Topic: Political Corruption in Latin America
Country: Afghanistan
Delegate Name: Praneet Gundepudi
School: Forest Hills Eastern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Afghanistan position papers GLIMUN 2018 committees
Political corruption in any country is not an alien topic; it has existed in all forms of governments and in almost all countries and empires at one point in time. In essence, corruption of any sort is never beneficial for a governing body, and is an unnecessary evil that needs to be rid from the world. Corruption in the macroscopic sense not only results in public mistrust in the governing body, but also many other issues such as massive losses of funds and economic stagnation, as well as increasing inequality in major political issues. For example, in Brazil, the Petrobas scandal, arguably one of the largest corruption schemes to be uncovered, led to a $5 billion loss to corruption through state contract kickbacks. There was also the indictment of Argentina’s former president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, for meddling with the nation’s central bank. The trial against former Guatemalan president, Otto Perez Molina, for spearheading the masterminding of a scheme to allow bribes to be payed to customs officials himself also highlights the extent of involvement all members of government. These were are three examples of political corruption and are leading to these specific Latin American countries having greatly weakened central governments and waning trust and confidence within these countries on their respective governments. These issues call for immediate action on the part of the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (SpecPol) of the United Nations (UN) to first identify and minimize the causes of this corruption in these Latin American countries, and then peacefully transfer power to a legitimate and trustworthy leadership source in each of these countries.
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has come under fire recently for our own corruption accusations, and having gone through that, we recognize that corruption is not easy to deal with or put an end to, but it is necessary to do so. There were many corrupt officials in our governing bodies in the past, and allegedly, approximately half of them accepted bribes to push third party ideas through. The transition to a democratically-elected government has been difficult, and is largely the cause of some of these issues. This corruption has caused many issues within our republic such as the loss of funds, deprivation of the vulnerable of essential services and limits their access to justice, and the restriction of our economy to properly progress as it should be. That shows that it is time for action to be taken against this travesty of corruption. We have seen that corruption undermines the authority of the state and its institutions and provides vast opportunity for criminal networks to develop and insurgents to operate. It also reduces the trust between the citizens and government, reverting the affected countries such as Argentina, Brazil, or Guatemala to their former states of conflict. Afghanistan has taken measures to stop this impending disaster and reduce corruption in our country, such as signing the UN Convention Against Corruption’s Implementation Review Mechanism and has adopted Afghanistan’s National Strategy for Combating Corruption, which has led to a safer and more trustworthy government. Our President is wholeheartedly behind this effort, and is one of the spearheads of the anti-corruption movement within Afghanistan; we believe that that is how all countries should function, with a powerful, morally apt leader, who combats the evils of corruption. Central governments should become actively against corruption, and believe that the UN should not allow for political officials to be accepted into the central governments of these countries unless they have publicly stated that they have made efforts to reduce political corruption. It is essential that the sovereignty of the countries’ central governments do not get harmed, but that the general well-being of the public and confidence and trust within the respective governments should increase.
Afghanistan urges that the UN implement an overseeing confirmation program that does not allow for political officials to be accepted into the central governments of these countries unless they have publicly stated that they have made efforts to reduce political corruption. And through experience, we have learned that corruption emerges out of lack of training and education, as do most issues of the world, and so we also propose that the UN establish an independent selection commission to select, appoint and train new politicians and political staff (within all branches of the respective governments). The commission should be empowered to make recommendations to all central governments on any existing officials who do not meet required levels of integrity. These movements allow for a safer world, not only in the Latin Americas and in the affected nations, but for the supposedly clear countries who do not have to experience the devastation of corruption, and allow for all humans, in the future, to experience a mostly non-corrupt world.
