Kerem REPRESENTATIVE OF UNSG ULCAY I/ Background information on United Nations “United Nations” as a term, was first used in 1942 by Franklin D. Roosevelt, when 26 nations in a war against the Axis Powers signed a declaration. After the WW2, on 1945, United Nations was officially founded. Before the United Nations, there was the League of Nations which couldn’t prevent World War 2 and failed to succeed in its purpose of establishment, which was "to promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security." United Nations’ aim is actually very similar to League of Nations’ aim. The Secretary General is basically the leader of United Nations. Secretary Generals get recommended by the Security Council, and get appointed in the General Assembly. In 2006, Ban Ki-‐moon (current Secretary General, former foreign minister of South Korea) announced his cadency. During the process of campaign, he managed to meet with 15 member states in the Security Council and managed to avoid getting vetoed. At the end, he was supported by all 15 members of the Security Council and got appointed by the General Assembly in 13 October 2006 as the Secretary General of the United Nations. Before being Secretary General, during his duty of being the foreign minister of South Korea, Ban Ki-‐moon worked very hard to contribute to the Multi-‐National Force – Iraq (MNF–I) and managed an army of 8,000 people, named Zaytun Division to go into Iraq in order to secure and reconstruct Erbil. The army mostly consisted of engineers and military medics. Zaytun Division stayed in Iraqi Kurdistan between September 2004 and October 2008. In 22 March 2007, a mortar attack hit just 80 meters away from Ban Ki-‐moon who was giving a speech in a press conference in Green Zone of Baghdad (capital city of the Iraq) but this hasn’t changed anything in United Nations intentions of doing more for Iraq’s development in political and social aspects. In 2012, Ban Ki-‐moon stated his point of view on Arab world as "Many countries in the Arab world including Saudi Arabia are changing. Since the Arab Spring, the leaders have begun to listen to the voice of their people." United Nations Security Council intervened in Iraq in March 2003. USA, who showed reasons of the operation as not cooperating with UN inspectors, not meeting the needs of 17 resolutions, and not disarming even though a resolution, which was passed months ago, stated them to do so. USA got supported mainly by UK, whereas other members saw invasion as not a solution. Invasion started to end in 2008 when MNF-‐I supporters started withdrawing their military forces from Iraq. II/ Past achievements of United Nations on the issues A/ Combating political instability and sectarian violence in Iraq United Nations is currently helping Yazidis (a Kurdish ethno-‐religious community with a population of approximately 650,000 people in Iraq) and many other ethnic minorities via World Food Program and World Health Organization since 2003. The UN has also made financial support to countries that take refugees from countries including Iraq. Refugees were mostly Yazidis and Shia sect members leaving their lands because of the acts of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. B/ Formulating countermeasures to prevent illicit arms trade in Iraq Iraq is the only country that can produce its own ammunition industrially amongst other countries that illicit arms trade is very common like Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan. The history of this production goes to 1932, but production increased massively in Iraq’s lands due to the arms embargo from UNSG between 1990 and 2004. The Iraqi Government’s representative Mr. Al Jumialy expressed his supported to the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty Conference and Iraq was in favor for the treaty related resolution in General Assembly. C/ Ensuring the rights of religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq United Nations founded United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), in 2003, to fulfill the needs of Security Council Resolution 1500, which stated the need of establishment of such organization. UNAMI also includes an Integrated Coordination Office for Development & Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), which works together with the government and the citizens of Iraq to show the concerns in development and humanitarian in Iraq. UNOCHA coordinates the relations between Iraqi government, NGO’s and UN organizations, in order to work more efficiently and cooperate with each other too. United Nations has increased its presence in Iraq since 2007 to work for the needs of Iraqi people in every aspect. Currently 180 international staff and 420 national staff are working in UNAMI for the rights of Iraqi people in 18 different governorates. III/ Objectives, aims and possible solutions proposed by United Nations on the issues A/ Combating political instability and sectarian violence in Iraq • Aims of United Nations on the issue ♦ To stop sectarian violence via its specific organs ♦ Politically stabilizing Iraq in order to prevent harm to anyone • Possible Solution ♦ Redeployment of Multi-‐National Force–Iraq or/and deployment of Peacekeeping Forces by UN Ø To fight against ISIS and other organizations that are told to be a “Terrorist Organization” by United Nations even though some organizations are debatable for being terrorist or not. B/ Formulating countermeasures to prevent illicit arms trade in Iraq • Aim of United Nations on the issue ♦ Stopping illicit trade of especially small arms and light weapons (SALW) • Possible Solution ♦ Redeployment of Multi National Force–Iraq or/and deployment of Peacekeeping Forces by UN to Iraq and cooperate with government of Iraq to fight against illicit arms trade Ø Also to protect the borders of Iraq in order to decrease the illicit arms trade § Knowing that, illicit arms trade carries on through a road in order to get to the desired places. Therefore, a well protected border will stop the trade internationally and the trade will be only internationally C/ Ensuring the rights of religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq • Aims of United Nations on the issue ♦ Ensuring the rights of religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq with UNAMI and Integrated Coordination Office for Development & Humanitarian Affairs. • Possible Solutions ♦ Knowing that according to UNOCHA, 1.8 million people have displaced from their homes since January 2014 therefore UN should and will give both financial and food aid to the refugees via UN organs ♦ Redeployment of Multi National Force–Iraq Ø To give medical aid by the military medics to suffering ethnic minorities Ø To secure the ethnic minorities that are getting attacked by ISIS IV/ Bibliography – Internet links http://www.district205.net/cms/lib07/IL01001003/Centricity/Domain/47/Blue_UN_logo. jpg http://www.un.org/en/aboutun/history/ http://mfo.org/docs/45 http://www.uniraq.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=item&id=951&Item id=619&lang=en http://www.un.org/documents/ga/docs/56/a5612a1.pdf http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/weapons-‐and-‐markets/transfers/illicit-‐trafficking.html http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/G-‐Issue-‐briefs/SAS-‐IB8-‐Feeding-‐the-‐ Fire.pdf http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2012/dc3366.doc.htm http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/