Topic: Status of Defense Contractors and Non-National Combatants
Country: Cuba
Delegate Name: Robbie Coon
School: Williamston High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Cuba position papers GLIMUN 2008 committees
During war times over the course of history combatants that do not have an official affiliation with any one side have been used for many purposes. This is part of the fundamentals of warfare. Recently these unofficial combatants have come from the background of war to the point where they seem to be some of the largest groups of fighters. The conflict in Iraq has seen many non-national combatants fighting and being captured ever since the United States entered Iraq in 2003. Any combatant captured by the United States in either Afghanistan or Iraq has been put into a special prison in Guantanamo Bay, which is in our great nation of Cuba. The atrocities that occur in the halls of the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay ring out across our nation in a permanent stain that our people do not deserve. The fact that the United States shouldn’t even have prisoners on their illegally obtained Naval Base aside, the United Nations needs to do something to halt these offenses against simple patriotic prisoners of war.
The United States has clung to the position that the prisoners held in their base at Guantanamo Bay are not protected under the Geneva Convention and therefore they can commit the terrible acts that occur at the prison. The great nation of Cuba feels that something must be done to assure that these prisoners get the rights and privileges that they rightfully deserve under the Geneva Convention. Cuba suggests that the Legal Committee create an official definition of these non-national combatants which will protect the patriots who put their lives at stake for their country only to be tortured and imprisoned unjustly by the United States and other countries.
Something must be done to stop the evils committed by the United States in Guantanamo Bay and other nations across the globe. The people of Cuba urge the United Nations to find a solution to this issue that will ensure that these people get the rights they deserve and that will bring a halt to the tyrants of this world who torture and murder simple patriots.
