Vancouver Youth Model United Nations 2017

Transcription

1 Vancouver Youth Model United Nations 2017 United Nations Council on International Organization Background Guide Director: Rio Townsend Chair: Andrea Kunjuro Assistant Director: Leah Brownlie 1

2 Vancouver Youth Model United Nations 2016 Dear Delegates, Welcome to one of the most important committee in Vancouver Youth Model United Nations: the United Nations Council on International Organizations (UNCIO)! My name is Rio Townsend and I will be your Director for this year s Vancouver Youth Model United Nations Model UN has been a passion of mine since I first started in my grade 9 year as a delegate at the 2015 VYMUN. With no experience, I walked into my first committee session with trembling hands and it wasn t until I saw the friendly and familiar faces of the dias staff, that I started to participate and having the best experience of my life. I hope that my experience will be similar to yours. Andrea Kunjuro as the chair and Leah Brownlie as the assistant director will be working alongside me to make up the dias for the first ever UNCIO. I can t wait to introduce you to a new committee which will encourage thought provoking discussion and will lead to a consensus for a new and improved United Nations Charter. The UNCIO is unlike any other committee. It is a historical committee meaning we will be acting as if we were in April to June 1945 in San Francisco. So, any facts or events coming after 1945 should not be referenced because delegates are given the opportunity to dictate the future. You are all elected officials of your respective nations and have been tasked with representing your government and countries interests. Whether you are the representative from the US, Cuba, or The Soviet Union, you must be willing to collaborate and reach agreements with the other twenty nine nations in attendance that may look very unlike your own. Our committee will run a little differently compared to other committees. Most of our sessions will consist of deliberations in unmoderated caucuses and at our first sessions, you will be divided up into three separate commissions: Security Council, General Assembly and International Court of Justice. In your groups you will focus your discussions on three key aspects of the United Nations Charter which is Human Rights, Peace and Security, Global Development, and Balance of Power. I look forward to seeing you in October! If you have any questions please me at uncio@vymun.com. Rio Townsend Director of UNCIO VYMUN

3 Table of Contents: Questions for Delegates 4 Historical Background 5 Preceding the UNCIO 5 World War II and the UNCIO 6 Conference Events 7 The UN Charter Reform Structural Reform Security Reform Global Development Reform Human Rights and Democracies Reform Financing Reform Bloc Positions Conclusion Guide to Further Research Sources Cited

4 Questions for Delegates As you prepare for the conference, consider the following questions: 1. What were the original goals of the UNCIO? To what extent were they accomplished with the establishment of the UN Charter? How could they have been accomplished more effectively? 2. To what extent is the UN meant to be a governing body as opposed to a limited political forum? Should it play a more prominent role as an international governing body? How would such a role be enforced? What implications would such a role have for state sovereignty? 3. As a delegate for a nation, what role will you play in your UNCIO? Be sure to consider the issues that were most important to your nation in Given the discussions of UN reform, how can you design a charter that will better address both the issues of 1945 and the issues to come in the new millennium? 5. What would the repercussions be if you did or didn t define terrorism? How could your decision, potentially, affect the future? 6. What are the potential outcomes of having veto powers within the security council? Will it balance the powers or give some minority countries a unfair silencing of their opinion? How will the rotations of the non-permanent member be determined? 4

5 Historical Background: To understand the events at the United Nations Conference of International Organization(UNCIO) we need to be able to comprehend the impetus to establish the United Nations. The failure of its predecessor, the League of Nations, and the outbreak of the Second World War forced action among the allied forces and the conference was their response. Preceding the UNCIO There were many attempts at creating international organizations before the United Nations. The early organizations were created to help to aid in negotiations between conflicted countries and to have a headquarters where countries could bring ideas and issues. The very first account for international organization was in 1815 at the congress of Vienna. This conference is what shaped history and was the model of which future organizations were based off of. The International Telegraph Union(ITU), founded in 1865 in Paris, was established so that countries could use telecommunications to communicate with one another. Then, similar to the ITU, The Universal Postal Union was created to respond to the expansion of modern technology. In 1899, the first international peace conference was held in Hague, Netherlands and was the very first multilateral treaty that focused on the conduct of warfare. The result of a year of debates was the formation of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The court started hearing cases in 1902 and was primarily providing resolutions to disputes between member states. The organization before the United Nations (UN) was the League of Nations. The formation of the League of Nations in 1919 was during the first World War. Its aim was to create and new and improved way to increase international cooperation and ensure peace. All faith for the organization was lost after the unravelling of World War II and as a result, it collapsed. To this day, many people strongly believe that the fall of the League of Nations was due to the United States unwillingness to join and to the undevoted support from Germany, USSR, Japan and Italy who, later withdrew their enrollment. 5

6 World War II and The UNCIO World War II was not only the end of the League of Nations but it was also a huge outcry of the support for creating a more effective and productive international managing party. The history of World War II gives us the background knowledge to understand the causes of the biggest atrocity of mankind, to this day. The conflict took the lives of million people from over 30 different countries including the 6 million jews that were exterminated at the hands of the Germans. There were over 30 countries that experienced the loss of their people, homes and property. The UN was created to ensure that peace and sovereignty would not be compromised at this magnitude ever again. The devastation experienced by Europe after the Great War or World War I left many countries in Economic distress and left many unresolved conflict between regions, in particular, Germany. The poor living conditions of the german people and their loss in hope was what created the optimal situation for Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party(Nazi) to rise to power. After becoming the Führer (supreme leader) in 1934, he started his quest to purify Germany by rallying and blaming all of Germany s failures on the Jewish people. His conquest into the neighbouring countries of Austria and Czechoslovakia brought together the alliance of the Axis power which was lead by Germany, Japan and Italy. The other alliance, the Allies, consisted of three major player: Great Britain, the United States and The Soviet Union. These three nations, alongside China, were the founders of the UNCIO. In 1942, The Declaration by the United Nations was signed by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet diplomat Maxim Litvinov and Chinese diplomat T.V. Soon. They pledged to continue to fight the Axis powers and named the agreement United Nations after President Roosevelt's recommendation. As the war continued, 26 other countries signed the document which created the basis of the United Nations and the UNCIO. China, Great Britain, USSR, and the US met again to discuss creating an international governing body, in After discussing how to not make the same mistakes of the League of Nations, the Dumbarton Oaks proposal was drafted to identify how such an organization would function. The proposal saw for a General Assembly to be split into four different commissions: an Economic and Social 6

7 Council, a Security Council, an International Court of Justice, and a Secretariat. It also set forth that the security council would be composed of five permanent members and six rotating members from the General Assembly. The Security Council s main responsibility would be to prevent future wars. The proposal was sent out to all member states that signed The Declaration by the United Nations and was clearly stated that is was up for discussion. Soon after a conference was called by the founding nations to discuss and deliberate the proposal and to develop a charter. Shortly after the announcement of the conference, President Roosevelt died and many nations were worried that his death would force a postponement of the conference. Luckily, President Truman agreed to fulfill the shoes of Roosevelt so the event commenced. Conference Events: The United Nation Conference of International Organization consisted of two months of very heated debated. It was held in San Francisco and was one of the largest international gatherings in the 20th Century. There were 850 delegates that represented 50 allied nations from all around the world. The conference took place from 25 April 1945 to 26 June During that time the delegates reviewed and rewrote the Dumbarton Oaks proposal to meet the needs of all member states. The convention resulted in the creation of the United Nations Charter which was finished and open for signing on June 26th. The conference was spearheaded by a committee made up of one representative from each country. This proved to be unsuccessful due to the excessive number of delegates so instead, so an executive committee of 14 delegates made recommendations to the steering committee. Four separate commissions were created to focus on different aspects of the charter. The first admission focused their time time on the construction of the organization and how things like membership, the secretariat, and the mission and principles of the organization would be decided. The second commision discussed the powers and responsibilities that would be granted to the General Assembly. The third commision focused their time on the security council mainly, their rules of procedure, veto and membership. The fourth and final commision discussed the creation of a Court of Justice. After heavy debate, each commision presented their final thoughts and findings with the whole conference. Every section of the charter had to be passed with a two-third majority vote and if it didn t successfully pass, it would have had to be rewritten. 7

8 There were many points of debate brought up at the conference that surrounded the Dumbarton Oaks proposal although, these were some of the main questions asked. Should regional organizations such as the Arab League be allowed to continue to exist once the United Nations was fully codified? Should the United Nations help countries write and revise treaties with each other? What should happen to the territories that previously were controlled by the League of Nations? How will future amendments to the UN Charter be made? How will the International Court of Justice ensure that nations respect its jurisdiction? How should voting work in the Security Council? Should the permanent countries get veto power over decisions made by the group as a whole? After a full two months of debate with commissions and as a whole, finally, the official United Nations Charter was ready to be passed. The Charter, with an unanimous voting process and two-third majority, was officially passed on June 25th The UN Charter The text below is a brief overview of what is in the United Nations Charter. It isn t supposed to be a full overview so if you want to read the charter to its entirety please read the United Nations Charter which is available online. The first thing that the charter states is that its purpose is to maintain international peace and to take effective measures to remove any threats to peace. It wants to do so by developing friendly relations among member nations that hold the same belief of equal rights and self determination of people. The United Nations would help this process by creating an organization for harmonizing the actions of nations. Then, the charter divides the United Nations into four principal organs: a General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, The Trusteeship Council, an International Court of Justice, and the Secretariat. 8

9 The General Assembly(GA) contains delegates from all the countries in the United Nations. Each member nation can have up to 5 delegates and each member gets one vote. It is tasked with studying and discussing international peace and security. Although, they can only make recommendations to the other member of the UN and Security Council. The GA is responsible for approving the UN s budget. The Security Council(SC) is made up of 15 representatives, 5 of which are permanent members. There are 10 rotating non-permanent positions where members serve a two year term. The SC are tasked to decide and vote on measure involving, UN peacekeeping operations and/or sanctions. They must decide if their decisions will clearly maintain or restore international peace and security. The five permanent members have veto power with no conditions. The Economic and Social Council(ECOSOC) is made up of 54 members that serve a three year term. They are responsible to initiate studies and reports on international economic, cultural, educational, social and health related issues. They have the ability to make sub-committees or commissions. The Trusteeship Council was created to handle the non-self-governing territories that had previously existed under the League of Nations. This committee's aim was to transition the 11 Trust Territories and positively advance their economic, social, and educational opportunities so they could become self-governing. The International Court of Justice requires every member nation to fully accept and acknowledge the legislations and jurisdictions of the court. The court was created to settle legal disputes. The Secretariat are the staff members that make up the Secretary General's office. The Secretary General is the chief of administration at the UN. He or she is appointed by a majority vote taken by the General Assembly at the recommendation of the Security Council. The UN Charter that was passed was very similar to the initial proposal sent out to the member states. There was only one entirely new concept which was the Trusteeship Council. Reform 9

10 Your task at hand is to reconstruct the UN Charter and make improvements so you may want to base your changes off of the recent critiques that the original chart has been receiving. Some of the decisions made by the delegates in 1945 were shortsighted and so to avoid this in your charter, it may be helpful to think of what those shortcomings were and to avoid them. However, the UNCIO is a historical committee set in 1945 so all arguments must be structured as if you were living in the past. You can not bring up events that occurred after 1945 but may base your arguments off of those events. Structural Reform Despite the efforts of the UNCIO to create an effective structure of international organization, many believe that there needs to be change to the UN, particularly the General Assembly and the Secretariat. The GA has been criticized for its inability to effectively implement plans and pass meaningful resolutions. The Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, recently called upon the GA to abandon reliance on census since it results in watered down resolutions, and adopt a supermajority for decision making. He believes that the GA does not succeed in the implementation of the plans that they spend months debating about and could be more efficient. The committee also may benefit from measures to implement a parliamentary assembly of members that would be elected by the citizens of each country and in which the number of seats allocated to a nation would be based off of population and economic power. This would abolish the problem where a country with 200,000 people has the same number of votes as China. If this were to be implemented, for a bill to pass it would have to pass through both houses. There have been calls for increased transparency and accountability to civil society as well. Security Reform The world has changed significantly since 1945 which means the roots of what causes threats to our security has been affected also. The loudest calls from reform comes from the people that believe that their should be an inclusion of a host of new permanent members. They argue that the permanent members at this time don t reflect contemporary power realities of the 21st Century. Although, some argue that by adding more permanent members there is not evidence that that would enhance the committee's legitimacy or effectiveness. In December 2004, members of the 10

11 High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change proposed that the Security Council should revise their council from 15 to 24 members. One model called upon six new permanent member positions and three new non permanent members. This position was strongly opposed by the countries that were in economic competition with the top prospects of the permanent membership position. There are still 64 countries that have never gotten to be a member of the security council. It is also extremely hard to what the biggest threat to peace is when each country has a different perception according to their countries beliefs. This is delegates are called upon to stop these divergences from obstructing international cooperation. In order to prevent future catastrophic terrorism, a single, universal definition of terrorism need to be established. There needs to be a clear script outlining the obligations of each nation to prevent terrorist acts in their own domains as well as supporting other nations to defeat terrorists in their own domain. To manage the use of chemical, nuclear and biological weapons, states may agree upon a disarmament policy which may include reducing arsenals or developing arms control agreements. Global Development Reform In 2000, the Millennium Development Goals were the eight development goals that were set for the year of At the Millennium Summit 191 United Nations member states and 22 international organizations committed to help achieve the following goals: Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than 1$ a day Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality And Empower Women Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015 Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate 11

12 Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health Reduce by three-quartiers, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality rate Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and other diseases Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources. Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation Have achieved by 2020 a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers. Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, discriminatory, trading and financial system Address the special needs of the least developed countries Address the special needs of the landlocked developing countries and small island developing countries. Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of the developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term. In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries. In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communication technologies. It is currently 2017 which is two years past the deadline for the MDG goals and how many goals have been met? 2 of the goals were fully met although some were narrowly missed. The united Nations spread the good news of accomplishing the most successful anti-poverty movement in history although some people call into question the targets that were used to identify the UN s successes. Human Rights and Democracy Reform 12

13 The mere purpose of the United Nations is to promote the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Though It is evident that the UN s intention was to promote these principles, we may question the execution. The United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) has been at the centre of debates for reform. It has been criticized for being to bureaucratic, excessively political and inefficient. In 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was published emphasizing the recognition of human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people within a member nation. It is an obligation for all nation to uphold the terms of the declaration although, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN itself does not have adequate resources to ensure that states follow through on their obligations. This Commision has been highly discredited for its inability to create meaningful change and difference. People questioned how some nations were allowed membership when their record of human rights had been or still is violating many of the terms in the declaration. Countries such as Zimbabwe, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Libya are a few among the countries that use the organization as a shield against scrutiny and condemnation. Kofi Annan s report in March of 2005 named Larger Freedom called for the commission s abolition and for the creating of a new Human Rights Council that would meet the needs of the 21st century. He suggested that the commission meet year-round and would restrict its membership to countries that will abide by the human rights standard. The resolution was passed by the General Assembly with an overwhelming amount of votes voting in favor of creating a new council. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has maintained democracy in existing countries and has motivated other nations around the world to adopt and accept democracy. The UN has led efforts to end colonialism, to ensure self-determination, and to support democratic elections worldwide. Although, there are still nations where people are suppressed and and have been controlled by a oppressive and/or communist government. These governments take away their citizen s human rights and a choice for them to self-govern. In 2005 the United Nations Democracy Fund was established to aid and support the democratization of countries around the world. To add, the UN is called to work alongside the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal 13

14 Court (ICC) to establish a strong set of laws that would specifically address crimes against humanity. Financing Reform A requiring discussion point in the UN reform debate is that the UN is able to discuss principles and to establish framework although, there is a lack of effective execution and implementation. If the UN is ever going to evolve and become a more influential powerhouse there needs to be a rise in sufficient funds that can be allocated to their efforts. The Monterrey Consensus was adopted, after the International Conference on Financing for Development, as one of the efforts made by the UN to try to eradicate the finance problems. These nations affirmed the goals for global development and highlighted the other causes in dire need for funding which include Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Paul Hawken, in his book The Ecology of Commerce, proposed that the United Nations budget its finance and peacekeeping efforts by taxing the utilizations of missiles, planes, tanks, and guns. This proposed policy would be strongly opposed by countries that already dedicated a lot of their countries resources on defense, ongoing military conflicts, arms dependent dictators or prominent arms producers. Bloc Positions Western Liberal Democracies The United States and the United Kingdom were strong advocates for an intergovernmental organization focused on world peace. President Roosevelt believed that an organization with increased power, such as the power to impose economic sanctions will truly be able to maintain order, as opposed to the United Nation s predecessor, the League of Nations. The proposal of a veto power for permanent members of the Security Council was brought up during the Dumbarton Oaks conference in 1944 and the Malta conference in Favouring the principle of unanimity, the United Kingdom and the United States were supporters of this proposal. In addition, they believed that this power will allow them to protect their own national interests. The Western Bloc was supportive of countries such as Argentina in joining the United Nations, despite the Soviet s accusations that Argentina helped the Nazis 14

15 during the war. The Western Bloc s was in favour of Argentina s participation as they believed Argentina would side with them in any issues and conflicts. Soviet Union and Satellite States The Soviet Union also were supportive of the veto power. The Soviet Union was keen on inviting all the new Soviet republics to join the conference, a request that was strongly opposed by the Western nations. Such countries would include Ukraine and Belarus. Other Nations Numerous smaller nations were opposed of the Veto proposal, fearing that a council dominated by superpower states would not be a true United Nations. If these states assumed a behavior that threatened peace, the council would be helpless to intervene. Conclusion The eradication of smallpox, saving an estimated 2.5 million people yearly, and the UN s strong stance on the prosecution of war criminals has been a couple of the UN s successes since the UNCIO in Although, there have also been some terrible failures that have raised questions internationally have provoked discussions of reform. The Rwanda Genocide and the raping and sex abuse of the women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by the UN peacekeepers are just two examples of the atrocities that have occurred under the watch of the UN. In your research you will be able to discover and make conclusions for yourself on which parts of the UN need to be reassessed. Also remember that you have a key piece of information that the delegates at the UNCIO did not have: knowledge of the events of the future and the consequences of the policies made in the charter. You are restricted to referencing the events that occurred before 1945 but that doesn t mean that you can t use you millennial perspective to help influence debate. By the end of VYMUN 2017, we should have a new and improved alteration of the UN Charter. This should equip our world to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war... to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights... and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom. Guide To Further Research 15

16 This background guide is only a fraction of the information that you may need to know for the conference. The Bloc Positions have been made brief because there is not a whole lot of informations on exact stances of every single nation. This is why you will need to base your arguments around a country's economic, social and political situation. If you would like to learn more about the events of or before the United Nations Conference on International Organization, you can find it on the United Nations Website. After reading about your country if you would like other inspiration on what to input into your own charter, you can take a look at the concepts from The Covenant of the League of Nations but more likely base most of your attention on the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals and the United Nations Charter. While you read, compare and contrast the ideals and concepts brought on by both failing and successful documents. How would your country feel about every section within the Charter? The above research guidelines give you a great basis of understanding although, we do not want our charter to possess the same qualities as the original charter. We want you to express what you think would be the perfect and ideal international governing body. To help with your ideas, we suggest you look at the piece "Strengthening the UN" and the The Global Policy Forum where you will be able to find the most recent calls for reform. The primary source for all your information, we recommend, would come from the UN website. Sources Cited Admin. "Jessie Street." Admin. National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, 01 Mar Web. "Charter of the United Nations." United Nations. United Nations, n.d. Web. Cuba, República De. "Cuba Política." Guillermo Belt Ramírez. N.p., n.d. Web. "From the Congress of Vienna to Present-Day International Organizations UN Chronicle." United Nations. United Nations, n.d. Web. 16

17 History.com Staff. "World War II History." History.com. A&E Television Networks, Web. James Paul - Global Policy Forum. "Global Policy Forum." Human Rights Council. N.p., n.d. Web. OurWorld20. "United Nations Security Council Reform." Our World. N.p., n.d. Web. "Paul-Henri Spaak." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Apr Web. "Reform the General Assembly." World Beyond War... N.p., 07 Apr Web. "Register of the United Nations Conference on International Organization Proceedings." Online Archive of California. N.p., n.d. Web. "T.V. Soong." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., n.d. Web. "U.N. Charter Signed." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. UN Millennium Project Goals, Targets & Indicators. N.p., n.d. Web. U.S. Department of State. U.S. Department of State, n.d. Web. "Who Is Anthony Eden? Everything You Need to Know." Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline. N.p., n.d. Web. 17