UN Security Council (UNSC)
Topic 1: Children and Armed Conflict
Description: In 2018, UNSCR 2427 created a framework to mainstream protection, rights, well-being and empower children throughout conflict. This resolution has done much in the meantime, yet the rights of Children are still consistently damaged in conflict, creating a cycle of violence in future generations. The UNSC should consider doing more to protect children, building off this framework and producing a more just and equal world for Children to live in, withdrawing them from any future conflicts as must as possible.
Topic 2: The Situation in Cameroon
Description: Also known as the Anglophone Crisis or by some having spilled over into a civil war, Cameroon continues to struggle with issues brought up with its Colonial foundation. Starting as a smaller insurgency Anglophone territories had over the larger French territories, it became a full-scale war in 2019. The 2020 elections did not help, and limited mediating talks have helped. Ambazonia, a name for the Northwest region linked to much of the Anglophone issues, has also struggled internally, adding to the crisis. Whilst negotiations have begun, the UNSC should do all it can to help support the peace process, and further the “enabling environment” that has begun to occur.
Topic 3: The Situation in Democratic Republic of the Congo
Description: Despite the end of the first and second Congo War in the early 2000s, low level conflict has continued to proliferate, especially in the densely forested east. The United Nations continues to operate its MONUSCO operation (currently extended to the 20th of December 2021), and continues to hold a sanctions regime on the country. With a key handover of power imperfectly issues, what can the UNSC do more to improve the reliance of the country to instability, and help the continual health threats from Ebola that permeate through the Congo basin.
Topic 4: The Situation in Libya
Description: It was only in this year in March that the first Government of National Unity was negotiated, bringing a glimmer of stability and hope in the 10 years since the 2011 revolt. Nevertheless, upcoming elections, conferences in Berlin have shown that there is a way forward for this conflict and a way forward. What the UNSC must do now is help solidify these advances and bring the country into relative stability, enforce the arms embargo, and bring a better future for Libya’s people.
Topic 5: Security Sector Reform
Description: Security is a right and responsibility for all governments and people worldwide. However, when the security sector fails, or loses trust with the people they secure, it can have disastrous impacts for its people. Based upon UNSCR 2151 on reform assistance to the security sector, the UNSC should build up on this resolution and propose new methods to create better approaches to undertake such reform.In this UN peacekeeping operations are key, with many undertaking SSR as a part of their mandate, and as such it is important we look at the role of these operations in reform and how we can improve them too.
Topic 6: The Situation in Yemen
Description: Since January 2011, the Yemeni people have suffered devastating crises year after year. With food security the lowest worldwide, and terrorism rife, both state-backed and not, it is a key failure of the UNSC to help resolve this crisis. As a proxy war between powerful states, it lies on the UNSC to create the environment for which peace can blossom, and health can be restored. Already in Yemen the world’s worst cholera epidemic has torn through the country, and over 80% of the population has been displaced. With the United States now formally backing an end to American support to the Saudi efforts, perhaps a brighter future is ahead, although there are still considerable differences to be overcome by the Houthis, Hadi-led Government, and Southern Transitional council.
Topic 7: The Situation in Myanmar
Description: Myanmar has been in a troubled situation since the Military replaced the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. This situation, politically dividing the UNSC, has led to thousands of detainees and hundreds of deaths in the streets. More widely, since 1995 there has been consistent conflict across the country, and as highlighted by the Rohingya Genocide in the Rakhine, this has far worse impacts on the people that live in the country. The international community is deeply torn over the response to the coup and the situation within the country right now. The UNSC must find a way to bridge this gap, and help bring some relief to the country and its people.
Topic 8: The Situation in Somalia
Description: As the location of one of the UNs most disastrous UN missions, UNISOM I, Somalia has continued to be an incredibly fragile state. Al-Shabaab continues to wreak havoc within the country, often posing a direct threat to the capital Mogadishu, yet the country is doing well to create a semblance of stability. It is vital that the UNSC continue to support this stability and the fight against terrorism. Through impressive international will, pirating off the horn of Africa was nearly wiped out, and whilst it is far harder to get this will on land, there must be stronger efforts to support the government, democratic values, and the people in this situation.
Topic 9: The Situation in Sudan
Description: Since Omar Al-Bashir was overthrown, Sudan has gone through a tense political and economic change between the transitional government and its people. The UN is pleased to see cooperation with the International criminal court, but the UNSC could do more to help end the war in Darfur, and support the comprehensive peace agreement signed in August 2020 between the Sudanese authorities and rebel factions. Sudan remains an economically crippled country, and the UNSC has a responsibility to help the people in what has been a less bloody change of power than in other parts of the world.
Topic 10: The Situation in Afghanistan
Description: With the US and allies leaving Afghanistan after over 20 years of military intervention, the question now becomes how the Afghan government can retain control and legitimacy in the country. It still suffers from many of the ailing issues that first led the Taliban to take over, and threatens to do so again. The UNSC must take stock of this withdrawal, how it changes the country, and what can be done to maintain peace and security for the people of Afghanistan, used to far too much war and suffering.
Topic 11: Sustainable Development, Climate Change, and Security
Description: In 2021 the UNSC held its first debate on climate change and its effects on security. Whilst this discussion was the first, it should not be the last, as the links between sustainable development, climange, and security are rife, as the former two continue to exacerbate conflicts globally, and threaten worse natural disasters worldwide. Much can be done to continue to push the understanding of Security from this perspective, and it is worth exploring different UNSC mandated approaches to lay the framework for tackling the issue from a security perspective.
Topic 12: The Situation in Ethiopia
Description: Once hailed as a country with the wind of change in its tails, Ethiopia has instead reverted to a state of ethnic violence in its northern parts, with further tensions across the whole country. WIth a huge population, any effects on its people exacerbate tensions, and the country is also facing a possible impending famine, the scale of which we have not seen for decades. The UNSC must urgently act to restore peace in the area, and also safeguard its people in case of further food security issues and ethnic tension.
Topic 13: Israel / Palestine
Description: The recent uptick in violence between the Gaza Strip, Israel, and the Occupied West Bank, is symptomatic of one of the world’s most complicated and deep-rooted conflicts. With a new Israeli government, and upcoming palestian elections, it lies to the UNSC to discuss and deliberate on ways we can continue the cease-fire between the areas across Israel and Palestine, and ultimately find a solution that can see the amelioration of rights in the area for the arab population, whilst retaining a home for the Jewish people.
Topic 14: Women, Peace and Security
Description: UNSC Resolution 1325 was a landmark resolution in our approach to Women, Peace, and Security. It helped to develop coordination on the participation of women in peace and security efforts across the UN, and also helped to spread the concept of feminist foreign policy, now adopted by several UN member states. However, our efforts to promote women in peace and security must never stop, and it lies to the UNSC to continue these landmark efforts to promote both the inclusion and protection of women in conflict resolution and in conflict proper.
Topic 15: The Situation in Syria
Description: Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, the Syrian Civil War has been one of the most violent and complicated armed conflicts facing the UNSC in recent memory. With Syrian leader Bashal al-Assad remaining in power, and a complex system of linked alliances, the conflict is far from over, yet the UNSC can and must take action to reduce the fighting and push forward with the Geneva peace talks. These talks, led by the US, have gained some ground, and the Syrian Constitutional Committee continues to negotiate a new constitution, but a lot remains to be solved, and international agreement is vital in securing any peace that results.
