IGOs handling global issues and the environment

Question 1

What factors do the UN help with?

Answer 1

1)Environment
2)Socio-economics
3)Politics

Question 2

What sanctions could be given to a country?

Answer 2

-Arms embargos, banning weapons
-Trade embargos, stopping specific trades
-Restrictions on loans
-Freezing assets of specific people or companies
-Travel restrictions for specific politicians or business people

Question 3

Trade embargo case study:
(Iran)

Answer 3

Suspicion that Iran were planning on building nuclear weapons led to economic sanctions held by UN
Reduced crude oil exports

Question 4

UN intervention in DRC :
(Partially successful)

Answer 4

Conflict killed over 5 million people from 1998-2008.
The UN security council set up peacekeeping missions to help different groups reach an agreement.

Successful in some areas and elections were held for the first time in 40 years. However violence continued in Eastern DRC.

Question 5

UN intervention in Bosnia:
(Failure)

Answer 5

UN set up camps with Dutch peacekeepers to protect Bosnian Muslims that were targeted by Bosnian Serb forces

In 1995 Bosnian Serb forces captured Srebrenica (site that was protected), massacring 8000 men and boys, as well as deporting 23 000 women and children, many suffered rape

Dutch peacekeepers taken hostage and threatened with execution if the Dutch intervened

Question 6

IGO policies to decide whether loan should be given:

Answer 6

1)Structural adjustment programme (SAP)

IMF or World Bank agrees to provide a loan given that the government reduces spending and increasing trade (e.g. deregulation for international investment)

2)Heavily indebted poor countries initiative (HIPC)

IMF and World Bank offer debt relief to developing countries that meet strict criteria, nation needs to be willing in reducing poverty

Question 7

SAPs gone wrong:
(Jamaica)

Answer 7

Jamaica accepted loans in the 1980s with the condition that spending was to be reduced, decline of healthcare sector (number of registered nurses dropped by 60%)

More loans given in the 1990s with the condition that wages had to be reduced to attract foreign investment, decline in economic well-being.
Now a large proportion of government spending goes towards paying back the debt

Question 8

HIPC success:
(Uganda)

Answer 8

One of the first countries to benefit from debt write off

.Government spending rose by 20%, a lot of it going to education as primary schooling was made free, 5 million extra children attended school
.Percentage of people using an improved water source rose from 44% in 1990s to 79% in 2015

Question 9

Environmental IGOs:
1= (Montreal Protocol)

Answer 9

After scientists discovered that certain industrial chemicals damaged the ozone layer, the UN set up an agreement to ban production of these chemicals

Phased out 98% of these chemicals from 1990 to 2010

Question 10

Environmental IGOs:
2= (Antarctic treaty)

Answer 10

Agreement put in place to only go Antarctica for scientific research rather than exploiting its resources

Successful in protecting Antarctic plants and animals and prevent pollution

Question 11

Environmental IGOs:
3 = (CITES)

Answer 11

International agreement between governments about trading wild and animal species as well products made from them

Question 12

Issue with CITES:

Answer 12

Hasn’t been a success at stopping people trading endangered species, e.g. pangolins were designated threatened with extinction in 2014 but wasn’t added to CITES most endangered list until 2017.
Sanctions are rarely imposed

Question 13

Environmental IGOs:
4 = (UNCLOS)

Answer 13

The United Nations convention on the law of the sea is treaty which covers governance of the sea

Question 14

Issues with UNCLOS:

Answer 14

Hard to enforce, overfishing occurs in Southern Ocean.
Doesn’t cover everything, e.g. the conservation of whales which is done by another organisation and isn’t as strict