Country: Afghanistan
Committee: DISEC
Topic: Private military contractors
Delegate: Thad Konieczny
School: Williamston High School
Private military contractors are one of the most dangerous threats to modern warfare. Companies that get paid by nations to do their bidding have been more and more frequent in foreign wars, especially the Middle East, in the past 20 years. Most of these groups are left unchecked by the government, allowing them to get away with ghastly crimes. There are numerous examples of abuses of power from these mercenaries, from illegal torture methods to killing of innocent civilians. None of this is even mentioning the dangers of letting the slaughter of people become a profitable business, which could lead to serious negative consequences in the very near future. While not all contractors are used with bad intentions, almost all have negative consequences.
Afghanistan has been severely affected by the use of mercenaries by foreign nations invading our country. In fact, one in four US military personnel in our country are from private contractors. Obviously, we are concerned about these soldiers, as the troops deployed by the US are dangerous enough to our people. As stated earlier, countries employing these people rarely place restrictions on them, as their only use is for bloodshed. We have seen what these companies do in other countries, and we are extremely worried, needless to say. These mercenaries are extremely dangerous to people like us, and we believe something must be done about them. We have occasionally employed such groups to help us with security matters, but we have not used them in the invasion of foreign soil like certain other nations have.
First off, Afghanistan proposes that we expand the terms of the United Nations Mercenary Convention to crack down more on the use of private contractors. We acknowledge that we have not signed this treaty, but it is still an important thing to focus on. As a whole, we must ensure that not only the individual countries, but the UN, oversees the activities of these mercenary groups. Furthermore, we propose that we establish a committee in the UN, perhaps a subgroup of DISEC, to watch over these companies to ensure that they do not commit crimes in the countries they are in. We also need to hold mercenary companies accountable by taking groups known for their brutality and sending them to the international court. Not only will this provide justice for their crimes, it will set a good example to other groups to show them that their actions do have consequences. We do not think it necessary to outlaw all of these groups, seeing as not all nations or entities use them for negative purposes. We just believe that it is important to put some checks on their power. We expect support from countries such as Iran or Syria who have been the target of private military contractors as well.
- Thaddeus Konieczny
