General Assembly 4: Historical SPecial political and decolonization committee

(H-specpol)

Under Secretary General: Haktan Doruk Okuyan

Academic Assistant: Aleyna Çoban

Agenda Items:

1- The Conflict Between India and Pakistan Regarding the East Pakistan Question

Committee Description:

Special Political and Decolonization Committee (SPECPOL) is the fourth committee of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). First founded as a sub-committee to aid the Political and Security Committee in 1947. Through time its duties expanded, became the Fourth Committee after the dissolvement of the Trusteeship Committee and finally amalgamated with the Special Decolonization Committee (C-24), thus becoming the SPECPOL we know today. SPECPOL engages in topics and issues such as decolonization, cooperation for a peaceful outer space, peacekeeping operations, effects of atomic radiation, etc.

Since the dissolvement of British Raj and the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, the Kashmir region has been an active conflict zone as it still is today. Though two nations having a war over this region in 1947 and 1965, there is still a dispute among India and Pakistan with both sides claiming the region as completely theirs. Another issue being the East Pakistan, which can be traced all the way back to the period of British rule in India, was the result of an unfair partition on the map that was designed by the British. While determining the borders, the British based the demography on religious background, thus creating a problem among the people. When Pakistan got its independence alongside India, it was divided as West and East Pakistan, with India being a ‘’barricade state’’ among these two regions. With postponement of parliament in 1971 by the president Yahya Khan, the leader of the Awami League Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared a civil disobedience which led to Mujibur’s arrest and the declaration of independence prior to the arrest. Tensions grew among India and Pakistan over the East Pakistan, the last straw however was when Pakistan conducted Operation Chengiz Khan on December 3rd 1971, which began the Third Indo-Pakistani War.In this committee, delegates will discuss and find solutions to fate of Kashmir, the situation in East Pakistan and the ways to combat the conflict on the Indian continent