Table of Contents

Table of Contents 1

Welcome Letter from the Directors 2

Introduction to the UN Security Council 3

Protecting Civilians in Combat Situations in Africa 5

Introduction to the Topic 5
Past UN Action 6
Secretary-General’s report on “Protection of civilians in armed
conflict”: No. 15 6
Security Council Resolution 1612 6
Security Council Resolution 1261 6
Discussion 7
Civilians in urban warfare environments 7
Protecting Internally Displaced Persons 8
Points a Resolution Must Address 11
Use of weapons in populated areas 11
Attacks on Children 11
Humanitarian and medical aid 11
Ensuring compliance 12
Information Gathering 12
Providing security to civilians 12
Bibliography 13

1
Welcome Letter from the Directors

Dearest delegates,

We are very pleased to welcome you to the Security Council of LIMUN HS’
2019 iteration. As the committee that represents the heart and soul of the
United Nations’ conflict-resolving capability, both of us are excited to
meet all of you and see what creative solutions you come up with. On that
note, we would like to briefly introduce ourselves:

I’m Jonas, the Director of this fine committee. I study Management at the
London School of Economics and am currently in my final year. After
having launched my MUN addiction in high school already, I attended a
grand total of 24 conferences, with this being my 7th time chairing. The
UNSC has always been one of my favourite committees to chair due to
much more liberty of interpreting the rules of procedure than other
committees, and of course due to the delegates that never fail to make it
fun, lively, and - on occasion - a little belligerent. MUN takes up a
disturbing amount of my time, but when I’m not working on a conference,
you can usually find me either coding, trying to organise events with
chocolate fountains, or playing Civilization.

My name is Claire and I will be serving you as one of the chairs for LIMUN
HS 2019. I study Education Studies at University College London as a
second-year student. My MUN career/history starts way back in middle
school, so I lost count halfway through how many conferences I have
attended in total. Yet, MUN was never a minor part of my life - in
academic, friendship, and so many other aspects. I wish I could - and we
as a committee could - make this conference a similar experience for each
and every one of us throughout this conference.

For this year, we selected the topic of “Protecting Civilians in Combat

Situations in Africa”. In a world, which features almost an omnipresence
of violent conflicts in the news and on social media, and one that is
defined by discussions on refugees fleeing from conflicts in Africa and the
Middle East, we felt that it was now the duty of the UN’s most powerful
committee to make efficient progress on the matter, especially if it means
using resources available only to the Security Council.

2
Introduction to the UN Security Council
The United Nations serves four main purposes, which are to maintain
international peace and security; to develop friendly relations among
nations; to cooperate in solving international problems and in promoting
respect for human rights, and to be a centre for harmonizing the actions
of nations. The UN Security Council (UNSC), as one of six main sectors of
UN Charters, is responsible to serve the first purpose: maintain peace and
security. In conducting such purpose, it recommends other parties, which
may include setting principles, dispatching missions, or requesting the
Secretary-General to achieve a settlement. Furthermore, UNSC may also
pose military actions, economic sanctions, or blockade1.

UNSC carries differences to other committees in coming to Rules of

Procedure (ROP). The first difference is that the committee itself entails
fifteen delegates in total, of which five specific members possess
permanent seats in the committee, while others will be rotated with 10
years of term. Those five nations are called Permanent-Five (P5)
members: United States of America, United Kingdom, France, Russia,
China. Each P5 members holds veto power, which means they are allowed
to strike a clause of a resolution entirely; a vote of a P5 member against a
clause indicates a clause failing automatically. However, P5 members are
not always allowed to conduct the power of veto. They are only enabled
to do so when a clause is strongly against their national interest.

Another distinction P5 member states carry is called ‘veto concerns’,

which is raised before a closed caucus. Before a clause is vetoed, one of
the P5 members are required to raise a caucus before it is debated. Once
raised, all P5 members are required to leave the room with a president.
Then, the P5 and the president discuss the fungibility of the clause to be
agreeable. After the closed caucus, one of the P5 members is responsible
to provide feedback on the result of the caucus to the rest of the council.

For UNSC, resolutions are debated clause by clause. The sponsor of a

resolution will speak for each clause and take points of information - as if
each clause is a small version of resolution itself. Accordingly, another
delegate will speak against that clause and take points of information.

1
“Functions And Powers | United Nations Security Council” 2019

3
Then, for a clause to pass, supermajority result is required - 9 members
out of 15 needs to vote in favour of the clause, with no veto.

4
Protecting Civilians in Combat Situations in
Africa

Introduction to the Topic

2019 marks the 20th anniversary of the first instance, in which the
Security Council explicitly debated the protection of civilians. At the end of
this debate, it noted that civilians constitute the vast majority of
casualties in conflicts across the world. It is for this reason that the issue
has become more and more apparent to the international community.

In addition, the grand statement of this Council included a request to the

Secretary-General to submit a detailed periodic report on the status of
civilians in combat situations as well as recommendations to improve their
situation. As of the commencement of this conference, 15 such reports
have been submitted, including a grand total of over 200
recommendations regarding issues such as “conduct of hostilities, forced
displacement, sexual violence, humanitarian access, engagement with
non-State armed groups, accountability for violations, and the protection
role of peacekeeping missions and regional organizations”. This describes
the first and key aspect of the problem: Accurate reporting. Effective
action can only be taken if relevant and correct data is continuously
assembled, so as to inform decisions as well as to measure the success of
implemented policies.

To address this topic most efficiently, delegates should consider two

points to be at the heart of the solution. Firstly, it is very important to
understand that in regard to most aspects of the issue, relevant laws and
regulations already exist, which - if implemented - would strongly
mitigate the issue. Thus, it is compliance with existing laws that delegates
must strongly work to enhance. Nations should cooperate to develop
national policies that are effective even in areas where government
authority may be weak. Secondly, and in addition to the first point, it is
advisable to review solutions that have been implemented by civilian
communities and then expand these continent-wide. Due to non-
functional compliance, a top-down approach has shown itself to be
ineffective, and it is time a bottom-up approach is tried. Such solutions

5
should be locally sourced and assessed on their applicability to the wider
society.

Past UN Action

On the topic of civilian protection, there has been a lot of past UN action.
Here are the most relevant documents.

Secretary-General’s report on “Protection of civilians in arMed

conflict”: No. 152
As of the start of the conference, the Secretary-General of the UN has
presented 15 reports on the matter to the Security Council. This was first
requested in a 1999 debate on protecting civilians, a request that has
been reiterated almost annually since then.

This report is the latest one, featuring a special focus on medical care as
well as food insecurity in conflict.

Security Council Resolution 16123

This resolution is one that re-emphasises the need for accurate reporting,
as well as placing a particular focus on children in conflicts.

Security Council Resolution 12614

SC1261 was the first Security Council Resolution to directly address the
issue of young civilians in conflict. With much discussion on child soldiers
especially as well as the fact that as of 1999, 300.000 children were
serving as soldiers, this resolution was a first step towards the protection
of civilians in combat situations.

2
"S/2019/373 - E - S/2019/373". 2019. Undocs.Org. https://undocs.org/S/2019/373.
3
"Resolution 1612 (2005)". 2019. Un.Org.
https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/files/SecurityCouncilResolution1612_en.pdf.
4
"Resolution 1261 (1999)". 2019. Securitycouncilreport.Org.
https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF9
6FF9%7D/CAC%20SRES%201261.pdf.

6
Discussion

Civilians in urban warfare environMents

“War in Cities”, stated by the International Committee of the Red Cross

(ICRC), during a panel discussion in June 2017 in Kigali to discuss the
increasing conflict in urban areas - especially in Africa. The meeting
convened to discuss the humanitarian aspect of the issue, bringing
together humanitarian, military, diplomatic, and academic communities,
as well as respecting International Humanitarian Law (IHL). During the
discussion, the main questions raised were “What has the world learned
from past urban conflicts and other violence, notably in South Sudan,
Nigeria, the Central African Republic, Somalia and Cote d’Ivoire?; what
had been the implications of these urban conflicts on humanitarian action
and policy? How could the main local and international entities involved
best work together to improve the situation of the civilian population,
ensuring that expertise is drawn from a wide variety of sources?”5

One of the major concerns that is endangering civilians in urban areas

with conflict is that public facilities are being destroyed, cutting supply
systems and hospitals - basic needs of living. For instance, Mogadishu,
Somalia’s capital, is the world’s second most densely populated city. In
Mogadishu, this high population density is caused by internal conflict and
military violence of Somalia. People escape from their home cities to seek
more resources in the capital. However, due to the usage of destructive
weapons, especially explosive weapons, the city that 600,000 Somalis
escaped to is no longer a safe haven. According to UNICEF, in 2018,
approximately 1.2 million children under the age of 5 are malnourished in
Somalia due to inadequate food, water, shelter, or sanitation facilities in
the cities.6

In tackling the issue, strong accountability on addressing IHL violations to

focus on civilian protection of future prevention effort is needed. With
food, water, and other basic needs not being met, civilian safety cannot
be guaranteed. In Yemen, nearly 3 million women and children are

5
International Committee of the Red Cross. 2017. “War In Cities: An African
Perspective”. https://www.icrc.org/en/document/war-cities-african-perspective.
6
Global Citizen. 2018. “Hunger And Conflict Have Turned Mogadishu Into Africa’s Most
Crowded City”.
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/somalia-mogadishu-africas-most-crowded-city
/.

7
recognized to be acutely malnourished and more than 8 million people are
exposed to malnourishing conditions. Furthermore, main challenges in
this agenda are difficulty in gaining access to people; lack of aid and
funding, particularly long-term funding; disruption of infrastructure, such
as roads, healthcare facilities, water supply systems and others; lack of
technical skills to repair facilities; families being separated; and death,
injuries, infectious diseases being carried in such deprived conditions.7

Besides the safety of civilians in the urban areas, the United Nations also
reported severe human rights violations in conflict zones. For example, in
2017, the United Nations recorded more than 800 cases of conflict-related
sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is a 56%
increase from the year before. Civilians in urban areas are not only
exposed to malnourishment and contamination from unsanitary
environment but also are exposed to other basic human right violations
such as sexual harassment.8

With regards to the issue of damage to civilians, government and civil

societies have put forward actions to alleviate the situation. Two years
ago, in November 2017, nineteen African states adopted a communique
to protect civilians from the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.
This was one of the major changes that the governments and civil
societies have attempted to amend the situation. To alleviate the harm
towards the civilians in the cities, the United Nations and partners
launched a campaign with the slogan of “civilians are not a target” on
World Humanitarian Day 2017.9

Protecting Internally Displaced Persons

When LIMUN HS 2019 will commence, 18 million people will live displaced
from their homes within Africa. Of this number, 12.5 million are internally
displaced persons (IDPs), meaning they have been forced from their
homes, but have not left their own country. Having crossed a national
border is part of the international definition of refugees, thus, IDPs are far
too frequently ignored when these issues are discussed. And while work
has indeed been done to alleviate their plight, the staggering numbers

7
International Committee of the Red Cross. 2017. “War In Cities: An African
Perspective”. https://www.icrc.org/en/document/war-cities-african-perspective.
8
United Nations. 2018. “Protecting Civilians In Conflict ‘Only Way To Lay Foundations For
Sustained Peace’, Secretary-General Stresses At Security Council Debate”.
https://www.un.org/press/en/2018/sgsm19047.doc.htm.
9
ibid.

8
cited above prove that the international community is far from having
found a solution to the issue. As a matter of fact, this problem has
persisted so long that some IDP camps in Africa have currently been
around for over 40 years, which means that there exists a generation of
children who were not only born and raised in an IDP camp, but whose
parents were met with the exact same fate. In addition, humanitarian
assistance for IDPs frequently goes
heavily underfunded, with more attention being paid to international
refugee movements, therefore leaving African nations to pay the bill,
which leads to heavy burdens on an already constrained national budget.
It is now upon the delegates to address this.

What is first of all important to note is that for much of the issue,
effective legal frameworks exist. Conventions such as the “African Union
Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced
Persons in Africa” - aka the Kampala Convention - have been signed and
ratified by a large number of African nations. This convention legally binds
governments to protect their IDPs, an effort that is commendable in spirit,
but often appears ineffective in practice. It brings to our attention the key
aspect of the issue once more: Compliance. Laws and treaties on the
matter at hand exist, but go underfunded or entirely ignored. It is highly
advisable to potentially strengthen existing treaties on IDP protection, as
well as develop a system of incentives for member states to comply with
such agreements. However, the true difficulty lies in bringing this
compliance - and with it protection for IDPs - into areas where
government authority is weak. Today’s Africa sadly still features unrest
and conflict in many areas, and with that comes wavering governmental
control over the implementation of ratified treaties. Member states should
attempt to - through talks, negotiations, threats, incentives, or any other
means - establish a framework that allows governments to include even
non-state actors in the civilian protection process.

Another highly relevant aspect is the involvement of NGOs. As stated

previously, humanitarian aid to IDPs is very frequently overlooked.
However, it is important to note that in essence, IDPs have the exact
same needs as refugees - both in terms of cost as well as humanitarian
care. It is thus upon the delegates to find ways to best include NGOs as
well as humanitarian IGOs in the process. Many of them already work in
these camps, but the Security Council should further aid and support their
efforts so as to maximise the utility of it.

9
As mentioned in the introduction, solutions to this problem could not be
found or assessed without effective gathering of accurate information. At
present, this is done through the Secretary-General’s annual report, but it
may be helpful to consider an expansion of this framework. The UN has
previously had much success with special representatives, who then
dedicate themselves to constructing such reports in even greater detail,
so this system could also be useful here.

The final and arguably most security-related aspect is the prevention and
mitigation of conflict in Africa itself. The UNSC is fortunate enough to have
a few special tools at its disposal, such as the deployment of
peacekeeping forces, which could be used for everything ranging from IDP
protection to conflict mitigation. Delegates should consider the
effectiveness of previous peacekeeping missions in Africa and base their
judgements on that. In particular, the focus should be on wars that are
not inter-state, but rather intra-state, thus being waged between a state
and a non-state actor. It is these wars that frequently bring about internal
displacement and that thus may represent challenges that member states
will find difficult addressing by themselves.

In conclusion, while all creative solutions are welcomed, it is

recommended that delegates address all the aspects of displacement,
which are:
- Preventing displacement,
- Alleviating the suffering it causes,
- Answering where and how to relocate and host the persons in
question,
- Taking into account the needs of the resident population in areas
hosting those persons,
- Ensuring the security of the returnees,
- Ensuring ability to return.

10
Points a Resolution Must Address

Use of weapons in populated areas

Usages of explosive weapons in towns and cities damage civilians and
infrastructure of which they live in. According to the United Nations Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOHA), in 2017, 75% of
the victims of explosive weapons were civilians. It is crucial for
governments and civilian societies to develop national policy frameworks
that inhibits the usage of weapons in populated areas and protect civilians
in conflict. These could be developed by seeking an alternative means to
explosive weapons.10

Attacks on Children
From the Central African Republic to South Sudan and Yemen and more,
for half a year of 2018, severe attacks on children have been enacted.
Schools, hospitals, and other infrastructures are also damaged. Not only
this but warring parties also recruited children, used them as human
shields and forced them to be suicide bombers. In such severe violation of
human rights and child protection, there should be absolutely no
tolerance at all towards any harmful actions to children. Global Coalition
to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) has declared Safe Schools
Declaration with 89 member states endorsing by May 2019. As the United
Nations Security Council, it is crucial to tackle both child protection and
child recruitment into armed groups within its resolution.11

HuManitarian and Medical aid

Civilians in cities are afflicted with lack of aid due to damaged
infrastructure and attacks on the aid workers. According to the 2018 Aid
Worker Security Report by the Aid Worker Security Database, in 2017,
313 aid workers were attacked and 139 workers were found dead. The
World Health Organisation also reported in 2017 that 322 medical workers
were attacked with 242 deaths of workers. Complying with the Secretary
General’s recommendation of 2016, it is crucial to protect medical care.12
10
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humaintarian Affairs. 2018. “5 Ways To
Better Protect Civilians In Conflict Zones”.
https://www.unocha.org/story/5-ways-better-protect-civilians-conflict-zones.
11
“Safe Schools Declaration Endorsements | Global Coalition to Protect Education From
Attack”. 2019. Protectingeducation.Org.
http://www.protectingeducation.org/guidelines/support.
12
United Nations. 2016. “Recommendations Of The UN SG, Submitted Pursuant To Para
13 Of SC Resolution 2286 (2016), On Measures To Prevent Acts Of Violence, Attack And

11
Attacks on medical workers or aid workers are violations of international
humanitarian law - unabling workers to reach the civilians with needs.
Furthermore, the Security Council should do everything in its power to
support the work of these organisations, so as to maximise their utility.13

Ensuring coMpliance
In many cases, legal frameworks that could represent effective solutions
to the issue already exist. It is of utmost importance to implement ways
of ensuring that compliance is ensured, not only by involving member
states, but also by involving the many non-state actors that are involved
in many African conflicts at present. For this, discussions as well as
negotiations between conflict actors could be worth considering, however,
only at the discretion of the relevant member state.

InforMation Gathering
In order to not only develop effective solutions, but also to assess their
results, effective and accurate information is needed. So far, the
Secretary-General has published annual reports on the matter which also
involve recommendations to enhance the protection of civilians, but
delegates might want to consider expanding and strengthening this
process, potentially by using a system of special representatives.

Providing security to civilians

Lasty, the UNSC should make full use of all its special powers to protect
the civilians in question. Delegates should consider using peacekeeping
forces to protect IDP camps as well as potentially mitigating intra-state
conflicts. In addition, it should be a focus of any resolution to stabilise the
nations in question as soon as possible, so that the issue of IDPs is not
immediately worsened. Intra-state conflicts in particular can be quite
resource-draining, especially if there are additional IDP camps to provide
for, and thus solutions should be found to alleviate this burden.

Threats Against The Wounded And Sick, Medical Personnel And Humanitarian Personnel
(S/2016/722)”. UN Security Council.
13
“About The Project | The Aid Worker Security Database”. 2019. Aidworkersecurity.Org.
https://aidworkersecurity.org/.

12
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13
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14