York College YCMUN 4/5/2014
Welcome to the 2014 York College
Model UN Conference. I am excited to welcome you to another great year
and a
great experience. My name is Kristina
Forrey
and I will be your chair for the UN Social, Humanitarian and Cultural
Affairs
Committee, frequently called the "Third Committee". I am a graduating
senior at York College majoring in Psychology and minoring in Political
Science. I am a member of Psi Chi, a national honors fraternity for
psychology,
and a member of Pi Sigma Alpha, a national honors society for political
science. I look forward to having a relaxed professional atmosphere in
which
everyone can learn.
For our conference this year I have
selected two issues which have been matters of international interest
for many
countries: (1) the impact of land grab policies on food security and
(2) the
spread of infectious diseases due to lack of sanitation. While in the
past both
of these issues had been considered "third world problems",
technological advancements are bringing these problems to the doorstep
of
developed nations. Land grabs are being
conducted throughout the world by foreign companies to secure land to
grow food
to export to the home country. The ease of international travel
increases the
likelihood of global pandemic disease. These are important topics which
need to
be addressed by the international community.
Please read the information that I
have provided on these two topics and explore the websites to
understand the
importance of these topics. I look forward to seeing each of you
present your
positions on these topics from the viewpoint of the country you will
represent
at the conference. I expect that we will have fun, stay "in
character", and make this year a great learning experience for
everyone. I
look forward to meeting you in April.
Sincerely,
Kristina
Forrey
York
College of Pennsylvania
United
Nations
Social,
Humanitarian & Cultural Affairs Committee (Third
Committee)
Background
The
Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee
(SOCHUM), commonly referred to as the "Third Committee", addresses
agenda items relating to a range of social, humanitarian affairs, human
rights
issues, and issues of fundamental freedoms which affect people all over
the
world. First convened in 1948, the Third Committee of the General
Assembly,
deals mainly with issues in the social and cultural framework and
collaborates
with various organizations to implement the GA resolutions. Using the
Universal
Declaration of Human Rights as its main reference guide, the Committee
examines
human rights questions such as the advancement of women, the protection
of
children, indigenous issues, the treatment of refugees, the promotion
of
fundamental freedoms through the elimination of racism and racial
discrimination, and promotion of the right to self- determination. The
Committee also addresses important social development questions such as
issues
related to youth, family, ageing, persons with disabilities, crime
prevention,
criminal justice, and international drug control.
The
Third Committee has made great strides in the advancement of
oppressed peoples, having been the source of such landmark United
Nations
documents as the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination
against
Women. One of the many successes of
SOCHUM includes the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights
during World War II which emphasizes freedom, justice, peace, and
overall human
rights. Another recent accomplishment of the committee occurred during
the 63rd
Session of the United Nations when SOCHUM passed [A/RES/63/117], which
established ‘Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on
Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights.’
The
committee is faced with the challenge of dealing with these
diverse issues and upholding the principles of human dignity, equality
and
equity at the global level while balancing of ongoing social, economic
and
political change at the local level. An obstacle this committee faces
is that
resolutions are not binding to individual state members. Consequently,
implementing resolutions can be quite difficult. Another obstacle that
a fully
implemented resolution encounters is the committee’s inability to
impose sanctions
and authorize armed intervention. At times it is simply a country’s
uncooperative mindset that leaves issues unresolved despite the
committee’s
efforts. Nevertheless, resolutions passed by SOCHUM are significant and
instrumental in effecting positive change. There is an increased need
to find a
balance between the protection of human rights and the legitimate
security,
economic and social concerns of the States when developing strategies
to deal
with concerns facing the Committee.
The
negotiations and draft resolutions are the result of Member
States working together to create solutions that will ideally be
implemented on
a global scale. Every action of the GA is influenced by the national
sovereignty of Member States, and although vital, this element has
proven to be
a significant source of disagreement within the General Assembly and
its Main
Committees. Creating resolutions that provide actions and solutions to
global
issues, while preserving national sovereignty, has proven to be a
formidable
task for the GA. At the sixty-seventh
session of the General Assembly, the Third Committee considered 59
draft
resolutions, more than half of which were submitted under the human
rights
agenda item alone. These included three
so-called country-specific resolutions on human rights situations.
York
College of Pennsylvania Model UN
Conference 2014:
In
the present model, the
Third Committee will be expressly concentrating on two topics of
interest: (1)
the impact of land grab policies on food security and (2) the spread of
infectious diseases due to lack of sanitation.
Land
Grab Policies & Food Security
This
committee has jurisdiction over land grab policies directly
within the scope of food security and human rights matters. A land grab
is a
large-scale acquisition of land within a country, through purchase or
lease, by
domestic or international companies, government entities, or private
individuals. The acquisition of land in such a manner prevents the
native
population from utilizing the land. Food security would be specifically
concerned with land purchased for agrarian use. In developing
countries, often
the “purchaser” of the land does not have legal right, under
international law,
to make purchase. Very frequently the “seller” does not have the
authority to
sell (Oxfam.org; Crisisgroup.org; CFR.org). Often the land grab
purchase or
lease is approved by a government agency or agent who has no legitimate
legal
claim to the land (StopAfricanLandGrab.org). Government corruption is
certainly
a factor in land grabs and it has been noted in the Oxfam and
Crisisgroup.org
informational publications that countries that are the least developed
and with
the most outwardly corrupted governments have frequent instances of
land grabs.
While government corruption is certainly of concern generally, the
focus of
this conference is the access to food, both presently and in future,
which is
being endangered by land grabs.
The
first and most obvious problem with a land grab in a
developing country by a foreign entity is that the local population has
lost
that land as a resource to produce their own food. Additionally, the
occupants
of the purchased land are frequently forcibly removed and/or killed
during the
acquisition process. Displacement of persons by force and deprivation
of life
are basic human rights issues which falls under the scope of SOCHUM. These types of events have been recorded
across the globe in countries including Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Sudan,
Columbia,
China, Ethiopia, Paupa New Guinea, and Cambodia, just to name a few
(Amnesty.org; FarmLandGrab.org; Oxfam.org). Oxfam and Crisisgroup.org
have each
done several informational pieces on how a land grab typically occurs
and the
dangers associated with these types of acquisitions. For the purposes
of this
conference, we are looking specifically at how land grabs affect food
security
and the human rights abuses associated with these events and how to
address
this problem.
International
land grabs became a problem after the 2007-2008 world
food price crisis (Oxfam.org). Amplified by the burden of a growing
world
population with a higher life expectancy, international corporations
and some
governments are seeking property in other countries in order to assure
future
food production for their home countries. There can be other reasons
for land
grabs beyond food production. Australia has recently experienced
problems with
international companies attempting to purchase large areas of land due
to
discovery of a large oil reserve under the Outback. Some industrialized
nations, including the United States, have an eminent domain policy
which is
essentially a land grab action wherein they take land within their
country from
their own citizens. These types of land grabs are not related to food
shortages,
food security, or basic human rights violations and are thus is not
specifically within the scope of this conference; however,
consideration of a
blanket restriction of volume of land grabs could address the problem
in a
general manner. In order to better understand the issue of land grabs,
several
websites are recommended at the end of this section to provide
additional
information for this topic.
Essential
Questions to be Considered in
Proposed Resolutions for Land Grabs:
1.
Should
the SOCHUM be involved
in land grab cases as a means of preserving food security or is this a
State/Country issue? If they should be involved, should resolutions be
done on
a general or country-specific basis?
2.
Are
land grabs and food
security intertwined? Is there a basic “right to food” or should those
with the
money to purchase land be permitted to do so? Consider
present and future implications of this question.
3.
Are
there any limits to how
much land a foreign investor or foreign nation should be permitted to
purchase
or lease within another nation? Should SOCHUM pass a resolution(s) to
regulate
the volume of purchase and lease
actions?
www.oxfam.org
www.stopafricalandgrab.com
www.farmlandgrab.org
www.cfr.org
www.crisisgroup.org
www.amnesty.org
Sustainable
Development Institute. (2013, Sep). SDI
calls on the Government of Liberia, Equatorial Palm Oil to immediately
cease
land survey in Grand Bassa District #4. Retrieved from
http://farmlandgrab.org/22611
Tanzania
Daily News (2013, Sep). Tanzania:
State has not grabbed land from
anybody. Retrieved from http://farmlandgrab.org/22616
Infectious
Disease & Sanitation
The
spread of infectious disease has been a repeat topic on
agendas of the Third Committee either in the form of country-specific
resolutions or general declarative resolutions. The lack of sanitation
and the
causal link to the spread of infectious disease has been a topic in
recent
years for developing and underdeveloped countries. For example, recent
studies
have found that the high rates of stunted growth in children in India
may be
the result of microbial bacteria in drinking water, due to lack of
basic
sanitation, and not poor nutrition as previously believed (Hammer &
Spears,
2013; Trevandi, 2013). International concerns have increased regarding
the
possible pandemic potential of infectious disease due to ease of
international
travel (WHO, 2008). The ease with which an individual can travel from
one part
of the world to another, coupled with the volume of people an infected
person
comes in contact with during such travel, has lead to increased
instances of
traveling diseases (Global Health Council). Recent pandemic explosions
swine
flu and the concern of avian flu outbreaks, which are exacerbated by
international travel of infected persons, has increased public concern
for how
sanitation affects the spread of infectious disease on a global scale
(CDC,
2010, n.d.).
UN
General Assembly Resolution A/RES/64/292 of 2010 explicitly
recognized the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledged
that clean
drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realization of all
human
rights. This resolution calls upon States and international
organisations to provide
financial resources, help capacity-building and technology transfer to
help
countries, in particular developing countries, to provide safe, clean,
accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all. In
November
2002, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted
General
Comment No. 15 on the right to water, stating that
"The human right to water is indispensable for leading a life in human
dignity. It is a prerequisite for the realization of other human
rights".
The right to water is defined, under Comment No. 15, as the right to
sufficient, safe, acceptable and physically accessible and affordable
water for
personal and domestic uses.
It
is estimated that lack of
basic sanitation costs the world about $260
billion annually (Jacobs, 2013). Only sixty-two percent (62%) of
Africans
have access to safe water and sixty percent (60%) have access to
adequate
sanitation (WSP.org). In 2010, WHO/UNICEF found that 1.1 billion people
in the
world do not use a toilet or latrine and of those, sixty percent (60%),
660
million people, live in India. The 2012 UN-Water Global Analysis and
Assessment
of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) report found that 2.5 billion
people
have no access to improved sanitation and noted that “On average, 34%
of
primary schools and 25% of rural health-care centres lack improved
sanitation
facilities” (GLAAS, 2012). The World Bank “Little Data Book 2013”
provides
information by region for the percentage of the region’s population
that has
access to improved sanitation (toilets and sewer access): East Asia and
the
Pacific, 66%; Europe and Asia, 84%;
Latin American and Caribbean, 79%; Middle East and North Africa, 88%; South Asia, 38%; Sub-Saharan Africa,
31%. They also separate the statistics by specific country and by
income
brackets: The lowest income brackets have the lowest access to
sanitation
access rate, lowest access to medical care, and the lowest life
expectancy,
while the highest income brackets had the highest statistics
(World Bank, 2013). The link
between poverty, lack of sanitation, and spread of infectious disease
is clear.
Water
is a well-documented
source for transmission of infectious diseases. The most common
infectious
diseases that are transmitted as a result of poor sanitation are
cholera,
typhoid, infectious hepatitis, polio, cryptosporidiosis, and
ascariasis. In
addition, serious non communicable diseases and health hazards have
been linked
to poor sanitation including diarrhea, pneumonia, under-nutrition, worm
infestations, and poisoning by heavy metals and toxic organic and
inorganic
substances. Typically in the United
States diarrhea is considered a minor inconvenience and is rarely
life-threatening; but in a developing country where there are no drug
stores
and doctors, such a simple illness can easily kill, especially for the
elderly
and for young children (UNICEF, 2012). Diarrhea killed 2 million people
and
caused 4 billion episodes of illness in 2011 alone.
In
underdeveloped countries, up to 15% or more of annual deaths can
be
attributed to diseases that could have been prevented by having basic
sanitation
(WHO, 2012). As evidenced by the case of India's children, the lack of
basic
sanitation can have far-reaching implications for States.
2.
Does
a State(s) determined to
be the source of the transmitted disease have some responsibility for
infections which are spread to other States by its inhabitants?
www.cdc.gov
www.cfr.org
www.issuu.com/globalhealthcouncil
www.sanitationdrive2015.org
www.un.org/waterforlifedecade
www.unhabitat.org
www.unicef.org
www.unwater.org
Sources:
Center
for Disease Control and Prevention.
(n.d.). CDC Resources for Pandemic Flu.
Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/
Sanitation
Drive 2015. (n.d.) What diseases are associated with poor
sanitation? Retrieved from
http://sanitationdrive2015.org/faqs/what-diseases-are-
associated-with-poor-sanitation/