Topic: Status of Defense Contractors and Non-National Combatants
Country: Rwanda
Delegate Name: Whitney Morris
School: Royal Oak High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Rwanda position papers GLIMUN 2008 committees
A person who takes part in an armed conflict, and who is not a party of the conflict is called a mercenary. Rwanda has dealt with mercenaries many times, for example, “the Rwandan genocide”. Rwanda believes that we all should act in an orderly fashion; however we also know that we are going to have the people that rebel. So with that said we need to do something about the “Unofficial Combatants”. Rwanda thinks that we should clear up the line between the legal, and the illegal enemy combatants. We also think that if can get that cleared up, it would lead us to the next right step to take. Rwanda wonders what would happen if we stopped blaming others and compromise. Could solve this uncertainty and create a system that would work.
The Third Geneva Convention of 1949 was a great deal. Rwanda feels that (Article 4), is among the most important to understand. The Geneva Convention states that privatet militaries refer to themselves as “supply contractors”. However, a mercenary is known as an unlawful combatant. That is what allows the privet militaries to call themselves “supply contractors”. The supply contractors are the individuals who are allowed to go into the areas of conflict. They go in with the government. If the contractors are captured they have the prisoner of war status. If the mercenaries are captured they do not receive the prisoner of war status. Many have said that the mercenaries are motivated by power and money. Prisoners of war were not treated the best at all. That needed to change. Then there were changes made in the conventions to make the torturer of a prisoner illegal.
Rwanda wants to know what others in the U.N. should do to create and keep a more perfect structure that works. We know that the U.N. holds a strong impact on the world, however we need new policies and improvisions on the older policies to keep a strong U.N. with peace.
