GA-6 Legal

Letter from the Chairperson

Dear Delegates,
With immense pleasure and pride, I, Prarabdh Shivhare, welcome you to the Shishukunj MUN and am very excited to be the chairperson for the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly. I am currently studying in Class 11, and I aspire to go into the Indian Administrative Services. I have attended various MUN conferences, both as a delegate and as a member of the executive board. I am particularly interested in theoretical physics and plan to learn Latin after high school. I follow quite a lot of football (get excited Arsenal and Barcelona fans) and, of course, love to binge-watch sitcoms.

In the four days of the conference, you will take yourself into the world of diplomats and representatives of your respective country. You will be expected to discuss and deliberate upon the agenda presented to you and come up with solutions and recommendations, which will benefit the international community while preserving your own national interests. Be well-versed with the UN Charter, the mandate of the Legal Committee, and the agenda and you’ll be good to go. I personally dislike a monotonous committee and strongly believe that the only way you can learn is by enjoying yourself.

The agenda is a relatively unattended one and calls for innovative solutions as well as improvisation. With the UN4MUN procedure and an unhackneyed agenda, you will surely have an in-depth experience of a realistic UN simulation.

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns as you prepare for the committee. Looking forward to all the debate in the committee and your novel solutions. Hope to see you all in October!
Thank you!
Prarabdh Shivhare
Chairperson
GA-6 Legal
legal@shishukunjmun.com

Organ Description

The sixth committee of the General Assembly, known as the Legal Committee in common parlance, serves as the central forum for legislation in the United Nations. The sixth committee is primarily responsible for negotiations over treaties regarding specialized issues which impact the general international law.
As established by Article 13, the Sixth Committee provides a platform for the formulation, adoption and recommendation of treaties regarding various issues to states, for their subsequent signature, ratification, and accession. Its mandate involves justice and international law, accountability, internal UN-matters, drug control, crime prevention, and international terrorism.
In an increasingly interconnected world, progress in the areas of development, security, and human rights must go hand in hand. There will be no development without security and no security without development. At the same time, development and security also depend on respect for human rights and the rule of law. Today, the world faces a constant threat of military upsurges and armed conflicts, with turmoil engulfing all spheres of life. With the rise of such an era, to prevent war through peaceful measures, it becomes fundamental to define boundaries for member states. As the realization of the importance of peace has risen, the UN must pace towards working for it.

Agenda: Establishing the Definition, Legality, and Scope of Non-Armed Measures for Peace and Security

The two decades following the Cold War witnessed an unprecedented increase in the use of non-military enforcement measures by the UN Security Council, generally in the form of economic or political sanctions. The Security Council’s duty is to maintain or restore international peace and security under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. Non-military measures, under Article 41, encompass a broad range of enforcement options. Modern sanction regimes are adapted to target actors that are directly responsible for maintaining a threat to international peace or violation of international law.
Constant exercise of these measures has resulted in the flexibility of UN sanction regimes, both in terms of design and implementation. This constant proliferation of sanctions goes hand in hand with demands for creating a definition for non-armed measures, the establishment of their legitimacy, enhancing their credibility, and greater formalization. Special emphasis must also be on their ratification and implementation by member states: multilateral sanctions have been found to work only 33% of the time.
It is important that guidelines be decided as to when, where, and in what circumstances should non-armed measures be imposed, list out the types of violations under which sanctions can be exercised by the Security Council, specify their relative potency and ensure that sanctions are levied in a less arbitrary manner.
The world is ceaselessly moving towards and expanding the ideals of equity and democracy. This also means that fewer decisions should remain outside the arena of democratic control. It is justified that the UN upholds these ideals by incorporating them into its functioning.