Berlin Model United Nations

BERMUN - ICJ - YA - Press - Forum

Human Rights Committee

Dear Delegates, Welcome to the BERMUN 2009 conference, and more importantly, welcome to the Human Rights Committee of 2009!

We, Elvin Bora and Katharina Schaper, will serve as this year’s chairs to the Human Rights Committee and hope to guide and lead you through a successful BERMUN conference. We ask you to research both of the topics thoroughly, as this will not only increase the level of debate, but also make this experience a more interesting and rewarding one for you. Please come prepared with a full resolution on one of the topics and a few clauses, if not a second resolution, for the second topic. This will ensure that lobbying runs smoothly and that each and everyone of you benefits from the resolution making process.

To help you in your research process, we have attached brief summaries of the single topics. Since these are only supposed to give you an overview of the topic, please make sure to research the topics beyond what we will provide you with. You will also find a number of research links to refer to.

We very much look forward to meeting all of you and wish you the best of luck for your conference preparation. We are sure that this year’s Human Rights Committee will provide an unforgettable experience for all of us!

See you in November!
Katharina Schaper and Elvin Bora
Chairs of the Human Rights Committee

Core Labor Standards in Times of Global Crisis

Core Labor Standards (CLS) are four main principles created by the International Labor Organisation in order to ensure a fair and beneficial working environment for everyone. Of course this concept goes beyond four simple ideas, however, the main purpose is that these are accepted internationally. Whereas people in More Economically Developed Countries (MEDCs) may take these for granted, in times of global crisis, labor standards are reaching a new low, even for them. However, primarily Lesser Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs) fail to oblige by the baseline standards for labor set up by the International Labor Organization. In Asia, especially, there have been several reports of uneven compliances with the CLS. Therefore, in times of global crisis, when it has become harder than ever to follow these guidelines, member nations must understand the necessity of striving toward fair labor standards in order to grow on both a national and international level.

The concept of Core Labor Standards is a very complex one and is therefore often misunderstood and misinterpreted. The basic standards for people undergoing paid labor on a regular basis include (as defined by the ILO) : freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining; the elimination of forced and compulsory labor; the abolition of child labor; and the elimination of discrimination in the workplace. Core labor standards are agreed upon in order to achieve social justice and ensure economic stability for those affected.

Due to globalization the necessity to abide by this concept has become increasingly harder but all the more vital. For many years the efforts to create and implement Core Labor Standards were not taken seriously, however, since the whole world has been affected by the financial crisis, more and more attention is being given to this topic.

However, the topic at hand is more complex than that.
Since the issue of Core Labor Standards in times of global crisis is a very controversial one, many nations are easily mislead by its purposes. Since labor, especially underpaid labor, is a fact no nation willingly admits to, finding nations that take a significant stance on this topic is nearly impossible. However, great progress has been made in Asia, a continent that has dealt much with this issue in the past century. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has worked cooperatively with the ILO in order to seek possible solutions. This team has been very active in fighting to maintain Core Labor Standards in nations around the world.

Research Links

Reducing and eliminating reliance on child labor in a globalized economy

Although striking progress has been made concerning the issue of child labor, the statistics pertaining to the issue are still troubling and therefore the issue itself needs immediate international action, which is the exact reason why it is one of the topics of BERMUN 2009’s Human Rights Committee.

According to the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), the term “child labour” is often defined as “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.”

The International Labour Organization estimates the existence of around 200 million child laborers globally. Also, it has to be mentioned that nearly three quarters of those children are engaged in the worst forms of the child labor such as in trafficking, armed conflicts, slavery, sexual exploitation and hazardous work.

Although these statistics are worrisome, a significant progress has been made. According to the statistics supplied by the Global Report under the Follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work 2006, the number of child laborers globally fell by 11 per cent over the last four years. The greatest decline had been in the Latin America and the Caribbean whereas the sub-Saharan Africa had the least one. In places where the economic growth is rapid and the issue is tackled effectively by government policies, the decrease of the child labour has been more intense. The international awareness given to the issue, strengthened by the interest of trade unions, employer’s organizations and individuals all over the world, enabled us to effectively combat.

The globalized economy has both positive and negative impacts on the issue. In a globalized economy, a country opens its borders to international market and it enables the foreign investment to come in. Investment increases the job opportunities and the wages. Let’s imagine a country which has agricultural products. If a more developed nation invests the lesser developed one to import such goods to itself, the lesser developed one would actually start developing and its citizens would now acquire jobs and money. Then, they would send their children to school because the money the child would earn is not going to matter economically. However, it could have been vice versa. Now, since the earning opportunities are more, the demand for child labor -the cheap and good work- can increase. Nevertheless, if the parents now work differently –maybe in a factory-, the child could replace them in their household duties to keep the life the way it used to. Moreover, investment can create a competition and harm the local market. Then, the locals would lose their jobs and need to work with the foreign ones. This creates in the long term, dependency for the foreign investment and it empowers the foreign countries to interfere with the country’s policies and domestic affairs.

In order to eliminate the child labor, you have to come with measures to transfer children from the work places to schoolrooms, measures which could make the family not be dependent upon the money coming from their own child. Free and compulsory education for all, stronger national child labor laws for wider legal protection and economical development are possible solutions.

Research Links

News:

2009-07-05: Form Downloads

Form II

2009-06-17:

2009-06-01: Form Downloads

Youth Assembly Application Form 2009

2009-05-21: Form Downloads