DCMUN IX Conference Issue Day 1

DAY 1 DCMUN IX

CONTENTS Equality: Fact or Fiction?

Border Disputes in Kashmir Weapons of Mass Destruction Kill, Torture and Eliminate Reducing Global Poverty

EQUALITY: FACT OR FICTION? History is a constant reminder of how females have been undervalued. Whether the killing of infants, under any circumstances, is moral is a common controversial issue. Developing countries simply turn a blind eye to the consequences infanticide will have, most predominantly female infanticide, having practised it for generations. Sex-selective infanticide is the earliest manifestation of discrimination against females. With an average ratio of 914 girls for every 1000 boys in Asia, this practice can bring nothing but setbacks.

Taking the lives of children with disabilities and deformities is considered merciful in some cultures; doesn’t every child deserve an equal chance at life?

One problem that developing nations face on this issue is that technological advancements, that make the lives of differently-able people almost effortless, are not readily available. Prosthetics and bionics are only concepts to these populations.

So, what can be done to stop these unlawful issues?

First of all, we can raise money for these women and children globally: there are over two hundred charities Another reason infanticides are carried out is sim- dedicated to this cause. The government could also ply because children are a liability to their parents make funds and projects available. For the uneducated at that time. It is just as common as it is wrong. people around the globe, we can build schools and Children being mercilessly left in public bathrooms educate them. The government can increase awareness and toilets. The majority of deaths that occur are about this issue and introduce incentives or educate girls, typically due to financial problems or in other the citizens about birth control and other safe prevencases, the governmental policies. For example, the tative measures. Unlawful acts can be condemned by ‘One Child per Family’ policy enforced by China’s law appropriately. government increased the practice of female infanticide. Parents would find out if their child is a boy or girl in illegal places, then would abort the child if By Tanya Deshmukh it were a girl.

BORDER DISPUTES IN KASHMIR For over a staggering 65 years, there have been constant border disputes over the state of Kashmir.

Though Kashmir is officially a state of India, Pakistan claims Kashmir based on its majority Muslim population. Despite the border dispute mostly being between India and Pakistan, China also plays a minor role, claiming the Shaksam Valley and Aksai Chin (a virtually uninhabited wasteland). The three countries have been battling over this state for decades and the UN believes that it is time to stop this fight and come to a peaceful and feasible solution.

Muslim forces attacked his country. Later on in the same year, an uprising in favour of Pakistan started in Kashmir that divided Kashmir into two parts: Kashmir (an Indian state); and Azad Kashmir (a Pakistani state) . Currently, most of Kashmir belongs to India, while the rest is administrated mostly by Pakistan. Both countries lay claim to the entire state of Kashmir and have been fighting over it for years, while the people of Kashmir are striving for independence.

Numerous talks between the Indian and Pakistani Starting way back in the year 1947 when India government have yielded no fruit. India accuses gained Independence from British rule, and Pakistan Pakistan of not following the agreement decided and was created as a separate country from India, this is Pakistan accuses India of not allowing the agreement an issue that has been gradually escalating. Back in to properly take place. So what can be done to solve 1947, each state was ruled by a separate king and was this heated quarrel? free to join either India, a Hindu country, or Pakistan, a Muslim nation. However, the state of Kashmir If a solution is to be found, both parties must be prepresented a unique problem. Their king, Maharaja pared to make some compromise and try to follow Hari Singh, preferred to remain neutral, being a the UN’s decision smoothly. The UN has proposed Hindu king in a mainly Muslim land. Choosing to a few solutions including holding a vote to find out be part of either country would have caused a hefty how the people of Kashmir want to be governed, number of objections and protests. He was soon though this may take some consideration and comforced to change his decision and join India when promise from both countries. Another solution is to

follow the Chenab Formula of 1960, which proposes the Chenab river to divide the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The regions north of the river would go to Pakistan and the area south of it would go to India.

However, it is very unlikely that India would agree to this solution since this would result in their losing 80% of the state. A better solution would be to have the Line of Control (LoC) as a permanent border between all the countries, and for ceasefire regulations to be strictly followed. Additionally, it is also important to take into consideration what the population of Kashmir wants and how to help them. As the Indian delegate in the DCMUN conference said, “It’s time for these countries to stop arguing over political borders and think about what the people of Kashmir want instead. Being a Kashmiri myself, I am more than aware of how this dispute is ruining people’s lives. This war and bloodshed must be brought to a stop.”

that has not been fruitful in any way. It is vital that we immediately find a solution for this problem.

Many solutions have been proposed but a final decision is yet to made. An attempt for a ceasefire between the countries revealed daily violations, with no thought for the innocent civilians living in between.

As hundreds die, youths are brainwashed by militant organisations and terrorist groups to oppose a opposing countries and cause more unrest and problems. Clearly, it is the need of the hour for this crisis to be solved as soon as possible.

As of today, 43% of Kashmir is ruled by India, 37% is run by Pakistan and the remaining 20% is occupied

by China. There have been a heavy number of losses and casualties for soldiers defending their side of the border on each of the sides; unnecessary bloodshed By Aayami Jaguri (Year 8)

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION With the risk of the increasing black market in trading arms, issues of frozen conflicts and development of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) by the Democratic Republic of North Korea, the UN is striving to stop tragedies all over the world. In MUN we are developing the awareness of the above complications. Many students debated these dilemmas and come to conclusions. Here is a inside view on each obstacle from GA1 today.

involved in a frozen conflict is unstable and insecure. Regions that are under the de facto control of separatist factions are essentially left independent with large areas of the territories they claim. “I believe frozen conflicts are historic and struggles that we are keen to put an end to,” the delegate of Russia commented.

Finally, the issue of the development of WMDs and ICBMs has been a problem that has been going on for years now. Many organisations, including the Problem number 1 on the list is the black market in UN, have attempted tackling the issue of WMDs. trading arms. This has expanded globally over the North Korea is a one party state run by Kim Jongpast years and is now worth approximately 1 billion un and has an active nuclear weapons programme US dollars. Thanks to this, as many as 1000 people and has deployed short and medium range ballistic are killed each day because of the availability of missiles as well as having launched rockets between arms. Some nations’ black market in arms has in2012 and 2016. You probably have guessed that creased whereas others not so much. This is because North Korea is not a member of the treaty on nonthe black market is specialising in the illegal trade proliferation of nuclear weapons and the compreof small arms such as pistols and handguns, and this hensive nuclear-test ban treaty. The country’s first has led to an increase in countries where personal nuclear weapon test was on October the 9th 2006 ownership of weapons is restricted. and was an underground explosion and radioactiv“I am highly agitated at the size of the black market,” ity was detected. In 2009 North Korea declared that said Serbia’s representative. they had developed some simple nuclear weapons.

Next up are frozen conflicts which are taking place in the post Soviet Union. Two examples are the Rus- By Maseeha Seedat (Year 7) sian constitutional crisis in 1993 and the Ukrainian protests in 2013. When conflicts do not end with a peace treaty or ceasefire, they are referred to as frozen conflicts, and can - legally - resume armed violence at any moment. As a result, any region

Kill, Torture, and Eliminate

… only if it’s a terrorist.

The world we live in currently faces acts of terrorism on what seem to be a daily basis. Terrorism is an act that destroys homes and tears apart families in ways that are unimaginable to those of us lucky enough not to be touched by it. There are terrorist groups all over the world that carry political and extremist views in attempt to justify their actions. Whether terrorism is done to “represent” a religion or purely to discriminate against a race, it is something that needs to be controlled.

In 2016, the rate of people massacred by terrorist groups has increased by 80%. As member states of the United Nations, we are all greatly concerned by this issue; we must start eliminating any global threat to international peace and make borders gateways, not the line of warzones. However, today terrorist groups have spread all over the world due to various factors. For example, social media has played a very large role in this: radicalisation has increased dramatically due to the manipulation of people through social networks like Twitter, Facebook etc. Furthermore, terrorist organisations take advantage of political instability and the refugee crisis in zones of conflict to develop and spread there; it is relative easy to influence the vulnerable. We need to promote tolerance, drastically and immediately, through the media and we need to increase cooperation between countries, so we can defeat these terrorist organisations once and for all.

To get a closer insight on how these delegates are feeling I interviewed them. Jassim is writing his resolution on the issue: Measures to Eliminate and Control International Terrorism. As much as he is having fun, the experience is quite hectic, especially with the experience level of a first timer. Not only is he working on his personal resolution with his varied colleagues, he has been signing a Signatory Sheet to support other resolutions as he represents the delegate of Georgia. He’s not the only one working hard and sharing their perspectives and thoughts on the issues handed them.

The delegate of Australia is focusing on the same issue as many others: Measures to Eliminate and Control International Terrorism. He’s been stressing out and needs a break to get away from the chaotic environment where everyone is so engaged, to abAs roll call proceeds in DCMUN GA6, many of the sorb and process what he’s doing and what he plans delegates are a no show. This is pressuring the teams to do. The delegates may be under a great amount of that are assigned to the resolutions, but the show pressure but they are generally having a good time must go on as they resume work on improving their and looking forward to conversing with each other resolutions. Groups of different schools join together on the issues and sharing their perspectives. to share their ideas and put forward their respective amendments.

By Zaina Shouman

700 million people worldwide suffer the continuous problem of poverty, fighting and struggling against all the odds to meet their basic needs. They live without many of the services we deem necessary, such as medical attention, education and security.

This is one of the many reasons why poverty urgently needs to be stopped, to secure the lives of millions of people in the world, so they can have happy, healthy lives, as well as sustain the growing population of the human race. Organizations like the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are working hard to make sure people in poverty can come out of it, but as the economic gap between those in poverty and the wealthy widens, it is becoming increasingly difficult to.

Firstly, it must be understood that poverty continues on in a brutal cycle, unless we do something about it. Child marriage is an especially large problem in the poverty cycle. Girls from ages 11-12 are often married off straight away, and this prevents them from obtaining any sort of formal education. Girls in cultures that revolve around poverty are considered

nothing more than child bearers or domestic workers, with no purpose out of the domestic household.

They are often taught to depend on men for support.

Yet, how can a girl contribute and help her family if she cannot be independent and has to depend on others? Of course, those in poverty do not acknowledge this, because of their lack of education. Children in poverty can grow up to be troubled adults, mostly because of domestic abuse and emotional trauma from severe cases such as prostitution. Their children then experience little difference throughout their lives. Often, because of trauma and severe depression, children and youth in poverty resort to taking illegal drugs, which leads to crime later on.

In fact, there is a high positive correlation between crime and poverty. This ugly poverty cycle has continued for as long as most can remember.

Countries who are the victims of poverty often claim that others are using propaganda against them: that there is no issue of poverty. This is often so that these countries can still attract tourists with descriptions of happy people everywhere and beautiful streets. However, this is not always the case.

This is not a problem in developing countries alone,

Reducing Global Poverty but also in developed countries. In the USA alone, 17% of people are in poverty. From the developing countries, Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are the worst affected, containing about 70% of the people in poverty worldwide. However, many countries are taking a step forward, such as China and Brazil, in attempts to improve the situation.

What causes poverty is most often food dumping.

Causing major food shortages for many people in the world, food dumping by rich countries is the number one cause for poverty worldwide, as basic needs are being wasted so carelessly.

So, what can be done to stop poverty?

as well as improving their standards of living and those of their families. If the businesses are successful, this can result in foreign investors in the country itself, which can relieve the whole country of extreme poverty. Paid employment opportunities created for adults in poverty can also make a huge difference. The number of paid employment positions outside the agricultural sector for women in Southern Asia has risen by 6%.

There are many solutions to end poverty, and these are just a few. If everyone, including the wealthy, cooperates together to create better lives for more people, sustaining the human race will be easier than we ever imagined.

The first and foremost solution major organizations are proposing is education, which only makes sense.

With education, people can get a good job and sustain a good life for themselves and future generations, and hopefully get out of poverty. Sub-Saharan countries have had a record improvement, with a 20% increase in net enrolment ratio at schools.

As a result of education, youth from areas where poverty is dominant have become successful entrepreneurs, making job opportunities for themselves

By Mathula Muhandun (Year 8)

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Thank you to the Press Team: Heads of Press: Sara Tomerak Butool Rizvi Photographers: Niesha Rimmer Jay Stearns Zaina Shouman Tanya Deshmukh Aaya Elidrisi Rasha Ghazali Writers: Aayami Jaguri Mathula Muhundan Georgie Harris Elena Straface Zaina Shouman Tanya Deshmukh Social Media: Sunaa Ansari And a very special thank you to Ms Calvert

Find the Day 2 issue for DCMUN IX on our website: www.dcmun.org