Human Rights Committee

Dear delegates of the Human Rights Committee,

It is our distinct honor and great pleasure to welcome you all to the first IASIMUN conference, held in the beautiful capital of Moldavia- Iasi. By organizing a Model United Nations Conference we aim not only at reaching a standard of excellence and proficiency, but also at building a future for humanity.

This year the Human Rights Council has a wide-ranging agenda, covering major humanitarian aspects: civil and political rights, with respect to the Zimbabwean crisis, ethical and economic issues in modern-day society, regarding contemporary forms of slavery and last, but not least, international cooperation in the case of refugees, with emphasis on the extreme situation in Sri Lanka. These problems are paradigmatic for this forum and solving them will take us closer to ensuring universal fulfillment of human rights.

As a founding member of the Iasi MUN Club, Madalina was proud to be the delegate of Indonesia in the SPIMUN Conference (Russia) and also “an outstanding delegate” during the GALMUN Conference (Romania). Passionately interested in politics and international affairs, one of the three female finalists for Romania’s UN Youth Delegate at New York and active volunteer in different NGOs, she truly believes in the youth initiatives and in the power of this council.

Maria is a 12th grade student at the National College, “Vasile Alecsandri” in Galati, Romania. Her first MUN experience was GALMUN 2007, when she was in the 9th Grade. She has taken part in every edition and was Deputy Chair at the Human Rights committee in April. Her international MUN experience includes MUNTR 2009 and BISMUN 2009, where she also chaired the Legal Committee.

We are eager to see what you can bring to this committee and how our debate can spark innovative solutions to global issues. Please do not hesitate to contact us at any time before, during or after the conference!

All the best and see you soon,

Madalina Secareanu and Sanda Maria Oana
Chairs of the Human Rights Committee
humanrights@iasimun.org

Committee Topics

1. Measures for the Humanitarian Crisis in Zimbabwe

The long-lasting political instability in Zimbabwe has led to a major humanitarian crisis. The human rights situation deteriorated sharply in 2008 with an unprecedented wave of state-sponsored human rights violations, perpetrated mainly by security forces, war veterans and supporters of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU-PF) since the elections in March.

Infringements of civil and political human rights and disregard for individual freedom lie at the core of Zimbabwe’s humanitarian crisis. The wave of unnecessary violence after the March elections left at least 28,000 people displaced. Victims of violence moved to urban areas to seek refuge and medical care and most of them had their homes devastated and food stocks plundered or destroyed as a punishment for supporting opposition parties. Although the political repression characterized the elections period, people are still being subjected to violence, beatings, torture, abductions, mainly conducted by the security forces. Delegates of the Human Rights committee are asked to propose viable solutions to the situation in Zimbabwe.

2. Eradication of Contemporary Forms of Slavery

Slavery was the first human rights issue to arouse wide international concern. Yet, in the face of universal condemnation, slavery-like practices remain a grave and persistent problem in the first years of the 21st century. The notion engulfs a wide variety of human rights violations, from sexual abuse, sale of children, prostitution, exploitation of labor to human trafficking, the use of children in armed conflicts and certain practices under apartheid and colonial régimes. The victims of these abuses are often from the poorest and most vulnerable social groups and are afraid to speak out.

The international community has addressed this issue since the beginning of the 20th century, in the form of international treaties and joint effort. The scope of this issue goes far beyond the egregious infringement of human rights, as its underlying causes are linked with international peace and security, and therefore, economic life. The perpetration of slavery enhances the black market and breeds even wider social and economic inequities. Although this represents a manifold problem, we trust that our delegates will find practical and coherent solutions to this issue.

3. Implementation of Human Rights Policies in what Concerns Refugees and Internally Displaced People – Focus on current situation in Sri Lanka

The fundamental rights of refugees are enshrined in the Refugee Convention and one of the core principles in international refugee law is called nonrefoulemen (Article 33 of the Convention), which says that no state “shall expel or return (‘refouler’ in French) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” Delegates are asked to propose solutions to the current situation in Sri Lanka as it relates to refugees.