The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) was established in 1945 as part of the ratification of the UN Charter. As one of the United Nations’s six principal organs, the Security Council is unique among the committees offered at NHSMUN in its membership, scope, and power. The UN Security Council has 15 member states. Five are permanent members: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The other 10 members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms. The UNSC has a unique, preventive, and reactionary role in the UN. It is meant to respond to international crises and maintain international peace. In response to such crises, the Council can mandate decisive actions such as peace talks, mediations, negotiations, and meetings. Additionally, according to Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the Council can approve the use of force if there is no other way to maintain international peace. The Security Council can also deploy UN peacekeeping operations and impose sanctions on states. Only the UNSC has this power.

Although Sudan has been mired in internal conflicts for decades, the ongoing civil war started in April 2023. One side of the conflict is the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who is globally recognized as Sudan’s legitimate government. On the other side of the conflict is the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti. The two leaders had cooperated in a 2021 coup that derailed Sudan’s democratic transition, but their partnership collapsed over a dispute about integrating the RSF into the national army. When negotiations broke down, fighting erupted across the capital, Khartoum, and rapidly spread throughout the country. Foreign powers have deepened the crisis by arming both sides. Egypt, Turkey, and Iran have supported the SAF, while the United Arab Emirates has supplied the RSF with weapons and fuel. The SAF recaptured Khartoum in March 2025 and returned the government there in January 2026, but the RSF still controls large parts of western Sudan, including most of the Darfur region. In October 2025, the RSF seized El Fasher, the last SAF stronghold in Darfur, and carried out massacres that killed tens of thousands of civilians. International investigators have identified the hallmarks of genocide in Darfur, and war crimes have been documented on both sides. Sudan is now home to the world’s largest displacement crisis, with over 12 million people forced from their homes. More than 24 million face acute hunger, and famine has been confirmed in several regions. Every ceasefire attempt so far has collapsed within days. Finding a path toward peace will require confronting the genocide in Darfur, securing humanitarian access for millions of starving civilians, and establishing real accountability for the atrocities committed by both sides.

Maritime piracy is the crime of attacking ships and their crews on the open ocean, while armed robbery at sea refers to the same acts when they occur within a country’s territorial waters. Both pose a serious and growing threat to global commerce, given that most of the world’s traded goods are transported by water. Through sustained international naval cooperation, piracy was brought to historically low levels in the early 2010s. That progress is now being reversed. The International Maritime Bureau recorded 137 attacks on ships in 2025, up from 116 the year before, and the trend is heading in the wrong direction. Hotspots exist across multiple regions, including the waters off West Africa, the Horn of Africa, and key shipping lanes in Southeast Asia. The Gulf of Guinea remains particularly dangerous for crew kidnappings, with 23 sailors abducted in 2025 alone. Policing these crimes is inherently difficult. Attacks happen fast, often under cover of darkness, across enormous stretches of open water. Attribution is complicated, and many incidents go unreported entirely. International naval missions have proven effective when properly sustained, but political will and funding are inconsistent across member states. Crew members continue to face violence even in regions where overall incident numbers have declined. Delegates will need to strengthen naval cooperation and share information between member states. However, that cannot be achieved without also addressing the deeper issues of poverty and weak governance in coastal communities that make piracy an attractive option in the first place.