Topic:
Country: Kenya
Delegate Name: Giselle Green
Country: Kenya
Delegate Name: Giselle Green
Committee: Special Political Committee
Topic: Determining the Legitimacy of Succession
Determining the legitimacy of succession is a very important topic in the discussion of nations’ governments. Nations have their own framework outlining their country’s succession. The results of succession can either make or break a nation though. Many countries have had and still have problems due to not being able to determine the next ruler. The problem is that a nation’s succession laws can be interpreted differently. There doesn’t seem to be a constitution made by the UN to directly address this problem. Currently, the UN acknowledges a state when two-thirds of the existing members of the UN acknowledge the state as a sovereign nation. This can cause problems especially when many of the states not currently acknowledged need help fighting in the wars against parent countries who are trying to completely take over. A great example of this is the Israel-Palestinian Conflict. Although Palestine has been given some aid, it is only partially recognized by the UN while Israel is completely recognized. Because there is no clear set of guidelines concerning succession, Israel and Palestine have been in conflict since 1947.
Kenya is a relatively new nation. We won our independence from Britain in 1963 and this was a result of the Kenya Independence Act. It clearly laid out the guidelines and stated that Kenya was now in control of their government. Jomo Kenyatta was the first prime minister of Kenya giving it its independence. A few years before Kenya gained independence, a couple of political groups were born. The Kenyan African National Union and the Kenya African Democratic Union were created. When creating the constitution, regionalism vs. centralism was brought up. This caused some debate on how the constitution should be framed. Eventually an agreement was reached and four amendments were made. Now under the constitution, there is a Law of Succession Act which outlines the criteria in determining succession.
Right now, a major issue we have with the legitimacy of succession is unclear intentions which many times result in war or the denial of a nation’s independence. Kenya would like to bring forward the idea of forming an act to set certain standards for each nation’s laws in relevance to their determination of succession. This could prevent confusion with succession and create more order. Kenya would give full support to a resolution discussing the idea of making the framework dealing with the legitimacy of succession more clear and specific.
