position papers from NUJS team

POSITION PAPER

Committee : ECOSOC Council
Agenda : Global Warming and the World Economy
Country : The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Delegate : Ms Ketaki Purohit

The freedom of maximum growth and development is available to every person and every nation on this planet. The same is the direct or indirect objective of every Charter or Treaty Agreement signed by any country. The United Kingdom not only affirms the above, but also takes cognizance of the environmental costs of development.

The evidence provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was accepted and the acted upon by the UK by way of ratification of the Kyoto Protocol in March 2002. The legally binding target of reduction of emissions under the Protocol is 12.5 % by 2008-2012. The UK has taken a step ahead and committed to a domestic obligation of 20 %. In furtherance of the above, the Climate Change Levy was implemented which provides for penalties and benefits to regulate energy consumption.

Individually and as a part of the European Union, the United Kingdom stands firm to its commitment towards mitigation of global warming. The United Kingdom believes that the measures under the Kyoto Protocol, especially International Emissions Trading provide a temporary solution at the very least. The benefits of Emissions Trading, most importantly Carbon Credits Trading accrue in the form of generation of property rights leading to creation of markets and significantly, the transfer of wealth from polluters to non-polluters.

At the 13th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at Bali in December 2007, the UK reiterated its position and support to the European Union’s Emissions Trading System. The UK urges that global warming is not merely rhetoric but the responsibility of all nations and therefore the burden be equitably distributed and that no lapses or leeway be tolerated in this regard.

POSITION PAPER

Committee : ECOSOC Council
Agenda : Labour Migration
Country: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Delegate : Ms Ketaki Purohit

The United Kingdom recognizes the right to earn a livelihood of every human being on this planet and strives to provide the same for its citizens. Acknowledging its position as a developed economy, the UK has played its part in facilitating employment by providing asylum for immigrants, to a reasonable extent. Immigration and asylum policies are rarely absent from public debate in the UK.

Since the mid-1990s, trade unions and employers’ associations have largely supported government attempts to develop a more active 'managed migration' policy in the UK. Alongside policies to tackle illegal working, a series of measures were introduced to streamline and extend the legal migration routes previously available. Prior to making other international commitments, however the United Kingdom seeks to uphold existing EU Member State agreements that transitional arrangements be introduced to limit or regulate access to their labour markets by nationals of the other eight accession countries (the A8).

Further, the UK welcomes commitment to honour international obligations to provide a safe haven for bonafide refugees, and argues that governments should do more to counter the illegal emigration as well as immigration, implement stronger measures to deal with rogue employers that exploit migrant workers.


. Position Paper

Delegate: Mrinal Kanwar
College: West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences
Country: United Kingdom
Committee: Human Rights Council
Topic: Children in Armed Conflict


The four 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Additional Protocols, to which UK is a signatory, offer specific protection to children during armed conflict. The UK ratified the ‘Convention on the Rights of the Child’ in December 1991. In September, 2000, UK signed the ‘Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict’, signifying its commitment to eliminating the recruitment and deployment of minors in Armed Forces.

During its presidency of the EU, in 2005, the UK lobbied seven target governments to address the issue of children and armed conflict and the adoption of a comprehensive review of EU activity in this area, including a series of recommendations setting out how the EU should respond to children affected by armed conflict in the future. The UK supported the measures taken by the Human Rights Council to deal with the situation of humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Haiti, Middle East. The United Kingdom also helped to secure a durable cessation of hostilities in Lebanon, leading to the adoption of Resolution 1701 by the UN Security Council. The UK has recently contributed £250,000 to a UN appeal fund to support the mediation process for ending the practice of recruiting child soldiers in Uganda.
In furtherance of its campaign for protecting children in armed conflict, the UK encourages universal ratification of the Optional Protocol as the main countries practicing such gross violation of child rights are primarily those who have not yet assented to the same, like Ghana, Iran, Iraq, and Palestine etc. Nevertheless, countries like Sri Lanka, Democratic Republic of Congo etc have ignored the Protocol inspite of being signatories to it.
UK, being in the P5 and in furtherance of its spirit of preserving Human Rights and civil liberties proposes to conduct diplomatic lobbying exercises, to monitor local developments, to help with further work in highlighted areas for development and progress.


Position Paper

Delegate: Mrinal Kanwar
College: West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences
Country: United Kingdom
Committee: Human Rights Council
Topic: Internal conflict and protection of human rights with special reference to Nepal and Sri Lanka

The UK, being a signatory to the United Nations Development Program and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, aims at creating an atmosphere in which the Nepalese and Sri Lankan people can freely enjoy their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

There have been gross Human Rights violations in these nations, due to the never ending internal political conflict. Human rights have thus, been marginalised and subordinated to political considerations in the efforts to establish peace between the Maoists, the Government and the King in Nepal and the LTTE and the Government in Sri Lanka.

The UK has the longest history of representation in Nepal of any foreign state and has one of the largest Bilateral Development Assistance Programmes in the country. The UK is also a party to the UNMIN and has dispatched 2 military observers to Nepal under the same. The UK is the second largest bilateral donor to Nepal after Japan, and the fourth over all after the World Bank and Asia Development Bank. The UK further continues to coordinate international efforts to help resolve the conflict in Nepal through the International Support Group.

The British Government’s Bilateral Development Programme in Sri Lanka is administered by the DFID, which, recognizes the existing conflict raging in the country for almost 2 decades, identifies the main cause hindering efforts to eliminate poverty, and places an important focus on Conflict Resolution initiatives, thereby, establishing Relief and Rehabilitation Programme for displaced people and communities affected by the conflict and supporting the ongoing peace process.

Furthermore, the UK proposes for the formulation of formal co-ordination mechanisms among the major donors which would help in channelising the donations and recommends a long term planning for dealing with the issues of internal conflicts in these nations, to avoid the end moment confusion which may result from conflicting decisions taken by different donor countries.




Position Paper

Delegate: Mrinal Kanwar
College: West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences
Country: United Kingdom
Committee: Human Rights Council
Topic: Internal conflict and protection of human rights with special reference to Nepal and Sri Lanka

The UK, being a signatory to the United Nations Development Program and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, aims at creating an atmosphere in which the Nepalese and Sri Lankan people can freely enjoy their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

There have been gross Human Rights violations in these nations, due to the never ending internal political conflict. Human rights have thus, been marginalised and subordinated to political considerations in the efforts to establish peace between the Maoists, the Government and the King in Nepal and the LTTE and the Government in Sri Lanka.

The UK has the longest history of representation in Nepal of any foreign state and has one of the largest Bilateral Development Assistance Programmes in the country. The UK is also a party to the UNMIN and has dispatched 2 military observers to Nepal under the same. The UK is the second largest bilateral donor to Nepal after Japan, and the fourth over all after the World Bank and Asia Development Bank. The UK further continues to coordinate international efforts to help resolve the conflict in Nepal through the International Support Group.

The British Government’s Bilateral Development Programme in Sri Lanka is administered by the DFID, which, recognizes the existing conflict raging in the country for almost 2 decades, identifies the main cause hindering efforts to eliminate poverty, and places an important focus on Conflict Resolution initiatives, thereby, establishing Relief and Rehabilitation Programme for displaced people and communities affected by the conflict and supporting the ongoing peace process.

Furthermore, the UK proposes for the formulation of formal co-ordination mechanisms among the major donors which would help in channelising the donations and recommends a long term planning for dealing with the issues of internal conflicts in these nations, to avoid the end moment confusion which may result from conflicting decisions taken by different donor countries.


Position Paper

Delegate: Samya Chatterjee
College: West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences
Country: United Kingdom
Committee: Security Council
Topic: Nuclear Proliferation

"The UK is determined to have a world free of nuclear weapons. But to get there we must first create an international environment that better supports disarmament. The UK has and will continue to pursue this until nuclear weapons no longer exist" - Defense Secretary Des Browne

The NPT(Nuclear Proliferation Treaty) signed on July 1, 1968 as an instrument to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons has not lived up to the expectation to the extent that it has failed to keep non-signatories and ‘renegade states’ from pursuing nuclear capabilities. In this respect, it is essential that the five nuclear states take the initiative towards disarmament as the first step to prevent proliferation in accordance with Article VI of the NPT. The United Kingdom in the past has played a key role in this respect.
Examples of the UK's initiatives include:
• Continuing to be a leading advocate for UN Security Council Resolution 1540 which puts legally binding obligations on all UN Member States to combat proliferation of WMD.
• Maintaining a moratorium on nuclear testing since 1991.
Though United Kingdom completely supports the policy of disarmament, in the face of new challenges i.e. rogue states and non-state actors, it is in the interest of our security that a minimum nuclear deterrent capability currently represented by Trident is to remain a necessary element of our security. Coming to the question of nuclear states not a party to the NPT, it is indispensable that their national security resources are in safe hands and they must adhere to the IAEA safeguards. A situation in contradiction to the above-mentioned stand calls for inspection by a credible third party to ensure detection and deterrence.
The United Kingdom firmly believes in a nuclear free world but to get there we must create an international atmosphere that better supports disarmament. The UK has and will continue to pursue this until nuclear weapons no longer exist.