Security CouncilCommittee GuidePrivate military companies (PMCs) – a threat to peace? The Security Council is the most powerful organ of the United Nations. It shall ensure "prompt and effective action by the United Nations" and maintain international peace. As you can read in the Charter, the Security Council is mainly independent from the rest of the UN and acts as some kind of a highest authority - without the agreement of the Security Council the UN can not change, an important point in the democratization debate. It is also the only organ which can impose sanctions against a state or which may send out troops in order to make or keep peace, when the world's security is threatened. We all can agree, that the biggest threat to development, security and stability is – war. In international politics – a constant weighing up of the possible, the necessary and the responsible – war is the very last of all measures. For economy, war means profit. One of the oldest methods of realizing profit by fighting is mercenary service. All significant empires of the past – Greeks, Romans, Chinese, the British Empire, to name a few - employed mercenaries. With the increasing number of rather unstable but independent states in the 20th century – due to the end of imperialism and the fall of the Soviet Union - hiring of private militaries became en vogue again, because of the inability of weak governments to solve internal conflicts, e.g. due to lack of military infrastructure. According to A7RES/44/34, the “International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries”, a mercenary is anyone who is “specially recruited locally or abroad for the purpose of participating in a concerted act of violence”; “neither a national nor a resident of the State” involved in the conflict and “motivated to take part [...] by the desire for significant private gain”. Following this language, PMCs are put in the category of mercenaries. The reasons to employ PMCs and PSCs (Private Security Companies) are manifold, despite their questionable legal status and their costliness. They can act swiftly, are well-trained, highly experienced in armed conflicts and often granted immunity by the states they work for, making them only accountable to their employer and no one else. They fill a niche left open by the UN, which has proven to be incapable to prevent escalation of conflict such as in Rwanda, Somalia and Bosnia. Since the UN is not able to substitute PMCs, the way forward is regulation, if possible. Maybe the framework set by the Montreux Document and the 1989 Mercenary Convention are a good basis for process, but it is important to take into account that PMCs are not only a threat to civil population due to abuse of their power, as occoured in Iraq (Blackwater), but also a swift solution for deescalating a conflict such as the case in Africa. This issue demands examination, pondering and profound discussion. LinksUnited Nations Security Council Security Council Report http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/ Hague Convention (1907) IV & V http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hague04.asp http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hague05.asp IV. Geneva Convention ... http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/INTRO/380?OpenDocument ... and its Protocol I http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/7c4d08d9b287a42141256739003e636b/f6c8b9fee14a77fdc125641e0052b079 International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries (1989) http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/44/a44r034.htm Montreux Document on Private Military and Security Companies http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/montreux-document-170908 Pay attention to the words of Mr. A. I. Nikitin in the following article: |
Chair introductionDear Delegates, Furthermore, I am a member of the Students Association for Political Science and Communication Studies and a student representative within the Faculty Council of the Philosophical Faculty. Besides studying and recruiting new MUN Delegates I love to spend time with my friends, cook delicious food and have fun in every kind of way. It is always a pleasure to take part in Model UN Conferences and I am really looking forward to attend BALMUN 2010. See you in June! Best regards, Anne Jaskulski |
Chair introductionDear Delegates, my name is Friedrich Leukert, and I have the pleasure to be one of the Presidents of the 2010 Balmun Security Council. I am a student of chemistry at the Humboldt-University of Berlin, currently being in my 3rd semester. As a former ISG student, I was one of those who came up with the idea of establishing a MUN in Rostock, having experienced several MUN conferences in Berlin and Oldenburg. This year's conference will give me the opportunity to chair the Balmun Security Council a second time after 2008, and I am very proud of the development the conference has taken since then. I hope for a creative and fruitful debate without any bigger conflict between permanent members in order not to pass any resolution at last, but an appropriate solution for the issue. |
