Hofstra University Model United Nations Conference United Nations General Assembly Special Political and Decolonization Committee Fourth Committee Elizabeth Wolf Chairperson 1 Delegates, Welcome to Hofstra University’s Model United Nations Conference! During this amazing conference, you will be spending a lot of time with me during committee sessions so I would just like to let you know a little bit about myself and my involvement with Model UN. I am currently a senior History and Geology double major with a minor in Sustainability at Hofstra. When I am not working on lab reports or working at one of my two jobs, I try to be an active member of the Hofstra community. I am Vice President of the Democrat club on campus that I helped establish my freshman year. I am also involved with the Geology club, Students for a Greener Hofstra, and a divestment campaign. I joined Model UN last spring because my dream career is to work with the United Nations Environmental Programme. HUMUN 2013 was my first Model UN conference. I had the honor of being dais for the Future Crisis Committee, where we worked with the issue of the Arctic race for resources after climate change had opened up a “Northwest Passage” and access to oil reserves in the region many years into the future. Delegates were forced to think of the effects of climate change on different countries and how to handle the new resources available in a way that helped not only individual countries, but also the world as a whole. I’m glad to say that I caught the Model UN “bug” and have come back to chair this year’s SPECPOL committee! During these committee sessions, we will be discussing the treatment of the Kurdish people in Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey and the reformation of the UN Peacekeeping Missions to prevent abuses. I chose these topics because both the Kurds and peacekeeping missions and the troops that staff these missions have come up in past class discussions and I felt that these discussions were not only very fulfilling “mental yoga” sessions, but they are also connected to a great deal of current events spanning multiple regions. Finding resolutions to these topics will require a great deal of creative and abstract thinking as well as teamwork. I’m excited to meet you all and engage in some serious mental yoga. Your chair, Elizabeth Wolf [email protected] 2 Introduction to the Committee The Special Political and Decolonization Committee (SPECPOL) is the fourth committee within the General Assembly of the United Nations. It deals with a variety of subjects, including those related to “decolonization, Palestinian refugees and human rights, peacekeeping, mine action, outer space, public information, atomic radiation, and the University for Peace.”1 Hofstra University Model United Nations Conference’s SPECPOL delegates will be asked to confront two hot-button international issues: the treatment of the Kurdish people in four different states in the Middle East and the reformation of the UN Peacekeeping Missions. SPECPOL was initially a committee that focused on decolonization, but after the liberation of most colonies and all of the UN trust territories, the committee took on the “Special Political” duties.2 These duties have included “celestial governance,” activities of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, and peacekeeping missions.3 There is an annual debate on space because more states have become involved in the exploration of outer space. Every year the committee also discusses the issues surrounding the nearly five million Palestinian refugees who have been displaced due to the fighting surrounding the mandate of the creation of Palestine. Lastly, and most importantly to our discussion, the SPECPOL committee discusses ways to make the peacekeeping troops more efficient by deploying them quicker, enhancing the protection given to civilians, and developing institutions to help improve peace building in states ravaged by conflict and war.4 3 Introduction to the Topics The topics of Hofstra’s University Model United Nations Conference SPECPOL committee – the treatment of the Kurdish people and reforming UN Peacekeeping missions – are important, long-standing issues for the international community and matters the UN must address. Both issues are very complex and made up of a wide variety of components, along with a huge divergence in opinions among UN member states. Thus, in addition to studying this background guide, you should thus research these topics thoroughly so that you are accurately reflect your state’s position. The Kurdish population spans Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, and a very small section of Armenia. Kurds constitute one of, if not the, largest minority in each state. Driven by the notion of national self-determination, the Kurds have been pushing for a sovereign state, or some level of autonomy, since the fall of the Ottoman Empire after 4 World War I. However, because they are a minority in Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey, Kurds have not always received the equal treatment. Indeed, one can argue the basic rights of Kurds have been violated by each of the states they reside. Since the Kurdish people make up a substantial percentage of the population in each of the states, it is important to address the mistreatment Kurds face so to prevent escalation into yet another international humanitarian tragedy. The second topic on peacekeeping mission reform is important because the UN sends troops on these missions with the hope of restoring or enforcing peace in conflict regions all around the world. The resources, including the troops themselves (which are UN-member state forces) and the money it takes to send them on missions with the materials they need, are contributed by member states through a complex equation made up by said members. While peacekeeping missions have contributed significantly to security and stability in many ways around the globe, there have been too many instances of the “blue helmets” engaging in unethical behavior in the states in which they are deployed, including sex trafficking. It is important to make sure that peacekeeping missions are done efficiently and ethically. Poorly behaving peacekeeping troops and other problems can undermine UN values, exploit already victimized civilians, and ultimately lead to the failure of peacekeeping missions. In this committee, delegates will have to explore ways to prevent such outcomes and devise reforms that bolster the efficiency and ethicality of peacekeeping missions. 5 Topic A: The Kurdish Question The Kurds are known as the largest group of people without its own state. Dispersed among Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, the Kurdish people are largely a Sunni Muslim non-Arab people that speak language most similar to Persian. Prior to the First World War, the Kurds were mostly a nomadic people living in the Mesopotamian plains and highlands of Ottoman Empire and Iran. The notions of nationalism and national self-determination – important forces in Europe and beyond both before and after World War I – began to resonate among the Kurds in the early 20th century. But the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire that resulted in the creation of a number of new nation states did not include a separate Kurdistan. Indeed, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq all agreed to not recognize an independent Kurdish state.5 Kurdish inability to create their own nation-state is inconsistent with the idea of national self-determination, something promoted by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson during World War I as a way to promote international peace and stability. Indeed, while promoting his famous “Fourteen Points,” Wilson argued, “National aspirations must be respected; peoples may now be dominated and governed only by their own consent. ‘Self-determination’ is not a mere phrase. It is an imperative principle of actions which statesmen will henceforth ignore at their peril.”6 The creation of the UN system, along with the treaties and conventions that came out of the UN system, enshrined the idea of national self-determination in international law. For example, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article I, Section I) states, “All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”7 6 In addition to being a question of self-determination, the Kurdish issue raises important human rights concerns. As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 2 states: Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.8 Kurds have been discriminated against in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere. Since the formation of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and the rest of the states that emerged after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Kurds have suffered from political, social, and economic discrimination. There have been movements – such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has waged a violent campaign against the government of Turkey – that have sought an independent Kurdistan because of such issues combined with national self- determination motivations. Because Kurdish issues span multiple states and include issues of internationally recognized rights and national self-determination, the “Kurdish Question” is clearly an international issue that SPECPOL should address. The main issues associated with the “Kurdish Question” that the committee will focus on are political and social and involve citizenship, representation in government, religion, and education.