LUMUNX In-Conference Events

LUMUN X plans to give the delegates a wholly new and enriching experience in MUN-ing with us. With the addition of two entirely new events, altogether delegates will get the opportunity to partake in four memorable in-conference events. The purpose of the events will be focused on the theme of this years conference: Breaking barriers, building bridges.

Knowing our National Heroes

This new event is meant to provide the delegates a chance to see and meet acclaimed personalities who have afforded a name in national prestige and also recognize individuals that may not be so well known but have done incredible service for the country. The aim of this event is to highlight to the delegates leaders who are national heroes because they have given something unique to the country and are a source of pride for Pakistan. As the spirit of LUMUN is to devise objectives that have positive state-level and international impact, this event will create a platform for delegates to know Pakistani personalities that have broken barriers to act upon such objectives.

The Third Gender

This event is a novel initiative to cross a serious barrier in order to expose a topic that is rarely reflected upon and is mostly tabooed; that of the rights and the place of the third gender in our society. Through a mature dialogue with representatives of the Khwaja Saraa community and policy makers, this events aims to get the delegates thinking about and deliberating over a critical issue of human rights that is entirely ignored in Pakistan today. It will attempt to build bridges across social cleavages that currently exist within our society. Social stigmas, legal impediments, and political inequalities are some of the key areas that the panelists will discuss with the delegates.

Diplomatic Meet
The diplomatic meet is a rare chance given to exceptional delegates from all committees to meet one on one and interact with ex-ambassadors of Pakistan. This is one of the most successful and prestigious in-conference events that LUMUN has to offer, and this year will be no exception. Accompanied by their respective chairs, delegates will engage in a semi-formal dialogue to attain valuable insights related to their committee topics from the established and experienced diplomats.

Global Zero
The global arms race caused by the proliferation of nuclear weapons is a menace to world peace as it forces us to live in a state of uncertainty and insecurity. Global Zero is the international movement for the elimination of all nuclear weapons worldwide. Global Zero has a history of successful collaborations with LUMUN and on the tenth conference LUMUN shall act as an exemplary youth conference which promotes global peace by advocating a nukes-free world. Following presentations in each committee about LUMUN-Global Zero, delegates will sign an oath declaring their support for the movements cause, which will be displayed on the last day of the conference.

COMMITTEES
DISEC: Disarmament and International Security Committee
Topic A: Crisis in the Sahel and West Africa

The Sahel is a word derived from the Arabic word Sahil meaning shore. The region stretches across the breadth of the African continent and includes Gambia, Senegal, Central Mali, Burkina Faso, Southern Algeria,Niger, Northern Nigeria, Cameroon, Central Chad, significant portions of Sudan and South Sudan and arguably, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. The Sahel region is currently faced with complex political, security, developmental and humanitarian challenges. It stands out as one of the most vulnerable regions of the world, simultaneously facing the challenges of extreme poverty, the effects of climate change, frequent food crises, rapid population growth, fragile governance, corruption, unresolved internal tensions, violent extremism and radicalization, illicit arms and drug trafficking and most importantly, terrorism.

Mali has arguably been the country to have suffered the worst in the crisis of the Sahel. The countrys partition and the occupation of its North by radical Islamists in 2012 all shed a new light on the current and emerging peace and security challenges that weaken countries in the Sahel region. Addressing insecurity in Mali is only one piece of the Sahels security puzzle. Terrorists that have been pushed out of Mali will show up in other ungoverned spaces. Instability in Libya and the lack of government control over its southern territory will continue to pose an ever-present threat to the Sahel. Niger and Nigeria are also countries being severely tested by the extremist organizations that are operating in the Sahel. Porous borders and insufficient reach by security services makes the Mali Niger Libya corridor an area of concern because it can facilitate the movement of terrorist groups and transnational criminal networks. The terrorist organizations, Al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Somalias Al-Shabaab have increasingly begun to carry out terror attacks in several states in the region.

The First Committee will have to focus its energy on formulating a viable and effective strategy, referring to and making use of the previous action taken by the UNSC, in order to curb this serious security threat in the Sahel. A holistic strategy to combat extremism and terrorism in the Sahel will have to be devised so that the countries can look into other pressing issues plaguing them in relative peace and security. The global community must continue its efforts to approach the Sahel and West Africas interconnected problems with a comprehensive regional and international effort. Such an effort must address the immediate security threat posed by violent extremists and transnational

criminal networks, while at the same time building the institutional capacity needed to address the Sahels political, economic and humanitarian challenges.

Topic B: The question of Foreign Military Bases

The concept of foreign military deployment has been intricately linked with the birth and rise of the modern city-state. The overall concept of a sending nation setting up a foreign military base in a host nation is one which has always been highly contentious, be it a foreign military base in the terror struck country of Afghanistan or in the advanced, well developed states of South Korea and Germany. Despite their apparent aim to bring about and maintain peace and security in the various parts of the world, foreign military bases do have both positive and negative aspects. The end of the Cold war saw a significant and phased reduction in such bases from both USA and Russia. Since 9/11 and the subsequent war on terror there has been an increase in the number of foreign deployments worldwide by USA and the allied nations. With every country having its own stance on Foreign Military Bases, be it Chinas non intervention policy or the United States of Americas war on terror and spread of foreign military bases to bring about peace and security, this topic is undoubtedly one of increasing pertinence. There are many issues that come under the purview of this debate. The delegates at DISEC will have to discuss and resolve pressing issues such as the impact of foreign bases on the sovereignty of the host nation, human rights violations such as rape cases, etc by workers at foreign military bases, violations of Status of Forces Agreements and jurisdictional controversies. However, at the same time, the committee must also consider the fact that these very military bases are those which are stabilizing and bringing about peace and security in the terror struck regions of Afghanistan and various other Middle Eastern countries with the aim of trying to bring about stable democratic governments there in the near future. Despite the claims by the foreign deployed forces that the bases are simply there to provide security within those regions, most of the people feel anything but reassured by this global reach owing to the numerous contentious issues which plague the validity and effectiveness of foreign military bases around the world.

SPECPOL: Special Political & Decolonization Committee

Topic A: Redefining the Framework for International Intervention and Peacekeeping

The fiftieth anniversary of the Genocide Convention was haunted by the shameful neglect of Rwanda. The Mogadishu fiasco, the cruel ambiguities of Srebrenica, the silence over Chechnya, and the confusions of the Kosovo intervention feed a contentious debate on the circumstances, authority, and means to intervene. In the past a question that has remained resolutely unanswered is that of the policy and framework guiding intervention and peacekeeping. If humanitarian intervention is an unacceptable assault on sovereignty then how should the world respond to incident the likes of Rwanda? However, opposing these views are those who would suggest that the defense of humanity is the principle that should prevail in all situations where our fellow brothers seek our assistance.

The UN Charter with regards to this issue is ambiguous, affirming both the primacy of human rights and simultaneously emphasizing on the essentiality of state sovereignty. Kofi Annan in his role as UN Secretary General once commented that, "It is not the deficiencies of the Charter which have brought us to this juncture, but our difficulties in applying its principles to a new era; an era when strictly traditional notions of sovereignty can no longer do justice to the aspirations of peoples everywhere to attain their fundamental freedoms."

It is due to this conflict that this committees delegates will be asked to formulate a rigorous framework that helps guide future instances of international intervention and peacekeeping initiated not only by the UN but also by other international bodies.

Topic B: Borders in Cyber Space: Adapting Sovereignty to the challenges of Cyber Security

Sergei Zheleznyak, a prominent Russian MP has called on the country to boost its "digital sovereignty" and his counterpart, a prominent member of the Australian government, has already voiced his fears with regards to the fact that the US government could invoke the Patriot Act to collect Australian data hosted by American cloud providers.

In other news, tech giant Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users' communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption. The NSA has boasted that a new capability has tripled

the amount of Skype video calls being collected through Prism. Tech giant Google has followed suit by announcing that users of Gmail should not expect privacy with regards to their content.

These pieces of information merely highlight one fact, that not only is it the US government, but others as well that have now moved the battle for national sovereignty to the Internet. With greater and easier access to information, developed data mining techniques and lack of security online, it is now easier for governments to not only access information relevant to their own citizens, but also gain access to information that is considered private and sensitive by another nation. While the arguments about data sovereignty have certainly been fired up again, they have always been in existence. SPECPOL has previously been the arena for discussion of issues such as cyber warfare, property and patent rights, and data privacy within a country. It is now the burden of this very committees members to discuss this current issue at hand, so as to come up with a rigorous document to deal with this issue at a nascent stage.

SOCHUM: Social Cultural & Humanitarian Committee

Topic Area A: Gender Disparity in Literacy and Development

Gender disparity can be defined as the unequal, preferential or biased treatment of individuals based on their respective gender. This inequality can stem from biological to socially constructed distinctions, and whatever form it adopts, this inequality is in its true essence a violation of several human rights. Disparity and discrimination based on gender in the field of education and development are apt examples of this injustice. For years, women (and in some forms, men) have been unjustly targeted via preferential and bias treatment. Right to education is enshrined in several international legal covenants, including the overpowering Universal Declaration of Human Rights yet, for the longest time, right to education has not been made universal and discrimination based on sex has been most pervasive. Disparity in the process of development is another rapid form of gender inequality. Women, most dominantly have been a target of a lack of all forms of development. SOCHUM at LUMUN X intends to discuss these two paramount and intertwined forms of gender disparity at great length, and reach plausible and realistic yet innovative solutions to take a step closer to correcting this long-lasting disequilibrium. Delegates are expected to discuss latest and previous trends, comparing and contrasting, debating the loopholes of previous and present attempts at resolutions, all the while contemplating a framework for the permanent eradication of gender disparity in literacy and development processes.

Topic Area B: Sex Trafficking A Transnational Crime

The world is not new to the predicament of human trafficking. Human trafficking as a transnational crime has plagued the international community for centuries and has been debated upon at great length. However, lamentably the problem has been aggravated in present times due to several reasons. SOCHUM at LUMUN X will be focusing on a special form of trafficking: sex trafficking. The topic will examine not only the various aspects of adult sex trafficking but will also give special attention to another aspect of it, that is, child sex trafficking. Trafficking, defined as the fastest growing crime in 2009 by the UN itself, is a problem that plagues the entire globe and hence its eradication requires a multifaceted discussion and strategy. The agenda of the committee would encapsulate the sub-topics ranging from the causes of this form of trafficking to the role of all states involved, especially the three directly affected states: the country of origin, transit and destination. Delegates are expected to present solutions that defy the shortcomings of present approaches and bear in mind the present trends and problems. The Third Committee must contemplate child sex trafficking specially and reach a consensus on methods best suited to its earliest resolution or at the very least, reduction.

Crises Cabinet
Rolling Crisis

Set in the future, the Crises Cabinet is the place where the most powerful premieres and heads of states in the world will be at the helm of averting adverse misfortunes. The committee combines themes of inevitable doomsday scenarios, political fiascos and crumbling regimes and calls upon the attendees to display indomitable will to weave a sustainable and peaceful world for the future. Guised as an open agenda, rolling crises committee, the Cabinet shall be the tasked with the responsibility of responding to and resolving an onslaught of apocalyptic scenarios.

Designed as a timeline committee, the Crises Cabinet shall progress through the present, onto the future. The delegates will attempt to resolve crises originating in the present and the future with the projected timeline being 2013 to 2030. Traversing through the tumultuous planes of the present to the inevitable uncertainty of the future, the delegates shall at all times have to be cognizant of the structural shifts in global power relations and come up with appropriate policy responses best suited to meet the needs of the future as realized by the Secretariat at LUMUN X.

To facilitate the accelerated pace of the committee, the delegates in the Cabinet shall be vested with the authority of each of their countrys premier/ head of state which shall enable them to issue policy statements, directives, statements and communiques at all times at their own behest, provided it suits the needs of the committee. The final document may take the shape of a resolution or any of the aforementioned options in that all documents shall supplement each other in the Cabinets concerted endeavours to formulate and draft appropriate responses to the crises at hand. Delegates are, however, reminded that while yielding the authority of their countrys premiers and heads of state they shall not be embodying their personality and will only be responsible for projecting their countrys stance.

The Cabinet, being simulated under the shadow of impending doom and an unraveling of the world as know it, calls upon all prospective delegates to appreciate the gravity of the situation and eschew redundancy, repetition and drawn out negotiations in the favor of ingenuity, co-operation and immediate plans of action.

ICJ: International Court of Justice

Syria v The United States of America

The civil war that has plagued Syria is nothing new in the headlines. Thousands of people have lost their lives, out of which most of them had nothing to do with the dispute whatsoever. This indiscriminate killing reached its height when chemical weapons added to the atrocities of the conflict. The international community along with the United Nations had been trying to curb the violence and resolve the dispute through peaceful means but the use of chemical weapons proved the ineffectiveness of the techniques that were being employed to handle this dispute. The chemical weapons had to be dealt with on an urgent basis. This lead to the unanimous vote on the Security Council Resolution that required Syria to eliminate its arsenal of chemical weapons or face consequences. Syria has agreed to do so and has also agreed to sign the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction.

However, the United States is being inclined to take a stronger stance on the issue. It has threatened Syria that it will intervene militarily and has claimed that it will use force if necessary. The basis for this provided by the United States is under the United Nations initiative of R2P.

Syria on the other hand claims that the threat of the use of force placed by the United States of America on Syria violates both the United Nations Charter and customary international law of intervention and use of force. It has thus, pleaded before the court for an indication of a provisional measure that will remove this threat by prohibiting the United States of America from intervening and using force against Syria.

Japan v The Federation of Russia

More than fifty years have passed since the end of World War II, and no peace treaty has been concluded between Japan and Russia. The reason for this delay is the unresolved Kuril Islands issue.

The island chain known as the Kurils stretches north across the Pacific Ocean from the Japanese island of Hokkaido to the southern tip of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. Four islands, which Russia

calls the Southern Kurils and Japan calls the Northern Territories, are the subject of a 60-year-old dispute between the two nations.

In the aftermath of World War II, Japan lost the Kuril Islands to Russia. Under the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, signed between the Allies and Japan, Japan renounced "all right, title and claim to the Kuril Islands", as well as over other possessions. But this resolved nothing, because Russia did not sign the treaty and the Japanese government has never recognized the four islands as part of the Kuril chain.

A 30,000-strong Russian community now lives on the islands and there is also a Russian military presence on one of the four islands. In early August 2006, the Russian government backed a 630 million dollar plan to develop the entire Kuril island chain, including improving energy and transport infrastructure.

Natural resources are the main reason for the dispute. The islands are surrounded by rich fishing grounds and are thought to have offshore reserves of oil and gas. Rare rhenium deposits have been found on a volcano on one of the islands. Tourism is also a potential source of income, as the islands have several volcanoes and a variety of birdlife.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government has worked to maintain public awareness of the dispute. Periodic visits by relatives of those displaced after the war to pray before their ancestral shrines have made the issue a highly emotive one for the Japanese public.

In 1956, the Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration restored diplomatic ties between the two nations, but a formal peace deal remained out of reach because of the territorial dispute.

This territorial dispute is both a political and an economic issue. In the interest of establishing peaceful relations between the two countries and erasing this point of contention once and for all it is imperative that a decision is reached as to the ownership of the four islands under dispute.

UNODC: UN Office on Drugs & Crime (Fizza)

Topic A: Drug Trafficking- Pak-Afghan Border and Beyond

The global opiate trade is an ever burgeoning one. Unlike other forms of trade, this is illicit and is one of the major problems that the world is facing at this time. The trade, originating from Afghanistan and Pakistan spreads to almost all parts of the world at alarming rates. It goes through Central Asia, the Balkans and other European and African markets and reaches further beyond to the U.S and Pacific countries. Even though the UNODC has been involved in many projects and ways to reduce and eliminate this trafficking, no concrete solution has come up still. It is, therefore, of utmost importance to find an efficient solution to the problem.

Topic B: Money Laundering and financing of Terrorism

Terrorism has been an ongoing global problem for decades now and has intensified ever since the 9/11 attacks on the United States. With different organizations coming up and spreading terror in the world, the global security situation has also taken a hit. One reason as to why the Global terrorism problem has not been curtailed is because of its finance and funding. Terrorist organizations have conjured efficient ways to finance their terror operations and most of these include illicit means such as human and narcotics trafficking. This money in turn is laundered in ways that it becomes very difficult to catch at the root. Once again, even with valiant efforts, the UNODC has not been able to curb these activities and cut down on this financing of terror. For global security and a cleaner and safer future of the world at large, it is of great urgency that this problem of terror finance is dealt with.