Contact: dc[at]bermun.de

Disarmament Committee

We, Can Soylu from Robert College, Istanbul and Paul von Salisch from the John F. Kennedy School in Berlin are very happy to serve as your chairs in this years Disarmament Committee.

We want you to lead constructive and high quality debate and thus, we would like to inform you of the topics for Bermun 2009.

You need to be aware that this conference will only be able to be a success for you if you invest some time and effort into its preparation. Therefore, please conduct sufficient research on both topics. Every delegate is required to draft at least one resolution on one of the topics and create some additional single clauses for the other topic. Try to write a resolution on both topics, since a debate is only productive and fun if every delegate contributes to the discussion.

We realize that collecting information on some of the issues might be difficult. If you do run into problems or have any questions concerning our committee, the resolution process, or the conference in general, please don’t hesitate to contact us under dc[at]bermun.de. Another reference for you is the BERMUN Forum (http://forum.bermun.de/). It includes a special section for the Disarmament Committee, where you will be able to get to kow fellow delegates and start lobbying and exchanging ideas. We strongly encourage you to use of the forum, since it’s the ideal tool for research, lobbying, and first debating.

Please be aware that the topic descriptions below will not substitute for your research. On top of what you will read below, you will conduct extensive research on both of the issues.

All the best with your research,
See you in November,
Can Soylu and Paul von Salisch,
Chairs of the Disarmament Committee

Elimination of arms sales to areas of social and political unrest

Arms sales and trade have been ongoing since the start of the cold war. Exporting arms to Lesser Economically Developed Countries was of big symbolic importance to the United States and the Soviet Union since the 1960’s. Although a decrease of arms sales after the fall of the iron curtain and of the Soviet Union could be noted, this short decrease in trade has changed to a radical increase since 2003, with spending on weapons climbing to 1.46 trillion during the last year. Over 2% of the World Gross Domestic Product ( World GDP) consists of military spendings, furthermore the illegal trade in small arms grows extensive in many states affected by social and political crises.

One example of arms trade causing wars is the conflict that has been going on for a long time in Darfur, Sudan. During the last few years Human rights organizations have critisized China of keeping Sudan in supplies with arms used for the genocide in the Darfur region. Estimates are made the conflict in Darfur has killed 200 000 people and caused about 2,5-million people to flee from the region since 2003.

Eliminating the arms trade to all developing countries seems utopian, and the thought becomes almost impossible when understanding that military spendings make up 2 percent of the World Gross Domestic Product and that the UN does not have the right to forbid any country access to products of the world market unless there have been specific occasions leading to an embargo imposed by the UN.

But keeping from selling arms to areas of political and social unrest seems a realistic goal. In order for this goal to be achieved, increasing the control of arms trade, higher restrictions for arms companies, and cooperation of both those states that seem to be in political or social unrest and those exporting their arms is inevitable.

Research Links

• http://www.globalissues.org/article/74/the-arms-trade-is-big-business
• http://www.controlarms.org/en/arms-trade-treaty
• http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/112020.pdf
• http://disarmament.un.org/CAB/ATT/Resolution_61_89.pdf
• http://ipb.org/i/pdf-files/Arms_Trade_Brochure_28_05_09.pdf

Reviewing the implementation of the global ban on the use of cluster bombs and landmines with the intent of addressing the human and environmental costs caused by such munitions

Cluster bombs (or cluster munitions) are aggregations of smaller submunitions that are dispelled with the detonation of the original cluster bomb. Their indiscriminate and wide-range effect when combined with the delayed effect of unexploded bombs pose a threat to civilians. Cluster bombs and their bomblets can do a variety of things including causing electrical or incendiary effect or dispensing leaflets in large areas.

Landmines are explosive weapons that are buried underground and that are triggered by the weight of the target (whether it be a person or it be a tank) or by a tripwire. Similar to cluster bombs their long inactive periods and indiscriminate effect make them a threat to the civilians. (HowStuffWorks)

Both landmines and cluster bombs were globally banned in the last two decades with two different treaties; the former with the Ottawa Treaty (OT) of 1997 (only banning anti-personnel mines) and the latter with the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) of 2008.

It will be the duty of the Disarmament Committee in November 2009, to review the implementation of these bans. The implementation of the separate global bans on two separate types of weapons was decided to be handled together because the humanitarian and environmental costs of these weapons were very similar; this aspect will also be the focus of the committee.

Research Links

• http://www.icbl.org/index.php/icbl/Universal/ CCM/Signatories
• http://www.stopcluster munitions.org/the-problem/countries/
• http://unbisnet.un.org/
• http://documents.un.org/
• http://www.unicef.org/graca/mines.htm
• http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/19/cluster.bombs/index.html#cnnSTCText
• http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/28/uk.cluster.bomb/index.html
• http://www.icbl.org/
• http://books.google.com/books?id=JwU3lHz5214C&pg=PA1&dq=land+mines#v=onepage&q=land%20mines&f=false
• http://www.landmineaction.org/