JM N International Maritime Organization Background Guide Rev. 10/22/2017 Topics: Oil and Marine Pollution South China Sea Military Disarmament Smuggling of Illicit Drugs across Maritime Borders
A Letter from your Head Chair Distinguished Delegates, Welcome to San Diego Regional Junior Model United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO). My name is Phoebe Nguyen and I will be your head chair! With relationships between major world governments deteriorating, and uncontrolled maritime conflicts, the IMO is one of the most engaging committees at SDRJMUN. I look forward to seeing informed debate and creative solutions to the various problems the world faces in committee. I am originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia but have spent most of my life growing up in San Diego, California. Currently, I am a senior at Patrick Henry High School. This is my third year staffing at SDRJMUN, and my fifth year being involved in the conference. I began my Model UN journey in eighth grade and since then, developed a passion for Model UN. IMO is easily one of my favorite committees, although my two years as a delegate was spent in First Committee. Aside from Model UN, I enjoy volunteering, golfing, hiking, watching and rewatching movies, and striving to be someone who leaves a positive impact on everyone I meet. I love seeing delegates come together and collaborate effectively inside IMO to solve real world problems. As an experienced member, I believe Model UN teaches a lot of important life skills such as public speaking, cooperation, and debating. So whether it is your first time at a SDRJMUN conference or whether it is your fourth, participate as much as possible so that you can gain the benefits this conference will provide you with. As I graduate this year, I hope to make my last SDRJMUN a memorable one for you all and myself. The IMO will be one of the most intriguing committees this year, and I hope you will all learn and grow as a result of your participation. My dais and I would love to hear what your solutions are to Oil and Marine Pollution, South China Sea Military Disarmament, and Smuggling of Illicit Drugs across Maritime Borders. I look forward to meeting all of you and hearing your delegations stances on the various interesting topics we have this year. I hope we have an interesting two days filled with thoughtful debate, meaningful interaction, and fun! Best Regards, Phoebe Nguyen Head Chair Page 2
I. Background Oil and Marine Pollution Oil and Marine Pollution had been an issue that has become a larger issue each year. The most frequent cause of the issue has been by oil spills from large ships, normally traveling thousands of miles to exchange goods. Ships are still the fastest, most economic way to ship large and heavy goods in large bulk. In fact, ships take up over 80% of the world trade as of today. These ships journeys usually consist of many days/weeks and during that time, it is very easy for weather conditions to deteriorate and the weather can control visibility, water depth, and storms which could on occasion, allow for oil tanks to spill. The other major reason for oil pollution is controlled through intentional damage by humans. These can be more cause more detrimental effects and should be stopped completely. Naturally, these Oil Spills have effects on the marine life living in oceans today. Oil destroys the insulating ability for mammals with fur, like sea otters. For birds, oil destroys the water repellency in their feathers which create contact with the rough elements in the ocean and take away their ability to repel water, leading to death. Similarly, fur-bounded animals lose the ability to insulate themselves from the freezing water temperatures and also lead to death. Animals and birds who digest the oil, thinking of it as normal water when trying to clean themselves, also die as the oil is extremely poisonous. Fish experience reduced growth and changes in heart pattern which can limit their reproduction abilities. Finally, oil effects eggs laid and have severe effects on their chances of survival. Events like drilling, manufacturing, transporting as well as waste management all add to the pollution of marine life. Certain corporations, even today, are still able to get away with dumping their trash into the marine which not only allows oil to leak in but also other non-biodegradable waste like metals to contaminated waters. In fact, Plastic debris accounts for the deaths of more than 1,000,000 seabirds each year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals. Accidental damage from these events listed also occur frequently and can pollute the waters even more than expected quotas. Factors can include: drilling and manufacturing, pipes breaking, ships colliding and overfilling of gas/oil tanks oil with water. While fines are set for some of these acts, most are hard to control and monitor. Cleaning up the oil spills when they do occur is an expensive and timely process. However, this problem has created awareness about issues like oil spills and the whole Page 3
world wants to fix the problem. Most countries have established that the issue is an issue and have taken responsibility to fix the problem and preserve the animal kingdoms. The problem is not extensive in one particular location, rather it is spread internationally and is killing animals unnecessarily. It takes about 30 years to clean up an oil spill completely with costs upwards of $1 Billion. Proper precautions must be taken to stop the problem and preserve marine life and natural resources for which they survive on. II. UN Involvement The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has played a significant role in the development of international laws for the international shipping industry which is where a great deal of the pollution occurs. The IMO has created energy efficient measures which serve two large purposes: First being a large reduction from the emissions from these ships which on older, less technologically advanced boats, can easily pollute over, twice the emission from new boats today. The 2nd side to these emission standards require vessels who cannot meet the requirements to be replaced with new boats which also have better packing solutions and more rigidity and have a much less chance of cargo like oil for falling off board. These have been established in two protocols: International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships of 1973 (MARPOL) and the 1954 International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil (OILPOL). MARPOL did not only work on solving pollution by oil from ships and flotillas but they also worked actively in several other departments like reducing liquid substances, such as chemicals, carried in bulk; harmful substances and explosives transported internationally; sewage waste flowing into oceans from land polluters and companies; and the incorrect disposal of sea of ship-generated garbage into the sea, which is generally easy to get away with. Leading to another issue the IMO has worked towards solving in Piracy which has a lot of detrimental effects, like reduced profits, economic loss other additional burdens, but they also have negative effects on the marine environment, as pirates who take over the ships usually want the valuable goods and throw the rest into the ocean. Following this, in 1997, the IMO added to the MARPOL to deal with toxic emissions and atmospheric pollution from transport ships. III. Questions to Consider 1. What factors of this issue affect your nation and allies? Are you a coastal nation? Does your water supply come from contaminated areas? Page 4
2. What further actions can be taken by the countries in union to decrease the severity of this issue? 3. Which countries should be responsible for funding and organizing solutions to the issue? Countries who ship/export more international goods? Countries with coastal regions? 4. What technological advancements could be added to existing transportation ships to reduce oil spills and marine pollution? 5. Can this problem be approached differently where the issue is prevented, but is possibly faster or more economic? IV. Suggested Sites https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/ http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/ioc-oceans/focus-areas/rio-20- ocean/blueprint-for-the-future-we-want/marine-pollution http://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/oceans-and-law-sea/ https://unchronicle.un.org/article/role-international-maritime-organizationpreventing-pollution-worlds-oceans-ships-and http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/ http://iosc.org/ Page 5
I. Background South China Sea Military Disarmament The International Maritime Organization focuses on maritime safety and security, which includes an area crucial to a large portion of international maritime trade, the South China Sea. The South China Sea is a part of the Pacific Ocean that is surrounded by many southeastern Asian countries. There has been a growing concern over conflicting territorial claims. Since the early twentieth century, many countries, such as China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, and the Philippines, have been competing for claims of the South China Sea and islands within the sea. Among these islands are the Spratly and Paracel Islands that the Republic of Vietnam claimed to have owned since the 1940 s but the People s Republic of China argues that the islands belong to them since the 1970 s. The northeastern region of the South China Sea that consists of the Natuna Islands has also been fought over by China, Taiwan, and Indonesia. Declaration of the Gulf of Thailand encounter conflicts among nations, such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Thailand. Islands have been artificially made by many involved nations in order to expand their territorial claims. Airstrips were built by China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines that have the capability to carry cargo, missiles, and fighter jets. The territorial claims of China are visibly more extensive than that of the other nations. Military confrontations arose from the competing claims between Vietnam and China in 1974 and 1988. Because of this, the United States has made small commercial and military threats. The United States wishes to maintain freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and plays a role in preventing military conflicts from escalating from these territorial disputes. Evidently, vigorous strife within the South China Sea calls upon great disputes among nations. Approaches to resolving such conflicts are ongoing, in order to ensure regional stability and security. The failure of involved nations to resolve these disputes diplomatically, however, could undermine international laws already set and discourage stabilizing arms. II. UN and International Involvement Currently, the largest way the UN has gotten involved is through arbitration proceedings from Taiwan under China violating the United Nations Convention on the Page 6
Law and the Sea (UNCLOS), stating that China s claims to islands and territories within the Nine-Dash Line, including the Spratly Islands, Paracel Islands, Pratas Islands, Macclesfield Bank, and the Scarborough Shoal. This case, however, is not being settled by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), but by a smaller body, still a part of the UN, called the Permanent Court of Arbitrations (PCA). This is the third version of the UNCLOS, which China willingly and readily ratified, showing acceptance of the previous placement of the Nine-Dash Line. However, since the UNCLOS is simply an agreement, the UN has no power to levy action, instead relying on the signers of the UNCLOS to enforce it. Despite this, the UN still does have power in the South China Sea through three bodies, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the International Whaling Commission (IWC), and the International Seabed Authority (ISA). As a result, the UN still reserves the right to enter the region if the governments involved interfere with shipping, whaling, or mineral-mining in the South China Sea. Another way the UN is working to alleviate conflict in the South China Sea is by working with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) a coalition of countries, including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. ASEAN believes that any and all conflicts regarding should be solved with minimal outside involvement from the UN, but welcomes UN help when needed. The UN and ASEAN have worked together in the past, from the Millennium Development Goals, the Memorandum of Understanding, to the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity. Both parties are dedicated to solving the crisis of the South China Sea, ending a conflict that has been running since the beginning of the Common Era, by way of peaceful means, believing that any further violence will only perpetuate the conflict. III. Questions to Consider 1. What roles do the Big 5 countries have on disarmament? 2. What are the countries around the South China Sea doing about this growing problem? 3. In what ways can the UN improve their involvement? 4. What factors can lead to increased armed conflicts between nations because of this ongoing dispute? 5. Under what circumstances have countries threatened sovereignty? 6. What effects does these disputes have on nearby nations (Consider social, political, and economic elements)? Page 7
IV. Suggested Sites 1. https://www.nytimes.com/topic/destination/south-china-sea 2. https://www.theguardian.com/world/south-china-sea 3. http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-south-china-sea-crisis-next-stop-theun-security-council-16397?page=2 4. https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=south+china+sea&sa_f=searchproduct&scope= 5. http://asean.org/?static_post=background-overview-united-nations 6. https://www.ft.com/content/aa32a224-480e-11e6-8d68-72e9211e86ab Page 8
Smuggling of Illicit Drugs across I. Background Maritime Borders The first official occurrence of what we consider modern drug trafficking was in 1796, when a ban on the drug, opium, imported into China was initiated. This stemmed a series of avoidances to the law and illegal trafficking of opium from the British East India Company, who once were a prime supplier of the drug to China. Since then, the issue of maritime drug smuggling has only increased. Due to the difficulty of controlling drug transport overseas, law enforcement in many nations have lacked motivation to help end the problem. Even though some states and organizations such as the United States Coast Guard have remained involved in the issue, it is tricky to cooperate with other countries because of certain water treaties and the absence of proper equipment to handle the issue. For example, even though Marijuana drug trafficking is extremely prominent in Mexican territory, the Coast Guard is not permitted to travel into Mexican waters without permission. This often restrains the proper reinforcement of many drug trafficking laws. Drug traffickers often take advantage of this lack of cooperation between many nations and organizations, and turn to the sea to transport their illegal products. Not only does the ocean provide an easy way to avoid land borders, but drug traffickers are able to move more drugs than they ever would on land. It is estimated that a drug ship is able to carry twenty times more drugs overseas then a plane or helicopter could. To make the situation worse, drug trafficking is especially harmful to nations who are underdeveloped. Many unstable countries are capable of successfully fostering drug transport because they are being weakened through factors such as war. This ultimately causes criminals to exploit this instability and increase their operations, and in turn, their financial gain. Consequently, this decreases the living conditions and safety of many nations, leading the population to often lose faith in their own government s ability to protect them. This frequently causes residents to gravitate towards vigilantism, leading nations to be even farther away from the path towards a democracy. In addition, foreign business usually declines and gets more expensive because potential allies and trading countries view crime as a tell tale sign of political instability. To continue, transnational drug organizations originating as a result of the criminal drug market are known to threaten human rights and deteriorate the governments and economic wealth of many nations. Not to mention that illegal drug trafficking is a huge threat to human health and the protection of maritime borders. Drug smuggling and maritime trafficking is the most Page 9
prominent in African, Middle Eastern, and African regions. The main and increasingly popular maritime drug route is through the Indian Ocean. Here, there has been an increase in drug activity, such as the transport of Heroin from the east coast of Africa and South Asia. II. UN Involvement The United Nations has taken various measures and precautions in order to try and solve this international issue of maritime drug trafficking. For example, the United Nations has organized many conferences that assist the resolution of such a large scale problem. This dates all the way back even to 1988, when Vienna hosted the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. To continue, the United Nations (UN) has also discussed and passed a multitude of resolutions regarding drug trafficking, and specifically maritime drug smuggling, such as Resolution A/Res/66/181, which explains the susceptibility some nations have to this crime, A/RES/60/1 at 111, describing the effects of drug trafficking on human rights, as well as A/Res/66/183 and resolution S-20/4 C, regarding the necessity of international cooperation. Also, the United Nations International Drug Control Programme formed a working group that s topic was maritime cooperation against illicit trafficking by sea in Vienna that worked in partnership with participating governments. This informal group examined strategies that needed to be pursued in order to enhance the international collaboration of countries worldwide regarding the topic of maritime drug law enforcement. Overall, it seems like the United Nations has stressed the importance of the teamwork from many nations that is needed in order to solve this pivotal issue of maritime drug smuggling. For example, more recently, Yury Fedotov, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, told the Third Committee that The struggle against organized crime, corruption and trafficking in illicit drugs and human beings is too big for any one country to tackle alone. The United Nations has also encouraged the involvement of many committees and organizations to help solve this issue, such as the International Maritime Organization, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. III. Questions to Consider 1. How does the trafficking of illegal drugs overseas differ from the transport of these products on land, and because of this, why has maritime drug trafficking proven to be such an important issue? 2. What precautions need to be taken first in order to ensure the strict enforcement of maritime laws, and how can different nations contribute to this? Page 10
3. How has the popularity of drugs in certain regions affected the increased transport of drugs worldwide in recent years? 4. What seems to be the most popular route when trafficking illegal drugs overseas, and how can the international community use this information to take the first steps in solving the problem of maritime drug smuggling? 5. How does the conditions of certain nations affect the trafficking of drugs overseas? In other words, how does an underdeveloped country s needs for drugs differ from that of a developed nation, and how can the international community use this information to better understand the reason behind drug trafficking? IV. Suggested Sites https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/commissions/cnd/resolutions_decisions/resolution s-decisions_2000-2009.html https://news.vice.com/article/drug-trafficking-meth-cocaine-heroin-global-drugsmuggling http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2084/1/u550164.pdf http://www.imo.org/en/knowledgecentre/informationresourcesoncurrenttopics/infor mationresourcesoncurrenttopicsarchives/documents/drug%20smuggling%20_28 %20January%202010.pdf http://www.imo.org/en/ourwork/facilitation/docs/fal%20related%20nonmandatory%2 0instruments/FAL.5-Circ.6.pdf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4np4macth7u https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/statistics/drug-trafficking.html Page 11