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CTC

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PAN AMERICAN SCHOOL

10TH ANNUAL MODEL

UNITED NATIONS

February 23rd

, 24th

, and 25th

Dear Delegates,

Welcome to PASMUN 2017! We are honored to have you

participate at our 10th Annual Model United Nations. Our

secretariat, chairs and staff have been working to give you

one of the best simulations you will ever experience.

During these three days you will have the opportunity to deal with international issues which will improve your skills, flourish your leadership, will promote teamwork and will make you have a different way of viewing the world we live in. You will also get to know new people, since this is an event created by students for students.

We encourage you to challenge your abilities in all the possible ways before, during and after the event. We hope you give your best in this simulation and take the most advantage of it. This year, since we still have faith in humanity, we are trying to inspire you in order for you to inspire others to be the change! We are beyond excited to have you in our event!

Sincerely,

Natalia Tellez

Secretary General

Natalia Tellez

Secretary General

Jose Luis Herrera

Director General

Miranda Silva

Crisis Director

Valeria Villafranca

Subsecretary of

Commitees

Rafael Paredes

Chief of Crisis

Paola Froto

Subsecretary of Affairs

Pablo Navarro

Subsecretary of

Technology

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Committee: Counter-Terrorism Committee

Director: Saúl Guzmán

Moderator: Ángela Martínez

Topic A: Abolishing Weapons from Reaching

Terrorist Groups

I. Committee Background

The CTC works to aid the ability of United Nations Member States to prevent

terrorist acts over the world. It was established in the watch of the September 11th

terrorist attacks in New York, USA. It was tasked with monitoring the

implementation of the resolution 1373, which requested countries to apply a

number of measures intended to enhance their legal and institutional ability to

encounter terrorist acts in their regions and around the world, including taking

steps to: criminalize the financing of terrorism, stop any funds related to people

involved in acts of terrorism, ban all forms of financial support for terrorist groups,

suppress the provision of shelter or support for terrorists, share information with

other governments on any groups practicing or planning terrorist acts, cooperate

with other governments in the investigation, detection, arrest, expulsion and

prosecution of those involved in such acts; and criminalize active and passive

assistance for terrorism in domestic law and bring violators to justice. The CTC is

sustained by the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Director (CTED), which

carries out the decisions of the Committee, attends experienced assessments of

each Member State and eases counter-terrorism technical aid to countries. Jean-

Paul labored of France has been the Executive Director of the CTED and Assistant

Secretary-general since June 2013.

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II. Statement of the problem

Since 2011, terrorism became a real concern for millions of people. Millions of

people got scared about the effects of terrorist acts. These terrorist acts happened

because of hate, rebellion, etc. But they also happened because reaching

weapons was not that difficult for terrorists. This has become a problem, due to

several factors; one of them being how easy it is to acquire weapons in countries

such as the USA. In the USA, people can buy weapons from popular stores like

Wal-Mart, or they can buy them from a neighbor or family friend. This has caused

several incidents such as mass shootings. This calls upon the UN to control the

usage, buying and selling of weapons.

Terrorism is defined by the use of violence and threats to intimidate in order to

reach a political, religious or ideological aim. The United Nations Security Council

emphasizes the need for a comprehensive approach to countering the spread of

terrorism, such as countering violent extremism (CVE), and containing the flow of

foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs).Some of the terrorist attacks that have concerned

people on this issue are: shooting attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida due

to homophobia, on June 12, 2016, left 50 dead; sniper attack in a protest rally in

Dallas, July 7, 2016, 6 dead and 10 injured; bombing on street in Manhattan,

September 17, 2016, other bombs were found at other locations in Manhattan and

near New Jersey but were safely detonated or defused, 29 injured. There have

also been threats to numerous countries all over Europe and America. If terrorism

and weapon control is not addressed, there would be more people who would find

it easy to commit terrorist acts and more and more injured people. The UN and

countries’ governments need to address this issue, especially weapon control and

all this hate that is causing a lot of innocent deaths, which is not acceptable.

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III. Topic Information:

A. History of the topic:

Over the last decade, more than 100,000 people have died because of gun

violence. Many of these crimes were committed by people who never should have

been able to purchase a gun in the first place. To reduce the propagation of illicit

firearms, the approximate 200 Member States of the United Nations have agreed

to enforce a range of measures to prevent, combat and eradicate the harmful

effects of the misuse of weapons in countries around the world. These include the

UN Firearms Protocol, the UN small arms Programme of Action, the UN Register

of Conventional Weapons, and the UN Arms Trade Treaty.

This issue has become more relevant since acquiring weapons became easier.

There have been numerous devastating attacks that take the lives of innocent

people recently, which concern the UN and encourage the UN and countries’

governments to take action on this issue. Gun control has worked successfully in

countries like Australia, which government took action by announcing a bipartisan

deal along with state and local governments to achieve gun control measures.

Scotland also implemented weapon control laws after a shooting in an elementary

school, which have worked; Scotland has done this by banning civilians to own

handguns and other weapons. In the wake of the shootings, Finland raised the

minimum age for firearm licenses from 15 to 20 for short weapons and to 18 for

hunting guns. These types of laws and restrictions have successfully decreased

the number of shootings and terrorist acts.

B. Current Issues:

As mentioned before, there have been several terrorist attacks that have

terrorized the world’s population and concerned governments. People move to

different countries or regions, don’t trust the government, or live in constant fear of

terrorist events. The UN has to work hard on this topic because there are still

many places where getting weapons is easy. This has to be controlled so people

can live safely and without fear of being attacked; several countries are already

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threatened with terrorist bombings or shootings, and people call upon authorities

to take action on this conflict. One option for countries that feel threatened has

been to improve their defensive abilities and increase arm purchases and

spending. These countries feel that they have the need to ‘keep up’ with weapons

and defense systems ‘just in case’ something happens. An increase in arms in the

army or troops of countries leads to an arms race and an increase in insecurity.

The threat of terrorist attacks also scares the population and makes them think

that if they possess a gun, they are safer; this idea creates an issue because they

should trust in their government to keep them safe, but they want to ‘take manners

into their own hands’, so they buy guns. With it being easy to acquire a gun, they

buy a handgun or other weapon, and the probability of the misuse of a weapon

increases.

C. United Nations Actions:

The UN has made several decisions regarding this topic, such as creating the

UN Firearms Protocol, the UN Programme of Action on small arms, the UN

Register of Conventional Weapons, and the UN Arms Trade Treaty. The purpose

of the UN Firearms Protocol is to promote, facilitate and strengthen cooperation

among Member States to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit fabrication and

trafficking of firearms and ammunition. The Protocol provides a series of control

measures covering multiple aspects of the weapon issue. On the UN Programme

of Action on small arms, governments agreed to improve national small arms laws

and restrictions, import and export controls and stockpile management, and to

engage in cooperation and assistance. Governments can report to the UN

Register of Conventional Arms to build confidence among them and help prevent

conflict; they can also behave in a predictable and transparent manner, including

being open about arm transfers. The Register is important, giving practical

meaning to the concept of ‘transparency in armaments’. The UN Arms Trade

Treaty regulates the international trade in conventional arms.

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IV. Conclusion

All this information concludes to several options possible. One way to treat this

topic would be to prohibit civilians from possessing weapons no matter what. This

way, there would be no way that an accident would happen and no terrorists could

get the weapons from the population. Another way would be to more complexly

deal with terrorists and get to their source of weapons to stop them from getting

them; this way, no citizens are disturbed and can feel safe owning weapons. This

would be more complicated, since it is not very easy to get information from or

about terrorists. A third option would be to require weapon-owning citizens to get a

license to possess any weapons they own already, and if they are not qualified to

own the weapon, to be restricted from owning one. By doing this, it would be

assures that no weapons are in the wrong hands and preventing accidents or

rebellions to occur. Lastly, the way to get a gun could be harder or more intricately

supervised to see who buys the weapons and for what purpose they are being

bought.

V. Essential Questions

1. Who could be planning a terrorist attack in your country?

2. What kind of weapons could terrorists use for an attack?

3. Where could terrorists get the weapons from?

4. When could terrorists commence the attack(s)?

5. How could terrorists deliver the attack to your country?

6. Could any other group of terrorists (besides the ones behind the attack) be

involved in it?

7. Could the attacks be related to any other acts in another country or region?

8. Who could be providing the weapons for the terrorists?

9. Have any terrorist acts affected your country’s economic, social, or political

situation?

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VI. Bibliography

www.un.org recovered from https://www.un.org/sc/ctc/

www.un.orgrecovered from http://www.un.org/en/sc/ctc/aboutus.html

belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu recovered from http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/20057/nuclear_terrorism_fact_sheet.html

the Hello World website recovered from http://preventwmd.org/h

Terrorism recovered from http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/terrorism/wrjp255a.html

The Week recovered from http://theweek.com/articles/629877/here-are-3-countries-where-gun-control-worked

Global Issues Recovered from http://www.globalissues.org/issue/66/arms-control

the UN website recovered fromhttps://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/salw/

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