GMUN 2016 SOCHUM

OPENING SPEECH:
Good morning\afternoon everyone. The delegate of Poland
would like to begin the opening speech by explaining the
word humanitarianism in the first place. Humanitarianism is
a moral of kindness, benevolence, and sympathy extended to
all human beings. Humanitarianism has been an evolving concept
historically. No distinction is to be made on the grounds of gender,
sexual orientation, race, caste, age, religion, ability, or nationality.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is
a United Nations (UN) body formed in December 1991 by General Assembly Resolution
46/182.[1] The resolution was designed to strengthen the UN's response to complex
emergencies and natural disasters. Earlier UN organizations with similar tasks were
theDepartment of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA), and its predecessor, the Office of the United
Nations Disaster Relief Coordinator (UNDRC). In 1998, due to reorganization, DHA merged into
OCHA and was designed to be the UN focal point on major disasters. It is a sitting observer of
the United Nations Development Group.[2]

One of the purposes of the United Nations, as stated in its Charter, is "to
achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an
economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character."

The objective of Polish humanitarian assistance is to save lives and alleviate

suffering of victims of natural and man-made disasters in developing
countries while maintaining human dignity.

Polish humanitarian aid is delivered in two ways: firstly in the form of

contributions to international humanitarian organizations (particularly
United Nations agencies and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent

Movement) and secondly in the form of co-financing operations of Polish

entities.
ONE MAJOR PROBLEM:

The rates of kidnapping, injuries and deaths of

aid workers seems be on the increase. There have been many such
attacks in Afghanistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Pakistan.
This requires aid agencies to be more security conscious and adopt
measures to save guard
the lives of their employees. Some measures taken recently by
humanitarian organizations include suspending aid when and
where the security of their employees is under threat and in
some cases withdrawing completely from such environment.

**
www.humanitarianoutcomes.org
polish aid:
www.msz.gov.pl/en/foreign_policy/polish_aid/humanitarian_aid

aidworkerssecurity.org
Poland: Health workers in
confrontation with Kaczynski
government
By Cezar Komorovsky
10 July 2007

For the past two months, doctors have been staging

strikes at hundreds of hospitals across Poland demanding
pay raises, improved working conditions, and, more
generally, an overhaul of the countrys decrepit healthcare
system.
Recently, nurses have joined in protests for the same
demands, demonstrating solidarity amongst healthcare
workers. As in the summer of 2006 (see Poland: Health
care crisis provokes strikes and protests), the crisis of
healthcare in the post-Stalinist Polish state has been
dramatically exposed for all to see.
Tensions reemerged on May 10 of this year when doctors
at some 300 hospitals nationwide carried out a two-hour
warning strike. The doctors expressed dissatisfaction with
the 30 percent pay raises granted last year by the right-
wing Law and Justice Party government of Prime Minister
Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
PROBLEM : Much of the increase never reached the doctors
pockets because hospital directors, who received the money,
preferred to use it to reduce the enormous debts accrued by
many hospitals across Poland.
A group of about 200 doctors from a major Warsaw hospital
took matters into their own hands a few days afterwards by
staging a wildcat strike and blocking the street where the
hospital is located. The action was taken without consulting
the OZZL. Hospital strike committee leader Maciej
Jedrzejowski said afterwards that the protest was an
expression of the desperation and frustration felt by doctors.
Two days later, Prime Minister Kaczynski suggested that a
national referendum on the privatization of healthcare be put
to the populace. The question ... must be put, Kaczynski told
journalists. Meeting the wage demands of the doctors on
strike would be equivalent to ruining public finances, which
would be totally irresponsible, he declared.
Privatisation, which would subordinate the vitally important
health system to the profit motive, would mean a profound
decline in the quality and efficiency of the healthcare sector in
Poland. One need only look at the example of the United
States, where private medicine dominates and millions who
cannot afford healthcare are left to their fate, to see the
barbarity of for-profit healthcare.
However, the OZZL has made clear that it is not opposed, in
principle, to privatization.

We are willing to talk about everything, Kaczynski said, but

not immediately and without thought for economic
consequences. We are not going to let them [the doctors and
nurses] terrorize us.
The doctors strike is now in its second month, with 300 of
Polands 800 hospitals affected. It is increasingly clear that
the health workers strike is the tip of an iceberg of popular
discontent in Poland.

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
Study guide:
Humanitarian crisis leave the affected people in
need of water, health care, and shelter. In order to promptly
and adequately respond to the overwhelming needs of the
vulnerable people, both the local and the international
community has formed several humanitarian organizations,
charged with the responsibility of providing aid and assistance
to people affected by crisis, irrespective of their geographical
location.
Thus, affecting the ability of aid organizations to carry out
their mandate and as a result, those who are in dire need of
relief and assistance suffer.

PROBLEM :-
According to the United Nations Interagency Standing
Committee, insecurity of Aid workers is one of the major
indicators of shrinking humanitarian [16]. While all forms of
attacks against aid workers have increased as stated earlier,
abductions of aid workers have considerably increased in the
past decade. There were 11recorded cases of kidnappings in
2000 to 92 in 2012.
Although the reason for most attacks on aid workers are
largely unknown, the militarization and politicization of
***********************************
humanitarian aid has been attributed as some of the major
reasons for the increasing attacks on aid worker.
Humanitarian actors should operate in isolation from
politics.

HUMANITARIAN ACTORS - Humanitarian

organizations, particularly

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are the primary

vehicle through which donors channel their contributions.

KEY FIGURES 2014

TOTAL ASSISTANCE:

US$432 million
HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE:

US$64 million
CONTRIBUTIONS TO UN
PEACEKEEPING:

US$0.1million 2013
GOVERNMENT
EXPENDITURE:

Polish aid for the refugees in the Middle East

Jordan has shown huge mobilisation of funds and capacities and
proved great solidarity by giving shelter to the elderly, ill and
injured. Now, with more than a million refugees in Jordan, it
expects greater support from the international community. We
want to support the Jordanian authorities in aiding the refugees,
stressed Deputy Foreign Minister Joanna Wronecka, who headed
the delegation.
Inauguration of two facilities financed under Polish development
aid was a highlight of Deputy Minister Wroneckas visit to Jordan.
I am glad that the Polish government could contribute to the
opening of a surgery in Mafraq, she said. The GP surgery in a
Caritas Jordan centre has been equipped by the Polish MFA. It is
the only local centre that also provides medical services, added
the minister. More and more Syrian refugees receive assistance
there.

The visit also saw the opening of a playground at a primary school

in Ramtha. Educational projects are the future. It is thanks to
them that we are helping the young generation of Syrians to
rebuild the future of their country. The playground will enable
these children to do sport and live a normal life, said the deputy
chief of Polish diplomacy.

. The objective of Polish assistance is to spread education and

enhance social integration of Syrian refugees children.

Polish humanitarian aid reaches Ukraine

Polish funds help renovate and winterize an IDP centre
near Kharkiv. In addition, over 600 families will benefit
from financial help. Since the start of the Ukraine conflict,
Poland has provided PLN 10 million worth of
humanitarian aid to the people who have suffered most or
have been forced to flee their homes. The assistance
included hospitalization of those wounded in clashes with
the Berkut police, as well as summer camps for children
and youth. At the same time, Ukraine receives help from
local governments and NGO volunteers, hundreds of
whom are engaged in clothes and food collections.

TODAY
At a time when NGOs are under increasing pressure to send more workers to war zones,
local staff are being hit with a "transfer or risk" that puts them at the bottom of an "artificial
hierarchy", Karokhail continued.
Today most violence against aid staff is concentrated in five countries: Afghanistan, Syria,
South Sudan, Pakistan and Sudan. The recent escalation of the conflicts in Syria and South
Sudan was cited as a probable contributor to sharp increase in fatalities. Attacks on UN
facilities in the Gaza Strip last month also drew international outrage.
Forward planning
ORGANISATION OF DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION

The Minister of Foreign Affairs coordinates development

cooperation acting through the National Coordinator of
Development Cooperationwho holds the rank of secretary or
undersecretary of state. The Coordinator is assisted by
the Development Cooperation Policy Council. The Councils main
tasks are to provide suggestions for geographical and thematic
priorities of development cooperation, to review the draft
Programme and Plan, to review annual reports on the
implementation of measures implemented in the field, to review
draft government documents relating to development
cooperation. The Council consists of 21 members and is made up
of representatives of ministries, the Sejm, the Senat,
representatives of non-governmental organisations, the employer
organizations, and representative of the academia.
 Our partners
AT HOME
The main role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the national system
of development assistance is to program assistance policy and to
coordinate the activities of its participants, financed by the MFA from
the state budget. Our partners in development cooperation
implemented in countries that receive Polish assistance are:

non-governmental organisations;
government administration ministries and their agencies;
local governments and their agencies;
universities and research institutes;
Polish embassies and consular offices;
Solidarity Fund PL;
volunteers.
Projects financed by the MFA as part of bilateral cooperation are
developed and implemented in partnership with an institution or
organisation operating in the country where the project is
implemented. The involvement of local partners helps to better define
the needs of the local communities and contributes to the
sustainability of the projects after their completion.
ABROAD

In its multilateral cooperation, the MFA partners with many

institutions,

the European Union;

the UN and its specialised agencies;
 the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development).

Poland
Caritas Poland
Established in 2004, Caritas Polands mission is to support domestic and overseas projects
to meet the needs of the poor and disadvantaged. Their extensive range of activities include
establishing single-mother centres, hospices, treatment and rehabilitation centres, initiatives
that counter social exclusion and providing emergency relief to countries following natural
disasters or armed conflict in countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.

Caritas Poland programmes are largely funded by donations from individuals and
organisations at home and abroad. Domestically, these contributions have financed soup
kitchens, single-mother centres, programmes that care for victims of forced prostitution,
counseling for migrants and refugees to integrate into society, occupational therapy
workshops and day care centres for children and the elderly.

Recent examples of Caritas work in Poland, include a nutrition programme which 40 Caritas
centres across Poland provided 250,000 balanced meals to malnourished children in 2012.
In 2010, Poland was hit by catastrophic floods that the Prime Minister of Poland called the
worst disaster for 160 years. Caritas Poland helped come to the aid of over 66,000 flood
victims cross 15 towns by delivering pumping equipment.

Overseas, Caritas Poland has played a key role in emergency relief and rehabilitation work
during and after a disaster; such as international rescue efforts to help aid victims from the
devastating 8.9 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011.

Part of The Conference of the Polish Episcopate, Caritas Poland main office is located in
Warsaw and has a staff of approximately 20 people. Caritas Poland coordinates the work
and supports the tasks of 44 diocesan and archdiocesan Caritas in Poland.

Caritas Poland is a member of Caritas Internationalis and Caritas Europe, and actively
collaborates with the members on overseas emergency and developmental programmes.