Letter from Secretary General
Hello again, I am Sreekar Reddy, a fourth year mechanical engineering student of CBIT, I was introduced to MUNs at CBIT beginning as a director in the 2011 edition and currently serving my second term as Secretary General of this great conference , needless to say it is indeed an honour and a privilege. For two years we have stood up and redefined MUN conferences in India, For two years we have led the way with innovation. We wanted to deliver a phenomenon We wanted to be the difference. For two editions now we have been and done all that but we come back for the third time promising the same and even more. When a team creates something spectacular it leaves a greater responsibility in the hands of the next team, it leaves a legacy, a legacy that must continue. Moving forward with this responsibility on our shoulders we would assure the participants who have supported us since 2011 that the best is yet to come and to those who have missed the last two editions we would like to tell you that it’s never too late to be a part of something that shall become a collection of memories to cherish. To put it simply, hello delegate, welcome to CBITMUN. Sreekar Reddy Secretary General CBITMUN
CBITMUN-‐ECOSOC
COUNCIL-‐ United Nations Economic Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) AGENDAS-‐ 1.Protection of cultural property in times of armed conflict. 2. Religious education in public schools.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE UNITED NATIONS. The United Nations is the outcome of half a decade of bloodshed which was the world war 2(1939-‐1945).After the world war 1(1914-‐1918) Many nations felt the need of an international body that would be efficiently handled by the joint and equal cooperation of all the nations involved in it thus leading to the formation of The League Of Nations. The aim of this organization was simple , to prevent any further wars of the magnitude of WW1 and to accomplish this they could impose sanctions on belligerents. However this organization had serious flaws inclusive of the fact that The United States of America , who had originally come up with the idea of The League of Nations , was not part of it moreover Germany and The USSR were not allowed to be a part of the international community because they had initiated The WW1.So with three superpowers not bound by the sanctions of The league of Nations we gave ourselves the World War 2. The destruction and chaos that The World War 2 had cannot be fathomed easily.Roughly 46 Million lives were lost globally which made this war the most fatal in the history of mankind.In the wake of this destruction The United Nations was decided to replace the League of Nations. The United Nations Economic Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) UNESCO was established by the recommendation of the UN conference on international organization and came into force since 4th November 1946 with Dr. Julian Huxley presiding as the Secretary General. Since then till now UNESCO’s role in maintaining peace and harmony has been crucial.The purpose of UNESCO is contribution towards peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education,science and culture in order to further universal respect for justice,the rule of law and human rights along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in the UN charter. The objectives of UNESCO are accomplished through five major programs : Education,Natural sciences,Social and human sciences,culture and communication and information.
UNESCO may pass resolutions in order to ensure enforcement of the principles which it upholds it may also set up organizations and committees as it has done so previously a few prominent examples of this would be Promoting universal access to Information and communication technologies(ICTs) through the Infromation for all program(IFAP) ,Implementing Biosphere reserves through the programme on man and the biosphere(MAB), since 1971 etc. AGENDA 1: Protection of cultural property during times of armed conflict. “Today we are fighting in a country which has contributed a great deal to our cultural inheritance, a country rich in monuments which by their creation helped and now in their old age illustrate the growth of the civilization which is ours. We are bound to respect those monuments so far as war allows.” These were the orders of president Eisenhower as the Allies were advancing towards rome, this was the first attempt to recognise and adopt a code of conduct in wartime which pays due respect to and acknowledges the importance of culture in a community. These orders echoed the Lieber code which was a military code, written by the scholar Francis Lieber at President Lincoln's behest which read: "Classical works of art, libraries, scientific collections, or precious instruments, such as astronomical telescopes, as well as hospitals, must be secured against all avoidable injury, even when they are contained in fortified places whilst besieged or bombarded." The world war II showed that not only could war have a destructive influence on life but the devastated monuments and plundered artworks of World War II also made it clear that an international framework for protecting cultural property during war was needed. The result was the 1954 Hague Convention, premised on the statement that "damage to cultural property belonging to any people whatsoever means damage to the cultural heritage of all mankind." As if it isn’t bad enough that the inevitable natural causes of decay, natural hazards such as earthquakes, floods, landslides, wildfires, tsunamis and tropical cyclones extract a heavy toll in terms of direct loss and irreparable damage to our cultural legacy we also face a direct threat from calamities that we make for ourselves via wars and terrorism. The consequences of the tsunami in Asia in 2004, the Katrina hurricane during the 2005 Atlantic season and the earthquake in northern Pakistan just before the severe winter of 2005/2006, were first of all horrifying because of the huge loss of human lives, but at the same time left entire regions devoid of libraries, archives and museums. But what we have to recognize is that
The Hague convention of 1954 and attempts to punish perpetrators The States that are party to the Convention benefit from the mutual commitment of more than 115 States with a view to sparing cultural heritage from consequences of possible armed conflicts through the implementation of the following measures: •
•
•
• • • •
Adoption of peacetime safeguarding measures such as the preparation of inventories, the planning of emergency measures for protection against fire or structural collapse, the preparation for the removal of movable cultural property or the provision for adequate in situ protection of such property, and the designation of competent authorities responsible for the safeguarding of cultural property; Respect for cultural property situated within their own territory as well as within the territory of other States Parties by refraining from any use of the property and its immediate surroundings or of the appliances in use for its protection for purposes likely to expose it to destruction or damage in the event of armed conflict; and by refraining from any act of hostility directed against such property; Consideration of the possibility of registering a limited number of refuges, monumental centres and other immovable cultural property of very great importance in the International Register of Cultural Property under Special Protection in order to obtain special protection for such property; Consideration of the possibility of marking of certain important buildings and monuments with a distinctive emblem of the Convention; Establishment of special units within the military forces to be responsible for the protection of cultural property; Sanctions for breaches of the Convention; and, Wide promotion of the Convention within the general public and target groups such as cultural heritage professionals, the military or law-‐enforcement agencies.
Strengthening these conventions were the additional protocols of 1977 of which Article 53 prohibits “any acts of hostility directed against the historic monuments, works of art or places of worship which constitute the cultural or spiritual heritage of peoples.”
Article 53 also prohibits the use of cultural property “in support of the military effort” which means that a cultural site may not be used as a stronghold for military troops The Nuremberg Trials after World War II marked the first time that individuals were held accountable for cultural war crimes. Several Nazi officials were sentenced to death for a panoply of violations that included the destruction of cultural property. Following that precedent, the Yugoslavia War Crimes Tribunal was empowered to prosecute individuals deemed responsible for the “seizure of, destruction or wilful damage done to institutions dedicated to religion, charity and education, the arts and sciences, historic monuments and works of art and science.” However, the conventions related to cultural war crimes do not spell out the penalties that should be handed down for violation Instances of damage to cultural monuments through wars The Bosnia-‐Herzegovina war The Bosnian War was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1 March 1992 and 14 December 1995. The reasons behind this war are not of much importance but the catastrophic damage this war had on cultural monuments demands attention. The Syrian war The ongoing Syrian war has not only has a deep impact on safety of life but the damage to cultural monuments is in general appalling. -‐>The Ummayad Masjid The Great Mosque of Aleppo, or the Umayyad Mosque, is one of the most historically significant mosques in the medieval walled city. Although the mosque was originally built during the 8th century, the structure was renovated during the 11th century, when a covered fountain was added to the central courtyard, and a 45 metre minaret installed, to become the holy structure’s most striking architectural element. In September of 2012, the Syrian war began to take its toll on the city of Aleppo when a major attacked was launched by the Free Syrian Army. Then in April of 2013, the mosque was bombarded by massive shelling and the impressive minaret left as rubble. -‐>Palmyra
The oasis city of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980, was once a metropolitan trading centre that connected Mesopotamia and Northern Syria and acted as an important travel stop for those crossing the expansive desert. But the situation as of late is such that Palmyra is surrounded by the army from all fronts and machine guns are blatantly used without any regard for this city which was once known as the “Bride of the desert”. The World Wars(WW1 andWW2) “The best step in liquidating a people is to erase it’s memory, Destroy its books, its culture, its history”
-‐Milan Kundera
-‐>University Of Leuven In Belgium The Catholic University of Leuven dates back to 1834, this library held around 80,000 volumes of extensive research and books. In 1914, during the WW1 Leuven was looted by German troops and then was set ablaze, around 300,000 books were lost in this tragic incident including a huge collection of manuscripts such as the Easter island tablet bearing Rongorongo text E. As the university was on the road to resurrection in 1940, during the WW2, during the German invasion of Leuven, the building was once again burnt down along with 900,000 odd manuscripts and books. -‐>Bombing of The city of Bath
The city of Bath is a city in the county of Somerset in South West England. During April 1942, The city of Bath was targeted, in a reprisal for the RAF bombing of Lubeck. During two nights and the following morning at the end of April hundreds of high explosive bombs were deployed. Official figures indicate that around 900 buildings were completely destroyed and around 12,500 buildings were damaged during these bombings this was the fate of The former elegant Georgian city. -‐>Damage to Gusukus Gusukus are basically castles in Japan, more prominent in places such as Okinawa. The WW2 crumbles these Gusukus to ruins especially after the battle of Okinawa during this war has rendered these sites unrestorable to their former glory. The Afghani Civil War Afghanistan’s cultural heritage is one of the world’s richest and is in all fairness truly fascinating. This is because Afghanistan was a cultural crossroad, which means that Afghani cultural heritage is an amalgamation of precious objects and irreplaceable artifacts from China, India, Egypt, Rome and ancient Afghanistan. The loss of this culture because of the civil wars that occurred from 1989-‐2001 has been tremendous. An apt example would be of The Kabul museum, Asia’s most opulent and elaborate collection spanning thousands of years of Afghani culture. At the onset of the civil war 80% of the treasures were looted and even during the Taliban regime the religious police continued systematic destruction of artifacts. However the most unfortunate of all these proceedings was when In 2001, Taliban leader Mullah Omar issued a decree that all non-‐islamic artifacts shuld be destroyed. This led to the destruction of the ancient Bamiyan Buddhas, giant sculptures carved into a mountain sparking widespread resentment amongst archaeologists and historians alike. Apart from this, many sites including an ancient greek settlement near Al Khanoum in northern Afghanistan and Ancient Balkh, another site in the north have been plundered and are undergoing illegal digging.
The Invasion Of Iraq The US invaded Iraq on 20th March 2003 with the claim that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. The course of the war ran for 7 years resulting in the withdrawal of US troops. This war had a toll on the cultural sanctity of Iraq. Despite the fact that The USA had managed to follow the rules laid out by The Hague convention in some cases such as during the initial air raids were 5000 ancient sites and monuments were not targeted, yet it cannot be denied that at more than a few instances actions taken were certainly not in accordance with The Hague convention. Precautions taken to prevent cultural loss during armed conflict Staying Vigilant Wars are inevitable, history substantiates this statement and though we as a race may try our best to condemn wars we can never be too careful. International terrorism is still rising, and the poorest countries are suffering the most (Human Security Centre, 2005; Marshall and Gurr, 2005). .In the course of time, every country is confronted with damage to their cultural heritage as a result of either wilful or accidental destruction. It is unfortunate that local authorities and communities, especially those in tight economic circumstances, do not understand the benefits to be gained by reducing losses today for an unknown tomorrow (Gavidia, 2001). Clearly, one of the lessons learned in heritage preservation from the Iraqi Freedom Campaign in 2003 is, according to Ann Hitchcock (2003, 36), that 'an emergency operations plan is critical to ensuring that emergencies do not turn into disasters. Not only do staff and visitors need to know what to do and where to go, but also staff need to know how to protect the collections. Disasters need to be managed in order to control them, or at least to mitigate the effects. A Disaster Management Cycle should address issues relevant to all phases of the disaster cycle: preparedness, response, recovery, rebuilding, prevention and mitigation. Yet, it
should be realized that each collection, each building and each situation is unique and that every institution has to prepare for disasters with its own unique plan. The newest approach to calamities is Integrated Emergency Management, which refers to a complex series of interdependent skills, knowledge and experience. The plan has to be flexible, it has to work on a holiday weekend or in freezing weather conditions, and at any location. It will need to be tested against specific scenarios. It should also be integrated into an organization's everyday working structure, and the activities of different departments within an organization should be integrated. Lastly, there is a vital need to co-‐ordinate arrangements with other authorities and organizations. Major disasters will almost always span boundaries, and indeed may spread. The disaster cycle could in the event of war be subdivided into actions to be taken before the outbreak of an armed conflict (pre-‐conflict), during the conflict (peri-‐conflict) and after the conflict (post-‐conflict). The pre-‐conflict phase is also the time to start developing a contingency plan. These plans enable administrators to make choices in advance. It appears that in practice this is the most difficult part of the whole preparation strategy: deciding which part of the collection should be saved first or will require special attention. How do you determine the value of a book? Is the criterion the book's replacement value, or its popularity with readers, the uniqueness of the specimen, the artistic value or the cultural value? Under pressure, bad choices are often made and books are grabbed randomly from the shelves in order to save 'as many as possible'. That is exactly why we should make plans -‐ to prevent chaos. It would be wise to learn from the hands-‐on experiences of our colleagues who had to see their cultural institution through an armed conflict. Reading about experiences of other institutions can not only help to avoid making the same mistakes but can give an idea of what to expect after a disaster. Shutting down of Institutions. A normal practice listed in every disaster preparedness plan is to close down the institution as soon as possible in case of emergency. This is to prevent casualties rather than to safeguard the collection, as the iron rule in risk management is to put the interests of human beings before those of the collections. Once the doors are shut, the staff can pay full attention to securing the holdings. Three weeks before the American invasion in March 2003, the staff of the Iraq Museum closed the galleries to the public and began the task of protecting the museum and its content (al-‐Radi, 2003b). They were able to save important parts of the collections but they could not prevent the looting of 15,000 art objects at the unprotected museum. During the Gulf War (1990-‐91) the Iraq Museum was closed down only after the Ministry of Communications -‐ located across the road from the museum -‐ was bombed, and the resulting tremors shattered a number of the museum's showcases. Believing the war was
not going to last long, the staff wrapped the displayed artefacts and locked them in the basement. However, they were wrong and in the end the stored objects disintegrated owing to inundation of the floor (Ghaidan and Paolini, 2003). Unfortunately, the National Library and Archives of Iraq did not take any precautions before the American troops entered Baghdad. The employees simply did not show up and the building was left to the looters and set on fire. This resulted in a 60% loss of the state archives' records and documents, and a 25% loss of the library's book collection (Johnson, 2005). The new director of the Academy of Science and Technology in Baghdad was an unwilling eyewitness during the Gulf War when a pillaging mob entered the campus of the University of Basra, of which he was the dean, and ransacked most of the buildings, including the libraries. Even so, he was unable to convince his predecessor at the Academy to close the premises and safeguard the repository when the plunder started in 2003. After the crowd moved on, the library was left with 75% of its collections (personal communication with the director of the Academy of Science and Technology, Baghdad, October 2004). The Kabul Museum in Afghanistan was officially closed down by the Najibullah Government (1986-‐92) because of increasing fears of an armed conflict and all objects were prepared to be moved (Grissmann, 2003). A decade later the collection was totally destroyed during the Taliban regime. Nonetheless, the Najibullah Government made the right decision. Providing A Safe haven Once the institution is closed there are several options to secure the holdings, depending how much time is left. One option is to move (part of) the collections to safer premises outside the institution or even outside the country. Of course, such an operation takes time. Again this stresses the importance of a solid contingency plan in which an evacuation is anticipated. Usually the library, archive or museum has sufficient space in a building that is not too far away. An institution in a conflict-‐prone area should seriously consider relocating the collection outside the region: a project that can be realized with the help of international organizations. However, often the mistake is made of transferring materials to surroundings that do not meet the minimum preservation standards. Questions a resolution must answer
-‐>Should The UN send peacekeeping forces to protect UNESCO world heritage sites from further damage during times of armed conflict? -‐>Do we really need to give importance to cultural monuments in times of armed conflict? AGENDA 1: Religious education in public schools. Religion as a basis for harmony and peace Religion has a governing effect on the lives and culture of around 91% of the world population who believe in some sort of supreme being or to say in layman terms, god. It cannot be denied that religion has a role in shaping the society we live in it inculcates values , morals and ethics into society as whole this is Irrespective of whatever religion an individual chooses to follow as there are some fundamental teachings of all that are common these include good moral conduct , a certain respect for various other strata of society ,discipline and a general idea as to how a person should maintain themselves so as to promote the well being of themselves and their community thus paving way for global understanding , peace and harmony. Different approaches towards the issue. The issue at hand is not a simple one , only through immense brainstorming can a viable solution be reached this is because there are multiple ways of approaching and dealing with this topic. The first approach requires a broad mind , this approach would be that of teaching an individual about religion as a whole , i.e , not specifically about one religion that is prevalent in that place but teachings of each religion. This could potentially enable the students to understand the basis of each religion , to know the roots of and how these religions culminated and evolved into the form they have taken in the modern world today this would have an immense impact on how the individual reacts to different cultures and people rather than judging a person based on the religion they believe in .This approach could sensitise an individual to understand that religion is a very minor factor when
considering a person’s identity and character as every religion has the same fundamental teachings. In short this approach could wield the students with a much more temperamental attitude towards every religion thereby promoting cultural tolerance and religious harmony. Another approach would be to introduce teachings of a religion which is practiced by the majority of populace in a particular region. This is practically possible as it would have the popular support of the masses and government. The parents would be happy and content aware of the fact that their child would grow up honed and perfected in a religion that they have been following since they were children , the government would be assured to an extent of maintaining power and the children themselves would grow up with a comprehensive background of their religion thereby maintaining and preserving cultural integrity. Misuse of religion The intentional misinterpretation of religious extracts from scriptures and/or religious books such as The Bible or The Quran to justify extremism and fanaticism poses a severe limitation on whether religious education should be incorporated into public schools. History substantiates the above statements, The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the judicial system of the Roman Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy. Their method to combat heresy included burning, Incarceration ,starvation ,psychological torment and terror. Biblical references to justify these actions were adopted by The Roman Catholic Church. An example of this would be the justification of “burning” by providing the reference of the following "Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother." – Isaiah 9.19. "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned" – John 15.6.
Islamic fanaticism has culminated into what we recognise as “terrorism” the primary reason behind this culmination is Osama Bin Laden’s faulty interpretation of jihad and subsequent fatwa on jihad. Which triggered the death of hundreds of civilians the most prominent being the attacks of September 11th 2001. Bringing up these examples is necessary for the purpose of our debate as the consequence of young students gaining exposure to these ideologies would permanently block any room for religious tolerance and would produce individuals who are dangerous on a global scale. Madrasas-‐ A case study To fully understand the practical applications of adopting religious education in public schools it is essential to take up a case study of an instance where religious education has been implemented effectively to a certain extent. In our case let us consider Madrasas. è What is a madrasa and it’s significance as our case study A madrasa is an institution or school that provides religious education,in particular Islam, along with a variety of other subjects which is upto the discretion of the individual. Choosing Madrasas in particular is because Madrasas give us an idea as to how effectively religion can be adopted into public schooling and also gives us a generalised view of the things which can possibly go wrong thus intimating us of the sensitivity of the matter at hand. è What went wrong. It all began when after a decade long struggle against the Soviet Army beginning in 1979, which promoted pervasive militarization, throughout Pakistan, especially in the provinces bordering Afghanistan. The madaris did not escape this. Many madaris took Afghan refugees as students. Additionally,the Pakistani and U.S. government used the madaris and influenced their curriculum to intentionally encourage students to engage in sectarian militancy.
It is prudent at this point to define a term : Jihad. Jihad is defined as “Struggle in the way of Allah” So when faced with struggle these refugees responded in their own interpretation of jihad. As a result of these various forces, jihad is understood by much of a generation of madaris students not as a personal struggle against the forces that prevent one from living faithfully but as a violent struggle for the imposition of an Islamic state upon society. è The divide Pakistan’s educational system reflects a deeply divided society. The classes whose educational needs are served by the ulema are not the same classes as those who are served by the English-‐medium government schools. It is possible to identify six forms of education in Pakistan. Elite private English-‐medium schools serve the upper and upper middle classes. The middle classes send their children to the more affordable elite public English-‐medium schools or English medium cadet colleges. Those in lower classes who can afford to pay something for their children's schooling send their children to low cost English-‐ medium or Urdu medium schools. The poor who send their children to school can send their children to very low cost vernacular medium (e.g., Sindhi or Punjabi) schools or send their boys to free madaris. è Added incentives Religious education is not the only reason as to why students attend these Madrasas Parents send their children to madaris for a variety of reasons.Many madaris are free. Madaris provide children with a place to sleep and meals as well as books and instruction. Conclusions from our case study There are a few questions that arise while considering our case study along with a few observations è Religious education in madrasas focuses on Religious education with far more importance in comparison to say science, physics or music. If the same were to apply
for every school wouldn’t the whole excercise of introducing religious education be counter-‐productive? è Madrasas are a manifestation of years of culture and heritage intertwining to reach the position of having around 18,000 operational institutes worldwide, is it possible to re-‐enact that? è If incentives are added and that is the reason why students attend Madrasas then isn’t the reason for joining these schools a prudential rather than faith-‐based reason? Questions a resolution must answer A resolution pertaining to the agenda Religious education in public schools must answer the following questions and should cover most of the given points: -‐>Should religious education be included in the curriculum of public schools? -‐>What is the appropriate approach as to introduce religious education in public schools? -‐>Is the approach which is being adopted applicable on a global scale and how?