The Security Council has primary responsibility, under the Charter, for the maintenance of international peace and security. It is so organized as to be able to function continuously, and a representative of each of its members must be present at all times at United Nations Headquarters. The Historical Security Council will model an international conflict from the past, searching for different outcomes. A heated debate is expected in this committee! If you are a delegate in the Security Council, you will need to prepare a policy statement before the conference. Delegates in the Security Council do not need to write a draft resolution. _________________________________________________________________
Issue to be debated in the HSC at SzeMUN 2012:
Yugoslav Wars (1991-1995)
This special Council is going to handle one of the most mismanaged conflicts in European history. Many saw the latest Balkan’s War as a continuation of unsettled dispute in the Second World War that led to unprecedented bloodshed and the emergence of ethnic cleansing.
Clearly, the Security Council was incapable of preventing this catastrophe. Three nations, previously forming one country, entered into a war of secession and a civil war simultaneously. With more firm action from behalf of the international community, or at least by preventing arms sales, the massacre could have been stopped in the EU’s backyard.
Now the Historical Security Council will discuss the same topic, as if they were the actors back then. Yet a new course of action can be taken, with new perspectives. Therefore the HSC will be an exact copy of a Security Council meeting, with delegates having to prepare the same points of view as recorded, and at the same time they need to find other solutions.
Useful links:
History of Yugoslavia (BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/yugoslavia_01.shtml#three
Timeline of the break-up of Yugoslavia (BBC)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4997380.stm
The Yugoslav Civil War
http://staff.lib.msu.edu/sowards/balkan/lect25.htm
United Nations Protection Force
http://www.un.org/Depts/DPKO/Missions/unprofor.htm
The break-up of Yugoslavia
http://www.iacenter.org/folder02/hidden_em.htm
