Topic: Countering the Threat Posed by Improvised Explosive Devices
Country: Botswana
Delegate Name: Kayla Fleishans
School: Royal Oak High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Botswana position papers GLIMUN 2017 committees
Improvised explosive devices are one of the most dangerous items left over conflict. People, especially children, may be curious of what an item is and it may turn out to be an IED. The threat of IEDs becomes increasing prevalent the longer that a conflict is waged. While cleaning up IEDs is very important for the safety of the people living in areas of conflict, the Disarmament and International Security Committee should focus on preventing IEDs from ever being made. If we can stop these unfortunate weapons of terror from being constructed, then eventually we will not have to focus on cleaning up the leftover IEDs from areas where there is no longer conflict.
There needs to be a consensus on how the international community can stop the materials, such as chemicals or scraps left over from military items, from leaving where they ended up after the conflict or war that was in that region has ended. Possibly the United Nations peacekeepers could enter the area to make sure that those items are properly disposed of before terrorists or non-state actors have the opportunity to ravaged the region for those supplies that could be used in creating IEDs. If the United Nations was in charge of disposing of those items, then it would be clear to not only the forces that would have otherwise used them for destruction, but also to the countries in which the conflict took place, that the items will not be used again to cause harm to anyone.
The committee should discuss who or what entity will be in charge of trying to clean up IEDs after a conflict or war has ended. Will it be up to each individual country in which the conflict took place, or up to the United Nations itself to try to clean it up using its own workers, or possibly even a non-governmental organization? Most likely the nation that will have had that travesty occur on its soil will not be able to properly dispose of the IEDs leftover itself and there most likely will be other more pressing matters to the nation to deal with than for with as of yet undiscovered and not yet exploded devices.
In committee, a good resolution shall cover how the nations where conflict or war took place will be able to either clean up the leftover IEDs themselves or will get help from the United Nations itself or possibly a NGO without also having further debt put onto their shoulders. The answer to the question of who should make sure that the materials that are leftover from conflict are not taken and moved by non-state actors or terrorists also needs to be included in the resolution that DiSec passes on this topic.
The Republic of Botswana will further speak about the ways in which IEDs will be prevented from being further created and hopefully never used again. Botswana looks forward to accomplishing a constructive resolution that will address the issues of who is going to be cleaning the IEDs and how that will occur through a collaborative effort of all nations involved to help better the geopolitical sphere.
