Topic: Protecting Humanitarian Workers in Conflict Zones
Country: Latvia
Delegate Name: Daniel Lance
School: Forest Hills Northern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Latvia position papers GLIMUN 2011 committees
People die. People die every day; it is simply a sad fact of life. But why is it that the people who seem to be at the most risk these days are the people who give of themselves more than any of us ever would? The truly sad fact is that, every day, more and more charitable workers are killed due to sick political ends, warped religious principles, gross misunderstandings in the case of Non Government Organizational workers killed, and, in all cases, sheer negligence on the part of those who are mean to protect these innocent peace workers. This negligence and failure is made even more disgusting by the 66th general assembly of the UN, committee section B: Maintenance of International Peace and Security part 62, which delegates the protection of these humanitarian workers to the UN commissioner. And sadly, the rate of humanitarian deaths continues to climb.
The Republic of Latvia has a long history of humanitarian debacles, despite its relatively short period of sovereignty. In most recent years, three Latvian natives were kidnapped during a charitable mission for the UNHAS, and held in Darfur, Sudan for several months. The blame for the capture of these people does not lie with the UN, but, as they were UN workers, the expedience (or lack thereof) with which efforts were made to procure their freedom is laughable.
It is the belief of the Republic of Latvia that the intentions of the UN are good, but it is foolhardy to expect an assembly of beaurocrats to treat the rescue of three civilians with any kind of urgency, which is why it would be wise to outline a regimented procedure to deal with hostage situations, so that proceedings to rescue innocent people will not take three months.
