Head Chair: Kory Arfania Vice Chair: Ryan Perisich Moderator: Kia Arfania
Position papers will be due on February 5, 2021. The position paper format, and all other important conference documents, can be found on our conference website:http://lhhsconference.weebly.com/. Email all position papers to our committee email:[email protected].Feel free to contact us via email if you have any questions or concerns!
Hi delegates! My name is Kourosh Arfania, but you can just call me Kory. I am currently a senior at Laguna Hills High School and am in my 4th year of MUN. I’ll be you Head Chair for this (virtual) conference! I’m the USG of Conference Documents and Technology for our MUN program -- I hope you like our website! Outside of MUN, I helped co-found an ecology club on campus, known as “LHHS ECO Club”, as well as been a part of CSF, NHS, and NCHS for many years now. When I’m at home, I love watching cooking videos, going on runs, and listening to exciting music. I can’t wait to see all of you in committee! Stay safe and healthy for the time being.
Hello, my name is Ryan Perisich and I am your vice chair. I am a junior at Laguna Hills High School with this year being my third year in MUN. Outside of MUN, I am involved in the volleyball and basketball programs of Laguna Hills, and enjoy hanging out with my friends and going to the beach. I play ping pong, surf, and like snowboarding and skiing up in Big Bear and Mammoth. Other than that, I enjoy spending time with my family and watching great movies. I am very excited to be your chair for this years conference, and I can’t wait to meeting and seeing all of you over zoom
Hello, my name is Kia Arfania and I am your moderator for UNICEF advanced. This is my second year being a part of MUN at Laguna Hills High School and I am now a sophomore. I play soccer for LHHS and my favorite things to do outside of school include surfing, playing soccer, and hanging out with friends. Other than that, I love watching movies and shows on Netflix and eating delicious food. I look forward to seeing everyone at our conference!
Topic - The Mitigation of Child Labor and Implementation of Protections for Those Involved
Background The problem that is child labor has been discussed and tackled by numerous nations globally, with some of these nations experiencing immense change, while others struggle to isolate the issue. Child labor can be described as the routine use of children in labor, either paid or unpaid, that is distinctly cruel or hazardous in nature. All forms of child labor, paid or unpaid, can have severe and detrimental effects on the developing bodies and brains of the young people involved, leaving them with permanent physical and mental health conditions. Under current global circumstances, there are around 1502 million children in any such form of child labor, with 72 million being hazardous. While numerous nations in today’s world have mitigated this crisis, child labour still takes place on a global scale. Countries throughout Africa and the Asia and the Pacific regions account for the vast majority of child labor: 9 out of 10 children of the total. The Americas, Europe and Central Asia, and the Arab States account for the remaining percentage of child labor. In each of these areas, children work long hours in dangerous situations, like deep in unstable mines and on chemical-ridden tobacco farms, putting them at a severe risk for harm or even death. The current Covid-19 crisis has also had a severe impact on this problem from a global scale. As a result of the world-wide economic shock that came with the Covid-19 virus, millions of children have been and are continuing to be flooded into child labour as a response to economic decline. This increase in the number of children in child labour only worsens the problem and the risk it has on individuals. This problem leaves innocent children in cruel and inhumane situations that can negatively impact them forever.
UN Involvement The UN has forever played a role in the problem of child labour, and has increasingly took part in decreasing the percent of children working. A/RES/71/177 outlines the rights of the child in an international society, highlighting the protection against atrocious and abusive child labor. And most recently, the United Nations has pledged to accelerate efforts to eradicate child labor by 2025 at a major UN conference in Buenos Aires. Here, this annual conference brought together different governments and international organizations of different countries, who eventually adopted the Buenos Aires Declaration late thursday. This declaration puts forth a plan that will in turn help eradicate both cold labour and forced labour, and eventually open up opportunities for children in different countries. The UN has partnered with several NGOs and other organizations within certain countries in which child labour is the most present, such as small countries in Southern Africa and Asia. Countries use these children as cheap labour, using them to help harvest fields and work in garment factories. Countries have become dependent on child labour in industries such as cotton, sugarcane, coffee, and tobacco. With the help of the UN, countries have already begun lessening their use of childlabour, and have created more rights for children within society. Together, the UN, as well as the help from NGOs around the world hope to eradicate this problem within 5 years, and save the struggling children who fight everyday for their lives.
Bloc Positions Western Bloc: The West has made it apparent that child labor, especially when it is exploitative and abusive in nature, is illegal. The United States has numerous legislative bodies under the Department of Labor that emphasize this legality (or lack thereof), such as the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. This is also apparent within the European Union, articulated under the EU Guidelines on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of the Child.
Latin Bloc: The Latin Bloc continues to struggle with mitigating the child labor crisis within the region, despite its continued engagement with international organizations aiming to resolve the issue; the ILO’s Minimum Age Convention of 1973 and the ILO’s Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention of 1999 were, nearly, universally ratified by the region. Yet, upwards of 17.4 million children are still economically active and protections fail to protect them from abuse.
African Bloc: African has one of the highest rates for child labor, both in total amongst all other blocs and proportional to its own population. The 2016 Global Estimates of Child Labor found that nearly ⅕ of all African children are involved in child labor, with 9% in hazardous work; these are the highest rates in the international community. Despite targeted policy by African governments aimed to reduce the presence of child labor in the region, political instability and economic regression have resulted in increased rates of the crisis at hand. The majority of labor conducted is payless and abusive in nature.
Asian Bloc: Given the large population of Asia and the Pacific, child labor is most population in this region, with an estimated 122 million children involved. A majority of states within the bloc have ratified numerous treaties proposed throughout the ILO’s Fundamental Conventions, but systemic involvement in integral sectors of the Asia-Pacific economy -- domestic labor, processing, and mining -- has made effective mitigation a challenge.
Questions to consider:
Are there any instances in which child labor is ethical and/or beneficial to the economies of respective nations implementing the system?
How will nations approach the incentivization of ending child labor, especially considering its economic attractiveness (i.e. its low cost)?
What will the impact of revision, or outright banning, be on multinational corporations?
How will the issues of state sovereignty be addressed and effectively resolved within resolution?
Will policy vary on a regional basis, or attempt to be implemented universally amongst the international community?
“Buenos Aires Declaration on Child Labour, Forced Labour and Youth Employment.” IV Global Conference on the Sustained Eradication of Child Labour: Buenos Aires Declaration on Child Labour, Forced Labour and Youth Employment, 16 Nov. 2017, www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_597667/lang--en/index.htm.