegations need to decide who is to take on the responsibility of hosting said people along with creating a coalition in order to provide the necessary resources to allow these people to thrive in their new homes. Current Status of the Issue Global warming has been increasing at an exponential rate. Its effects have become more and more apparent in recent years. Rising sea levels have been detrimental to low-lying areas of the world. Bangladesh shows clear signs of the refugee crisis that arises from climate change. In 1995, the Bhola Island of Bangladesh was half-submerged by the rise in sea levels, which caused 500,000 people to be homeless. 6 Increased flooding is beginning to affect areas around this country and many more with large amounts of coastal land. This further displaces people, as shelter becomes an issue around the coasts. The economic losses for farmers are also devastating, causing hundreds of thousands of economic refugees 5 Mellino, Which Country will be the First to go Completely Underwater, National Geographic, Climate Refugee, to move into the run-down neighborhoods in Dhaka due to climate change s effects on the agricultural sector. Bangladesh is a flat country barely above sea level. In a nation that depends on small-scale farming for food, the natural disasters have a large impact on the population, and have also led to famine amongst all the other displacement conflicts it has caused. Bangladesh has responded with boat schools and libraries, which are creative solutions to the flooding. Furthermore, increased flooding has led to the damage of wetlands, which in turn has made damage from hazardous weather more detrimental and may lead to a larger amount of displacement in the near future. 7 In the case of island nations, displacement is a larger and more pressing issue. Not only are the inhabitants of the island forced to move away from their immediate homes, they are more susceptible to having to move to a different nation, where they may or not be met with equal human rights. As a result, important protocols are needed to dictate where these refugees shall end up, as are measures to ensure that these refugees are allowed to establish themselves in host nations. Without proper policies, refugees will not be able to evacuate in an efficient and timely manner. It is imperative that these people be met with open arms in order to thrive in what is, to them, a new world. It is important to note that an important aspect of this issue that should also be discussed is the collection and dissemination of knowledge regarding these imminent threats, as inhabitants of many countries may not have full access to this information or research may not be targeting these specific states. Bloc positions Nations with large amounts of people that could be displaced include Bangladesh, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, Somalia, Yemen, Ethiopia, Chad, and Rwanda. 8 These nations urgently need to build mechanisms for effective and safe transport of their inhabitants to reduce the harmful effect of climate change should they become necessary. Countries such as Tuvalu, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, the Marshall Islands, and the Maldives also need to look into immediate ways of receiving aid in protecting and relocating these ref- 7 John Vidal, Global Warming Could Create 150 Million Climate Refugees by 2050, Ibid.

6 ugees. 9 Countries with large areas of habitable land should look into being host nations for these refugees, and protocols should be placed within these nations to help the refugees adapt quickly. Those countries with the ability to donate resources and provide direct aid to those in need should look into creating a coalition to efficiently allocate supplies. Past UN Actions The 1951 Refugee Convention was integral to protecting refugees, and providing them with the aid and support to relocate them. 10 Refugees were protected by the establishment of human rights safeguards, which helped them adapt to their new homes. This document, however, fails to address refugees of climate change, as does the previously mentioned definition of a refugee as dictated by the UNHCR. Climate change refugees have become prevalent in recent years, thus UN actions has been very limited. Most legislation has been geared towards combating climate change directly rather than protecting those affected by climate change today and planning for those who will be affected in the future if we continue on our current course. While preventing climate change is ideal and regulations such as the Kyoto Protocol (a protocol which called for nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to help combat global warming by reducing the overall greenhouse effect) are needed, immediate action is needed to protect the 27 million people who are already displaced yearly by natural disasters, especially as these crises are likely closely linked with global warming crisis. 11 The UN needs to look into quickly forming protocols to aid those that are currently suffering due to climate change. The resoundingly low amount of UN action on these situations shows the need for urgency in creating measures to address these refugees. culties these refugees are faced with? a. How can coalitions come together to help refugees? b. How can resources be efficiently allocated? c. Who will act as host nations and how will other nations aid in protecting refugees? 2. What rights must be protected to ensure refugees are well received and able to thrive in new homes? a. What will protocols include and how will they be enforced? b. How can hostility towards refugees be reduced? 3. How do countries that have a large number of their inhabitants becoming refugees help protect their own people? Further Readings html climate-refugee/ Questions to Consider 1. Who should be responsible for taking on the diffi- 6 9 UNHCR, Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, Sophie Yeo, Extreme Weather Displaced More People Than War in 2013, Cackler, Gu, Rodgers, Technology in Developing Economies, 2008.

7 7 Topic 2: Increasing the availability of information for those in developing countries through increased freedom of the press and access to technology Introduction Globalization has connected the world--from increased access to healthcare and medicine to better industrial practices, information has been flowing throughout nations in recent years and for the most part has worked to better the lives people all over the world. This technology along with the cultural effects of globalization, has helped lead to the rise of democracy throughout nations, as well as increased cultural awareness. By increasing freedom of the press, cultural exchange may be facilitated through better communication. Increased access to technology can also decrease poverty through better economic practices as well as increased technology use. 12 Regardless of this, some nations continue to encourage practices that make information and technology less available to their citizens, negatively impacting not only their individual nations and the people living in them, but also the international benefits of globalization and cross-cultural exchange. This committee s task in the coming sessions will be to find ways to increase the availability of technology and the freedom to use it on a global scale, specifically targeting those countries that either do not have the resources to do this themselves, or have actively taken a stance against knowledge and technology dissemination of this sort. Background Increased access to technology has profound effects on a nation. Not only does it allow for increased production through better environmental and economic practices, but it also improves aspects of life such as healthcare and education. The effect of technology on education can be seen in developed countries today- -not only have nations education systems been able to interact with each other on a global scale, but with the recent surge of technology in classrooms, students have been exposed to many new resources that allow 12 Agaloglou, Link Between Press Freedom and Development, 2012 them to glean information on topics from a plethora of sources. This being said, not all nations have been able to implement this technology yet, although a number of NGOs have been created in recent years to facilitate educational growth in this manner. Beyond this, technology continues to become more and more important to industries that have the potential to become increasingly automated. For example, nations in which agriculture or mining are primary sources of income should be looking into vocational training to preempt the automation trends that will likely be unavoidable in the near future. Freedom of the press is an important cultural factor that has been shown to be integral to promoting cultural diversity. Many developed nations have hosted cultural festivities not native to themselves, and these events have brought out many cultural identities that have contributed to a cultural exchange that have allowed many of the people in these nations to learn from one another in a manner that is conducive to local socio-cultural growth and works to combat racism and classism. This can be seen in the fact that in many cases, different cultures and identities have seemed to be more at ease with one another in developed countries than within still developing countries that do not have access to this cultural exchange. In addition to this, independent bodies of the press are crucial for the dissemination of knowledge about global governmental structures, and work to keep local governments working for the people instead of for themselves. In nations with more freedom of the press, corruption by government officials becomes more unlikely as said officials are aware that they are being monitored by an impartial third party that in many cases works for the people of the nation. Current status and Applications to Consider Freedom of the press allows further development in countries through the availability of information. A free press can expose corruption and bring to light the problems of a nation. In doing so, it makes the government accountable for its actions and creates a sense of urgency for policy to improve the situation at hand. It also encourages more people to take part in influencing political decision through more participation in decision-making. 13 Recent statistics have shown that 13 Ibid.

8 8 free press in nations has correlated to increased stability with less poverty. This allows for a more democratic and less violent environment where further development can occur. 14 Though democracy is not an idea that all delegates in the committee can agree on, it is important to think about the effects free press also has on poverty and local stability regardless of the form of government a member state subscribes to. Technology is also transforming developing nations into more stable, safe countries for their people. This is evident in the healthcare industry where the recent surge in cell phone use has provided information to those in need of help about health and lifestyle. Along with this, awareness of epidemics is easily facilitated through mass texting, which is possible through the increase of technology in LEDCs. 15 In nations where disease and epidemics can spread quickly due large numbers of people living in close proximity to one another, especially when these people live in less than ideal sanitary conditions as is the case with many LEDCs, this technology can be invaluable. Economic improvement, which is extremely important in developing a nation, can also be easily achieved through technology usage. The availability of mobile money services has allowed better banking practices to take place, thus allowing for greater investment and an increase in infrastructure. 16 Through increased resources and economic information regarding topics such as microfinance, technology can help people in better managing their finances. Furthermore, electricity has become a necessity in today s society, especially since most methods of sharing information are quickly becoming electronic. Certain areas of developing countries lack basic access to electricity, which significantly hinders growth and development. A major goal of nations should be to provide affordable electricity to all people. Electricity-based technology can then have a number of extended uses that can allow LEDCs to prosper, including but not limited to many of the solutions mentioned above. 14 Howell, Technology is Transforming Developing Nations, Ibid. 16 Kim, Investing in Poor Countries, Bloc Positions Developed nations should be looking into helping developing countries gain the necessary technology for increased access to information, while keeping in mind the sovereignty of these individual nations and the importance of not infringing on this sovereignty. Through increased availability to information, development can occur in LEDCs, which in turn helps developed countries in a positive feedback loop. 17 Nations should also look into implementing policies that will allow for more technological and informational freedom. This will help in the rise of freedom of the press, which is very important to stability and development. This being said, it is again important to keep in mind that every nation has its own sovereign ability to make their own decisions in regards to this issue. Instead of coming from a purely interventionist mindset, individual developed countries will be most helpful and effective when they work with developing countries and one another to increase global access to these technologies and information mentioned. Although it may not be a matter of primary concern, developing countries should also be looking into increasing their freedom of press and creating policies to allow more information to be public. These nations should also look into utilizing new forms of technology to gain access to information that can help in all sectors of a nation. Keeping in mind that increased technology correlates to increased development and access to information, many of the goals mentioned can go hand in hand when developing individual policy changes. Past UN Actions The Second United Nations conference on Least Developed Countries took place in 1990 and led to the creation of the Paris Declaration and Programme of Action for the Least developed Countries. A key aspect of this declaration was a focus on human rights and the importance of decentralization, democratization and transparency in all aspects of decision-making. 18 This should serve as a model for the importance in freedom of press in the issue of accessibility of 17 UN, Outcomes on Least Developed Countries, UN, Functions and Powers of the United Nations General Assembly

9 9 information in developing countries. The recent institution of the technology bank, an institution created by the United Nations to further development in this sector, has also facilitated better economic practices in LDCs through expert advice and better financial management. Technology in this case has been used specifically to allow the flow of information in the economic sector of LDCs, which in turn has encouraged further development. Other technological advancements should be looked into to further allow information flow in other sectors to help develop nations as a whole, but the actions of this specific organization provide a framework for how this may be done. Questions to Consider 1. What type of technology should be implemented in allowing for increased information flow to facilitate development? a. What sectors should be focused on in a nation? b. How can specific sectors come together as a whole to allow a nation to develop with increased technology? c. How can increased information through more technology lead to direct development? 2. How important is democracy and freedom of speech in getting out valuable information to the public in developing nations? a. Specifically why is this imperative for developing nations b. Is more government regulation better in getting out helpful information? If not, why is freedom of the press the right way to go? Further Readings projects/ /developing-economies/ ldc.shtml Bibliography Agaloglou, Menelaos. What Is the Link between Press Freedom and Development? The Africa Report. N.p., 2 Oct Web. 18 May Cackler, Joe, Emily Gu, and Mike Rodgers. Technology in Developing Economies. Stanford University, 17 Mar Web. 18 May Climate Change Science. EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d. Web. 18 May Howell, Kevin. 5 Ways Technology Is Transforming Developing Nations. EPICS in IEEE. N.p., 19 Feb Web. 18 May Kim, Jim Yong. Why Investing in Poor Countries Helps All of Us. Voices. N.p., 24 Mar Web. 18 May Lieberman, Amy. Where Will the Climate Refugees Go? Al Jazeera English. N.p., 22 Dec Web. 18 May Mellino, Cole. Which Country Will Be First to Go Completely Underwater Due to Climate Change? EcoWatch. EcoWatch, 27 June Web. 18 May National Geographic Society. Climate Refugee. National Geographic Society. N.p., 09 Oct Web. 18 May United Nations. Outcomes on Least Developed Countries. UNHCR. United Nations, n.d. Web. 18 May United Nations. The 1951 Refugee Convention. UNHCR. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, n.d. Web. 18 May Vidal, John. Global Warming Could Create 150 Million climate Refugees by The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 02 Nov Web. 18 May 2017.

10 Yeo, Sophie. Extreme Weather Displaced More People than War in Climate Change News. Climate Home, 17 Sept Web. 18 May