Belarussian Model United Nations for University Students

2012

[Sustainable development: the way forward]

Instructional Guide

GA1 (Special Political and Decolonization Committee)

Belarusian Model United Nations for University Students 2012

GA 1 (Special Political and Decolonization Committee)

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Dear delegates of Special Political and

Decolonization Committee!

We are honored to greet you as

participants of Belarusian Model United

Nations for University Students 2012!

During this session of BelaMUN we will

be your Chairs, it means we will lead the work

of GA1 trying to make it as the most organized

and interesting as possible.

My name is Nataliya Kotsikava. I’m a 4-year student of Belarusian State

Economic University. It will be my 3rd

time of being a Chair. All in all during my MUN

experience I participated in this kind of conferences for 8 times in different parts of the

world. Having seen different conferences, I can assert that Belarusian Model United

Nations surpasses many internationals in organizational way. It’s a good chance to

benefit and feel a high-level event!

My name is Vadim Bayandin. I’m a student of the faculty of international

relations (Belarusian State University). I’m sure I’ll do my best to create a businesslike

but at the same time favorable for communication and exchange atmosphere.

The general topic of this BelaMUN session is “Sustainable Development: the way

forward”. Within the limits of this global issue we’ll be working on 2 questions which

are also actively discussed in the real UN structures. They are:

1) Taking Under Control Separatist Movements Claiming to Sovereignty

from Host Governments;

2) The Role of Blue Helmets in Hot Spots.

We strongly call you to participate enthusiastically in the debates during our

working days and we hope that all of us will gain a lot of experience, will learn a lot of

new and interesting facts and, what is more, we’ll develop our communicational skills

for reaching our professional and personal aims. Good luck to all of us!

Best regards,

Nataliya Kotikova and Vadim Bayandin.

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1. TAKING UNDER CONTROL SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS CLAIMING

TO SOVEREIGNTY FROM HOST GOVERNMENTS

Sometimes people decide that they cannot secure their rights within the

framework of an existing polity, and must separate from it. Sometimes they live in an

occupied country, and the occupying power has no intention of extending the full

rights of citizenship to them, or of complying with constitutional principles.

The main goal of UN is to prevent such situations, when dissatisfied people

decide that they cannot live under the pressure of existing government anymore. But it

is clear that it is impossible to monitor all the situations all over the world. Moreover,

separatist movements can be a spontaneous phenomenon that comes in sight only

when the people are on strike or even worse, when they take guns in their hands.

Under these circumstances the need of more powerful international diplomatic force

appears that could defuse critic political condition in the region. And this is one of the

most important purposes of the United Nations.

The United Nations generally favors enforcing constitutional compliance within

an existing polity, but sometimes independence is the only way.

During the last fifty years the United Nations has dealt with numerous threats

to world peace. In the process, they have spent thousands of hours debating and

attempting to solve the crises in the Middle East and Southern Africa. The number

of active conflicts all around the world is getting higher. It is clear that each of them

should be defused as quick as possible. But United Nations is not almighty, so

statesmen are bound by divergent national interests, limited time and resources, daily

they have to make the difficult choice: which crisis to resolve immediately and which

is to be deferred. Nationalist-Separatist Movements attempts to accomplish this by

dealing with conflicts which have been discussed in the United Nations, and which

are still unresolved today. The UN points out that they don’t treat separatist

movements as a group, but study them individually.

A first case of separatism was the British colony of India. In the late 1940’s it

fractured into India and Pakistan amidst a blood bath and a refugee crisis unequaled

before or since. Moreover soon the people of Bangladesh launched their own

separatist movement and seceded in 1971. Even today border strife continues as the

three nations’ dispute the frontiers drawn hastily by the departing British in 1947.

Groups seeking to resolve their desire for national identity and establish a true

nation-state often form separatist groups known as National Liberation

Organizations (NLOs). Examples of such groups include the Viet Cong during the

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Vietnam War, the Irish Republican Army, the South-West African People’s

Organization, and the Eritrean Liberation Front. NLOs do not possess legal

authority over a specific territory; they are seeking to "liberate" that territory from the

current regime and obtain that authority.

These movements have varying organizational structures and disparate levels of

power and influence.

They may choose nonviolent means, such as the Parti Quebeco did in Canada.

Otherwise, they may choose violence that results in civil war or terrorist attacks

as have the Eritreans in Ethiopia and the Basques in Spain, respectively.

Although nationalism is the driving force behind most NLOs, and all desire an

independent state, they seldom have anything else in common. Some NLOs seek to

overthrow a government viewed as dictatorial, exploitive and under the control of an

external influence. The Sandanistas in Nicaragua were an example of this type of

NLO.

Others pit colonial peoples against colonial powers such as the struggle of the

MauMaus against the British in Kenya.

Many nations resist annexation and absorption by states that they believe will

strip them of their nationality, land and resources, such as the people of East Timor,

whose independence was finally formalized in 2002.

NLOs usually employ a military policy of some type and make extensive use of

the media. Palestinians will not become ethnic «Israelis», and the Oromo will not

become "Ethiopian" despite the efforts to force that outcome. If it was done, it would

erase their nationality, history and country. Yet, these peoples are rarely identified by

their own names in the media; instead they are commonly referred to as rebels,

separatists, extremists, dissidents, insurgents, terrorists, tribals, minorities, or

ethnic groups.

Contemporary research indicates that international wars waged to regain lost

territory and revolutions undertaken by an ethnic minority in the interest of national

self-determination have accounted for 70% of all international conflicts. Most armed

resistance begins as low intensity conflict, in the form of small skirmishes along

borders or at sea, either by individuals or small groups. Such low intensity conflict

presents the danger of escalation to a more destructive level of violence. With the

spread of modern weapon capabilities, it has the potential to become extremely

destructive.

Groups may have one or more motivations for separation, including:

Emotional resentment of rival communities.

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Protection from ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Justified resistance by victims of oppression, including denigration of

their language, culture or religion.

Propaganda by those who hope to gain politically from intergroup

conflict and hatred.

The economic and political dominance of one group that does not share

power and privilege in an egalitarian fashion.

Economic motivations: seeking to end economic exploitation by more

powerful group or, conversely, to escape economic redistribution from a richer to a

poorer group.

Preservation of threatened religious, language or other cultural tradition.

Destabilization from one separatist movement giving rise to others.

Geopolitical power vacuum from breakup of larger states or empires.

Continuing fragmentation as more and more states break up.

Feeling that the perceived nation was added to the larger state by

illegitimate means.

The perception that the state can no longer support one's own group or

has betrayed their interests.

Every country tries to defuse separatist movements. In accordance with

resistance that government will show to separatists, we can predict how far these

kinds of movements will go towards. Nowadays there are 5 main ways of responding

for a host government:

1. Accede to separatist demands

2. Improve the circumstances of disadvantaged minorities, so that religious,

ethnic or other interests of these people would be satisfied.

3. Adopt “asymmetric federalism” where different states have different

relations to the central government depending on separatist demands or

considerations.

4. Allow minorities to win in political disputes about which they feel

strongly, through parliamentary voting, referendum, etc.

5. Settle for a confederation or a commonwealth relationship where there

are only limited ties among states.

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There are plenty of UN organizations working to prevent conflicts and to

defuse separatist movements worldwide. Here is the list of these organizations:

BNUB, United Nations Office in Burundi

http://bnub.unmissions.org/

BINUCA, United Nations Integrated Peace-building Office in the

Central African Republic

http://binuca.unmissions.org/

UNIOGBIS, United Nations Integrated Peace-building Office in

Guinea-Bissau

http://uniogbis.unmissions.org/

UNOCA, United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa

http://unoca.unmissions.org/

UNOWA, United Nations Office for West Africa

http://unowa.unmissions.org/

UNIPSIL, United Nations Integrated Peace-building Office in Sierra

Leone

http://unipsil.unmissions.org/

UNSMIL, United Nations Support Mission in Libya

http://unsmil.unmissions.org/

UNPOS, United Nations Political Office for Somalia

http://unpos.unmissions.org/

UNRCCA, United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy

for Central Asia

http://unrcca.unmissions.org/

UNAMI, United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq

http://www.uniraq.org/

UNSCO, Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the

Middle East Peace Process

http://www.unsco.org/Default.asp

UNSCOL, Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for

Lebanon

http://unscol.unmissions.org/

Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Greece-FYROM talks

Every year the role of these organizations in the modern world increases, so we

can expect that in the future their activity will be the most important power that can

handle peace building all over the world.

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2. THE ROLE OF BLUE HELMETS IN HOT SPOTS

“Peacekeeping is one of the

most visible, difficult and critical

roles played by the United Nations.

It is also a role which only the UN

can play in a truly global sense.”

Ban Ki-moon.

Peacekeeping is one among a range of activities undertaken by the United

Nations and other international actors to maintain international peace and security

throughout the world. The people who serve in the peacekeeping troops are called

“peacekeepers” or “blue helmets” which consist the integral part of the peacekeepers’

uniform.

United Nations peacekeeping is a unique and dynamic instrument developed by

the Organization of United Nations as a way to help countries torn by conflict by

creating the conditions for the lasting peace. Peacekeeping has proven to be one of the

most effective tools available to the UN to assist host countries navigate the difficult

path from conflict to peaceful existence.

Over the years, peacekeeping has evolved from a primarily military model of

observing cease-fires and the separation of forces after inter-state wars, to incorporate

a complex model of many elements – military, police and civilian – working together

to help lay the foundations for sustainable peace.

UN Peacekeeping is guided by three basic principles:

Consent of the parties;

Impartiality;

Non-use of force except in self-defense and defense of the mandate.

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It’s true that the UN peacekeepers work only with the consent of the host

country. They are, by principle, impartial and are able to use force only by mandate or

in instances of self-defense. UN officials are quick to note that the peacekeepers are

there not to establish peace but to support an existing peace process.

United Nations Peacekeeping began in 1948 when the Security

Council authorized the deployment of UN military observers to the Middle East. The

mission's role was to monitor the Armistice Agreement between Israel and its Arab

neighbours – an operation which became known as the (UNTSO).

Since then, 66 peacekeeping operations have been deployed by the UN, 53 of

them since 1988. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of military personnel, as well

as tens of thousands of UN police and other civilians from more than 120

countries have participated in UN peacekeeping operations. More than 2,950 UN

peacekeepers have died while serving under the UN flag.

There are currently 16 active peacekeeping missions.

Africa

United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS)

United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA)

UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the

Congo (MONUSCO)

African Union-UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID)

UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI)

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UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL)

UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO)

Americas

UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)

Asia and the Pacific

UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT)

UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP)

UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) *

Europe

UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP)

UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)

Middle East

UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF)

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)

UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO)

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Today peacekeepers undertake a wide variety of complex tasks:

patrolling areas of recent violence,

facilitating of the political process,

clearing land mines,

protecting civilians,

helping to build sustainable institutions of governance,

human rights monitoring,

reforming of the security sector,

assisting in the disarmament,

demobilization and reintegration of former combatants,

helping refugees,

supporting free and fair elections etc.

“A number of peacekeeping operations are on the front line in the international

community’s attempt to combat organized crime in countries recovering from

conflict. Blue helmets have taken part in “gang-clearing” operations in Haiti, and

acted against human trafficking and financial crimes in Kosovo, drug trafficking in

Afghanistan, and the illicit arms trade in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

(DRC)”. UN Police Adviser Andrew Hughes.

UN peacekeeping has proved to be a versatile tool for deterring or reversing

inter-state conflict, ending civil wars, mitigating humanitarian crises, and extending

state authority in areas where state capacity is weak or contested.

Mediation and peacekeeping have contributed to an 80% decline in total armed

conflict since the end of the Cold War.

Nevertheless, the presence of the peacekeeping troops doesn’t obligatory implies

the success of the peacekeeping process. Nowadays the United Nations peacekeeping

operations face an extended and dangerous period of strategic uncertainty. A series of

setbacks have coincided with military overstretch and the financial crisis

raising the risk that UN peacekeeping may contract, despite high demand.

The Srebrenica massacre, in which more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and

boys were killed by ethnic Serb forces in July 1995, took place despite being inside a

UN-declared "safe area" and in the presence of 400 Dutch UN peacekeepers, who

failed to prevent the slaughter.

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A UN peacekeeping operation in Rwanda also failed to prevent the 1994

genocide there, in which an estimated 800,000 people died. Years later, Kofi Annan,

who at the time served as head of the UN peacekeeping forces before going on to

become secretary-general, expressed "bitter regret" over the experience.

Nick Birnback, chief of the Peacekeeping Affairs Unit in the Office of the

Under-Secretary General in the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations,

defends the UN's peacekeeping operations, saying the blue helmets are often put in

the unenviable position of being deployed only when all other options have been

exhausted.

"We are not the first response of the international community. We're usually the

last," he says. "We tend to be what gets sent when nothing else seems to be working.

So we're deployed into a situation when things are already really bad. It's not that we

start from zero, if you like. In some ways, we start from below zero."

The UN peacekeepers are, in a sense, the world's largest volunteer army. Some

115 countries currently provide soldiers and police personnel for peacekeeping

operations, with Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India making up the top three

contributors.

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If it is developing countries that provide the majority of the personnel,

developed countries cover much of the funding. The United States, which provides 27

percent of the UN's peacekeeping budget, is the single-largest contributor, followed

by Japan, Britain, Germany, and France.

Countries that provide personnel are compensated by the UN at an average of

$1,000 per month per peacekeeper. (The local governments themselves determine

peacekeepers' salaries.). Many national military units return from peacekeeping

missions experienced and better prepared.

At present, only a

handful of UN peacekeepers

are women. Secretary-General

Ban Ki-moon launched a

global effort to increase the

proportion of women in

peacekeeping operations to 20

percent by 2014.

Clare Hutchinson, the

gender affairs officer at the

department of peacekeeping

operations, says the presence of

women peacekeepers can, in certain countries, help the UN be more effective in its

work with the local population.

"In some cultures - look at Afghanistan or some other cultures - where men

can't connect with women or are not allowed to talk to women, it's important to have

women as peacekeepers, because they can engage the society [in ways] that men

can't," she says.

The UN's peacekeeping forces are the largest and most visible segment of the

world's body global presence. Their significance has dramatically increased in the last

decade and they're expected to take on even larger role in the next.

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For the further exploration of this topic, we encourage you to look through the

following links which can be useful in your research.

TAKING UNDER CONTROL SEPARATIST MOVEMENTS CLAIMING TO

SOVEREIGNTY FROM HOST GOVERNMENTS

http://www.un.org/en/peacebuilding/

Official UN website about peace building.

http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/undpa/

Official UN website of The Department of Political Affairs

http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/undpa/main/about/field_operations

List of current peace-building operations

http://www.un.org/wcm/webdav/site/undpa/shared/undpa/pdf/UN%20Political%20Mi

ssions%20January%202012.pdf

Fact Sheet on current UN Political and Peacebuilding Missions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separatism

General information about separatism

http://www.un.org/en/peacebuilding/

PBS, United Nations Peacebuilding commission

THE ROLE OF BLUE HELMETS IN HOT SPOTS

http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/

Official UN website dedicated to the issue of peacekeeping.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_peacekeeping

General information about peacekeeping.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39391&Cr=peacekeeping&Cr1

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An article of the UN News Centre about strengthening the UN peacekeeping

capacities.

http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/operations/current.shtml

Current peacekeeping operations

http://www.unis.unvienna.org/pdf/DPKO_factsheet_e.pdf

UN peacekeeping fact sheet

http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/resources/statistics/factsheet.shtml

UN peacekeeping statistics

http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/about/dpko/

Department of Peacekeeping operations

http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/specpk.htm

Peacekeeping documents