SPECPOL

Indigenous Minorities--Industry, Environment, and Public Health In 1980, a group of Amazonian indigenous peoples called the Nahua was exposed to the outside world, and since then, their society has been plagued with infectious diseases, environmental issues, and governmental neglect. When the tribe first made contact with outsiders, about 50% of the population died from diseases, because their immune systems were not well equipped to deal unknown viruses and bacteria. While the Nahua did overcome this huge drop in population, they now deal with a different health issues--mercury poisoning. Officials first discovered this phenomenon in November 2014, when a young baby was tested for heavy metals and came back positive for mercury. Since then, many groups and individuals have asked the Peruvian government for help, yet hardly any action has been taken. AIDESEP, an indigenous federation, argued that the government is trying to hide this issue so that it does not have to funnel mon...

Hey Delegates! A strong position papers is an important aspect of being a good delegate. Not only is it paramount for research awards, but it also sways consideration for conference awards. Having strong research skills to uncover important information, extract key insights, and develop robust solutions is a crucial skill for MUN and life beyond. This post is meant to clarify what standards we hold for position papers and any further questions you may have. A position paper should reflect the research you have conducted on each topic and be strongly colored from the viewpoint of your country. This should demonstrate clearly your knowledge of the topic and understanding of your nation’s position. This is not meant to be an unbiased document, but at the same time don’t lie or cite nonexistent articles. Overall, you should submit a paper of 5-10 pages per topic that exhibits a comprehensive understanding of the situation, an organized and argumentative structure, original thinkin...

Hello! I hope you are having a wonderful time researching about the two topics! This week, we are going to discuss an article written by a visiting associate professor of UC Berkeley. But, before going into the article, some background knowledge on the recent Iranian protests is important. On January 2, 2018, demonstrators took the streets of Iran in what’s considered as the “largest public display of discontent since the 2009 Green Movement” (CNN), protesting the nation’s stagnating economy and the lack of social freedoms. And this brings up a good point about the nature of unrest and instability in the region: economic grievances. The professor writes that “ the nuclear deal [referring to the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal] raised people’s hopes for an expedited and expanded economic recovery… [but] the country’s current economic difficulties, as well as widespread corruption,” (Monshipouri) have not met the rise in people’s expectations. Specifically, Hassan Rouhani’s economic austerit...

Hello again! In this post, I will be touching on one of the largest international issues our decade has faced that is vital to your understanding of the Middle East: the Syrian War. First, please take a quick look through some amazing resources from BBC to expand your historical knowledge on the topic before looking at the recent article that I will be discussing. Here are some great resources: Country Profile: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14703856 Timeline: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14703995 Why is there a war? http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35806229 Syria's Bloodiest Days of War: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-18255521 How the war has persisted and spread: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28850956 After looking at these articles, I would now encourage you to look at this article from 24 January 2018 which highlights a US airstrike on IS headquarters that killed 150 militants: http://www.bbc.com/news...

Hi All! I highly encourage you to read this (very short :)) article on how businesses affect indigenous minorities. http://unpo.org/article/20582 One key portion to the article that I would really like you all to focus your solutions and attentions to is in the fourth paragraph. Here, it highlights how although the production of soy in Brazil helped the nation's economy tremendously, it displaced 20,000 to 40,000 indigenous people in the process. With an article like this, I would like you all to spend a lot of time really really putting in time to think about what we as a committee can do to help protect these indigenous minorities while still allowing developing nations to flourish. Thus, please answer a couple of these following questions from your individual standpoint as a person! I'd love to hear what you all think! Why is it that 20,000 to 40,000 people were displaced, yet the population of Brazil had little to no knowledge of this happening? What are t...

Hey Delegates! As you’re reading through the background guide and starting to conduct your own research, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the broad overarching themes in our topics. These ideas are present throughout the background guide, but it’s helpful to take a step back and consider the situation as a whole. Political Stability in the Middle East The goal of this topic is to examine how political issues function as the root of various regional symptoms of instability (e.g. economic stagnation, violence and terrorism, human rights violations). Too often, these individual problems are considered and treated in isolation because of their huge scale. However, all continue to exist due to a common underlying cause: the lack of strong, stable, and fair political institutions. This topic seeks to build those institutions and deploy strategies for curing the symptoms, if possible. Coordinating a divided international community to help a fractious regional community...