Resolution #25 from Ireland
by: Olivia Walton
The Christian Academy of Louisville (CAL), as representatives of Ireland, first proposed Resolution #25 during the morning debate in Ranking Committee E. The sponsors, Troy Marker, Daniel Weaver, and Lorne Johnston presented their case for prohibiting the use of children as soldiers worldwide.
Using a comparison to Nicholas Cage’s movie, Lord of War, the sponsors gave a quick overview of what youth in war face and then proceeded to give their argument for the removal of children from battlefields.
“We are asking the United Nations to cease any form of aid to the countries encouraging the use of children in armed conflict following a 180 day transition window. We are also asking all members of the general assembly to cease military and economic aid to countries that continue to use children in conflict following the exact same 180 day transition window,” the sponsors explained. “With your help, we want to keep this scene within the fiction of a Nicholas Cage movie and help save the lives of the youth all over the world.”
When asked why they chose the issue of children in conflict, the sponsors talked about the mental and physical effects on child soldiers as well as the global reach of this issue. The authors all agreed that “it’s not something bound to Ireland or even bound to the UN- it’s truly global.”
For one sponsor, this horror is more than research and resolution- it is a reality; “I’ve got a friend in Kenya, he’s fourteen and currently fighting in a civil war within Kenya. It’s tearing him apart,” said Daniel Weavers.
This resolution would help more than 300,000 children in international conflict. The mental and physical effects on these juvenile soldiers are detrimental to their development. According to the resolution, forty-seven percent of children who are forced into conflict will struggle with PTSD, or post trauma stress disorder, and forty-three percent will fight depression after being in war.
Their cause was supported by all four candidates for Presiding Officers in the committee; Billy Salmon, Sam Berman, Shelby Hamm, and Levy Deckard.
“The last thing that should go through a child’s mind is the use of weapons and the UN should do whatever it takes to ensure the next generation is brought up in a peaceful environment,” argued Salmon, who yielded the rest of his time to Berman. Berman points out that “children are our future, so we don’t want that [wartime] to negatively impact them.”
Shelby Hamm’s speech in favor focused on the dire need to stop children from becoming soldiers. “No matter what country you are from, we need to work together to solve this problem,” she said.
Levy Deckard echoed the P.O. candidates’ support and called for action on the resolution in the last pro speech of the first debate; “At what point does tacit allowance become normalization? By not taking action, the United Nations is setting the precedent that the allowance of child soldiers is okay.”
The resolution was voted the 1st Schools’ Choice by majority of all delegations at KUNA and will be debated during the third General Assembly by KUNA as a whole
