Below can be found the topics for each committee. More information on how to prepare for the debates can be found in Preparation.
Tensions are once again rising in the East. The three independent Baltic States – Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia – speak of an increasing number of cyber-attacks carried out against their ministries, banks, military, and key national industry from – whom they presume to be – Russian hackers. Russia strictly denies any involvement in these attacks claiming that it has no reason and intention to harass its European neighbors. This may be true, but Russia is suspected of having carried out many similar attacks in the past such as the 2007 cyber-attacks on Estonia. Moreover, the Baltic governments report that on numerous occasions, Russian fighter jets have flown in the Baltic Sea area into Estonian and Lithuanian airspace. The Baltic states assert that Russia's military activity in the region is at its highest since the end of the Cold War. Many Baltic state officials fear that Russia is simply testing as to how the West will react to its acts of aggression, and, that these acts of aggression may intensify should the West turn a blind eye.
Following the unthinkable Russian annexation of Crimea and speculated involvement in the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, many say it is unpredictable as to how the situation in the Baltics could escalate. Some say that Russia is simply “checking out” the military readiness of the Baltic and NATO military forces in the region as it has done many times in past, others are of the opinion that Russia may be pursuing its imperialistic goals to expand its territory as it has continually done over the past century. In the light of recent events in the Baltic region, the government of Estonia has decided to summit the Security Council to discuss the current tensions and to prevent any further escalation.
In the past two decades, the Internet has changed the world. It continues to completely revolutionize civic society and it has evolved into a major force driving revolutions globally. Citizen journalism has become a quick and reliable source of information and it has brought significant changes to how politics is done all over the world. But the Internet also poses a threat: it allows easier communication for criminal organizations such as Al-Qaida and its anonymity makes cyber-crime virtually unpunishable. The global community is now tasked with the issue of protecting democratic discourse online, while also ensuring the enforceability of the law.
There is something different in the current generation of modern technology that humanity has never experienced before - no matter how poor a country is, IT is sure to penetrate it quickly. While Africa is still struggling with creating a continent-wide railroad system, mobile telephones and broadband Internet are already becoming an everyday reality in even some of the least-developed regions. But there is also a very significant downside to this technological advancement: more and more workplaces are lost to automatization. How should countries and their work markets adapt to this change? This topic will bring a debate about education, worker qualifications, and social inclusion.
There is a consensus between scientists today that CO2 emissions, produced by humans, cause global warming which is affecting the entire planet. The Kyoto Protocol, by which most countries committed themselves to keeping the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere on a steady level in the long-term perspective, was signed in 1997, and it was the first important step in lowering greenhouse gas emissions. In 2005, the first major scale emission trading system was implemented in the EU and since then, similar systems have begun in many first world countries. However, despite these efforts, the amount of carbon dioxide produced per year is still increasing, especially in the developing countries. Should a worldwide system of emissions trading be implemented? Could the already existing systems, such as the EU carbon offsetting scheme, be an example? The decreasing price of the renewable sources of energy offers more possibilities for the developing countries to lower their CO2 emissions as well. And how can we support the usage of renewable sources of energy in those countries?
It is estimated today that approximately 50 % of the world population lives in cities and the urbanization rate is still strong, especially in developing regions. Larger cities also create over 70% of the world’s CO2 output. But cities are not only the perpetrators of climate change - they may also be the secret of how to bring our effects on the climate down. Sustainable city planning should create an environment that is friendly and comfortable towards its inhabitants, but also both environmentally and economically conscious. Public transport initiatives, the integration of nature into cities, promoting sustainable buildings, taking good care of the cities’ waste - these are all measures necessary for creating a modern city for the 21st century. All of these initiatives should also be promoted as a cure to the startling 50% of cities globally that have reportedly been affected by climate change conditions such as rising sea levels for coastal cities, air pollution in heavily industrialized urban areas, or insufficient availability of safe drinking water in poorer, dryer areas. The PORGMUN Sustainable Development Committee will discuss the challenge of integrating social, economical, environmental and governance issues in global megacities - a question that has only recently begun to grow in importance in the UN.
The amount of donations to poor countries reached its all-time high in 2013. Official Development Assistance (ODA), a major poverty-tackling scheme, funded countries with $134.8 billion and private flows added as much as $307 billion. Those statistics may seem optimistic, however, not only the quantity of aid matters. The global community needs to focus also on the effectiveness of aid and it must be ensured that the funds are used where the money is needed the most. The risk of corruption is high, especially in the often unstable government systems of developing countries. For example, Afghanistan is, according to Transparency International, one of the countries where corruption is most widespread and yet it dominates the list of countries by international aid received with more than $6700 million. Furthermore, there is a worrying trend of the decline in aid to the least developed countries, particularly to those in sub-Saharan Africa. How can the efficiency of ODA be guaranteed? And how can we prevent countries from becoming dependent on the loans, but rather ensure they support their domestic economies and local markets?
When the Western world talks about reaching economic growth, the principle question is how to make the best investments. In some of the developing countries, the answer to where to invest may be relatively clear - but there is no wealth to be invested. These economies are often waiting for a jumpstart to set them on a path towards sustained economic growth. Especially investments into basic transport infrastructure, irrigation, agricultural technology, and public health are needed to counter many geographical obstacles - typically, the poorest countries are tropical, landlocked, and carry significant disease burden. Official Development Aid (ODA) plays an important role in helping the least developed countries to start heading towards prosperity, which will not only benefit themselves, but also the global economy as a whole.
According to 1992 statistics, 47 % of women in Africa had been married before they reached 15 years of age and 53 % even gave birth before 18. The changes since then have been overwhelmingly positive, but the issue is far from being resolved and neither is it limited to only Africa. Not only are the marriages and pregnancies not a matter of free choice for these women, but they often prevent them from having a fulfilled life. There is also an economic factor to the issue; reducing unwanted pregnancies would open the way for the education of women and to unlocking their economic potential. Moreover, the fewer children would have better prospects for the future.
Throughout the history of human conflict, women have often faced perilous conditions. Contemporary age has barely seen any improvements; as much as 90% of victims of today’s conflicts are civilians, who are, more often than not, women and children. These groups are also the first to be affected by the breakdown of infrastructure and of security services. Under these conditions, women often become sexual victims, are forced into prostitution to support their families, or are otherwise extorted. Sadly, the matters often pertain even in the period of peace and they require active participation of the international community, which is so far mostly insufficient. This is proven by the terribly low participation of women on drafting peace agreements and the subsequent ignorance for needs of women in such agreements. The Gender Equality committee will address this issue and will try to establish women’s rights as one of the principal concerns in protecting victims of war.
“No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.” is written in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948. And yet, more than 65 years later, there are estimated to be 21 million victims of modern forms of slavery (ILO), 168 million child laborers (ILO), and millions of others struggling for survival because of their employers’ ignorance of laws about overtime hours and the minimum wage. People employed in what is called “sweatshops” are forced to work at least, but often more than 12 hours a day in an often dangerous environment for disproportionally low pay. In order to feed themselves, families often have to send even their children to work, which of course prevents youngsters from being educated. With no money left to be saved there is no way for the workers to escape the poverty trap and when an unexpected incident occurs, they are forced to borrow money from their employers, which further intensifies their dependence on them. Possible ways of preventing slavery-like practices, improving working conditions, eliminating child labour, enforcing workers’ rights, and supporting countries in their struggle to find a way out of poverty, especially in the least developed countries, will be discussed in this committee.
Professing and practicing religion is one of the fundamental human rights that everyone should be able to embrace and use. On December 18th, 1992, the General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities which states: “Persons belonging to minorities have the right to participate effectively in cultural, religious, social, and economic life.” According to international laws, all minorities have the right to participate in decision-making that concerns them. It is the obligation of every member state to provide them with protection and a guarantee of safety. Yet, these freedoms and commitments are not globally applied. According to United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC), religious minorities all over the world face different forms of discrimination; from not being able to find a job, through destroying their property, to having been denied the right to marry. However, in many regions, the hatred towards religious minorities has become a very violent affair. Some of the most well-known examples are the violence of Boko Haram in Nigeria towards Christians, or the massacres of Kurds by the Islamic State in Syria. How can the international community help protect the practitioners of religion? The Human Rights Committee will take up the difficult task of coming up with a complex set of measures to reduce the rampant violence and discrimination against religious minorities.
The increasing use of private military and security companies (PMSCs) by both governments and private organizations has stirred up emotions and initiated calls for further legal documents to build upon the already established conventions regulating PMSCs. Many countries are hiring PMSCs to operate on their behalf on peacekeeping missions , as it is often financially more viable than the specialized training for their own troops. Several highly developed countries started using PMSCs on their own territory recently in order to supplement their police forces and to act as specialized units. As a reaction to the increasing threat to its personnel, the UN itself hires PMSCs for protection in dangerous areas, since the local police forces are often incapable of the task.
The absence of extensive guidelines and international legislation, however, makes the PMSCs a possible threat. The recent scandals of misuse of private military personnel have shown how little has yet been done in ensuring that these companies follow international legislation concerning armed forces. The GA has called for further debate on this topic, as reports of private armies carrying out illegal operations and severely violating basic human rights spread.
After their development during the last days of WWII, nuclear weapons quickly became a symbol of power, yielding their owner the potential to wipe out entire cities with a single bomb. The nuclear arms race between the USA and USSR began the era of stockpiling vast amounts of active nuclear warheads. In 1962, the conflict nearly escalated during the Cuban Missile Crisis, causing massive hysteria and popularization of disarmament movements, thanks to which the Non-Proliferation Treaty came into effect in 1970. Up to this date, the NPT has been ratified by 189 UN member states, with 5 non-signatory states.
Nevertheless, the treaty has been widely criticized for its ineffectiveness in persuading governments to actively reduce their nuclear arsenal. The danger of a malfunction, or active usage of nuclear warheads in conflicts grows as the signatory states fail to fully comply to the treaty. Moreover, out of the 5 non-signatory states, with no obligation towards the global community not to use them, 4 are believed to posses active warheads. An active approach has to be taken in order to promote a safer environment for the human race.
The Green Revolution of India that started in the 1960’s was proof to the entire world how the application of modern agricultural technology in the developing world could greatly improve the living conditions of hundreds of millions of people with minimum costs. In India, the recipe for improving self-sufficiency in food consisted of introducing high-yielding varieties (HYV) of seeds, improving irrigation technology, using pesticides and insecticides, using chemical fertilizers and many other measures.
Since the 1960’s, however, there has been an enormous development. The human population has doubled and still continues to grow at an astonishing rate. Due to changing environmental conditions, many of which are human-caused, food sustainability in many places is more threatened than ever. The change in monsoon seasons that we are witnessing is bringing the alternation of floods with dry years, which is a disaster for food production. Luckily, our technology has also evolved in the past 50 years. New strands of GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) rice can survive being submerged in water for several days and new crops have higher drought tolerance. Could these new developments mitigate the worsening conditions in the developing world?
Research and Development is a critical part of healthcare since human medicine must evolve fast to keep up with the ever evolving threats to health. Sadly, in the developing world, humans cannot keep up with the most recent trends, but more critically, they are even unable to address some of the long-standing issues. Even relatively simple technologies, such as portable electronic malaria testing devices, can mean an enormous difference for people in some of the regions with the highest disease burden. Sadly, despite their overwhelming positive effects on health, these technologies are not in the focus of major pharmaceutical companies. The reason is simple – there is no profit to be gained. While the USA spends 8 000 dollars per capita per annum on public healthcare, some of the poorest countries have less than 50 dollars p.c. p. a. for dealing with incomparably worse health conditions. The Ebola virus, which as of now has existed for decades without having been noticed by the pharmaceutical industry, is proof that a terrifying, lethal disease can persist in Africa without having been addressed.
There is much to gain, however, from improving health conditions in the developing world. To economists worldwide, it is obvious that the benefits of the increased productiveness of a healthy population in Africa would greatly exceed the costs of improving the health. The debates in the committee will show the willingness of member states to participate in this effort that the entire world can benefit from.
According to the UN’s World Population Ageing Report 2013, there are currently more than 800 million elderly people in the world. This number has quadrupled in the past 50 years and is expected to reach 2 billion by 2050. While this is partly great news that is evidence of the rise in life expectancy that the entire world is experiencing, it also brings many concerns. Health expenditures for persons over 60 have gone through the roof and no developed country is ready to face the huge increase of healthcare spending – USA, for example, already now devotes approximately 18% of its budget to public health.
A part of finding a solution to this issue is increasing productivity and participation of people of old age. This can contribute majorly to the quality of life of seniors as well as benefit society. The experience of older people is very valuable and they should not be isolated from other age groups. The increasing retirement age, however, must be accompanied by other measures that will help seniors feel like an important group of citizens.
In 1990, the General Assembly proclaimed the 11 Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners. These principles are largely based on the most basic human rights and yet they are not respected in many countries across the globe. Even some of the democratic states that put high value on human rights fail to protect them in the case of prisoners. This is infamously common in war – one example is the brutal physical and sexual abuse, including torture, in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003. Sadly, this often happens also in time of peace. Prisoners are denied healthcare, are forced to stay in poor hygienic conditions, are not allowed to practice their religion or culture, and even face abuse from staff. This mistreatment further lowers the chance of inmates to reform and to become integrated into society after being set free. The improved treatment of prisoners is essential for fighting crime, yet penal systems often face budget cuts and low interest of general public. The committee will try to improve upon the 11 principles and ameliorate the conditions of prisoners globally.