Special Political and Decolonization Committee
Chairs: Andrew Odenheimer (andode@bergen.org) - Marina Senaldi (marsen@bergen.org)
Topic Papers:
Topic Paper 1: [PDF], [DOC]
Topic Paper 2: [PDF], [DOC]
Topic Paper 3: [PDF], [DOC]
SPECPOL is known as the Special Political and Decolonization Committee. This committee serves as the General Assembly's forum to discuss any grievances that nations bring before the committee concerning political stability and decolonization. It was started in 1965 in order to deal with problems that did not fall under the jurisdiction of the First Committee. The purpose of the committee is to deal with the world's current political issues of decolonization. It also works to emphasize the right of self-determination as expressed in the UN Charter. As decolonization is no longer a major focus of the United Nations, the committee started looking at special global political issues. The committee hopes to create and maintain peace by examining various special political cases and by implementing resolutions which effectively solve the problem while still respecting national sovereignty.