Topic: Protecting Civilians in Conflict Zones
Country: Bangladesh
Delegate Name: Josh Glynn
School: Williamston High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Bangladesh position papers GLIMUN 2018 committees
As members of the Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC), we must focus upon maintaining peace across the world while also harnessing our resources to prevent weapon proliferation. The problem at hand is dealing with refugees from worn-torn countries. Syria for example, is currently the country with the most citizens fleeing for safety with 6.6 million refugees. This large number has accumulated over the past seven years due to the raging war in Syria. Afghanistan has the second-largest refugee population of 2.6 million while South Sudan comes in third with 2.4 million refugees. These nations are enduring political conflicts and the citizens are not safe living among guerilla-styled warfare. Their only option is to flee unless we can craft a solution to protect the rights of these civilians in conflict zones. If we cannot do this, we must at least admit them into our countries for the time-being.
Bangladesh takes this issue very seriously and we would like to provide whatever help and resources we can. Despite the fact that our economy has been growing by about six percent per year, we are still facing financial issues within our country. We recently received 700,000 refugees from Burma into our country. This has placed immense pressure on our government’s budget, dampening our hopes in revitalizing the economy. Our country’s rice supply (which already declined due to recent flooding) has also suffered from the refugees which further weakened the Bangladesh economy. Taking this into account, it becomes quite clear that we cannot provide financial support nor admit refugees into our country.
Although we cannot supply these countries with any direct assistance, we would be willing to support plans by other countries. We would like to see wealthier and more powerful nations craft a plan to allocate a sum of money for the refugees or admit them into their countries as citizens. As far as action that can be taken within these war ravaged countries, we recommend that UN peacekeepers be deployed to these areas. Specifically, they should be placed near healthcare centers as healthcare workers have become too afraid to help people and the civilians themselves are too scared to seek the medical attention they need. Bangladesh encourages the imposition of warnings to the conflict zones – the UN will not tolerate their actions that have caused millions of innocent people to suffer. If they contravene our order, they will endure the consequences that we have warned them of. Bangladesh greatly understands the extent of this issue. We hope that the rest of the UN takes this matter as seriously as we do. Together, we must exert our best effort in protecting these citizens and their rights as it is our duty to sustain peace across the world.
