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UNITED NATIONSGENERAL ASSEMBLY
Background Guide
- JKMUN13 -`
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Table of Contents
Letter from the Executive Board.......3
Committee Background..............4
Agenda...................................................5
Discussing The Agenda ......................................................... ....7
Some Terrorist Groups ~
CPI....................................................................................8
Hezbollah..........................................................................9Al-Qaeda..........................................................................10
LTTE................................................................................11
RIRA................................................................................12
Funding Of Terrorism........13
Points tobe Consider.................14
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Letter from the executive board
Dear delegates,
After the roaring success of the past eight sessions, its my immense pleasure to
welcome you all to the ninth Session of the JK Model United Nations, or more
importantly to The General Assembly of JKMUN13.
As you all are well aware, the agenda for this years committee is related to terrorism.
Or precisely speaking, finding out the causes and motives behind their inhuman
actions, so as to understand them in a better way and device new and powerful ways
to tackle them. As stated earlier by your director, every action has a reason and here
we chose this forum to discuss on the same. Maybe well even be able to justify
terrorism, who knows!
Delegates, in the course of the committee, we wont be people belonging to a
particular nation. Our ideas and thoughts should not reflect those of a world divided
on communal lines, but of a world undivided by caste, creed or religion - The United
Nations. In the committee, we wont be fighting terrorism, we wont be looking for
new plans to tackle it, we simply would be putting ourselves into their shoes in order
to try and see the world from their perspective.
And having done all this, we aim to find the solution to a simple question, yet the one,
much debated over by all the nationsCan Terrorism be justified ?
Note: The Background Guide is just for reference and is strictly not to be used as a proof or as a document for the
conference.
With this we wish you the All the Best for the Conference!
Executive Board, JKMUN 13, UNGA ~
Akshita Kanwar Shubham Khanna Sudeepti Kadotra
(Director) (Chairperson) (Director)
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Committee background
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is one of the six principal
organs of the United Nationsand the only one in which all member nations have
equal representation. Its powers are to oversee the budget of the United Nations,
appoint the non-permanent members to the Security Council, receive reports from
other parts of the United Nations and make recommendations in the form of General
Assembly Resolutions.It has also established a wide number of subsidiary organs.
The General Assembly meets under President or Secretary-General in regular yearlysessions the main part of which lasts from September to December and resumed part
from January until all issues are addressed (which often are just before the next
session's start). It can also reconvene for special and emergency special sessions. Its
composition, functions, powers, voting, and procedures are set out in Chapter IV of
the United NationsCharter.
Voting in the General Assembly on important questions
Recommendations on peace and security; election of members to organs;
admission, suspension, and expulsion of members; budgetary matters is by a two-
thirds majority of those present and voting. Other questions are decided by majority
vote. Each member country has one vote. Apart from approval of budgetary matters,including adoption of a scale of assessment, Assembly resolutions are not binding on
the members. The Assembly may make recommendations on any matters within the
scope of the UN, except matters of peace and security under Security Council
consideration. The one state, one votepower structure theoretically allows states
comprising just eight percent of the world population to pass a resolution by a two-
thirds vote. Although the resolutions passed by the General Assembly do not have
the binding forces over the member nations(apart from budgetary measures),
pursuant to its Uniting for Peaceresolution of November 1950 (resolution 377 (V)) ,
the Assembly may also take action if the Security Council fails to act, owing to the
negative vote of a member ,in a case where there appears to be a threat to the peace,
breach of the peace or act of aggression
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The adopted agenda drawn up by the Executive Board of the UNGA and approved by
the Secretary General shall be-
Aiming At World Peace by Comprehending the Causes and
Purposes behind Terrorism
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The AgendaTerrorist acts or the threat of such action have been in existence for millennia. As
terrorist threats remain high in many regions of the world, countering the appeal ofterrorism has emerged as a priority. Therefore during this year's committee session we
aim to find solution to a simple question, can terrorism be justified?
The world must respond and fight this evil that is intended on threatening and
destroying our basic freedoms and our way of life. Freedom and fear are at war.
The enemy is not one person. It is not a single political regime. Certainly it is not a
religion. The enemy is terrorismpremeditated, politically motivated violence
perpetrated against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine
agents. Those who employ terrorism, regardless of their specific secular or religious
objectives, strive to subvert the rule of law and effect change through violence and
fear. These terrorists also share the misguided belief that killing, kidnapping,
extorting, robbing, and wreaking havoc to terrorize people are legitimate forms of
political action. The struggle against international terrorism is different from any other
war in our history.
We must fight terrorist networks, and all those who support their efforts to spread fear
around the world, using every instrument of national powerdiplomatic, economic,
law enforcement, financial, information, intelligence, and military.
Progress will come through the persistent accumulation of successessome seen,
some unseen. Countering this scourge of terrorism is in the interest of all nations and
has been the agenda of the United Nations for decades. Keeping this in mind, the
agenda for this years conference would be
Aiming at world peace by comprehending the causes and purposes behind terrorism"
The challenge of understanding terrorism is both, acknowledging the moral outrage at
terrorist acts, while at the same time, trying to understand the rationale behind
terrorism!
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Discussing the agenda
The worldwide public debate about terrorism that has gone on for more than a decade
now has involved mostly scholars with backgrounds in political science, international
relations, law, and public policy. Nonetheless, there isnt much agreement on any of
the main questions raised by terrorismconceptual, moral, or political. This is
understandable in view of some basic flaws of the debate. One is the lack of clarity
about what its subject is: just what is terrorism and who should count as a terrorist?
Perhaps inevitably, the debate has often been clouded by emotions, moral passions,
and political interests. Infested by moral relativism and double standards (us /
them, state use of force/insurgent terrorism), it has often led to talking at cross
purposes.
If we are to define terrorism in a way helpful to the moral and political debate, we
should put aside both the identity of those resorting to it and their ultimate political,
ideological, or religious aims. We should rather understand terrorism in terms of
just what is done and what the proximate aims of doing it are. Being agent-neutral,
the definition doesnt rule out state terrorism a phenomenon well known in modern
history, yet curiously ignored, or defined out of existence, in public debate. Indeed,
historically, the state has been the greatest terrorist. One major account of the
morality of terrorism is provided by consequentialism: terrorism, like everything else,
should be judged solely by consequences.
As Leon Trotsky famously said, given a paramount end, the question of the means
becomes one of expediency rather than principle. But surely it cant be right that life
and limb of innocent civilians is fair game whenever it is expedient that it should be
so. While terrorism is almost always unjustified from a moral perspective, under
specific, extreme conditions, terrorist acts may be defended on account of the moral
disaster they prevent or stop.
The agenda sought to find reasons as to why young people become terrorists. These
reasons might include looking for an identity; need for belonging; their own self built
perception of justice and injustice or sympathy with a group.
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Some Important Terrorist Groups ~- The Communist Party Of IndiaThe Communist Party of India (Maoist) is an ultra-leftist political party in
India which aims to overthrow the government of India through people's war.
It was founded on 21 September 2004, through the merger of the Communist
Party of India (MarxistLeninist) People's War(People's War Group), and
the Maoist Communist Centre of IndiaCommunist Centre of India (MCCI).
The merger was announced on 14 October the same year. In the merger a
provisional central committee was constituted, with the erstwhile People's
War Group leaderMuppala Lakshmana Rao, alias "Ganapathi", as general
secretary.
The CPI (Maoist) are often referred to as Naxalites. They have been charged
by the government with running an extortion economy in the guise of a
popular revolution, extorting vast amounts of money from local branches of
mining companies and other businesses. They have been involved in several
cases of blowing up schools and railway tracks, and accused of keeping the
areas under their control away from modernity and development, typically
the uneducated rural populace.
In 2006, Prime MinisterManmohan Singh referred to the Naxalites as "the
single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoist_Communist_Centre_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoist_Communist_Centre_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoist_Communist_Centre_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoist_Communist_Centre_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoist_Communist_Centre_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoist_Communist_Centre_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoist_Communist_Centre_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muppala_Lakshmana_Raohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naxalitehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manmohan_Singhhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manmohan_Singhhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naxalitehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muppala_Lakshmana_Raohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoist_Communist_Centre_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoist_Communist_Centre_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoist_Communist_Centre_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoist_Communist_Centre_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoist_Communist_Centre_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoist_Communist_Centre_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoist_Communist_Centre_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoist_Communist_Centre_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maoist_Communist_Centre_of_India -
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- HezbollahHezbollah is a Shia Islamic militant group and political party based
in Lebanon. Its paramilitary wing is regarded as a resistancemovement throughout much of the Arab and Muslim worlds, and is
considered more powerful than the Lebanese Army. It has taken the side of
the government in the Syrian civil war and in MayJune 2013 successfully
assisted in the recapture of the strategic town of Qusayr. The governments of
the U.S.,Netherlands, France, Gulf Cooperation Council, U.K., Australia,
Canada, the European Union and Israel classify Hezbollah as a terrorist
organization, in whole or in part.
Hezbollah was conceived by Muslim clerics and funded by Iran following
the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and was primarily formed to offer resistance
to the Israeli occupation. Its leaders were followers of Ayatollah Khomeini,
and its forces were trained and organized by a contingent of 1,500 Iranian
Revolutionary Guards that arrived from Iran with permission from the Syrian
government. Hezbollah's 1985 manifesto listed its four main goals as "Israel's
final departure from Lebanon as a prelude to its final obliteration", ending
"any imperialist power in Lebanon", submission of the Phalangists to "just
rule" and bringing them to trial for their crimes, and giving the people the
chance to choose "with full freedom the system of government they want",
while not hiding its commitment to the rule of Islam.
Hezbollah receives military training, weapons, and financial support from
Iran, and political support from Syria. Following the end of the Israeli
occupation of South Lebanon in 2000, its military strength grew significantly.
Despite a June 2008 certification by the United Nations that Israel had
withdrawn from all Lebanese territory, in August, Lebanon's new Cabinet
unanimously approved a draft policy statement which secures Hezbollah's
existence as an armed organization and guarantees its right to "liberate or
recover occupied lands". Since 1992, the organisation has been headed
by Hassan Nasrallah, its Secretary-General.
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- Al-QaidaAl-Qaida is a global militant Islamist organization founded by Osama bin
Laden in Peshawar, Pakistan, at some point between August 1988 and late1989, with its origins being traceable to the Soviet War in Afghanistan. It
operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a
radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad and a strict
interpretation of Sharia law. It has been designated as a terrorist
organization by the United Nations Security Council, NATO, the European
Union, the United Kingdom, the United States. Al-Qaeda has carried out
many attacks on non-Sunni Muslims, non-Muslims, and other targets it
considers kafir.
Al-Qaeda has attacked civilian and military targets in various countries,
including the September 11 attacks, 1998 U.S. embassy bombings and the
2002 Bali bombings. The U.S. government responded to the September 11
attacks by launching the War on Terror. With the loss of key leaders,
culminating in the death of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda's operations have
devolved from actions that were controlled from the top-down, to actions by
franchise associated groups, to actions of lone wolf operators.
Al-Qaeda is also responsible for instigating sectarian violence among
Muslims. Al-Qaeda is intolerant of non-Sunni branches of Islam and
denounces them by means of excommunications called "takfir". Al-Qaeda
leaders regard liberal Muslims, Shias, Sufis and other sects as heretics and
have attacked their mosques and gatherings. Examples of sectarian attacks
include the Yazidi community bombings, the Sadr City bombings, the
Ashourar Massacre and the April 2007 Baghdad bombings.
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- The Liberation Tigers of Tamil EelamThe Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam commonly known as the LTTE or the
Tamil Tigers was a separatist militant organisation that was based in
northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976 by Velupillai Prabhakaran, it
waged a violent secessionist and nationalist campaign to create an
independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka for Tamil people. This
campaign evolved into the Sri Lankan Civil War, which ran from 1983 until
2009, when the LTTE was defeated by the Sri Lankan Military.
At the height of its power, the LTTE possessed a well-developed militia and
carried out many high-profile attacks, including the assassinations of several
high-ranking Sri Lankan and Indian politicians. The LTTE was the only
separatist militant organisation to assassinate two world leaders: Sri Lankan
President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993 and former Indian Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. Civilian massacres, suicide bombings and
acts of ethnic cleansing were integral parts of its pursuit to create
a monoethnic Tamil Eelam in response to the nationwide atrocities against
the Tamil population. The LTTE pioneered the use of suicide belts, and used
light aircraft in some of its attacks. As a result of its tactics, it is currently
proscribed as a terrorist organisation by 32 countries, including India, buthas support amongst some Tamils in Tamil Nadu in India.
However, University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) alleges that the
LTTE has killed at least 8,000 fellow Tamils they accused of being traitors.
LTTE founder Velupillai Prabhakaran headed the organisation from its
inception until his death in 2009.
Over the course of the conflict, the Tamil Tigers frequently exchanged control
of territory in north-east Sri Lanka with the Sri Lankan military, with the two
sides engaging in fierce military confrontations. It was involved in four
unsuccessful rounds of peace talks with the Sri Lankan government over the
course of the conflict. At its peak in 2000, the LTTE was in control of 76% of
the landmass in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka.
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- The Real Irish Republican ArmyThe Real Irish Republican Army, otherwise known as the Real IRA (RIRA), is
an Irish republican paramilitary organisation which aims to bring about
a united Ireland. It formed in 1997 following a split in the Provisional IRA,
which had declared a ceasefire that year. Like the Provisional IRA before it,
the RIRA sees itself as the only rightful successor to the original Irish
Republican Army and styles itself as simply "the Irish Republican Army". It is
an illegal organisation in Ireland and designated as a terrorist organisation
in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Since its formation, the RIRA has waged a campaign in Northern
Ireland against the British Army and the Police Service of Northern
Ireland (PSNI), formerly the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). The RIRA is
the biggest and most active of the "dissident republican"
paramilitaries operating againstthe British security forces. It has targeted the
security forces in gun attacks and bombings, as well as with
grenades, mortars and rockets. The organisation has also been responsible
for a number of bombings in Northern Ireland and England with the goal of
causing economic harm and/or disruption. The most notable of these was the
15 August 1998 Omagh bombing, which killed 29 people. After the bombing,the RIRA went on ceasefire, but began operations again in 2000. On 7 March
2009 RIRA members claimed responsibility for an attack on Massereene
Barracks that killed two British soldiers, the first to be killed in Northern
Ireland since 1997.
On 26 July 2012, it was reported that Republican Action AgainstDrugs (RAAD) and other independent republican paramilitary groups were
merging with the Real IRA. As before, the group continues to refer to itself as
"the Irish Republican Army".
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Funding Of TerrorismTerrorism financingcame into limelight in theUnited Statesafter theterrorist attacks
in the United States on the 11th September in 2001. The US Government passedtheUSA PATRIOT Actto, among other reasons, attempt thwarting the financingofterrorism(CFT) andanti-money laundering(AML) making sure these were given
some sort of adequate focus by US financial institutions. The act also
hadextraterritorialimpact and non-US banks having correspondent banking accountsor doing business with US banks had to upgrade their AML/CFT processes. The
Patriot Act has generated agreat deal of controversyin the United States since itsenactment.
Initially the focus of CFT efforts was on non-profit organizations, unregisteredmoneyservices businesses(MSBs) (including so called underground banking or Hawalas)and the criminalisation of the act itself. TheFinancial Action Task Force on Money
Laundering(FATF) made nine special recommendations for CFT (first eight then a
year later added a ninth). These nine recommendations have become the global
standard for CFT and their effectiveness is assessed almost always in conjunction
withAML.TheFATF Blacklist(the NCCT list) mechanism was used to coerce countries to bringabout change.
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Points to be ConsideredDelegates, we expect debating on the following points. However, additional topics are
also welcome to be debated over in the committee.
1. Difference between terrorists and freedom fighters
2. Finding a proper definition to terrorism
3. Understanding State Terrorism
4. Justification of Basic Human Rights while defending Terrorism
5. Justification of terrorism
6. Sources Of Funding
7. Governments stand on Terrorism and various laws
8. Discussion on various anti-terrorism policies, (e.g.POTA, AFSPA)
9. History of Various Terror Activities in the past.
10.Debate on the disputed clause of 2005 World Summit :
We strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,
committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes, as it
constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and
security.