1. family and parenting
2. children

UNICEF
Economic and Social Council – United Nations Children’s Fund
topics:
 Children Orphaned by Disease
 Child Marriage
Chaired by the Honorable
Matt Anderegg, Emma Henry, and Sara Beringer
S i n c e
HBHS
April 25th, 2015
1 9 7 8
Novice
hbhsmun.webs.com
Huntington Beach High School Model United Nations
UNICEF
April 25th, 2015
Welcome to the United Nations Children’s Fund!
Hello! My name is Matt Anderegg, and I'm a sophomore at HBHS who has been
participating in MUN for two years now, and I am ecstatic to have the privilege of being your cochair in the Novice UNICEF committee. I absolutely love MUN, and I hope that we can make our
conference an enjoyable experience for you. In addition to Model United Nations, I enjoy playing
volleyball for both the school and the HBC, as well as playing musical instruments, particularly
the accordion. I also really enjoy eating Asian food, so if anyone out there has a good recipe for
dumplings, sharing is caring! I am super excited to see you compete and work together in one of
the most recognized committees in the United Nations. I wish you all the best and can't wait to
see you in committee!
Hey delegates! I‟m Emma Henry, and I‟m a junior at Huntington, making this my third
year in MUN! At our school, I am Junior Class Representative and Commissioner of Clubs for
our ASB, as well as captain of our school‟s Pole Vault team. MUN has been one of the most
enjoyable and life changing experiences in my time at HBHS, and I‟m very excited to be able to
involve you all in it. This will be my first time chairing at a conference, so I‟m hoping that we can
all work together to make this a really fun experience for us all!
Hi! My name is Sara Beringer, I am a junior at Huntington and I have been in MUN for
three years now. I am a part of the school dance team and a member of the Academy for the
Performing Arts (APA). Within APA I am a part of the dance department, specifically repertory
ensemble. I am also part of the National Honors Society (NHS) and participate in many hours of
community service. MUN at Huntington has really changed my life and has made me more
aware of global issues. I‟m excited to see you all in committee debating these multifaceted
issues, so come ready with innovate solutions!
Position Papers are due by April 19th, and must be submitted to [email protected] in
order to be graded and to be eligible for a Research Award. If you have any questions, feel free
to contact us through the aforementioned email address. We look forward to seeing you all in
committee on April 25th ready to participate in thrilling debate!
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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UNICEF
April 25th, 2015
I. Children Orphaned by Disease
Topic Background
Kathmandu‟s Bal Mandir Children‟s Home in
Nepal it was recently discovered that the
owner had been sexually assaulting the
children and having them work as
prostitutes in local bars. vi Furthermore,
orphanages in developing nations are
overcrowded, dirty, and do not provide
children with emotional support. It is
impossible for the government to put health
regulations on orphanages in their country
because most of them are not registered.
Recent studies have shown that “for every
three months that a young child resides in
an institution, they lose one month of
development”. vii Orphanages are unable to
provide children with proper social skills and
emotional support. Foster homes are seen
as a better, long-term alternative but, in
developing nations it is almost impossible to
have background checks on families before
sending the child to them and there is a lack
of families who can financially support a
foster child. The government may provide
funds for families with foster children but,
many countries don‟t have the money to do
this.
The United Nations defines an
orphan as “a child who has lost one or both
parents.” i It is estimated that 17.8 million
children under the age of eighteen have
been orphaned by AIDS and this number is
expected to increase to 25 million within the
next year.ii Lack of health care in countries
makes it harder for impoverished parents to
gain access to vaccines and medicines, and
as a result many of them die from curable
diseases. Outbreaks of diseases such
tuberculosis, Ebola, and malaria account for
16% of the world‟s deaths and leave
millions of children to fend for themselves.iii
These children are known as OVCs, or
orphans and vulnerable children, “children
whose care is compromised as a result of
the illness or death of an adult who
contributed to the care and/or financial
support of the child.”iv In most cases, if both
a child‟s parents die, they will continue living
with their relatives. But, if the orphan‟s
parents have died from a highly contagious
disease such as Ebola or tuberculosis,
relatives will often refuse to live with them
because they fear being infected. When this
occurs, the children are forced to live on the
streets until they find a safe haven or
orphanage. In many cases, this leads to
child prostitution, forced labor, and child
soldiers. The children will most likely drop
out of school so that they can get a job and
support themselves and possibly another
sibling. This limits their chance of having a
safe and high-paying job in the future.
The Convention on the Rights of a
Child (CRC) states that it is a country‟s duty
to provide support and care for any child in
need, although often times, a country may
not have the means to do this. v This can
lead to orphanages being privately owned
by corrupt individuals who participate in
child
trafficking.
For
example,
in
United Nations Involvement
According to the UN‟s definition of
„orphan‟, there are over 132 million orphans
in our world, 13 million of which who have
lost both parents. However, many nations
only recognize an orphan as a child who
has lost both parents, leading to a neglect in
assistance for the remaining 119 million.
Due to this ignorance, and further spurred
by the sudden influx of orphans after the
AIDS pandemic of the mid-1990s, the UN
began to attempt to expand the international
definition of an orphan through UNICEF and
several other global programs, in order to
benefit all orphans worldwide.
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UNICEF
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as vulnerable in the area of Mozambique‟s
Gaza Province.
Another NGO that has aided orphans is
SWIWSCO, which is based in Tanzania.
According to SWIWSCO research, there are
over 2.5 million orphans in Tanzania alone,
and they work to improve the lives of these
children by providing them with essentials
such as shelter, education, three meals a
day, healthcare, and other commodities.
Seeing that over 60% of Tanzania‟s
population is under the age of 18, NGOs
such as SWIWSCO are crucial to
preserving the futures of these nations, who
lose so many of their children to poverty,
starvation, and illegal activities such as the
drug and sex trades. SWIWSCO also helps
vulnerable single parents care for their
children by supplying food, water, clothes,
and other basic necessities.
In addition to assisting the neglected
orphans, the United Nations has also tried
to broaden the perspectives of those who
were assisting in the fight for the orphans. It
had been found that, often times, programs
grew too focused on helping individual
children, rather than all orphans as a whole.
This is why, with the end of the sudden rise
in AIDS cases towards the end of the
1990s, UNICEF began a program spanning
across 36 different nations, which was
“designed to compare current conditions of
orphans and non-orphans” in order to prove
that the issue must be attacked at the roots,
and the reasons for the orphaning of
children must first be eliminated before we
can fully assist those who are already
orphaned. The main sources named by the
UN after this program were “the family's
ownership of property, the poverty level of
the household, the child‟s relationship to the
head of the household, and the education
level of the child‟s parents, if they are living.”
Because diseases are a leading cause in
the rising number of orphans within our
world today, the UN has seen fit to employ
its members to wage a war against the
development of diseases with the potential
to orphan its citizens.
Outside of the UN, there are many NGO‟s
that have worked with orphaned children
and their caretakers to help improve the
lives of these children. In 2011, on World
AIDS Day, (December 1st of every year),
Project HOPE announced initiative to help
provide education and training to the
households that currently support these
children. Utilizing a $1.2 million grant from
the Global Fund, Chief Technical Advisor
Simiao Mahumana announced that “We will
help these caregivers participate in savings
and loans programs to strengthen their
economic environment and we will also
work with other local community-based
organizations providing training… so that
these efforts will be sustainable”. These
efforts will be made to assist the 33,000
children who are either orphans or regarded
Case Study: Orphans of
Ebola in Africa
Ebola hemorrhagic fever, commonly
referred to as simply Ebola, is a rare viral
infection that, if left untreated, can be
extremely deadly. Since its discovery in
1976, there have been multiple outbreaks
across Africa; however none have been
close to the severity of the recent outbreak
that began in early March of 2014. Since
then, there have been over 24,000 reported
cases of the disease, and close to 10,000
deaths as a result.viii Due to the alarm of the
international community (which has been
greatly magnified and often times
misrepresented by social media), much
emphasis has been placed on the care and
treatment of those who have suffered from
the disease, and the outlook has been more
positive in recent times because of the aid
and treatment provided. However, one
particular group of people have been often
overlooked in the Ebola response: children.
Besides accounting for over 10% of all
Ebola deaths, UNICEF has stated that over
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16,600 children have lost one or both of
their parents to this horrible disease. ix On
top of the expected trauma and suffering
that these children experience from the loss
of their parents, those who have survived
the Ebola virus themselves are often times
rejected by their other relatives due to fear
of infection, despite the fact that survivors of
Ebola are not just disease-free but are in
fact immune to the disease. The negative
stigma of Ebola fosters hostility towards
members of even the same family, thus
causing thousands of children to resort to
prostitution or even suicide. Others seek
refuge in care centers set up by UNICEF or
other NGOs such as Save the Children.
This, in turn, places great stress on the
caregivers, who often have to devote their
time and savings to caring for these
children. A study by the charity Street Child
found that 17% of caregivers were caring for
over 5 children by themselves. x UNICEF
has been working to train over 2,500
survivors in Sierra Leone who would be
capable of living in close quarters with
infected children due to their immunity. xi
Another complication resulting from the
Ebola outbreak was the closing of schools
due to fear of spreading the infection. In
Guinea, schools that have been closed for
over five months have just reopened this
month, whereas in other highly affected
areas such as Sierra Leone and Liberia,
schools aren't scheduled to open until late
March or early April. Education minister of
Sierra Leone Minkailu Bah stated that
school fees and supplies would be
subsidized to help ensure that all children
will have access to an education.xii UNICEF
has estimated that the outbreak of Ebola
has affected over 5 million children's
educations, which greatly puts them at risk
of never returning to school and being
forced into child labor. This scenario is even
more likely for orphans, who many times are
required by their caretakers to earn a wage
to help support the household. Overall, the
Ebola crisis has drastically affected the lives
of thousands of children, and they are in
desperate need of our help in order to
change their lives for the better.
Ebola is not the only disease that has
orphaned thousands of children across the
globe. Keep in mind that other diseases,
such as HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis, are
just as brutal, if not worse, than the more
recent outbreak of Ebola. Also, Africa is not
the only area in the world in which children
are losing their lives and their families. It is
recommended that delegates are prepared
with both solutions that help orphans of
disease in general as well as solutions that
address specific diseases.
II. Child Marriage
Topic Background
is becoming extremely concerning to the
international community, seeing as how it
directly violates the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, which defines all humans
under eighteen years old as a child. While
the majority of nations do frown upon child
marriage, religion and cultural expectations
have restricted many nations from taking
harsh stances against or real action towards
prohibiting it.
Within the developing nations of our
world today, one in every three girls is
forced into marriage while still under the age
of eighteen. If the issue continues to behave
as it presently does, this number will rise to
approximately 14.2 million girls every year.xiii
The increasing prevalence of child marriage
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Child marriage has been proven to
lead to poverty, domestic abuse, and health
and sanitation issues in all nations where it
is prevalent. However, due to cultural,
religious, and societal expectations, as well
as poverty and sexism, these detrimental
results continue to persist throughout the
nations of Sub-Saharan Africa and
Southeastern Asia.
Approximately half of all underage
marriages occur within the South Asian
nations, whereas India takes up a remaining
one-third. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, 42%
of women are forced to marry while under
eighteen. xiv These child marriages almost
always lead to abusive relationships, as
shown in Egypt, where 27% of women
under eighteen are in relationships where
they are abused. This number rises to a
frightening 40% when the women are
pregnant, leading to birth defects or
miscarriages. xv These marriages occur
within these nations due to the fact that they
are the more impoverished regions of our
world, and have an instability within their
economies and governments that allows for
a neglect of the women‟s rights.
In addition to the economic and
political reasons that lead to child marriage,
many families within Africa and Southern
Asia are influenced by their cultural beliefs
and societal expectations to force their
daughter to marry a much older man at a
younger age. Many religions that are
prevalent in these regions consider it
honorable for girls to be married young, and
in most cultures it is expected that the girls
marry before twelve years of age. For
example, within original ancient Islamic
culture, all girls must be married be married
by age 10, no matter whether they have
given their consent or not.
Once again, poverty leads to an
increase in child marriage due to the cultural
demand for economic relief for families from
the „burden‟ of their daughter, as well as the
dowry that is typically received by the
male‟s family. The perpetration of these
practices lead to an endless cycle of a lack
of education, then unemployment, abusive
relationships, birth defects, and then back to
child marriage.
United Nations Involvement
Seeing that an estimated 10 million
young girls are forced into child marriage on
an annual basis, the United Nations have
been doing their part to prevent and
eliminate child marriage. In 2013, the
Human Rights Council unanimously passed
a resolution on child, early and forced
marriage, the first ever of its kind. A/HRC/24
was sponsored by over 100 countries, and
the main goals set forth were to include
child, early and forced marriage into the
post-2015 development agenda. Several of
the 107 states who supported this
resolution, including Ethiopia, South Sudan,
Sierra Leone, Chad, Guatemala, Honduras,
and Yemen, are home to some of the
world's highest rates of child marriage. It
stressed that early marriage not only
restrains the futures of these young girls,
but that "the empowerment of and
investment in women and girls, as well as
their meaningful participation in decisions
that affect them, is a key factor in breaking
the cycle of gender inequality... and is
critical for sustainable development and
economic growth." xvi This assembly of the
Human Rights Council was also significant
due to the fact that this joint statement was
agreed upon by both the European Union
and the African Group. In addition, in 2011
UN Women made an effort to raise
awareness of child marriage by dedicating
September 22 of every year as Day of the
Girl. The main purpose of this is to address
the issues of young girls being deprived of
necessary education that they need to thrive
and become independent.
In 2011, the General Assembly, led
by the representatives of Canada and
Zambia, passed the UN Resolution on
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Child, Early, and Forced Marriage. In this
resolution, child marriage is condemned as
having serious effects on their health and
social status, and will only contribute to the
continuation of the cycle of poverty. In
addition, this calls for the creation and strict
enforcement of laws to help eradicate this
practice (as many nations already have
laws pertaining to child, early, and forced
marriage but do not enforce them), as well
as to promote the basic rights of women
and girls, which has been a main topic of
concern for the UN for many years. Also
during this 66th session of the General
Assembly, A/RES/66/140, or Resolution of
the Girl Child, was passed; this marked the
beginning of a new era which shifted
international attention onto the treatment of
young girls. This document set forth the
standards of providing the necessary
education, healthcare, and treatment of
women in the international community. It
also calls for laws to prevent marriage
without consent of either partner, and
vouched for the importance of programs
that help girls at risk of child marriage
receive the education and protection that
they deserve.xvii
The General Assembly is not the
only committee that has focused on putting
an end to child marriage. In March of 2013,
the UN Commission on the Status of
Women held a special session for the
purpose of addressing the issues of child
marriage. This, in turn, was held in the
support of Ban Ki-Moon's Every Woman
Every Child program, in whose goal is to
save the lives of 16 million women and
children by the year 2015. Organizations
such as UNICEF and Girls Not Brides have
been working to erase the negative stigma
of girls being a burden to families, as this is
often the main cause of child marriage
(many families are in favor of this due to the
hefty dowry and less mouths to feed).
Overall, child marriage is very detrimental to
many girls, and sometimes even boys, and
the international community must put all of
its efforts into stopping this terrible practice.
Case Study: Niger
Niger has the highest rate of child
marriage in the world, with 76% of women
married before the age of 18. This is
approximately 3 out of every four girls who
preside in the country.xviii The legal marrying
age in Niger is 15 but, the country has
proposed that it change its age to 18 though
no action has been taken yet.xix The issue of
child marriage in Niger began in rural,
southern towns as a cultural tradition. 94%
of Niger‟s population practices the religion
of Islam. They call marriage Sunna and say
it is the practice of the prophet Muhammad.
Child marriage also insures that a family
won‟t be dishonored because their daughter
never married or had a child before
marriage. The country is now in a severe
drought which has left the Niger even more
impoverished than it was before. Men from
northern Niger are said to be selling their
daughters to men in neighboring countries
with the purpose of lifting themselves out of
poverty.xx This way the girl is one less child
to feed in the household and the dowry
money she brings in can help feed others.xxi
Niger has the highest fertility rate in the
world with each married woman having
close to seven children. As a result, Niger
has a quickly growing population which in a
landlocked nation in a drought leads to
extreme poverty. Furthermore with the
increasing fertility rate comes an increase in
undernourished babies. In a hospital in
Maradi, the doctors reported that the
number of underweight babies has risen to
eight percent. Most of these underweight
babies die because the hospitals in the
impoverished
nation
lack
important
equipment such as incubators. Furthermore,
Niger has high rates of obstetric fistula,
which occurs when an unborn baby gets
stuck in the pelvis. It is most common in
young girls and can lead to the cut off of
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blood flow and the rotting of flesh inside the
pelvis. Many families fail to see the negative
impact child marriage can have on their
daughter. Child marriage in Niger has led to
abuse of women and a lack of women‟s
education within the country and the
countries that surround it.xxii Many girls from
Niger are sold to men through local
agencies without ever meeting the man they
will marry. Once they are married and sent
off they are stuck in the relationship
because they are too poor to leave. Often
times their husband may have multiple
wives or they are sold into prostitution by
their husbands. As a result of child
marriage, girls are unable to attend school.
In Niger one in two girls will attend a primary
school and by adulthood only 18% of the
female population can read. xxiii Though
many girls are married to help their families
out of poverty, an education would be more
beneficial to the family and the economy in
the long run. An education can improve a
girls income-earning potential and can raise
their socio-economic status. Overall, the
issue of child marriage is a multifaceted
issue in Niger that needs to be solved with
along with their increasing poverty.
Questions to Consider
Children Orphaned by Disease:
1. Southeast Asia?
2. Is it the international community's job to help protect these orphans?
3. How can we erase the stigma of orphans of disease and make them more accepted in
their society?
4. Why does HIV/AIDS continue to affect millions of people despite being a millennium
development goal and having increased awareness around the world?
5. What is the best way to reintegrate orphans of disease back into society?
6. Does your nation have a high rate of orphans from disease? If so, what has your country
done to aid these people? If not, has your country made any efforts to aid nations who
do?
7. How has your country dealt with OVCs?
8. How can you stop child trafficking and abuse in orphanages?
Child Marriage:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Is child marriage legal within your nation?
What is your country‟s policy on child marriage?
What are the main causes of child marriage in your nation?
Is your country a signatory of the Convention on the Rights of the Child? If so, has it
been enforced?
5. What are the main causes of child marriage worldwide?
6. How has your country taken action against this issue?
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i
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_45279.html
ii
http://www.avert.org/children-orphaned-hiv-and-aids.htm
iii
http://www.smartglobalhealth.org/issues/entry/infectious-diseases
iv
http://tuckmagazine.com/2014/10/14/protection-orphans-vulnerable-children/
http://www.unicef.org/crc/index_protecting.html
vi
hhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/nepal/10931141/Nepal-adoptions-chiefraped-and-groomed-orphans-for-prostitution-claims-British-teacher.html
vii
http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/UNICEF_A_call_to_action_En_Web%281%29.pdf
viii http://apps.who.int/gho/data/view.ebola-sitrep.ebola-summary-latest?lang=en
ix
http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2015/03/04/388721367/how-to-help-childrenorphaned-by-ebola
x
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/mar/04/ebola-leaves-12000-orphanssierra-leone
xi
http://www.unicefusa.org/stories/ebola-orphans-west-africas-abandoned-children/19831
xii
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30931818
xiii
http://www.icrw.org/child-marriage-facts-and-figures
xiv
http://www.unicef.org/media/files/Child_Marriage_Report_7_17_LR..pdf
xv
http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2014/06/22/child-marriage-remains-commondespite-legal-ban/
xvi
http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/HRC-resolution-on-child-earlyand-forced-marriage-ENG.pdf
xvii
http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=%20A/RES/66/140
xviii
http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage/niger/
xix
http://www.irinnews.org/report/82419/niger-early-marriage-from-rural-custom-to-urbanbusiness
v
xx
http://www.irinnews.org/report/82419/niger-early-marriage-from-rural-custom-to-urbanbusiness
http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/16/13897511-in-niger-child-marriage-on-risedue-to-hunger?lite
xxi
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/in-niger-hunger-crisis-raises-fears-of-morechild-marriages/2012/07/09/gJQA8xD9YW_story.html
xxii
www.icrw.org/files/images/Child-Marriage-Fact-Sheet-Education.pdf
xxiii
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.1524.LT.FE.ZS
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