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Study Guide United Nations Security Council Roots Youth Model United Nations 2012
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Topic I: State Sponsored Terrorism

Introduction
State sponsorship of terrorism, or state supported terrorism, is when governments provide supplies, training, and other forms of support to nonstate terrorist organizations. One of the most valuable types of this support is the provision of safe haven or physical basing for the terrorists' organization. 1 Another crucial service a state sponsor can provide is false documentation, not only for personal identification (passports, internal identification documents), but also for financial transactions and weapons purchases. Other means of support are access to training facilities and expertise not readily available to groups without extensive resources. Finally, the extension of diplomatic protections and services, such as immunity from extradition, diplomatic passports, use of embassies and other protected grounds, and diplomatic pouches to transport weapons or explosives have been significant to some groups. Broadly speaking, a state sponsor of terrorism is typically a country that uses terrorist groups as a kind of proxy for actions or policies it does not want to leave its fingerprints on. And typically, the definition of a state sponsor of terrorism is a country that uses surrogates as its weapon to attack other people.2 The United States issues an annual list of groups and countries it deems to be state sponsors of terror. Currently, six countries are on that list: Cuba, Iran, North Korean, Syria, Libya and Sudan. Iraq was on the list, but was dropped from the list after the U.S.led coalition toppled Saddam Hussein. North Korea was also taken off of the list this year.

Background
The question of terrorism has been on the United Nations agenda since the 1960s when the spread of aircraft hijacking incidents drove states to draft conventions on international terrorism. In 1972 the General Assembly decided to establish an Ad Hoc Committee on International Terrorism which held its sessions in 1973, 1977 and 1979 and reported to the General Assembly. 4 The Committee adopted a subject matter approach to the terrorist acts in its work because agreement seemed to be impossible to be reached on a comprehensive definition of international terrorism. The major Western powers sought to limit terrorism to individual and small group attacks, excluding police and military operation of states, irrespective of their legitimacy. Other states, especially the nonaligned states wished to include terroracts of states, illegitimate state conduct and state sponsored violent activities, especially that of the armed forces, and sought to establish individual responsibility of the agents of states for the acts. Between 1963 and 2002 the United Nations and the Specialized Agencies, such as the International Civil Aviation Organization,5 the International Maritime Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency drafted several conventions to address terrorist attacks upon civil aviation, civil maritime navigation and sea based platforms, upon persons, including hostages, diplomats, UN personnel and other internationally protected persons, as well as to fight the financing of terrorism and the use of bombing and explosive devices against civilian installations and persons.6

1 Terrorism 2 Terrorism

Research. http://www.terrorismresearch.com/state/ Research. http://www.terrorismresearch.com/state/ 3 State Departmant. State Sponsors of Terrorism. http://www.state.gov/s/ct/c14151.htm 4 United Nations. Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism. http://www.un.org/law/terrorism/index.html

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Civil Aviation Organization. http://www.icao.int/icao/en/search_icao.html

Recent UN Actions
In 1996 the General Assembly, in resolution 51/210 of 17 December, decided to establish an Ad Hoc Committee to elaborate an international convention for the suppression of terrorist bombings and, subsequently, an international convention for the suppression of acts of nuclear terrorism, in order to supplement related existing international instruments, and thereafter to address means of further developing a comprehensive legal framework of conventions dealing with international terrorism.7 This mandate continued to be renewed and revised on an annual basis by the General Assembly. The General Assembly adopted two conventions on international terrorism which were elaborated by the Ad Hoc Committee, that is the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, adopted on 15 December 1997 and the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, adopted on 9 December 1999.8 The International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings creates a regime of universal jurisdiction over the unlawful and intentional use of explosives and other lethal devices in, into, or against various defined public places with intent to kill or cause serious bodily injury, or with intent to cause extensive destruction of the public place. The International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism requires parties to take steps to prevent and counteract the financing of terrorists, whether direct or indirect, though groups claiming to have charitable, social or cultural goals or which also engage in such illicit activities as drug trafficking or gun running. It also obliges states to hold those who finance terrorism criminally, civilly or administratively liable for such acts, as well as to identify, freeze and seize funds allocated for terrorist activities. Bank secrecy is no longer be justification for refusing to cooperate. In its Resolution 55/158, adopted on 12 December 2000, the General Assembly requested the Ad Hoc Committee to continue to elaborate a comprehensive convention on international terrorism and continue its efforts to resolve the outstanding issues relating to the elaboration of a draft international convention for the suppression of acts of nuclear terrorism, and keep on its agenda the question of convening a highlevel conference under the auspices of the United Nations to formulate a joint organized response of the international community to terrorism.9 Currently, the Member States are still negotiating the draft Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) on the basis of the text submitted by India in 1996 and the draft International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. The aim of the CCIT is to take effective measures against acts of terrorism and to ensure that perpetrators of terrorist acts will be prosecuted and punished. According to the draft convention, it is an offence to cause unlawful and intentional death or serious bodily injury, serious damage to public or private property or damage to such property which results or likely to result in major economic loss, if the purpose of the conduct is to intimidate a population or compel a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act. The Security Council in Resolution 579 (1985) condemned all acts of hostagetaking and kidnapping.10 In Resolution 731 (1992) the Security Council, held that acts of international terrorism constituted threat to international peace and security, 11 which was later repeated by resolution 1269.12 After the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the Security Council condemned terrorism in several resolutions (resolutions 1368,13 1373,14 1377,15 and 139016), calling it one of the most serious threats to international peace and security. 17
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Atomic Energy Agency. http://www.iaea.org/ General Assembly Resolution 51/210. http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/51/a51r210.htm 8 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism. http://www.un.org/law/cod/finterr.htm.
7 UN.

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9 United 10 UN

Nations. General Assembly Resolution 55/158. http://www.issafrica.org/cdterro/english/eresA55158.pdf Security Council Resolution 579. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1079/is_/ai_4150072 11 UN Security Council Resolution 731 http://www.terrorismcentral.com/Library/NGOs/UnitedNations/SecurityCouncilRes/UN731.html 12UNSCR 1269 http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N99/303/92/PDF/N9930392.pdf?OpenElement

Committee Directive for Topic 1

In this topic, the debate about combating terrorism versus respect for national sovereignty will be paramount. Delegates will need to have a comprehensive understanding of their particular countrys experience with terrorism. While most governments will condemn acts of terror in official statements, ideas of what constitutes terrorism differ. What does your State consider to constitute terrorism? Are there countries on the United States list that your government does not believe sponsor terrorism? Has your government ever been accused of sponsoring terrorism? Has your country been the target of a terror attack? How strongly does your government typically defend national sovereignty? These questions will provide a starting point to gaining some insight into your countrys point of view on this topic.
13 UNSCR 14 UNSCR

1368. http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/SC7143.doc.htm 1373. http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/sc7158.doc.htm 15 UNSCR 1377. http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N01/633/01/PDF/N0163301.pdf?OpenElement 16 UNSCR 1390. http://www.fatfgafi.org/dataoecd/44/13/34346121.pdf 17 State Department. Overview of state sponsors of terror. http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2005/64337.htm

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Topic II: Combating global conflict-based sexual violence

Wartime sexual violence is one of historys greatest silences. It results in devastating Situations for individuals, families and communities who must cope with unwanted pregnancies and children, stigmatization and rejection, diseases and reproductive health issues, psychological trauma, and disintegration of the social fabric.
United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women)

Introduction
The report S/2012/33 of January 2012 from the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the United Nations Security Council shows, despite huge efforts made in previous years, Particularly referring to Security Council resolutions S/RES/1960 (2010), S/RES/1888 (2009) and S/RES/1820 (2008), in the examined period from December 2010 to November 2011, the situation of the global conflict-based sexual violence is still highly alarming. All three of the Security Council resolutions S/RES/1960 (2010), S/RES/1888 2009) and S/RES/1820 (2008) were adopted unanimously. Notably vulnerable to sexual violence, that includes according to the agreed U.N. Working definition rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitutions, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity against women, men and children, are regions undergoing armed conflict and post-conflict regions where governments tend to be weak and legal security and prosecutions are hardly provided. Perpetrators predominately males , affiliated with both state and non-state groups, armed and unarmed, exercise sexual violence as a mean of terror to punish, humiliate people and to destruct civil order and stability, and hence jeopardizing regional and International security and peace. Victims are both women and men. In several cases, men were subject to police torture, beatings, sexual violence and raped in prisons and places of detention, while women were often abducted from their homes, from public areas, raped and murdered in unknown places. The phenomenon of conflict-related sexual violence is of complex nature and widespread over continents, cultures and beyond. Explicitly named in the report are countries like Colombia, Cte dIvoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, which are currently overshadowed with wars or war-like status. Central African Republic, Chad, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste, Egypt, Guinea, Kenya and Syrian Arab Republic, the post-conflict countries or regions of political and social unrest, are also involved with sexual violence of different extend against citizens and thus committed lementary human dignity defiance and heavy human rights violations.

Background
Sexual violence has been assessed as a by-product of war. Extremely unfortunately, it was frequently considered to be an occurrence which, seen relative to casualties of war, was bearable. In the context of Roots Youth Model United Nations 2012

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conflicts, sexual violence has been instrumental zed. While there has been a noticeable decline in the number of armed conflicts and battle deaths in recent decades, the magnitude of sexual violence increased steadily. Sexual Violence becomes a strategic weapon of war. For one reason, it is basically cost efficient. Combatants do not need to perform professionally and do not need trainings to learn how to handle a firearm or to survive in a battle. Besides, warlords discovered the huge potential of sexual violence as such to harm individuals as well as bringing unimaginable sorrow to communities. The pre-eminent mean of sexual violence is rape, while other forms as sexual slavery, forced prostitutions, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization are less wide-spread, but brutal alike. Since the 1990s, during the Rwandan genocide, between 250,000 and 500,000 women are believed to have been raped; then at least 50,000 Sierra Leonean women are thought to have been victims of sexual violence; in Bosnia and Herzegovina, estimated from 20,000 to 50,000 women were raped at the peak time of the conflict with Serbia. In spite of the fact that the Security Council acknowledged the urgency of protecting women and girls from gender-based violence in terms of maintaining international peace and security by adopting the resolution S/RES/1325 (2000), war rape remains to demonstrate high strategic value, and hence common practice. In recent years, according to Amnesty International reports, despite of positive development made by the government, sexual violence is still exercised particularly against indigenous and minority groups by paramilitary forces even in relatively stable countries like Colombia. An additional challenge is nature disaster. The insecurity of the situation particularly powerless administrative and judicial organs which need to be rebuilt first has also led to sexual violence against women and girls for example in Haitian camps after the earthquake in January 2010. In latest developments, it is observed that sexual violence was executed by both state and nonstate actor, which means both military forces and civilians. Statistical reports to collect the crime and sexual violence victims data are remarkably inadequate since in reality figures are normally higher than officially registered. Reasons explaining high difficulties to prosecute the perpetrators are anonymity of the perpetrators, trivialization of sexual violence as a by-product of war, socialinferior position of women commonly perceived in conflict areas and shame and humiliation of victims that prevents officially reporting the crime, amongst others. Even in regions where no wars are fought, women submit to sexual abuse in order to obtain food and other basic life necessities. Sexual violence was attributed to a typical male behavior. In psychological view, derived from sexual pleasure, after heated fighting, it was believed that men were driven to extort sexual pleasure from rape. As a result, soldiers were provided a reward for successfully undertaken military tasks. Moreover, sexual violence in conflict displays meaningful symbolism of superiority. With regard to traditional gender stereotypes, women are the major victims of war, although male victims of conflict-related sexual violence do exist, too. For instance, 10% of victims in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were male. Experts agree on the fact that in particular due to womens gender -related position in society and the female body anatomy, women become more easily victim of sexual violence than men. Hence, it can be concluded that not only wars are responsible for sexual violence against women, but also the society as a whole has great impact and duty to protect the vulnerable and achieve gender justice. Roots Youth Model United Nations 2012

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The classification of war rape as an instrumental tool in war derives from some simple anthropologic ideas. To start with, rape causes far-reaching physical harm which can be not only long-lasting but also redistributive: in case of HIV-infection. Rape thus can be a sustainable mortal weapon targeted at successive generations. Then, rape as a war strategic weapon is hugely efficient in order to terrorize, intimidate, demoralize and weaken the enemy side, without spending money and energy on acquiring conventional weapons or bombs. Dishonor, social marginalization, heavy discrimination and every further thinkable negative experience are those that victims of sexual violence will be face as consequence in the community and society. A further, unusual motive of rape in the context of conflicts detected recently is ethnic cleansing Forced impregnations lead perpetrators genetic material passes on to the child the victim will bear causing not only a social drift between successive generations and destructive physical and psychological harm, but also the strategic use of rape that may accommodate claims for territorial acquisition. Generally, sexual violence victims suffer from evident physical ailments. Undesired pregnancies and the act of sexual violence often last as trauma for a life time. In few cases, victims are reported also to be killed directly by the perpetrator.

Outlook
The key responsibilities of the Security Council should contain, inter alia - immediate and updated mechanisms to cease acts of global sexual violence and hence maintain or restore international peace and security under Article 39 of the Charter of the United Nations; - improvements of medical, psychosocial, legal and further services for survivors as well as successful integration to the quotidian life; - further consolidations of the rule of law and the capacity of civilian and military justice systems to address sexual violence as urged in the Security Council resolution S/RES/1888 (2009); - and in particular bringing perpetrators to justice, since the Council is among the very few institutions that is eligible to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court, in accordance with Article 13 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Some core actions and considerations by the Security Council can be, inter alia - strengthening the cooperation with other UN bodies such as the Human Rights Council; - discussions on a stronger global information and monitoring systems to prevent conflict-related sexual violence from happening; - stressing the rule of law as an indispensable tool to maintain and restore global peace and security as outlined in the Presidential Statement of the Security Council S/PRST/2012/1 of 19 January 2012. to actively combat global conflict-based sexual violence, the Security Council as one of the most influential bodies of the international community shall express its deep concern and articulate its latest solutions.

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