The UN Security Council owes its name to its mandate of maintaining a state of international peace and security. The Council is specifically tasked with determining the existence of threats to that peace, calling upon the involved parties to settle their disputes and recommending terms of settlement;identifying acts of aggression and even authorizing the use of force to quell these and restore/resume peace. The Council is comprised of 15 members, each with a single vote, and the permanent 5 states retain the infamous veto. The Charter, by which the Security Council is mandated, obliges all the UN Member States to comply with the Council’s decisions. High on the Council’s agenda for the month of September are the questions of sanctions for Libya, the situation in the Middle East which includes the Palestinain question as well as the Syrian problem, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons particlarly in the DPRK, as well as strategic-level reporting on ISIL and Al-Qaeda.
Topic A: The Relevance of the Veto in UN Rules of Procedure and its Application in MUNs
Topic B: Communications Technology and its Links to Political Instability in the Greater Middle East
SPECPOL is the fourth committee within the General Assembly. It deals with a variety of subjects which include those related to decolonization, Palestinian refugees and human rights, peacekeeping, mine action, outer space, public information, atomic radiation and University for Peace.
Topic A: A Borderless World: To What Extent Should Boundaries Exist?
Topic B: Internalized Conflicts: The Case of Cyprus
The World Health Organization’s goal is to build a better, healthier future for people all over the world. Working through offices in more than 150 countries, WHO staff work side by side with governments and other partners to ensure the highest attainable level of health for all people. Work carried out by HWO includes combatting diseases – infectious diseases like influenza and HIV and noncommunicable ones like cancer and heart disease, helping mothers and children survive and thrive so they can look forward to a healthy old age and ensuring the safety of the air people breathe, the food they eat, the water they drink – and the medicines and vaccines they need.
Topic A: Pandemonium: Preparedness and Pandemic Containment Systems Without Borders
Topic B: Death Dues: Capping Profits off Life-saving Pharmaceuticals
The Economic and Financial Affairs Council, commonly known as the Ecofin Council, is responsible for economic policy, taxation matters, financial markets and capital movements, and economic relations with countries outside the EU. It also prepares the EU’s annual budget and takes care of the legal and practical aspects of the single currency, the euro. The Ecofin Council coordinates member states’ economic policies, furthers the convergence of their economic performance and monitors their budgetary policies. It also coordinates EU positions for international meetings, such as the G20, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. It is also responsible for the financial aspects of international negotiations on measures to tackle climate change.
Topic A: The Greater Depression: Avoiding a Second Global Financial Crisis
Topic B: Limiting Migration-caused Strain on Host Countries’ Resources
The ICJ, mooted as the “World Court”, is the UN’s main judicial organ, task with settling legal disputes submitted to it by Member States in accordance with international law. Authorized UN Organs an Special Agencies also have recourse to it for advisory opinions on legal questions. The Court covers a wide range of judicial activity but among the most contentious cases registered in 2016 were the proceedings instituted by the Islamic Republic of Iran against the United States of America concerning alleged violates of the 1955 Treaty of Amity.
Topic: Bolivia v. Chile: Obligation to Negotiate Access to the Pacific Ocean