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UNHRC
United Nations Human Rights Council
topics:
 Child Labor
 Human Trafficking
Chaired by the Honorable
Quinn Hudak, Kathryn Erskine, and Kaylyn Nakaji
S i n c e
HBHS
April 25th, 2015
1 9 7 8
Novice
hbhsmun.webs.com
Huntington Beach High School Model United Nations
UNHRC
April 25th, 2015
Welcome to the United Nations Human Rights
Council!
Quinn Hudak
Greetings delegates, I’m Quinn Hudak and currently a senior attending Huntington Beach
High School. I have been in MUN for four years now and have just finished up my last season
being an Oiler football player. I have committed to University of Pennsylvania and plan to major
in Computer Science with a minor in Business, although I’m still unsure about what I want to do
with my life! Yolo, right? Anyway, I hope that you all have fun in committee because we’ve got
some fire topics to discuss and my fellow chairs and I have done a considerable amount of work
to make this Novice a memorable one. See you in committee!
Kathryn Erskine
Hi delegates! I’m Kathryn Erskine and I will be co-chairing the Human Rights Council at
HBHS Novice 37 this year. I am in my second year of MUN at Huntington Beach High School
and I am currently a sophomore. I absolutely love the MUN program and hope that you all can
get a good experience from this committee and that it helps you progress in your MUN career. I
am on the track team here at HB and I do pole vaulting as my event. I am the co-president of
the Down’s Syndrome Awareness Club at HB and love to help others. Outside of school, I play
piano and spend time with my friends. Overall, I hope that we have a fun committee and that
everyone works hard to tackle the topics of human trafficking and child labor.
Kaylyn Nakaji
Hello delegates! My name is Kaylyn Nakaji and I will be one of your three chairs for the
Human Rights Committee at Novice 37. I am currently a sophomore at Huntington Beach High
School, and this is my second year being involved in the MUN program. I have loved every
second of my MUN experience, and I also debated in last year’s Novice conference, so I hope
that all of you have a wonderful MUN experience in our committee too. Outside from MUN, I
enjoy playing a lot of basketball as well as doing volunteer work through the National Charity
League, which is an organization I am involved with. Lastly, I look forward to an amazing
debate with new and innovative solutions. I am very excited to see you all at our conference in
April! Good luck researching, and see you all then!
Position Papers must be submitted to your Dais’s central email no later than 11:59 PM on
April 19th, 2015 to be considered for a Research Award. Research Awards will be presented
during committee; please be sure to follow the HBHSMUN Position Paper format available on
our website. Your Dais’s central email is: [email protected]
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I. Child Labor
Topic Background
conducted studies and found that 80% of
child workers were impoverished, while
65.1% were beaten or scolded by their
employer. Poverty deeply affects child labor
in that many under aged workers only
choose to undergo rigorous actions in order
to provide for their family. Similarly, a highly
impoverished area will result in poorly
regulated work conditions and force children
to endure unsanitary environments. The
correlation between the two has led the
Convention on Child Rights to focus its
resources on reducing the damage inflicted
on
children
working
in
unsuitable
iv
conditions . The JIRHC and JIUHC also
found that 78.6% of child workers attended
the medical center in the past year for a
health complaint v . Aside from poverty,
however, another large portion of child
workers are forced into labor and some are
even transported across country border
lines. The International Labor Organization
estimated in 2005 that between 980,000
and 1,255,000 children are forced into labor.
Consequently, the ILO has classified
trafficking as a “form of slavery or a practice
similar to slavery” in its Convention No. 182
(1999), thereby categorizing it as part of the
Worst Forms of Child Labor (WFCL) vi .
Overall, child labor is a growing issue as it
damages young people not only physically,
but also mentally through trauma and
shock.
With child labor on the rise, nearly
218 million children have been forced to
work to either support their family or survive
harsh conditions. Moreover, many children
are enslaved by their employers and
neglected when they are injured or deficient
in health. In fact, it is estimated that 126
million children work under physical or
sexual abuse, resulting in humiliation along
with trauma i . In addition, children are not
suited for many of the laborious tasks that
are imposed upon them, causing child
workers to experience rapid skeletal growth,
low heat tolerance, sleep deprivation, and
higher chemical absorption rates. These
side effects stem from the fact that most
working children are not fully developed,
and therefore are not suited to work in the
same environments as adults. Also, lack of
supervision in work areas combined with the
lack of necessary experience often leads to
fatal incidents for children working with
machineryii. As a result, a movement known
as the Global March Against Child Labor
was created to raise awareness about
human rights violations occurring within
child labor. By the time it was established, it
swept from the Philippines to Geneva,
where it joined in the debate of the
International Labor Organization (ILO) on
the Draft Convention on Child Rights iii . In
addition to this movement, child labor is also
fought by the Child Labor Public Education
Project, an organization which focuses on
poverty, disputably the root of the problem.
Furthermore, the Jawaharlal Institute Urban
Health Center (JIUHC) and the Jawaharlal
Institute Rural Health Center (JIRHC) have
United Nations Involvement
The United Nations has taken many
steps in order to decrease the prevalence of
child labor in the world today. One major
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action that the UN took in 1989 was the
adoption of A/RES/44/25, in which the
Convention on the Rights of the Child was
included. The Convention on the Rights of
the Child was the first worldwide legally
binding convention that included such a
wide range of human rights that were
specifically
targeted
for
children.
Economical rights pertaining to a child were
just one of the many subjects touched upon
in the agreement. In Article 32 of the
Convention, the UN not only states the
basic human rights that children around the
globe are entitled to, such as the right to
protection from economic exploitation, but
also provides the definition of a child, which
is defined as anyone under the age of 18
years oldvii. The Convention on the Rights of
the Child is the most supported human
rights convention in the entire world, and
with the ratification of this treaty by all
except two countries, this accord has had a
major impact in regards to reducing child
labor. Another important step that the
United Nations has taken in the hopes of
decreasing the worldwide child labor
prevalence occurs through the International
Labour Organization, or the ILO. The ILO is
a specialized agency within the UN itself,
and this organization works for objectives
that include advocating for people’s rights at
work as well as promoting reasonable
employment opportunities viii . Specifically
geared towards the reduction of child labor,
the ILO created Convention No. 182 in 1999
and
Convention
No.
138
in
1973. Convention No. 182 stresses mainly
the need for an international focus upon the
problem of child labor and also upon the
urgency of action that is essential in order to
first eliminate the worst forms of child labor
while also keeping in mind the long term
goal of the overall eradication of child labor
itself. Secondly, in Convention No. 138, the
ILO’s main focus concerns the minimum
age for admittance to employment and
work. In this convention, the ILO not only
suggests the minimum age at which
children can start working, which depends
on the physical, mental, social, and
educational effects the labor has on the
child, but it also provides developing
countries with possible exceptions to the
minimum age requirement in order to
ensure these regulations are feasible to the
developing portion of the world as
well. Lastly, in 2002 the United Nations
General Assembly Special Session on
Children included child labor in the
development agenda ix . This proved to be
very significant because this suggested to
all nations that a new plan must be set in
order to inspire an international movement
against child labor in the hopes of
completely
abolishing
it
in
the
future. Through all of these steps, the
United Nations has and continues to work
for the overall eradication of child labor in
the world today.
Case Study: Somalia
With roughly about 58.2 million child
laborers in the region, Africa has the second
highest child labor rates throughout the
entire globe x . However, more specifically,
the country of Somalia is one of Africa’s
leaders in regards to child labor, with most
of their child laborers unfortunately engaged
in two of the worst forms of child labor: child
soldiers and child labor in agriculturexi. The
recent influx of child labor is thought to have
increased due to a plethora of problems,
including the number of displaced people,
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recent droughts, regional poverty, urban
migration,
and
the
loss
of
livestock xii . However, the extremely high
prevalence of child labor in Somalia is most
often credited to mainly the Somali Civil
War. Since January 1991 to ongoing, the
utilization of children as a work force in the
Somali Civil War has not been one
sided. Both the Transitional Federal
Government (TFG), the current government
in Mogadishu, Somalia, and al-Shabab, an
Islamist militant group, have recruited and
continue to recruit children into their
armies. These two groups have also
perpetrated other terrible abuses against
these child laborers, despite the fact that in
July 2012, the TFG of Somalia signed a
plan of action to reduce the amount of child
recruitment in their nation xiii . Although the
current government of Somalia has made
efforts to reduce child recruitment, Somalia
remains as one of the only two nations that
has not ratified the Convention on the
Rights of the Child, a key treaty regarding
economic as well as other rights for
childrenxiv. Unfortunately, it is also thought
that children are trafficked by Somali militias
for the purpose of not only forced labor, but
also sexual exploitation. These Somali
militias traffic these young children with their
destination countries usually located in the
Middle East or South Africa, where they are
then forced to work long hours of unpaid
labor xv . Another contributing cause as to
why the child labor prevalence is so high in
Somalia is due to the extreme lack of
education opportunities provided by the
government. In Somalia, the TFG does not
provide its citizens with free education in
regards to primary schooling. In fact, about
62% of primary schools in Somalia actually
require fees to be paid by families, which
many of them cannot afford. With a lack of
means, families are not able to provide their
children with an education, which often
results in child labor. Overall, due to many
unfortunate and contributing factors, the
country of Somalia, along with many other
nations worldwide, is struggling to eliminate
the high amounts of child labour in their
country, and immediate action is necessary
in order to eliminate this very prevalent
problem in the world today.
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II. Human Trafficking
Topic Background
internal armed conflict, and natural
disaster. xx ” While human trafficking affects
all ages and genders, women account for
54 percent, children account for 44 percent,
while the remaining 2 percent is
men xxi . These victims are tricked into
trafficking by promise of a well-paying job or
being educated xxii . Frequent locations of
trafficking are in motels, strip clubs,
massage businesses, arranged online
dating meetings, and other locations that
are jeopardizing to one’s safety xxiii . In
Venezuela, a tier 3 country, punishments for
human trafficking are 20 to 25 years for a
group of traffickers and 25 to 30 years for
an individualxxiv. In New Zealand, a tier one
country, penalties include 20 years in prison
as well as fines of up to 350,000 USD xxv .
The effects of human trafficking do not end
when a person is rescued from their
enslavement. The stresses of being
trafficked continue long after and pose a
serious threat to the health of those who are
or were once trafficked. A recent study
conducted by the London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine showed that many
formerly trafficked persons have severe
anxiety, depression, and even posttraumatic stress disorder xxvi . According to
the European Union, 95 percent of trafficked
women reported being physically assaulted
while 60 percent reported other symptoms
of prolonged fatigue and internal illnesses
and diseases xxvii . Another health threat
linked
to
human
trafficking
is
HIV/AIDS. Trafficked women from Nepal
have an HIV prevalence of 38 percent and
in South Africa the prevalence reaches 70.4
percentxxviii.
The
UNODC
defines
human
trafficking
as
“the
recruitment,
transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt
of persons, by means of the threat or use of
force… [for the purpose of] prostitution of
others or other forms of sexual exploitation,
forced labor or services, slavery or practices
similar to slavery, servitude or the removal
of organs” xvi . The United States’ State
Department has created a tiering system to
rank countries on the severity of the human
trafficking in their nation. It is divided into
four tiers: tier one is made up of those who
fully comply with the minimum standards of
the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s
(TVPA), tier 2 is those who do not fully
comply but are actively trying to, tier 2
watch list is at tier 2 standards with
increasing records of trafficked people, and
tier 3 is nations that do not make an attempt
to comply with the rules of the TVPAxvii. The
tier 3 countries most affected by human
trafficking
are
Thailand,
Malaysia,
Venezuela, North Korea, and Syria xviii .
Human trafficking has an overall worth of
approximately 32 billion USD xix , and more
than 2.4 million people worldwide are
victims of human trafficking; a little over
twice the population of Gabon. However,
since this is an illicit business, the number
of trafficked people is hard to record and
may be many millions more. Often times,
victims of human trafficking are exposed to
one or more of the following factors:
“poverty, oppression, lack of human rights,
lack of social or economic opportunity…
political instability, militarism, civil unrest,
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United Nations Involvement
“Trafficking in Women Girls”, from February
of 2015, urges member states to adopt the
many various resolutions which regard
human trafficking and calls for governments
to address the vast array of issues
surrounding human trafficking such as
sexual exploitation and child marriages.
The United Nations Global Initiative
to Fight Human Trafficking (UNGIFT) was
started by several preexisting United
Nations organizations in order to innovate
new ways to end the issue of human
trafficking xxix . Their main document, which
they are centered around, is the “Protocol to
Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in
Persons especially Women and Children.”
This protocol is signed by 140 parties and
overall calls for cooperation from countries
to end the issue of human trafficking;
protect the rights of the victims; and
ensuring the provision of housing,
healthcare, and other needs of victims of
human trafficking xxx . The United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime has also taken
action in the fight against human trafficking
with their “Thematic Programme Against
Transnational Organized Crime And Illicit
Trafficking.” The UNODC’s main goal in
terms of human trafficking is to strengthen
the justice system's’ response to human
trafficking related crimes xxxi . Furthermore,
the United Nations Action for Cooperation
against Trafficking in Persons wants to
reinstate the amount of anti-trafficking
facilities, establish even more research
based evidence of human trafficking and
encourage people to speak up about human
traffickingxxxii. Since peacekeepers are often
traffickers and sexual abusers, the United
Nations had addressed this issue in “Human
Trafficking
and
United
Nations
Peacekeeping.” This document serves to
create a monitoring system to ensure that
peacekeeping officers are held accountable
for any trafficking related crimes and aid
nations in preventing human trafficking
during or after a conflictxxxiii. A/RES/69/149,
Case Study: Thailand
In 2014, the United States released
a statement which labeled Thailand as one
of the “world’s worst centers of human
trafficking”; eventually bringing it to the
same terms as North Korea and Syria.
Although Thailand’s human trafficking
business is mostly concerned with sexual
exploitation, there has been a considerable
increase in the demand for labor trafficking.
This influx is largely due to the success in
Thailand’s fishing exports, causing human
trafficking to run rampant in both the labor
and sex trade. Also, the increase in demand
for labor workers has led to the attraction of
major trafficking companies: causing
Thailand to become known as the trafficking
capital of the world. With this business
booming, criminals begin to see the
marketing as a lucrative line of work and
consequently devise new techniques that
will further increase the likelihood that it will
go undetected. This then leads to the
development of an underground community
within Thailand, strengthened by its dirty
capital and ability to remain elusivexxxiv. As a
result, the U.S. State Department has
recognized Thailand as “a source” for
human trafficking, ultimately resulting in it
being at risk of excessive sex trade and
forced labor. The State Department’s 2012
and 2013 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report
covers the topic in greater detail, stating that
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the gain of quick capitalxxxvi. Essentially, the
steady rise of human trafficking in Thailand
has paved the way for other crimes, leading
it to become an epicenter of prostitution and
violence. The Ministry of Public Health in
Thailand reports that nearly 1.5 million
female children are abused annually while
half of all reported rape cases in Thailand
include females under the age of 15 xxxvii .
Furthermore, the World Health Organization
reports that Thailand currently holds over 2
million sex workers, resulting in an economy
largely dependent on the trade. These
statistics alone are enough to portray the
growing violence rooting itself in the
community of Thailand, leaving its people to
face the brunt of the reigning criminal
organizations taking advantage of the weak
regulations of Thailand.
Thailand now faces regulation to the worst
degree as a means of repairing the
problem. In response, Thailand was forced
to follow a plan accompanied by waivers to
reduce the risk of human trafficking, yet
failed to do so and was downgraded as the
lowest ranking xxxv . Thailand’s failure to
compromise with the minimum standards is
largely due to the increasing corruption
taking place within its borders. Although the
companies that trade ethnic minorities are
loosely organized, the organizations that
enslave the foreigners are powerful in both
money
and
connections.
Such
a
combination is a catalyst for corruption
within Thailand’s law regulation system,
enabling traffickers to transport people
effortlessly. Also, many Thai employers lure
the citizens of other countries with promises
of work, only to sell them off in the future for
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Questions to Consider
Child Labor:
1. What are some viable methods that could be used to discourage companies from using
child labor?
2. How can organizations from the past be expanded in order to increase their efficiency
and power in the global community
3. What role can corporation transparency play in child labor? Will it be useful in identifying
under aged workers and providing necessary humanitarian aid to those in need?
4. Does your country support child labor? Why or why not?
5. How will shutting down a company using child labor affect its workers? How will the
children then deal with poverty?
6. Through what feasible solutions can developing countries such as Somalia work towards
the eradication of child labor?
Human Trafficking:
1. Does your country have a major issue with human trafficking? What is the cause of the
human trafficking specifically within your nation?
2. What laws and punishments does your country have in place for human traffickers?
3. What consequences should be put in place for traffickers?
4. What steps can be taken to prevent those at risk of being exploited from being trafficked
in the first place?
5. How can the international community care for the physical and mental health of those
who are now free from human trafficking?
6. What can be done to help free those who are currently victims of human trafficking?
7. How can the international community track and record more accurate information and
statistics? How can this information be used to help the issue of human trafficking
overall?
8. What can be done in order to ensure that peacekeeping operations or other means of
police and law enforcement aren’t partaking in acts of exploitation or human trafficking?
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i
http://www.compassion.com/child-advocacy/find-your-voice/quick-facts/child-labor-quick-
facts.htm
ii
iii
https://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/health_issues.html
http://www.globalissues.org/article/62/child-labor
iv
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3533357/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2784617/
vi
http://ilo.org/ipec/areas/Traffickingofchildren/lang--en/index.htm
vii
http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/childlabour/intlconvs.shtml
viii
http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/lang--en/index.htm
ix
http://www.un.org/en/events/childlabourday/background.shtml
x
http://ilo.org/ipec/Regionsandcountries/Africa/lang--en/index.htm
xi
http://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/somalia.htm
xii
http://allafrica.com/stories/201306120150.html
xiii
http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/06/12/child-labor-is-declining-worldwide-but-its-thriving-inthese-six-countries/
xiv
http://www.humanium.org/en/somalia/
http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/overview
xv
http://www.refworld.org/docid/48d7490a4a.html
v
xvi
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html
xvii
http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2014/226649.htm
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-says-thailand-malaysia-venezuela-among-worst-humantrafficking-centers-2014-20
xix
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/jul/15/slaveryindustry-money-human-trafficking
xviii
xx
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F
%2Fwww.unodc.org%2Fdocuments%2Fhuman-trafficking%2FToolkit-files%2F08-58296_tool_92.pdf&ei=rvkAVai6JdHyoATg3oDoBA&usg=AFQjCNGdj0DjoUaIstQHeqbK0dkvyuMqw&bvm=bv.88198703,d.cGU
xxi
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&sqi=2&ved=0CDkQFjAF&url=http%3
A%2F%2Fwww.un.org%2Fesa%2Fpopulation%2Fmigration%2Fturin%2FTurin_Statements%2FKANGASPUNTA
.pdf&ei=6_4AVYjgMsK0ogTviYLYBA&usg=AFQjCNEq6QQ0YCIHJ5iUNEb9mnSht3xUgA&bvm=bv.8819870
3,d.cGU
xxii
http://www.polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/overview
http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcementbulletin/march_2011/human_sex_trafficking
xxiii
xxiv
http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2013/215648.htm
xxv
http://www.humantrafficking.org/government_law/77
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/290109.php
xxvii
http://2001-2009.state.gov/g/tip/rls/fs/07/91418.htm
xxviii
http://2001-2009.state.gov/g/tip/rls/fs/07/91418.htm
xxix
http://www.ungift.org/knowledgehub/en/about/index.html
xxvi
xxx
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=9&ved=0CFcQFjAI&url=http%3A%2F%
2Fwww.osce.org%2Fodihr%2F19223%3Fdownload%3Dtrue&ei=rNoFVdGgDoizoQTX2IG4Bw&usg=AFQjCNH
O6CTPtVyS0PknToarMcTaly_PpQ&bvm=bv.88198703,d.cGU
xxxi
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-humantrafficking.html?ref=menuside#UNODC%27s_Response
xxxii
http://un-act.org/what/
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xxxiii
http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.un.org%2Fwomenwatch%2Fnews%2Fdocuments%2FD
PKOHumanTraffickingPolicy03-2004.pdf&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFjSw-xzO9MCHbM3O4HYWuWrtsL5w
xxxiv
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/thailands-despicable-traffickingrecord/2014/08/19/d3ae3f1a-225d-11e4-958c-268a320a60ce_story.html
xxxv
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/20/world/asia/thailand-trafficking-report/
xxxvi
http://www.humantrafficking.org/countries/thailand
xxxvii
http://borgenproject.org/thailands-trouble-with-human-trafficking/
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