Topic:
Country: Sierra Leone
Delegate Name: Ayden Fisher
Country: Sierra Leone
Topic: Indiscriminate Weapons
Committee: DISEC
School: Forest Hills Central High School
War is one of the most violent ways a country can enact change. If that violence isn’t carried out with strict guidelines, there would be devastation around the world. Some things lay on the line between something that could be used or banned. One of these is Indiscriminate Weapons. Indiscriminate Weapons are extremely deadly weapons that cannot focus on a single target and cause harm or injury to anyone they come in contact with no matter who they may be. Some examples of Indiscriminate Weapons are landmines, traps, bombs, nuclear explosives, and chemical agents. Some of the most famous uses of an Indiscriminate Weapon is the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In 1945, two atomic bombs were dropped on the towns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki shortly after. With an explosive power of 15,000 tons of TNT, both bombings were catastrophic to the population. The first bomb killed 140,000 people, and the second killed 74,000. Many survivors would later battle leukemia and cancer due to the radioactive residue left by the two bombs. This is just two cases of Indiscriminate Weapons causing massive damage and leaving severe casualties, and also led to long-term effects.
In May of 1981, Sierra Leone was a cosigner of a convention that was set to put restrictions on any weaponry that was designed to excessively inflict injury or have indiscriminate effects. This convention was designed to prohibit or restrict weapons such as mines, booby-traps, and any fragmentation or incendiary weapons. More recently, Sierra Leone decided to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). It was signed by David J. Francis, the current minister for foreign affairs and international cooperation on September 22, 2022. It was then ratified by Timothy Musa Kabba, his successor, on September 24, 2024. This treaty has yet to be enforced during the writing of this paper. It is set to be enforced on December 23, 2024. Sierra Leone has also urged all other UN members to also sign and ratify the treaty. Before the treaty was proposed officially as it is now, Sierra Leone was one of the 127 states that endorsed a humanitarian pledge that was a stepping stone into the support for creating the TPNW negotiations.
Sierra Leone encourages that International law is to be strengthened to prevent the use of indiscriminate weapons in future conflicts before cleanup efforts are needed by adhering to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. This is to ensure the use of indiscriminate weapons is prohibited, eventually eliminating any more unnecessary harm. As new technologies progress, Sierra Leone emphasizes that members of the United Nations become more transparent on their use of indiscriminate weapons. This will allow other nations to be aware of each other.
