United Nations Security Council (SC)

Aparajita Tripathi, Director

Class Year: 2013

Concentration: Social Studies

Hometown: Pearl River, New York

Favorite Country Visited: Mumbai, India

Favorite Food: Raisin Bran

Favorite Mun Moment: Sunday morning superlatives

Why did you select this topic: I took a fascinating course on comparative Latin American politics last semester that inspired me to further examine guerrilla movements in the region. I selected the human trafficking in East Asia topic after watching a television documentary that tellingly portrayed the alarming pervasiveness of this issue. I believe these two topics offer an interesting point of comparison regarding the role of state institutions in ensuring human security.

Interesting Link: Promiscuous Women Cause Earthquakes – CNNBlank

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Topic Area Summaries

Topic Area A: Human Trafficking in East Asia

The United Nations defines human trafficking as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of persons by the means of the threat of the use of force” or other coercive tactics. It is precisely this open-ended nature of the definition that has complicated the effectiveness of legal instruments in tackling human trafficking violations across the globe. Nowhere has the issue of human trafficking manifested itself as visibly as in East Asia. High population growth rates and rapid modernization coupled with unequal distribution of wealth have increasingly rendered this social menace an enticing and lucrative business.

According to the UN Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking, East Asia accounts for an alarming 56 percent of the total count of persons in forced labor due to trafficking (ILO, Forced Labour Statistics Factsheet 2007). Women and children are particularly at risk as the primary victims of sexual exploitation. This issue can no longer be analyzed as being confined to isolated incidents; rather, human trafficking is a deeply entrenched global phenomenon that compromises the immediate security of persons in industrialized and impoverished societies alike. Yet, human trafficking has slipped under the radar of national and international security apparatuses. Why, for instance, do the leaders of human trafficking rings continue to escape with impu- nity despite the existence of legal instruments and repeated efforts by security agencies to address this very issue? What are the institutional shortcomings of previous resolutions proposed by the Security Council and similar bodies? What are some novel approaches to achieving a sustained and effective solution to this problem?

Topic Area B: Paramilitary Violence in Latin America

During the 1960s, small militia groups, many of whom were initially backed and financed by the United States, mobilized in Latin America to conduct counterinsurgency operations against Soviet influences during the Cold War. While the Cold War concluded two decades ago, these organizations have endured and have become an even more potent threat to human security. In Latin America’s case as in others paramilitaries contribute to state destabilization and securitization as paramilitaries’ engagement in corruption, terrorism, organized crime, and illegal trade have burdened state institutions. The absence of an effective state has in turn caused such groups to proliferate. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has received much attention

in the global media pertaining to the topic of paramilitary violence in Latin America, but it is by no means the only body that demands the Security Council’s attention. Mexico, Cuba, and Venezuela have also become breeding grounds for similar organiza- tions. Furthermore, one must keep in mind that paramilitaries are in themselves highly adaptive bodies: that is, while government measures—under President Uribe in Colombia, for example—have caused violent paramilitary activity to enter into remission, insurgent groups have adapted and will continue to adapt alongside state actions in order to perpetuate themselves. As such, what steps can the Security Council take to ensure proactive conflict-resolution in the region? In light of weak Latin American institutions, what alternative implementation strategies should the Council consider?

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