Topic: UN's Role of Addressing Sectarian and Ethnic Conflict within a Nation
Country: Kenya
Delegate Name: Meaghan O’Connor
School: Forest Hills Northern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Kenya position papers GLIMUN 2008 committees
One of the most important aspects of the United Nations is its role in handling conflicts peacefully within a country. The UN plays a significant role in preventing these conflicts while maintaining peace as well. When dealing with ethnic and sectarian conflict in a nation, it is best to prevent the conflict from emergence, rather than trying to fix a deeply-rooted issue. Because the role of the UN in ethnic conflict may be limited, it is hard to fix these problems when they have escalated to violence. The UN plays an important role in ethnic conflict prevention, providing tools for governance, an attention towards human rights, and promoting higher education as well as advancement of women in society. The pursuit of human rights was a central reason for creating the UN; however these human rights are not prevalent in some nations. In most cases there is a need for a stronger institution that can effectively pressure the government of a nation to address ethnic or sectarian conflict.
Kenya firmly believes in the implementation of stronger and more effective institutional mechanisms to ensure the prevention of ethnic and sectarian conflict within a nation. Kenya has made continuous efforts to transform social attitude through political, legislative, administrative, and policy measures, in an effort to prevent ethnic conflict from emerging. The UN’s role in conflict mediation should be expanded to break down ethnic tensions, before, during, and after a conflict has emerged. The government of the Republic of Kenya will continue to work with the international community and the civil society in the pursuit of peace, justice, and development for all.
The primary function of the UN when it comes to ethnic conflict is prevention. The United Nations has developed several human rights procedures to aid in preventing tension, along with the implementation of collective standard-setting. Collective standard setting helps to search for common solutions to common issues. However, these issues are far too broad and common to solve complex ethnic conflict. Although many standards have been set to oversee possible conflict, the implementation of these standards is not good enough. When dealing with conflict mediation, the UN must adhere to strict standards that may prevent a great deal of progress. The UN must be invited in by both parties as a peace-keeper. It has been proposed to strengthen the role of the UN in violent ethnic and sectarian conflict, which in turn would aid in peace-agreement and help the country transition back into a stable state. With stronger involvement in the conflict within a nation, the UN can achieve much more success when it comes to conflict mediation.
The Republic of Kenya proposes the strengthening of the UN’s role in conflict mediation. Kenya suggests the creation of more country-specific organizations that target ethnic conflict, as well as a stronger implementation of ethnicity codes that countries have to adhere to. Countries should be evaluated every year in terms of progress, amount of social tension, current issues, and social unity. If a country falls short in any of these categories, the UN should have the right and responsibility of stepping in to aid in peace-agreement. An organization should be created that specifically targets the root or structural causes of the conflict within a nation as well. This organization would create conditions for peace, while also addressing the threat of immediate violent ethnic conflict. Many violent conflicts can be prevented through the influence of international organizations; therefore, it is necessary to create and maintain a strong organization that can aid in this process.
