Introduction to Model United Nations Q: What is the United Nations?

Welcome to “My First MUN XIII”! My First MUN is a training conference that introduces students to Model United Nations, an academic simulation of the United Nations that aims to educate delegates about current events, topics in international relations, diplomacy, and the United Nations agenda. As “My First MUN XIII” is a non-competitive training conference and time is limited, there is only one topic up for discussion—Women’s Rights to Self-Sufficiency. As Model UN delegates, you will role-play as a Diplomat representing one of the UN’s 193 member countries. At “My First MUN XIII,” you will represent your country in a simulated UN committee session of the General Assembly. To prepare for this conference, we ask that you do three things: (1) with the links provided in the Resource Guide, general sources to consider and your own internet searches, research your assigned country (country assignments are provided to your school) and prepare a one-minute statement of your Country’s position on the topic. We recommend you bring this statement with you to the conference and use it as the basis of your debates in the simulation; (2) dress the part— which means western business attire (shirt and tie for men and skirt and blouse/dress/pants suit for women) - is appropriate for this simulation and other MUN competitions; (3) come prepared to learn and practice essential MUN skills of internet research, writing position papers and resolutions, and public speaking. We will provide everything else – a conference packet that includes all materials and of course a great lunch!

This conference consists of two main parts. The morning session consists of large group instruction on the essential knowledge and skills needed to do well at future MUN conferences. These morning sessions are presented by veterans of MUN, history and government teachers at George C. Marshall High School, and experts in the field of foreign policy. The afternoon committee sessions will simulate the experience delegates can expect to encounter at competitive MUN conferences. Students from the University of Virginia’s International Relations Organization who have experience chairing MUN conferences will chair these small group sessions. These sessions will operate under procedural rules developed for the IRO‘s annual VAMUN high school conference. Led by Secretary-General Emeline Walker, the Steering Committee and its faculty advisors began work on this conference last May in hopes that it would encourage your successful participation in future MUN conferences. We have included in this Background Guide a Glossary and a set of general and country-specific websites to aid in your research. We hope your active participation in the afternoon simulations will bear out our confidence that this topic is a timely and interesting one. And finally, if we have inspired in you an excitement and enthusiasm for MUN, then we will judge this conference a success.

Sincerely,

Rohan Shah, Class of 2019; Katie DeLong, Class of 2017; Sam Hassett, Class of 2017

Under Secretaries-General for Policy

2. 
   Important Terminology
   

1. 
   Systematic Barriers to Self-Sufficiency
   

One of the fundamental principles of the U.N. charter is the “equal rights of men and women.” The UN Charter explicitly defines equal rights as the ability for an individual to pursue opportunities regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender. Despite this, millions of women are discriminated against daily in the workplace, in their homes, and from economic and political opportunities.¹ Countries such as Yemen and Iran have laws put in place that restrict all aspects of a woman’s life ranging from choosing her clothing to opening a bank account.² Other countries such as Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan enforce laws that punish women for speaking out against rape, domestic violence, and corruption. In Nigeria and Pakistan it is legal for a man to beat and rape his wife.³ Domestic Violence and other abuses significantly limit a woman’s ability to be self-sufficient. The implementation of gender biased laws and beliefs are often derived from ideals, which were accepted long ago. In 1995, 189 countries adopted the Fourth World Conference on Women.⁴ The main outcome of this historic conference was the unanimous adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA). The BPFA outlined and identified 12 issues that hinder the advancement of women’s rights. The 12 obstacles are poverty of women, unequal access to education, lack and unequal access to healthcare systems, inequities in power and decision-making, violence against women, the vulnerabilities of women in war, inequities in economic structures, institutionalize bias, inadequate protection in human rights, under-representation of women in the media, inequities in resource management, and discrimination of the girl child. Those countries including Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq and Mali have adopted the BPFA, but still continue to enforce gender discriminatory policies. Countries such as India and China still struggle with eliminating female infanticide.   

2. 
   Economic Freedom
   

According to the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Women are more likely than men to be poor at every age.⁵ This is a consequence of the lack of economic freedom for women internationally. A recent study by the World Bank found that a woman will earn $79 dollars compared to a man’s $100 for the same work.⁶ This may contribute to the fact that 70% of the world’s 1.3 billion poor are women.⁷ To combat this issue, many less economic developed countries (LEDC) have been exploring the idea of equal pay for equal work. More economic developed countries (MEDC) such as Iceland and Norway, possess and enforce an Equal Opportunities Act in which they require companies to pay women the same rate as men for the same work.⁸ These countries also surpass the international standard by requiring mid-sized businesses to have at least 40% of the workforce to be women. However, another study by the World Bank found that 155 countries have at least one law that limits a woman’s economic prosperity, while 100 countries place limits on what jobs a women can hold.⁹ This demonstrates that although women's rights have improved dramatically over the last century, many nations around the world still limit women’s rights to property, work, and job choice.

1. 
   Right to Property
   

According to Human Rights Watch, a women's right of property and inheritance is unequal to those of men in many regions of the world such as the Middle East and East Asia. For example, Kenyan women are often excluded from collecting their husband's inheritance. It begins by the widow's in-laws evicting the widow off of her husband's land. They then claim and distribute the property within the family. In some cases discrimination is based off of policy rather than formal law. The difference between a policy and a law is that a law is enforced by an institution where as a policy is a principle that guides decision making, usually relying on precedent.  Due to international pressure to address women's rights, Kenya provided the framework for a new women’s rights program to address inequality. In a similar case in South Africa, there is a policy in which a family must, “register [their] house in the name of the breadwinner, usually the husband, depriving women of security of tenure.”¹⁰ This policy does not take into consideration that women who have children and have to take time off work would not be the “breadwinner” in a family and therefore in a divorce, they would lose their home.

2. 
   Right to Work
   

Without means to garner an income, the quality of life for a woman and her family is lower. U.N. Women reports, “More women than men work in vulnerable, low-paid, or undervalued job¹¹s.” As of 2013, “49.1% of the world’s working women are in vulnerable employment, often unprotected by labor legislation, compared to 46.9 percent of men.”¹² However, there has been a steady growth of women in the workplace.  Some women's rights organizations such as the National Organization for Women (NOW) are calling for solutions and recognition of a “glass ceiling,” where women face discrimination in the workplace and therefore are unable to acquire higher professional positions. There are only 14 countries with a female Head Of State and only 22 Fortune 500 companies that have a female Chief-Executive Officer.¹³  As reported by the World Bank, 18 countries allow women to work if and only if their husbands grant them permission.¹⁴ This restriction on women can economically injure a nation:  In a recent report, the IMF found that in countries where a majority of women work, the nation experiences a period of rapid economic growth.¹⁵

Even if women are allowed to work, a recent report by the World Bank found that women face job restrictions in 100 of the 173 economies monitored.¹⁶ Job Restrictions include not being able to work at night to not being able to work in a factory, where as in some countries women cannot work without permission. In the past 2 years, regions have been adopting new reforms to give women greater freedom when it comes to job choice. 19 reforms were implemented in Europe and Central Asia, 18 in Sub-Saharan Africa, 16 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 12 in the Middle East and Northern Africa, 11 in East Asia and the Pacific, and South Asia adopting the fewest reforms with 3. By limiting the jobs available to women, countries are removing the opportunities found in different careers. Data from figure 1 display that more women in the United States are in jobs of healthcare than science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs. Women with a STEM degree earn 33% more than women in a non-STEM occupation.

1. 
   Discriminatory Laws
   

Women are protected under international law, but some countries make it difficult for women to live their everyday lives under the same basic protections as men. In Yemen and Pakistan judicial systems, a woman’s word is only worth half a man’s, and must be corroborated with a male relative’s word. This disregards Goal 5 of the U.N Sustainable Development, which states: “Achieve [worldwide] gender equality and women and girl empowerment”. Although 193 countries have adopted this Sustainable Development goal, there are still regions of the world where women are prohibited from participating in ordinary activities, such as driving, filing an insurance form, or even leaving their home.¹⁷ In many Sub-Saharan and Middle Eastern countries, a woman cannot go out of the house without the permission of her husband or father.¹⁸ If she does leave the house a male relative must accompany her. In Saudi Arabia, a fatwa restricts women from receiving a driver's license or driving any automobile.

• 
  Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. (CEDAW) This document is often defined as the International Bill of Rights for Women. Key Passages: Article 11, “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights”, “(a) The right to work as an inalienable right of all human beings; (b) The right to the same employment opportunities, including the application of the same criteria for selection in matters of employment; (c) The right to free choice of profession and employment, the right to promotion, job security and all benefits and conditions of service and the right to receive vocational training and retraining, including apprenticeships, advanced vocational training and recurrent training;”  
  

• 
  Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was the world’s time bound goals for eliminating extreme poverty. Key Passage: Target 3, “Promote gender equality and empower women”         
  

• 
  Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action This document clarified that women’s rights are human rights. Key Passages: (Para 18), “the human rights of women and of the girl-child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights”. (Para 38), “the eradication of any conflicts which may arise between the rights of women and the harmful effects of certain traditional or customary practices, cultural prejudices and religious extremism”
  

• 
  United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development In this document states reaffirmed their commitment to advancing women’s position in the economy and in leadership positions. Key Passages: Target 5.5, women’s equal rights, access and opportunities for participation and leadership in the economy, society and political decision-making”
  

• 
  Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) Outlined 12 obstacles impeding the advancement of women’s rights. Key Passage: “discriminatory legislation as well as harmful traditional and customary practices and negative stereotyping of women and men still persist”  
  

3. 
   Questions to Guide Research
   

• 
  Does your country have laws or policies that support or restrict women?
  
• 
  Are labor laws in your country favorable towards women?
  
• 
  What are some goals your country has towards advancing women's rights?
  
• 
  Does your country have gender-based prohibitions? If so what are they?
  
• 
  What is the wage gap between genders in your country?
  

1. 
   Access to Education
   

Empowering women and girls’ participation in economic, social, and political life within their societies requires equal access to all levels of education.²¹ Education unlocks potential and is accompanied by improvements in health, nutrition, and well being of women and their families.²² However, despite widespread agreement that all people have the fundamental human right to education, 100 million children, at least 60% of them girls, do not have access to primary education.²³ 960 million adults in the world are illiterate, and more than two-thirds of them are women. In developing countries, adolescent girls are more likely to drop out of secondary school than boys, particularly in rural areas.²⁴ Many women that receive an education have no support system to help them lead into a career. Women and girls continue to face discrimination at all levels of education, a fact that poses tremendous obstacles to their advancement. There are many institutions that support the education of women such as The Malala Fund, He for She, and the Crespo Foundation. Although many countries have voiced their support for a woman’s right to education and a resultant career, societal and political structures do not reflect said concerns.

1. 
   Outline of Human Rights Involved
   

The United Nations outlines educational rights as: free and compulsory elementary education and readily available forms of secondary and higher education; freedom from discrimination based on sex or any other status in all areas and levels of education (including equal access to scholarships, fellowships, and career development, continuing education and vocational training); and free and open information about health, nutrition, reproduction, and family planning.²⁵ These rights are fundamentally linked to other “universal, indivisible, interconnected, and interdependent” human rights such as: equality between men and women and equal partnership in the family and society, which depends on eliminating gender-based stereotypes in education; work and wages that contribute to an adequate standard of living; freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief; and participation in shaping decisions and policies affecting one's community, at the local, national, and international levels.²⁶

1. 
   
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