Topic: International Cooperation in Combatting Piracy
Country: Somalia
Delegate Name: Samuel Mendoza
School: Forest Hills Eastern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Somalia position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
As defined by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), Piracy is “the act of boarding any vessel with intent to commit theft or any other crime, and with an intent or capacity to use force in furtherance of that act.” Somalia has suffered attacks by pirates for many years, although international ships in the area were the target. In 2013, the rate of piracy off of the coast of Somalia decreased sharply, seeing only 9 attacks in that year. This decrease can be attributed to the increased security presence from other countries protecting their own ships as well as increased security on the vessels themselves, most likely arising from the resolutions the United Nations has previously passed on the subject as well as nations who have decided to protect their own ships in Somali waters. These ten resolutions (1) (launching a naval operation to protect ships providing humanitarian aide in 2008, authorizing states and organizations to protect against piracy, calling on states to criminalize piracy, and calling upon states and organizations to cooperate with INTERPOL and Europol to investigate criminal organizations) have called upon member states to protect their own ships in Somali waters and upon organizations to attempt to halt the prevalence of piracy off the Somali coast. Although piracy is still an issue off the coast of Somalia, it is no longer the active area it used to be. Pirates have moved away from the Somali coast to the Gulf of Guinea, seeing a rise in 2011 to more than 64 incidents per year, the eastern Indian Ocean and the Straits of Malacca, both seeing a slight decrease in piracy from 79 to 70 attacks in 2006, and Indonesia, seeing an slight increase in pirate attacks rose from 41 to 56 in 2011. The aforementioned ten resolutions passed by the United nations applied only to Somali waters and while the United Nations has passed to similar resolutions applying to the Gulf of Guinea, it is still not enough to eradicate piracy all over the world.
(1)[Resolutions 1816 (2008), 1838 (2008), 1846 (2008), 1851 (2008), 1897 (2009), 1918 (2010), 1950 (2010), 1976 (2011), 2015 (2011), and 2020 (2011) were passed by the United Nations in order to combat piracy, most of which do not call outright for any action on the issue.]
Somalia has long been the center of pirate attacks and prior to 2013, Somalia suffered more than 50 pirate attacks on foreign ships passing through Somali waters per year, resulting in an estimated loss $6.75 billion per year, more than the GDP of Somalia. Foreign ships dump toxic waste into the waters of Somalia, poisoning fish and ruining the fishing industry. As a result of the drop in income, former fisherman-turned-pirate in order to make up for lost money. They primarily target commercial vessels and hold them for ransom instead of taking their goods. Many coastal-dwelling Somalis support piracy because they associate it with the destruction of their fishing economy. Despite this, Somalia maintains its belief that piracy is an evil that must be eliminated.
For many years, Somalia has attempted to combat piracy off of its coast, using its few ships to police the waters around Somalia. However, because of its current economic situation, Somalia has been unable to effectively combat piracy. The Security Council of the United Nations in the past seven years has ratified 10 resolutions to combat piracy off the Somali coast. These resolutions have been very successful, decreasing the amount of pirate attacks per year to less than ten. These resolutions called for the prevention and prosecution of pirates, placing the burden of these tasks on United Nations member states, such as China and Japan, and private organizations, such as Barthe Cortes and the Texas-based Espada Logistics and Security Group. Currently, Combined Task Force 150, which is part of a United States mission to combat Islamist militants and piracy, Combined Task Force 151, with the specific responsibility of off the eastern coast of Somalia, and Operation Atalanta, a counter-piracy operation launched in 2008 to protect ships carrying humanitarian aid to Somalia, are operating off of the Somali coast to combat piracy as part of the United Nations effort to fight and eliminate it.
Although the frequency of pirate attacks has decreased, these attacks still occur. Somalia’s and the United Nations’ goal continues to be the prevention and elimination of all pirate attacks off of the Somali coast and all areas of the world, including the Gulf of Guinea and the eastern Indian Ocean. We call upon the United Nations to create a resolution to further combat and completely eliminate piracy from our coast. We ask that that resolution calls further upon United Nations member states to continue to supply naval aid to the Somalis in an effort to finally eliminate this crime.
