BACKGROUND GUIDE

Committee: Human Rights Council

Agenda: Protection of human rights while countering terrorism

LETTER TO THE DELEGATES

Greetings Delegates!
When you thought about participating in this MUN, you must have gone through a wave
of emotions. But here we are, to put you at an ease! Take this DIS MUN as Your MUN
and I’m sure that you will rock on!
To commence with, it will be an honour to Chair the Committee, definitely with the
assistance of Shakeb. I’m sure that we will get to experience a whole new experience
with enthusiastic delegates like you!
This background guide is to help you have a basic understanding of the Committee and
the Agenda. Thus, it is a comprehensive, but illustrative guide. So, being intellectually
creative beings, feel free to add on to your own suggestions and ideas in the Committee
because we are sure that after having done a detailed research you must have a lot to
offer to the platter.
The agenda at hand is very interesting, keeping in view the recent developments that
are taking place in the world. It shall be your entitlement to take the Committee in a
particular direction. So, we strongly recommend you to research detailedly regarding
your allotted country, its stance regarding the issue at hand, foreign policy and charter
possible moderated caucus. We expect that you must be aware of the basic rules of
procedure, but we accept even if you don’t, especially if you are participating for the
first time because we will be there to guide you throughout the conference.
Although the agenda is vividly clear, yet it is open to interpretation and therefore, it is
crucial for you to go through this precise guide to develop a better understanding. & if
you have any query, feel free to reach out to any member of the Executive Board.
Congratulations for participating in the MUN!
All the Best!
Regards,
Kritika
(Chairperson, UNHRC)

1|Page
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

LETTER TO THE DELEGATES ............................................................................................. 1

HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE COMMITTEE ....................................................................... 3
Valid source of proof ............................................................................................................. 5
INTRODUCTION TO UNHRC ................................................................................................ 7
RECENT INSTANCES OF TERRORISM:-............................................................................. 8
• Pakistan Stock Exchange Attack (2020):- ...................................................................... 8
• Aden attacks (2020):- ...................................................................................................... 8
• Kabul School bombing (2021):- ..................................................................................... 8
• Burkina Faso mass shooting (2021):- ............................................................................. 8
• The Palma Attack (2021):-.............................................................................................. 9
• Christchurch mosque shootings (2019):- ........................................................................ 9
• UN Declaration on suppressing terrorism:- .................................................................. 10

2|Page
 HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE COMMITTEE

One of the major misconceptions about the concept of MUN’s is that you just research
from the internet and speak in the committee. However, that’s not the only thing you
do, you are required to research for the committee and analyse whatever you’ve studied.
When it comes to the term analysis, a lot of people don’t know what it means so for
example: You see someone’s marksheet and see that person has scored 90+ out of 100
in 4 out 5 subjects however in the 5th subject, the person has scored just 53 out of 100.
The part till here is called your research, this is something you’ve found out by
searching somewhere. When it comes to analysis, analysis means interpretation, now
for example in the above example a good analysis would be finding out that the person
if gives more time to the 5th subject rather spending so much time on other subjects,
his/her marks in the individual subjects might fall a bit but he/she would improve overall
because now that person would be scoring well in 5th subject as well.

Analysis is a very important aspect when it comes to you playing the role of a delegate
in a committee. Most delegates get confused by the term analysis and are not able to
improve the quality of their analysis overtime. In very simple words, “Analysis means
interpreting the research you have from your perspective”. The reason analysis is an
important aspect of a MUN is because, without analysing the current research you can’t
progress towards development but can only dwell upon the already existing research.
Before that, let’s understand what does your analysis include?

When you start analysis, you need to keep the following things in mind:

• Context– What is the context of your analysis? Basically, what are you analyzing?
What is it related to?

• Stakeholders– Who/What are driving your research and playing a major role? Who
are the relevant members to your research?

• Impact– What impact will your research have on the agenda? What role will it play
on the stakeholders of the research you have regarding the agenda

• Scope of Solution Space– What all solutions can be formulated to tackle the
problem?

• Constraints within solution– The solutions formulated in the solution space would
have a few constraints, what are those? And can they be tackled or is there any way
around?

• Key Insights– What is the final conclusion or key takeaways you have from the
analysis you’ve done regarding your agenda?

The above are the key points which are included in the concept named “Analysis”. If
you are able to find answers to the above points regarding your research you’ll have
an easier time going with the research and trying to understand the agenda.

3|Page
For a sample, let’s take the recent 2018 North Korea-United States Summit in
Singapore(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_North_Korea%E2%80%93United_Stat
es_summit) being discussed in General Assembly on the agenda related to nuclear
weapons; Now let’s draw out the line from this case:

Context– The context in this case would be that the summit had a few major decisions
regarding the nuclear weapons in Korean Peninsula hence it’s relevant to the agenda;
to elaborate more upon the context one would go into detail of what has been
promised by both the states regarding Nuclear weapons.

Stakeholders– The stakeholders in this case would be; USA, North Korea, South
Korea majorly; but you can come with other stakeholders as well when you research
further upon what bodies can play a role in this agenda, for example IAEA or P5
members of UNSC especially China.

Impact– So if the plans according to the summit go well, we can have a nuclear
weapon free Korean Peninsula and the threat of a nuclear war might reduce; the
nuclear resources used for making Chits play an important role in conveying messages
in the committee to delegates and the executive board.

Now the chits can be used in 2 ways:

1. Lobbying by asking questions and sending points to other delegates.

2. Display of substantive knowledge by sending chits to the Executive Board Now when
it comes to Substantive chits, they can be used to display your research and analytical
skills. The only thing it won’t help you in is your guidance of debate as the matter which
you’ll send would be only known to the Executive Board and you.

A few tips before sending substantive chits:

• NEVER EVER write long paragraphs. Underline/Highlight your main point which
you want to convey (Display of research)

• No need to write much of substantive matter, in fact, just make sure the substantive
matter being written is important and relevant.

• Try to concentrate on the analysis part. Which basically means what you interpret from
the research you have done, what are things being conveyed by the substantive matter
which you are giving to us? What do we do with the substantive matter? Research can
be found anywhere on the internet, but what matters is how you interpret and analyse it
while keeping your foreign policy in mind. That is when you need to carefully use your
brain.

• A chit is meant to be short, crisp and detailed at the same time. So always try to keep
it brief and to the point.

4|Page
 Valid source of proof

In the committee Evidence or proof is from the following sources will be accepted as
credible in the UNHRC:

1. State-operated News Agencies: These reports can be used in the support of or

against the State that owns the News Agency. These reports, if credible or substantial
enough, can be used in support of or against any country as such but in that situation,
they can be denied by any other country in the council. Some examples are:
i. RIA Novosti (Russia) [http://en.rian.ru/]
ii. IRNA (Iran) [http://http://www.irna.ir/en/]
iii. BBC (United Kingdom) [http://bbc.co.uk/]
iv. Al Jazeera (Qatar) [http://www.aljazeera.com]
v. Xinhua News Agency (PR China) [http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/china/]

2. Government Reports: These reports can be used in a similar way as the State
Operated News Agencies reports and can, in all circumstances, be denied by another
country. However, a nuance is that a report that is being denied by a certain country can
still be accepted by the Executive Board as credible information. Some examples are:

i. Government Websites like the State Department of the United States of America
[http://www.state.gov/index.htm] or the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation
[http://www.eng.mil.ru/en/index.htm]

ii. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of various nations like India [http://www.mea.gov.in/] or

People’s Republic of China [http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/].

iii. Permanent Representatives to the United Nations Reports

http://www.un.org/en/members/ (Click on any country to get the website of the Office
of its Permanent Representative.)

iv. Multilateral Organizations like the NATO

[http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/index.htm], ASEAN [http://www.aseansec.org/],
OPEC [http://www.opec.org/opec_web/en/], etc.

3. United Nations Reports: All UN Reports are considered are credible information
or evidence for the Executive Board of the UNHRC:

i. UN Bodies like the UNSC [http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/] or UNGA

[http://www.un.org/en/ga/].

ii. UN Affiliated Bodies like the International Atomic Energy Agency

[http://www.iaea.org/], World Bank [http://www.worldbank.org/], International

5|Page
iii. Monetary Fund [http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm], International Committee
of the Red Cross [http://www.icrc.org/eng/index.jsp], etc.

iv. Treaty Based Bodies like the Antarctic Treaty System [http:// www.ats.aq/e/ats.htm],
the International Criminal Court [http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/ICC]

NOTE — Sources like Wikipedia [http://www.wikipedia.org/], Amnesty International

[http://www.amnesty.org/], Human Rights Watch [http://www.hrw.org/] or newspapers
like the Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk/], Times of India
[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/], etc. are typically not accepted as
PROOF/EVIDENCE. However, they can be used for better understanding of any issue
or can be brought up to support their argument if the information given in such sources
is in line with the beliefs of a government. Further, the information submitted as
evidence citing reportage from sources such as specified in this note may be at best,
treated as having significance in terms of persuasive value - e.g., to cement one’s
assertions, but never as binding, indisputable fact.

6|Page
 INTRODUCTION TO UNHRC
The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system
responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe
and for addressing situations of human rights violations and making recommendations on them.
It has the ability to discuss all thematic human rights issues and situations that require its
attention throughout the year. It meets at the UN Office at Geneva.
The Council is made up of 47 United Nations Member States which are elected by the UN
General Assembly. The Human Rights Council replaced the former United Nations
Commission on Human Rights.
The Council was created by the United Nations General Assembly on 15 March 2006 by
resolution 60/251. One year later, the Council adopted its "Institution-building package" to
guide its work and set up its procedures and mechanisms.

The Human Rights Council does different things:

• It makes sure that all people understand their rights.

• It makes sure that all people have the same rights.
• It checks if all people can use their rights.
• It checks what governments do to protect the rights of people in their countries.
• It checks if governments do what they agreed on
at the United Nations.
• It helps people whose rights were taken away.

To do all the work, the Human Rights Council gets help from groups of experts. They are called
‘Advisory Committees’. Sometimes, the Human Rights Council also works with other experts
who know a lot about 1 right or 1 country. When this happens, we call it ‘Special Procedures’.

7|Page
 RECENT INSTANCES OF TERRORISM:-

• Pakistan Stock Exchange Attack (2020):-

Four men from Balochistan Liberation Army, a separatist militant outfit, attacked the
Pakistan Stock Exchange on June 29, 2020. Two guards and a policeman were killed
in the attack. Baloch militants and the remnants of the Pakistani Taliban have continued
to strike military and government targets, largely in Balochistan and Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
The Balochistan Liberation Army sent suicide attackers to the Chinese consulate in
November 2018, and a hotel in the new port of Gwadar in May 2019.
The separatist movement, which is designated a terrorist group by the US and UK, says
it is fighting for independence for Balochistan. The British government's designation
described it as "composed of tribal groups based in the Balochistan area of Eastern
Pakistan, which aims to establish an independent nation encompassing the Baloch-
dominated areas of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran". Pakistan says it is a proxy funded
by India and Afghanistan.

• Aden attacks (2020):-

As a plane carrying the newly formed cabinet of the Yemeni government landed at the
Aden Airport, explosions and gunshots were heard all over the airport leaving 25 dead
and110 wounded. The ghastly explosions were said to be targeted against the plane
carrying the cabinet. Yemen's internationally recognized government said Iran-backed
Houthi rebels fired four ballistic missiles at the airport.
The Cabinet reshuffle was seen as a major step toward closing a dangerous rift between
the government of embattled Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, and
southern separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates. Hadi's government and the
separatists are nominal allies in Yemen's years-long civil war that pits the Saudi-led,
U.S.-backed military coalition against the Houthis, who control most of northern
Yemen as well as the country's capital, Sanaa.

• Kabul School bombing (2021):-

At least 85 people were killed and dozens of others injured in the bombing of a school
in the Afghan capital. The attack took place in a neighborhood that has frequently been
attacked by militants belonging to the regional Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant –
Khorasan Province over the years. Conflict is raging in Afghanistan, with security
forces in daily combat with the Taliban, who have waged war to overthrow the foreign-
backed government since they were ousted from power in Kabul in 2001. The area
where the blasts happened is home to a large community of Shiites from the Hazara
ethnic minority, which has been targeted in the past by Islamic State, a Sunni militant
group.

• Burkina Faso mass shooting (2021):-

8|Page
 In the evening of 4 June, 13 civilians and a soldier were killed in an attack at the village
of Tadaryat in Yagha Province, Sahel Region. The attackers also raided the
communities motorbikes and cattle. Hours later in the early morning of 5 June,
insurgents attacked Solhan village in Yagha, killing around 138 civilians. In May, the
Burkinabe army launched a large-scale operation in response to a resurgence of militant
attacks. Despite this, the security forces are struggling to prevent the violence that has
forced more than a million people from their homes over the past two years. Africa's
semi-arid Sahel region has been hit by an insurgency since militants captured large
parts of northern Mali in 2012 and 2013. French forces have been supporting troops
from Mali, Chad, Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso to fight the militants.

• The Palma Attack (2021):-

A large group of Islamist insurgents overran Palma, Cabo Delgado Province, attacking
many buildings and people. The Islamists invaded the city, killing dozens of people
before Mozambique regained control days later. Palma was left destroyed, and a major
oil and gas company decided to suspend all operations in the area due to the battle. The
attack killed over 108 people in the Mozambican province.

• Christchurch mosque shootings (2019):-

At 13:40 NZDT, an Australian self-described "Ethno-nationalist, Eco-fascist" "Kebab
removalist" "racist" terrorist, who wrote a manifesto named after the far-right white
genocide Great Replacement conspiracy theory by French writer Renaud Camus,
opened fire on Muslim worshipers attending Friday Prayer at Al Noor Mosque and
Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand livestreaming the attack on
Facebook Live killing 51 people and injuring 49 others. The shooter had announced the
attack on 8chan and spread his manifesto on Twitter, Facebook and 8chan. Two
improvised explosive devices were found by police, and disarmed by the New Zealand
Defense Force. The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern described the
consecutive attacks as "one of New Zealand's darkest days".

9|Page
 • UN Declaration on suppressing terrorism:-
At its forty-ninth session, the General Assembly approved the Declaration on Measures
to Eliminate International Terrorism (resolution 49/60). Part II of the Declaration
further elaborates the aspect of the involvement of State actors in acts of terrorism, which
became a contentious issue in the negotiation of the more recent conventions. Thus
basing itself on the Charter of the United Nations and the Declaration of Principles of
International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States, the
principle of non-use of the territory of one State for the perpetration of terrorist acts
against another was incorporated.
“States, guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations
and other relevant rules of international law, must refrain from organizing,
instigating, assisting or participating in terrorist acts in territories of other States,
or from acquiescing in or encouraging activities within their territories directed
towards the commission of such acts;”
An aspect related to the concept of non-use of territory for the perpetration of
terrorist acts against another State, is the question of possible abuse of asylum or
refugee status for such purposes. Thus, the declaration requires that States should
take appropriate measures before granting asylum for the purpose of ensuring that
the asylum seeker has not engaged in terrorist activities and, after granting asylum,
for the purpose of ensuring that refugee status is not used in a manner contrary to

10 | P a g e
 the provisions set out in the declaration, relating to the non-use of territory for
terrorist purposes.
The Declaration also envisages practical measures of cooperation among Member
States by way of preventive measures for combating terrorism, which are set out
in paragraphs 5 (d) and 6 of the Declaration. These include:
(a) strengthening the exchange of information concerning the prevention and
combating of terrorism;
(b) effective implementation of the relevant international conventions, including
the harmonization of domestic legislation with these conventions; and
(c) conclusion of mutual judicial assistance and extradition agreements on a
bilateral, regional and multilateral basis.
Finally, the declaration calls for an analytical review of existing international legal
instruments relating to international terrorism with a view to identifying aspects
that had not been covered by such instruments and could be addressed to develop
further a comprehensive legal framework of conventions, the Declaration paved
the way for the “new generation” of conventions that were to follow, commencing
with the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, as
well as the draft Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, currently
under negotiation.
Hope you find this guide helpful! Also, do not restrict yourself to it, because even we won’t.
All the best.

11 | P a g e