Committee Topics

1. The Human Rights Situation in Syria

After witnessing the uprisings in North Africa in spring 2011, Syria came into global focus as well. According to Human Rights Watch, Syria´s authorities were among the worst violators of Human Rights in recent time. The government may be guilty of crimes against humanity by jailing lawyers, torturing opponents, repressing minor ethnic groups and performing arbitrary detentions. Particularly during the 2011 Syrian uprising, depending on sources, up to 4500 persons were killed, and the conflict is still not solved.

In October 2011, the Security Council failed to adopt a resolution condemning human rights violations in Syria, due to a veto by Russia and China. However, the situation has not changed, the world is still witnessing Human Right violations in Syria. Therefore, the topic should not be taken off the agenda. A debate on how to deal with the Human Rights violations in the past and in the present in Syria needs to take place in the only international body that can make binding decisions. Furthermore, measurements need to be reviewed in order to build up a healthy future with Human Rights being obeyed and improved in Syria.

Are sanctions reasonable in the eye of the international community? In which way could regional and international actors put pressure on the Syrian regime? Is diplomacy the only true mean to solve every problem in the long-term?

For sustainable global peace and security, we are urged to investigate profoundly local and regional human rights violations and to come up with solutions that show that Human Rights do not only exist on paper.

2. Dealing with Passive Support of Terrorism by States

Long gone are the days, when the largest threats to global peace and security came from nation states. Acts of terrorism by non-state actors pose the largest threat to international peace. Terrorist organizations operate from especially from within those particular states, which often do not have the means or political will to eliminate them. The location of these groups within sovereign states also makes targeting them a problem under international law.

Terrorist groups generally cannot survive without either active or passive support from surrounding populations. In today’s world there are not many states that actively sponsor or finance terrorist groups.

Rarely paid attention to is the aspect of passive support of terrorism. It occurs if a state knowingly allows a terrorist group to raise money, enjoy a sanctuary, recruit, or otherwise flourish. Passive sponsorship of terrorism does not include a regime’s deliberate decision to provide assistance, however it involves situations where individuals are assisting terrorists without their government’s explicit permission. Usually the regime however choses not to stop this assistance, although it might be able to. Individuals offering passive support often are political parties, wealthy merchants, or other actors in society that have no formal affiliation with the government.

At the MUIMUN 2012 Security Council delegates will be expected to come with viable, implementable and sustainable solutions to this complex problem.

Sher Afghan Malik, Director

This is Sher Afghan Malik from Lahore, Pakistan. He is currently a law student with a Master in Public Administration. His motivation for muning stems from the fact that it allows an individual to view pressing global issues from different perspectives that people have from around the world. The MUNs that he has participated in Pakistan are LUMUN and won outstanding diplomacy award at BMUN. Internationally he has competed at Moscow international MUN and internationally he has won outstanding diplomacy awards at EuroMUN, MUIMUN and Harvard WorldMUN. He has served as chair of the WHO and the GA3rd Committee at MUIMUN and has chaired many times during simulations at his university.

Yike Guo, Vice Director

Yike Guo is currently reading Law in the 1st year at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Having lived in China and Austria, Yike spent his recent years in a town near Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He also visited as a participant of the Comenius European School Exchange Programme the Lycée les Lombards in Troyes, France, and Petrus-Canisius-College in Alkmaar, the Netherlands. His very first Model United Nations conference started in Stuttgart, Germany, at Model United Nations Baden-Württemberg (MUNBW). Fascinated by the atmosphere of passionate debate and serious willingness to change to world by arguing and agreeing, Yike then represented one of the Judges at the International Court of Justice at the Schüler-Planspiel United Nations (SPUN) in Bonn on another MUN conference. After that, Yike began his commitment in the organization team for the SPUN in 2012.
Yike is highly delighted that he was already able to have some MUN experiences, but only as a delegate. Now co-chairing the powerful and demanding sessions of the Security Council, Yike wish to be involved in a MUN conference with a view and perception from a different angle. Yike thinks, his motivation for being a part of lively diplomacy on a MUN conference cannot be described more precisely than a quotation from Jacob Bronowski: “The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation”.