ECOSOC
The ECOSOC issues for AISMUN 2023 are:
Issue #1: United States vs Cuba - Economic Sanctions.
The US embargo on Cuba has had a profound impact on the island, affecting every aspect of life there. The US has banned all trade with Cuba, including cruises, cultural exchanges, educational delegations, and remittances. The ban has also prevented the export of medical technology with US components, leading to chronic shortages of over-the-counter medicine, and the internet is also a zone of isolation, as Cubans cannot use basic modern technology such as Zoom, Skype, or Microsoft Teams. The UN estimates that the embargo has cost Cuba over $130 billion in damages, compounded by penalties imposed by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control on Cuba’s allies and investors.
Issue #2: Social and Economic Measures to Prevent Ethnic Cleansing, genocide, and crimes against humanity in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region.
Ethnic cleansing has been ongoing in Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray for over a year and a half. Tigrayans, including women, children, and elderly, have been forcibly displaced and herded into overcrowded detention sites, resulting in many deaths from disease, starvation, or torture. The conflict began in 2020 when Ethiopian federal forces and their allies, including troops from Eritrea and the Ethiopian region of Amhara, went against forces linked to the Tigray People's Liberation Front. Amhara forces gained control of Western Tigray and carried out brutal ethnic cleansing against Tigrayan communities. Despite condemnation from the US Secretary of State, the atrocities have continued with a systematic campaign of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Amhara regional officials and security forces, including murder, unlawful imprisonment, and torture, forced displacement, sexual violence, and other inhumane acts. The US and other countries have attempted to negotiate a cessation of hostilities and humanitarian access to Tigray, but the crimes in Western Tigray continue.
Issue #3: Overpopulation as a threat to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The world population continues to grow and is projected to reach a peak of around 11 billion by 2100, with most of this growth taking place in low-income and lower-middle-income countries. Despite this, it is unlikely that the global population increase in the next 30-40 years will deviate from the projections made by the United Nations. The rapid increase in population can add to the challenges of making future development sustainable and inclusive. Investments in health, education and gender equality can help slow down global population growth and contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. In countries with high levels of fertility today, investing in education and health can have a significant positive economic impact, temporarily, due to the favorable age distribution created by the sustained decline in fertility. Population growth amplifies the harmful impact of economic processes on the environment, however, the rise in per capita income has been a more important factor than population growth in driving increased production and consumption. The countries with the highest per capita consumption of resources and greenhouse gas emissions are generally those with high income per capita, not those with rapidly growing populations. Hence, wealthy countries and the international community bear the greatest responsibility for achieving net-zero emissions of greenhouse gasses and implementing strategies to decouple human economic activity from environmental degradation. They can provide the necessary technical and financial assistance to low-income and lower-middle-income countries to support their economies in growing rapidly using technologies that minimize future greenhouse gas emissions.