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SHC: Welcome
delegates! We are Tim Stacey and Nick
Bernardone, and we will be your Chairs for the Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural
Committee during the UNYMUN 2003 Conference. Tim
is a junior at Jamesville-Dewitt. He has been
an avid participant in Model UN for four years, and he enjoys biking, music, sleeping, and
hanging out. Nick is a senior at
Jamesville-Dewitt. He enjoys not writing a
darn thing. Both of us are looking forward to some fast-paced debate and insightful resolutions from our delegates. We aim to make our committee rife with action and fraught with great discussion. This committee will be Resolution Style, meaning that delegates should prepare resolutions before the day of the conference. We will not accept resolutions in advance and will not make copies for the day of the conference. We request that delegates bring approximately 40 to 50 copies of their resolutions for debate in our committee. The criteria for the selection of inner and outer committee awards will be based on agility in debate, knowledge of topics for discussion, knowledge of country policy, and overall presence in committee. We are not looking for the delegates that speak the most, but rather those delegates who contribute the most to the committee. Your
chairs have selected the following three topics to debate during the conference. Unionization of Sex Workers and Prostitutes: Unionization of sex workers and prostitutes is an option for protecting those who are continually stripped of basic human rights. The question remains: is this feasible and should this be legal? Although there has been a great deal of published material about the unionization of Holland's prostitutes, only women with European Union documents are able to obtain permits to work as legal prostitutes. Foreign prostitutes often cannot afford to return to their countries. They vanish underground and work in illegal brothels or from home. They are unable to claim any of the legal protection that EU prostitutes enjoy. The foreign (and sometimes trafficked) prostitutes and sex workers are open to blackmail, abuse, and atrocious human rights violations. The numbers of abused sex workers and prostitutes are staggering. Eighty-six percent of U.S. prostitutes and sex workers, and 53 percent of the internationally have reported being physically abused by pimps and traffickers. Half of the U.S. sex workers and one third of the international sex workers described frequent, sometimes daily assaults. Ninety percent of the U.S. sex workers and 40 percent of international sex workers reported being sexually assaulted in prostitution at the hands of pimps and traffickers. Some branches of the Service Employees International Union within United States have taken it upon themselves to unionize sex workers and prostitutes (e.g. the Lusty Lady documentary of unionizing sex workers in San Francisco). Try to think about ways that certain problems with sex workers and prostitution can be addressed by unionizing the workers. The inherent problem of human rights violations in this industry must be addressed in all resolutions. A good resolution will define all terms used within its writing (e.g. sex worker, prostitute, unionization) and will detail the process through which the plan will occur. Establishing further committees without addressing issues in full totality will not be a good solution. As always, a level of maturity must be maintained in committee. Any delegate that acts in a profane or offensive way will be immediately kicked out of committee. Good starting sources (This topic will be hard to search for without venturing on questionable material, so we encourage you to use the links below. Using words like “unionization,” “United Nations,” “trafficking,” or “sex workers” in your search will help sort out questionable material.): http://www.walnet.org/csis/groups/icpr_charter.html http://www.walnet.org/csis/reports/index.html Literacy of Women: The enhancement of women's literacy plays a significant role for increasing a country's human resources, ensuring the equal treatment of women, and supporting the international women's rights movements. Before debate, please find out your country's stance on the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Initiatives that increase either educational opportunities to all children or specifically target barriers to female access will help solve this problem quickly. A suggested resolution on this topic would include creating a separate panel within the UN to deal with the issue of women's rights/equal opportunity towards education or possibly raising the issue in individual countries. Creating public awareness is another large factor in this issue. Historically, a variety of factors have been found to be responsible for poor female literate rate, such as gender based equality, social discrimination, occupation of female children in domestic chores, low enrollment of girls in schools, and high dropout rates (especially in India, China, and Japan in the late 90’s). We want current information with new facets to the problem. The chairs will not appreciate a retread of what has been said in past conferences. Good starting sources: http://www.askeric.org/Old_Askeric/InfoGuides/alpha_list/women&lit12_96.html http://www.laubach.org/WIL/indexwil.html Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de
Colombia (FARC) : FARC was first established in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party. In March 1999, FARC executed three US Indian rights activists on Venezuelan territory after kidnapping them in Colombia. Foreign citizens often are targets of FARC kidnapping for ransom. In 2001, the group negotiated a slow moving peace process with the Pastrana Administration of Columbia that has gained the group several concessions, including a demilitarized zone used as a venue for negotiations. Since the collapse in February 2002 of peace
talks between the government and the armed opposition group, Fuerzas Armadas
Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), the internal conflict has intensified. This is having a devastating effect on the
civilian population. Security forces and
their paramilitary allies continue to be responsible for widespread violations of human
rights while armed opposition groups continue to be responsible for numerous and repeated
violations of international humanitarian law. There has been little or no progress with regard to implementing the recommendations of
the UN. President Alvaro Uribe is pursuing
policies that run counter to many of these recommendations.
A good resolution on this topic will correct the problem without imposing on
Columbian national sovereignty. Good
solutions will probably be unorthodox, such as using NGOs (non-governmental
organizations). We look forward to seeing a
well-informed debate on this issue, so come prepared with research. Good starting sources: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1746777.stm |
