Committee Overview

Chairs

Committee Description

Organized Crime in El Salvador

Methamphetamine use in New Zealand

Firearms Trafficking in Central and Latin America

Drug Abuse in Athletics

This committee will be run Harvard Style. This means that resolution papers

are not to be written until committee is in session. Any resolutions written beforehand will

not be accepted. Additionally, it is highly suggested that every delegate write at least one po-sition paper on a topic, as doing so will be necessary to be considered for an award.

All delegates are expected to come to the first day of the conference with a working knowledge of all or most of the topics as well as the policies of the countries that they represent.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime should focus on peacefully eliminating crime,

and terrorism without infringing on national sovereignty. Although awards are an im-

portant part of committee, Model UN is not a competition. Good luck with your research

and have fun!

Hello Delegates! My name is Abby Schaal, and this is my first time chairing. I am a junior at Brighton High School and this is my fourth year in Model Un. Outside of MUN I like to read, play field hockey, and volunteer for

TIES. I’m super excited for UNAR and I know our committee will be great! Feel free to email

me if you have any questions!

Abby Schaal| abbyschaal9@gmail.com

Hello delegates! My name is Kevin Li and this is my second time chairing. I’m a senior at Mendon High School and this is my fourth year in Model

UN. Outside of MUN, I play violin in the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, as well as playing tennis, and I am the captain of the Science Olym-piad club. I also enjoy fishing and camping. Feel free to email me if you have any questions! Good

luck in committee!

Kevin Li| kevinzyli02@gmail.com

UNAR 2020

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

UNAR 2019

Commission for Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

Organized Crime in El Salvador

Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/its-so-dangerous-to-police-ms-13-in-el-salvador-that-officers-are-fleeing-the-country/2019/03/03/e897dbaa-2287-11e9-b5b4-1d18dfb7b084_story.html

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/Farah.FIN1.pdf

https://www.insightcrime.org/el-salvador-organized-crime-news/el-salvador/

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/el-salvador

In 1992, El Salvador emerged from a 12-year bloody civil war that killed over 75,000 lives. From the ruins of this war came the hopes of creating an everlasting peace. Yet today, El Salvador is one of the most dangerous countries in the world, with one of the highest murder rates in the world. Though the murder rate has decreased in the past few years, El Salvador currently has a muder rate of 50.3 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018, drastically higher compared to the United States’ 5.35 per 100,000 and Sweden’s 1.08 per 100,000. This extremely high homicide rate is a conse-quence of the pervasive effects of organized crime in El Sal-

vador, with groups in El Salvador such as MS-13 and Barrio 18 wreaking havoc on civilians and police alike.

MS-13 was formed in Los Angeles during the 1970’s by the influx of immigrants fleeing El Salvador’s Civil War. Splintering from MS-13, Barrio 18 became MS-13’s main rivals as they grew both in US streets and prisons. Under the Clinton administration’s stricter deportation guidelines, thousands of the MS-13 and Barrio 18 convicts were deported back to El Salvador and neighbor-ing areas, allowing for organized crime in El Salvador to proliferate.

Although the government first responded with a harsh “iron fist” approach, crime has not de-creased. After multiple truces between the Salvadoran government and gangs, the issue has not been solved and continues to be a large obstacle to overcome. The United States have initialized efforts to stabilize the country, including spending $48 million to train Salvadoran police and open-ing a law enforcement academy, trained by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

With all of these efforts, organized crime remains the largest problem in El Salvador, harm-ing the welfare of all of its citizens. Additionally MS-13 and other gangs have spread to neighboring countries, further escalating the crisis at hand. Outside of broad committees such as the Conven-tion against Transnational Organized Crime, the UN has done little to nothing in order to resolve this issue. Due to these facts, it is of the utmost importance that solutions be found to decrease the pervasiveness of organized crime in El Salvador.

How can the UN establish peace in El Salvador without infringing on national sovereignty or incit-ing increased violence? What can be done to protect the police, who bear the brunt of these at-tacks? How will the UN be able to stop the spread of organized crime to areas of poverty and to other countries?

UNAR 2020

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

UNAR 2019

Commission for Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

Methamphetamine use in New Zealand

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/13/making-meth-how-new-zealands-knack-for-p-turned-into-a-homebaked-disaster

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/13/making-meth-how-new-zealands-knack-for-p-turned-into-a-homebaked-disaste

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/13/making-meth-how-new-zealands-knack-for-p-turned-into-a-homebaked-disaster

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/13/making-meth-how-new-zealands-knack-for-p-turned-into-a-homebaked-disaster

New Zealand is known for having resourceful citi-zens and a “do-it-yourself” atmosphere for making and growing drugs. Recently, New Zealanders have turned from cannabis, alcohol, and heroin to methamphetamine, commonly referred to as “P” within the country. Metham-phetamine is often easier to make and cheaper to buy than other drugs, and appeals to a wide range of ages and socioeconomic backgrounds. According to a report done by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, New Zealanders are among the highest

users of methamphetamine in the world. Many makers of P use mobile labs, which can be any-where around the country. Labs that are busted still end up reemerging at some point. The number of people being admitted to the hospital due to meth has been rising every year since 2012, and jumped 51% between 2014 and 2015.

The effects of methamphetamine are much more potent than those of other drugs. For ex-ample, The amount of dopamine released in the brain when you eat, listen to music, or use alcohol or cocaine is 300 units. The amount released when meth is used is 1000 units. Using metham-phetamine can lead to anxiety, depression, weight loss, psychosis, damage to the teeth and gums, cardiovascular problems, and violent behavior. Responding to methamphetamine reports also takes a significant amount of police and health resources. The drug not only harms the person us-ing it, but their family and community as well.

The government of New Zealand created an action plan in 2009 to try to combat the pro-duction of methamphetamine, and therefore combat the harms it causes as a result. The plan in-cludes stricter control over substances used in the manufacturing of meth and education, infor-mation, and resources on methamphetamine.

How can the UN prevent the reemergence of pop-up methamphetamine labs? What can the

UN do to treat and rehabilitate people addicted to this substance? How can the UN end the “do-it-yourself” drug culture in New Zealand?

UNAR 2020

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

UNAR 2019

Commission for Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

Firearms Trafficking in Central and Latin America

Sources:

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-muggah-arming-latin-america-20150118-story.html

https://www.unodc.org/documents/toc/Reports/TOCTASouthAmerica/English/TOCTA_CACaribb_firearmssmuggling_within_CAmerica.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322341037_Firearms_Trafficking_Central_America

Central and Latin America have some of the highest crime and homicide rates in the world. The hom-icide rates in these areas are being fueled by the pos-session and trafficking of firearms among the nations in the region. 77% of the murders in these areas are com-mitted with a firearm. These countries also have been characterized by conditions of poverty, inequality, unem-ployment, and income disparities. Many of the firearms that are being trafficked are left over from previous civil wars in the region. These nations were supplied firearms from their previous Cold War allies, and the guns have remained in circulation ever since. The arms are mainly trafficked through crimi-nal organizations and criminal networks. Other arms are

supplied by corrupt police and military officers selling or renting their arms on the black market. The movement of weapons is mainly conducted either within a region or to another Central or Latin American country. Surplus weapons from military and police stockpiles in Central America are the largest sources of illegal firearms.

The trafficking of these firearms is responsible for the lethality of everyday violence, and the high homicide rates in countries like Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Even though Latin America only makes up 8.5% of the world’s population, it makes up 27% of its homicides, 75% of which are due to gunshot injuries. Along with increasing the rates of violence and homicides in these nations, the threat of firearm violence undermines governance and local law enforcements in the regions.

While there are measures currently in place to control the trade of firearms, such as the Arms Trade Treaty and the Organization of American States, most are weakly adhered to or only address part of the issue.

How can the UN prevent further distribution of illicit arms? What can the UN do about the

surplus of firearms in these regions? What other measures can be put in place to control the movement of firearms? How can the UN discourage the selling of firearms by military and police officers on the black market?

UNAR 2020

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

UNAR 2019

Commission for Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

Drug Abuse in Athletics

Sources:

https://www.livescience.com/61747-how-widespread-olympic-doping.html

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4140700/

https://time.com/5746344/russia-banned-olympics-2019/

While doping is believed to be a modern phe-nomenon, its use dates back to the third century BC. Ancient Greek athletes would often use various con-coctions of alcohol, hallucogenic mushrooms and sesame seeds to improve performance. Today, such athletes are harshly punished for this behavior. As many as 57% of athletes have stated that they dope in anonymous surveys. On the other hand; proving this, however, remains difficult as only 2% of drug tests provided by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) were positive in 2017. One of the main problems regarding drug

abuse in athletics is the inability to identify performance enhancing drugs. Since drug tests run by WADA can only test for substances already known to be performance enhancing drugs, new ones often slip by theses tests. Additionally, many athletes stop doping years before the competition, making it nearly impossible to detect in urine samples after they’ve stopped for many years. This process allows athletes to make physical gains in time where they aren’t checked and keep that physical gain during competition time. Doping has many downsides ethically and competitively by giving unfair advantages to up to 57% of athletes who use performance enhancing drugs. Doping also has many physical side effects for athletes using them. From increased stress on the heart and liver damage to heart at-tacks, the list of negative consequences of doping goes on and on. Recently, Russia has been banned from the Olympics and Global Sports for four years due to state sponsored doping. Doping has allowed Russia to win 1st in the 2014 Sochi Olympics through falsified tests, altered urine samples, as well as the deletion of positive test results . While this is certainly a step in the right direction, it doesn’t address many of the doping cases around the world not sponsored by countries and places many athletes at risk. Due to the prevalence and dangers associated with doping, it is of the utmost importance that drug abuse in athletics be ad-dressed.

How can the UN enforce anti-doping policies around the world? What can be done to increase the number of athletes caught using performance enhancing drugs? Are there further methods to dis-courage doping in athletics? What can be done to decrease the number of athletes who dope?

UNAR 2020

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime