Topic: Determining the Legitimacy of Secession Movements and Obligations of Parent States
Country: Singapore
Delegate Name: Asher Howarth
School: Royal Oak High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Singapore position papers GLIMUN 2016 committees
Singapore has mixed feelings on secession of potential new nations. Singapore didn’t exactly secede from Malaysia, as we were expelled and became our own nation in 1965. However, we can sympathize with both countries that are trying to secede and parent countries. Secession is quite a large step, and Singapore believes that it is the job of this body to set a certain ‘checklist’ that a country attempting to secede must meet. We also believe it is the obligation of the parent state to prevent violence and realize that if the government can’t provide for certain parts of their country, a secession might be better for both the parent state and the emerging country.
In recent instances such as in Crimea, we’ve seen widespread violence break out. Clearly it is the responsibility of the United Nations to make a ruling on secession, as revolutions or battles have seen inevitable when this should not be the case. Governments who can’t provide for all of their people shouldn’t expect their people to want to stay under that government, and they shouldn’t be forced to by the government. On the other hand, seceding nations who attempt to take part of a preexisting country without making extensive agreements beforehand cannot expect to not run into troubles when attempting to essentially take over a nation.
Singapore hopes that we, as a committee, can work together to find situations where secession is appropriate and necessary, and we hope that we can use those same rules to prevent potential secessions when they’re not a similar situation. We also hope we can set a ruling on how parent states should react to a secession. Hopefully rulings like these will be able to prevent violence and make it more clear cut as to when secession is the right call and when it isn’t. Singapore feels like our country can act as a bridge between different opinion and ideas so that we can cooperate and find a solid solution to this very real issue.
