Topic: Improving Accountability at the United Nations
Country: Nigeria
Delegate Name: Courtney Clay
School: Forest Hills Eastern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Nigeria position papers GLIMUN 2014 committees
Accountability with peacekeepers and fund corruptions at the United Nations has been an ongoing issue in the organization for many years. The first issue is that there is corruption in the process of distributing funds and contracts for necessary supplies. Countries are often bribed or offered kickbacks, and this causes suppliers to inflate prices and give money to corrupted leaders.The second issue is the issue of the criminal activity by the peacekeepers or UN blue helmets. These crimes span from sexual abuse and rape to murder also, pillaging and theft is occurring. Little action by the UN has been taken to stop these crimes because they are not realizing the seriousness of the problem, but now we need countries to take action and to be held accountable for the abuse.
Nigeria is a country contributing a significant amount of troops and peacekeeping missions to the UN. In the last 50 years, they have sent over twelve thousand personnel to more than 40 peacekeeping missions around the world. Nigeria thinks that member states should personally be responsible for the punishment of their troops. Nigeria has previously been responsible for punishing their peacekeepers in their own nation. However, some countries, such as Bangladesh, have not responsibly punished there troops. They need to somehow to held accountable for making sure they can individually punish their own peacekeepers. In the UN, there is currently a problem with corrupt use money awarded to certain countries in the UN. Nigeria believes that there should to be a clear process in which money is awarded. A straightforward layout should be implemented in the procurement process, to ensure money granted is used for its intended purpose.
In order to deal with these issues in the UN, Nigeria has a few proposals. First, Nigeria believes individual member-states should be responsible for punishing their peacekeepers disobeying laws. The definition of a crime should be a common code however its punishment should be left up to each country and based on its culture, religious and legal heritage. Nigeria also supports a zero tolerance policy with sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers. When it comes to corruption of money distribution within the UN, Nigeria believes the procurement process should be transparent. The UN needs to make sure this process is understood to further prevent corruption and bribery.
