UMASS Lowell High School Model United Nations

UMASS Lowell High School Model United Nations United Nations Security Council Chair: Emily Fritz

The United Nations Security Council is one of the six principal organs within the United Nations. The Security Council’s main responsibility is to keep international peace. It is the Security Council’s duty to assess threats of international peace as they come, and calls upon nations to find a peaceful agreement. In some cases, the Security Council has the authority to impose sanctions and military interventions to maintain international peace and security. Each time the Security Council meets, it has a total of 15 participating countries. There are 5 permanent countries within the Security Council that also have veto power: United States, Russia, UK, China, and France.

Topic One: Drug Cartels in Central America

In the last decade alone, the security of Central America has plummeted. Due to the increased power of the Drug Cartels, many nations within Central America are not able to provide their citizens with their basic human rights as well as protect them from powerful drug cartels. Drug cartels are a huge issue because they weaken government legitimacy and generate government unsteadiness. In Central America, violence, human trafficking rates have and murder rates have increased. Mexico’s drug war has caused over 70,000 deaths alone. Drug Cartels are gaining more power because they are developing their business strategies. Their main focus has shifted from drug trafficking to human trafficking. This shift is maximizing their profits because drugs can be sold and taken once, whereas humans can be sold over and over. Human trafficking is not the only strategy of the drug cartels; the smuggling of firearms and immigrants are also common and directly related to the presence of drug cartels. Most of the criminal activity and smuggling have direct links back to the drug cartels. Violence remains a huge political crisis within Central America. Murder rates have skyrocketed due to the power of the drug cartels. In 2011, Honduras had the highest murder rate in the entire world and the highest rate that had ever been recorded in history. In just five years, from 2005-2010 the amount of violence has doubled in Honduras. There have since then been government plans to strengthen security for airplanes and other transportation systems for crossing the border. A serious issue for Central America is that Mexico may be able to implement these security ideas; however, other poorer nations that are in Central America aren’t as powerful and stable to implement these security tactics. Latin American nations like Columbia and Mexico remain the number one exporter of cocaine and cannabis in the world; as a result, Central America’s security has been at risk for the last three decades. Since 2007, the amount of cocaine being trafficked through Central America by South America to the U.S. has elevated immensely. This is as a result of the new smuggling routes the Mexican drug cartels have created. Columbia manufactures and distributes 80% of the world’s cocaine. Despite anti-drug policies and the prohibition of the creation of cocaine, Central America has still been unable to rid itself from the extreme violence. Policies that are implemented in Central America have failed and have had the opposite effect of what was expected because of the important differences of the region. Each country within Central America has very different history and cultures. The countries within Central America also differ economically, therefore leaving nations with lower incomes and high poverty levels, which is exacerbated by violence and drug smuggling.

In 1997, the United Nations created the UNDOC to decrease the amount of money laundering, bribing, violence, and other offense of drug cartels. The United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988 treaty was passed with the aim of strengthening governments and weakening drug cartels. Former resolutions, such as resolution E/RES/2003/35, call upon individual nations to strengthen their governments through proper law enforcement and by educational awareness. However, underdeveloped and poorer nations, such as Honduras, have still been unable to deter the violence within their nation, and do not have the appropriate funds, or systems, to settle violence and murders within their nations.

Questions to Consider:

What is the UNDOC? The INBC?

How can violence be decreased within Central America?

How can underdeveloped nations deter violence? To deter smuggling?

How can we lower the amount of drug smuggling in the region as a whole?

How can the amount of power that the Drug Cartels have, be lowered?

Topic Two: Transition to Democracy in Burma

Burma first received their independence from the United Kingdom in 1948. Like many other former colonialized countries, this left the nation extremely fragmented, with many different ethnic and religious groups. Today, there are over 135 ethnic groups that are recognized in Myanmar, 8 of which are the most popular. In 1962, the military staged a coup and was under strong Burmese dictatorship until 2010. In 1989, the country was renamed Myanmar. There were a lot of political disagreements and attitudes regarding the name change, as it implies support of the military coup and the former government. To this day, many democratized nations like the U.S. and the U.K. recognize the name Burma. The United Nations, however, recognizes the name Myanmar. Since the gain of their independence, Burma has had little hope of maintaining a peaceful government, as there were so many ethnic groups within one area. Burmese nationality is about 60-70% of the population, ruled over the entire nation, with the other main ethnic groups: Karen, Mon, Chin, Kachin, Karenni, etc. making up 30-40% of the rest of the population. Political unrest was rampant along with politicide. The Burmese government had Burmese child soldiers, which were trained to be brutal, destroy other ethnic group’s homes and villages, leaving nothing but ashes (also known as “ethnic cleansing”). The Burmese soldiers, who were prominently Buddhist, were abusing and massacring the Muslim Rohingya for nearly half a century. The Rakhine Buddhists also claim that the Muslim Rohingya were trying to “Islamify” Myanmar, and were raping, abusing, and killing the Rakhine Buddhists. This created a refugee crisis, with refugees fleeing to surrounding countries. Due to this, over half a million people became refugees to neighboring countries. Myanmar’s refugee crisis is a problem that is affecting the international community as a whole. Thailand, which borders Myanmar, has taken over 62,000 unregistered refugees from Myanmar. These refugees are kept within 9 refugee camps within the border, with little to no health, education, or career services. The United States alone has taken 90,000 refugees from Myanmar. In 2007, several nations imposed greater sanctions against Myanmar. This paved a new way for democracy. In 2010, the transition for democracy was in place and peace talks were implemented. The U.S. and the E.U. have lifted most of their sanctions that were imposed on Myanmar since the late democratic switch. In 2010, the first democratic elections were held in Burma. However, many believed these elections were non-democratic. There was a huge stress on the elections being highly monitored and controlled, which discouraged people from voting, and only 30,000 people were registered to vote. There were also no political signs saying where elections would be held, also deterring citizens from voting. Since 2010, 13 ceasefire agreements have been signed within ethnic rebel groups. The nation has seriously improved as far as making strides; however there is still much work to be done. The US, Canada, UK, and European Union all had sanctions both economic and aid against Myanmar for years. This influenced Burma to cut off ties to almost every nation and caused them to become internalists (devastating the poor population). The ethnic cleansing issue is still prominent between the Rakhine Buddhists and the stateless Muslim Rohingya. In June 2012, according to the HRW, the government continued to burn down villages, rape and massacre at least 70 Muslim Rohingya. The country has made great strides towards democratization and abiding by the Human Rights Treaty, but ethnic cleansing is still a rampant issue. Myanmar is faced with faces many serious to this day. The refugee situation is still not under control and there are still armed groups oppressing one another. The General Assembly has met each year in regards to the situation within Myanmar since 1991, recommending that Myanmar provide basic human rights to its citizens. In 2012, the General Assembly called upon Myanmar to implement long lasting peace agreements within the nation to stabilize the nation for the long term. The United Nations General Assembly has requested the Burmese Military Junta to stop violating human rights and to abide by the Human Rights Treaty. In 2009, the General Assembly implemented a resolution that called upon Burma to “take urgent measures to put an end to violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.”

How can the government promote democracy with so much ethnic tension? How can we implement a long term peace agreement?

What can there be done in regards to the refugee crisis?

Is there something to be done to promote educational services and health Services?

What can be done to stop violence within ethnic groups (i.e. Buddhists vs. Muslim)?