Commission: Special Focus I

Issue: Promoting awareness about the lives of children in armed conflicts with emphasis on regions with current conflict such as, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa

Background Information

MYANMAR (Burma) Location: Southeastern Asia, bordering the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Bangladesh and Thailand

Area:

total: 676,578 sq km

land: 653,508 sq km

water: 23,070 sq km

Land Boundaries:

total: 5,876 km

Border countries: Bangladesh 193 km,

China 2,185 km, India 1,463 km, Laos 235 km, Thailand 1,800 km

Population: 48,137,741

Britain dominated Burma from 1824-1886 and integrated it into its Indian Empire for 62 years. Burma gained independence when it became a self-governing country in 1948. In its political period Gen. NE WIN held an important place as he dominated the government from 1962 to 1988 by first being the military ruler, and then becoming the president. His self-attained power was brought down when the National League for Democracy was elected in 1990, but the junta rejected to hand the power over (despite the fact that they have temporarily chosen). The junta later on appointed Labour Minister AUNG KYI in 2007 as connection to Nobel Peace Prise winner AUNG SAN SUU KYI, who still remains under house arrest. In early May 20, Burma was struck by Cyclone Nargis, which resulted with an estimated 80.000 death and 50.000 injured. With this situation at hand human rights isn’t very developed in the region. As the military government changes the name of the country from Burma to Myanmar, Burma is a source of human trafficking, mainly to East and Souteast Asia. Burmese children are forcibly sent to Thailand as beggars, workers and hawkers where women are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation to Malasia and China.

The military junta's uncouth economic situation, human rights validations and its policy towards forced labour (especially towards children) are the main factors for its major trafficking problem. Along this, Burma remains world’s second largest producer of illicit opium with 340 metric tons. Lack of government and power results with the country being a important source for methamphetamine and heroin for regional consumption.

AFGHANISTAN

Location: Southern Asia, north and west of Pakistan, east of Iran

Area: total: 652,230 sq km

land: 652,230 sq km

water: 0 sq km

Land Boundaries: total: 5,529 km

Border countries: China 76 km, Iran 936 km,

Pakistan 2,430 km, Tajikistan 1,206 km,

Turkmenistan 744 km, Uzbekistan 137 km

Population: 28.396 million (July 2009 est.)

Afghanistan was founded by Ahmad Shah DURRANI after he unified the Pashtun tribes in 1747. Until it won independence from the British in 1919, it served as a buffer between British and Russian empires. After a brief attempt of democracy, The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to support the Communist regime, which started off a long and destructive war. With the pressure of the mujahedin rebels the USSR withdrew in 1989, but peace was not attained. After a series of civil wars, Kabul fell in 1996 to the Taliban; movement that emerged in 1994 to end the civil war. After the terrorist attacks in 11 September, the United States and an anti-Taliban alliance overthrew Taliban for sheltering Osama Bin Ladin. In 2004, Hamid Karzai became the first elected president of Afghanistan, but a stable government could not be built due to Taliban and the provincial instability in the south and the east.

IRAQ

Location: Middle East, bordering the Persian Gulf, between Iran and Kuwait

Area: total: 438,317 sq km

land: 437,367 sq km, water: 950 sq km

Land Boundaries: total: 3,650 km

Border countries: Iran 1,458 km, Jordan 181 km, Kuwait 240 km, Saudi Arabia 814 km, Syria 605 km, Turkey 352 km

Population: 28,945,657 (July 2009 est.)

Iraq was occupied by Britain during World War I after being a part of the Ottoman Empire and through several stages in the next dozen years, Iraq gained independence in 1932 as a kingdom. This was changed into a republic in 1958, but until 2003 was not attained. The war between Iran and Iraq between the years 1980 – 1988 caused by the territorial disputes was just a beginning to the terror yet to come. Until 2003, Iraq was ruled by forceful men, and one of these was Saddam Husayn. US forces invaded Iraq in March 2003 to stop the Iraqi noncompliance with the UNCS resolutions. US forces remained in Iraq under a UNSC mandate until 2009 to support a freely elected government. On 31 January 2009, Iraq held elections for provincial councils in all provinces except for the three provinces comprising the Kurdistan Regional Government and at-Ta'mim (Kirkuk). Coalition forces monitor internal and border security, where nearly two million Iraqis have fled the conflict in Iraq. Iraq's lack of a maritime boundary with Iran prompts jurisdiction disputes beyond the mouth of the Shatt al Arab in the Persian Gulf; Turkey has expressed concern over the autonomous status of Kurds in Iraq.*

SOUTH AFRICA

Location: Southern Africa, at the southern tip of the continent of Africa

Area: total: 1,219,090 sq km

land: 1,214,470 sq km

water: 4,620 sq km

Land Boundaries: total: 4,862 km

Border countries: border countries: Botswana 1,840 km, Lesotho 909 km, Mozambique 491 km, Namibia 967 km, Swaziland 430 km, Zimbabwe 225 km

Population: 49,052,489

Dutch traders landed at the southern tip of modern day South Africa in 1652 and established a stopover point on the spice route between the Netherlands and the Far East, founding the city of Cape Town. After the British held the Cape of Good Hope area in 1806, many of the Dutch settlers (the Boers)

trekked north to found their own republics. The discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886) supported wealth and immigration and intensified the suppression of the native inhabitants. In 1948, the National Party was voted into power and instituted a policy of apartheid - the separate development of the races - which favored the white minority at the expense of the black majority. The African National Congress (ANC) led the opposition to apartheid and many top ANC leaders, such as Nelson MANDELA, spent decades in South Africa's prisons. Internal protests and insurgency, as well as boycotts by some Western nations and institutions, led to the regime's eventual willingness to negotiate a peaceful transition to majority rule. The first multi-racial elections in 1994 brought an end to apartheid and ushered in majority rule under an ANC-led government. South Africa since then has struggled to address apartheid-era imbalances in decent housing, education, and health care. ANC infighting, which has grown in recent years, came to a head in September 2008 when President Thabo MBEKI resigned, and Kgalema MOTLANTHE, the party's General-Secretary, succeeded him as interim president. Jacob ZUMA became president after the ANC won general elections in April 2009.

Possible Solutions

Possible solutions that may be proposed to improve the childrens rights in armed conflicts:

• Providing programmes for NGO’s to participate, • Mediating the current situation in the area, • Raising awareness through the globe to encourage countries to produce

real and effective solutions, • Sendin UN peacemakers and volunteers to the armed regions to maintain

order, • Building camps and schools for the children to protect their rights. UN Involvement

UN SURVEY ON CHILDREN RIGHTS

Objective A UNICEF IRC and OECD initiative seeks to:

• Act as a network of cross-national data providers, research institutions and academic institutions that share a common focus of child indicator development and analysis, stimulating and facilitating consultations, coordination and collaboration.

• Increase the supply of data by enhancing international micro-data sources on child well-being by identifying critical gaps. Additionally, in collaboration with the network and the OECD working group on social policy, consider practical ways in which such gaps can be filled through adjustments to existing surveys.

• Stimulate demand by promoting more extensive use of international child-

focused surveys for cross-country comparison and analysis of child well-being among OECD member states.

The initiative will do so by presenting available information sources in a standardized format (see panel at right), and by engaging in dialogue with the network’s data-collection entities. This will increase the comparability of data and facilitate exploration of any overlaps in the contextual variables. Mapping child well-being in OECD countries: broadening the data, indicators, analysis and responses In the development of the UNICEF Innocenti Report Card No. 7 'Child Poverty in Perspective: An overview of child well-being in rich countries', available cross-national survey and data series in OECD countries wereidentified and reviewed. Data from multiple sources were collected over a range of domains generally identified as significant to the well-being of children. The final matrix consisted of over 600 country-level indicators of child outcomes and environments (e.g. family structure). The final overview compared 25 OECD countries over 6 domains (material well-being; health and safety; education; peer and family relationships; behaviours and risks; and subjective sense of well-being) with an average ranking provided for 21 of the countries. The Innocenti Report Card generated much interest in cross-national comparisons of child well-being indicators from governments, the media and the public. However, the unavoidable limitations of the analysis were also recognized. The main challenges were a general lack of comparable data on child well-being across all OECD countries: across the ages (stages) of childhood; across all domains of well-being (most notably civic participation, housing, mental health, neglect and abuse); as well as over time. Where data were available, these often took the form of aggregated figures that did not allow for analysis of variations, gaps or sub-populations (e.g. by sex or rural/urban differences). Data are available for cross-national assessment of child outcomes in OECD countries from a mixture of sample surveys and administrative sources. Such data often focus on a single indicator, such as educational achievement or child poverty. The data frequently do not cover children of all ages or capture children living without a family, and are not disaggregated by gender. Late childhood is the focus of the majority of surveys (ESPAD, HBSC, PISA, TIMSS)*, while there is very little survey and time-series data on early childhood (ages 0 to 5) or middle childhood (ages 6 to 11) beyond traditional health and education data. Furthermore, scarce data are collected on household environments and family relations, and there is little consistency in approaches among the different surveys. By increasing dialogue between data producers/providers and the institutional research community, the initiative hopes to stimulate and facilitate research into the development of a broader set of indicators of child well-being. This will allow for a more detailed analysis of the well-being of particular groups of children, and ultimately stimulate national and international debates and policy responses that are in the best interests of children, and enable all children to realize their full potential. Comparable matrices for some child or family-focused survey can be downloaded via the links in the right-hand panel. Details of the content of the surveys, the respondents and methodology can also be found here. All of the surveys have been undertaken more than once, and so dates for each wave are provided along with the countries participating that year. In addition the matrices briefly describe the background to each survey, why it is being undertaken, and who

is involved in the funding and management of the project. Links for technical information and contact details for the surveys are also included. * European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs; Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children; Programme for International Student Assessment; Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (http://www.unicef-irc.org/datasets/data_sets_int.html)

Maps

South Africa and its borders

Map of Afghanistan with borders

El Qaeda in Iraq

Map of Myanmar with neighbour borders

Useful Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_in_Need

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

http://www.un.org/

http://www.act.org.uk/

http://www.childreninarmedconflict.org/about/activities.html

Works Cited (Bibliography)

http://www.unicef-irc.org/datasets/data_sets_int.html

http://www.un.org/children/conflict/english/index.html

http://www.childreninarmedconflict.org/about/activities.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/features/childrensrights/

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html

http://www.flashpoints.info/countries-conflicts/Myanmar-Burma-web/Myanmar-Burma_briefing.html

Commission: Special Focus I

Issue: Question of human rights infringements taking place during the conflict in Darfur

Student Officer: Haldun ANIL

Position: Deputy Chair

Background Information

While the war in Darfur has many initial reasons and provocations, it can be traced back to a single catalyst event that took place in February 2003: on that date, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) bore arms against their government while accusing them of racial prejudice towards Black Africans, all the while favoring Arab inhabitants. Therefore, an internal struggle split the country into two sides: one consisting of Sudanese militia, called "Janjaweed" and the Sudanese military with the other consisting of the aforementioned rebel groups.

During the war, a significant number of people, consisting mainly of civilians, was killed. Though this number varies according to different sources, the general consensus is that the number of people killed was 300,000. The UN also estimates that almost 3,000,000 people were displaced during the war. With a significant number of Sudanese villages destroyed, the war also took another turn for the worse as militants started raping women and young girls.

One report tells of how sheiks settled down in refugee camps are actually more than just refugees but have formed their own small governments with a significant quantity of resources at their disposal. However, even though the region has, for the most part, stabilized, these sheiks are not at all willing to return to their villages. An important note to make here would be the fact that even though extensive UN and United States led peacekeeping missions have been continuously carried out throughout the region, it is still up to the Sudanese government to ensure the welfare of its citizens; it is not and should not be up to Western powers to intervene in a country's political affairs after a certain point.

Another significant issue arisen during the course of this conflict is the fact that Omar al-Bashir and the Sudanese government in question have been accused of genocide by the United States of America, as well as the International Criminal Court (ICC). Other war crimes that al-Bashir is accused of include 5 counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of murder. On March 4, 2009, the ICC ordered an arrest warrant for al-Bashir, however did not include the genocide charges due to a lack of sufficient implicating evidence.

Today, according to UN peacekeeping officials, military activity is over and stability is starting to be restored to the region. "The vicious fighting of earlier years has now subsided," says General Martin Agwai, the UN Peacekeeping Corps General as he left his post. He also added that the region now suffers from minor "security issues" including petty banditry and localized issues. However, the statement of Gen. Agwai was questioned by some Sudanese officials saying: "If that is true, why do some parts of Darfur remain out of bounds, even for UNAMID?" In the end, time will tell if Sudan is prepared to deal with the aftermath of the terrible events taking place in the last six years.

War in Darfur Timeline

• In February 2003, war broke out in Darfur as rebellious groups accusing the

government of oppressing Black people while protecting Arab people. • In January 2005, the UN published a report explaining that while there

were significant civilian casualties, the killings committed could not be considered genocide as they "didn't have the actual intent to terminate the lives of said civilians."

• In May 2006, the SLA signed a peace accord with the Sudanese government.

• In July-August 2006, the then-UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, ordered the deployment of 18,000 international peacekeepers. Later on, the Security Council approved the resolution to send 17,300 peacekeepers to the region.

• In September-November 2006, the situation in Darfur deteriorated from bad to worse as the Sudanese government re-launched an offensive following the deployment of the UN peacekeeping corps. The Janjaweed continued their violent and inhumane crimes against humanity by continuing to rape, humiliate and murder women.

• In July 2007, the BBC News reported that a significant underground lake had been found in the war-torn area. This discovery, if utilized properly, would be a solution to the war as it would take care of most of the competition for water resources. As such, in order to ensure effective usage, the UN dispatched more Peacekeepers to the region.

• In July 2008, the ICC charged Omar al-Bashir with 10 counts of war crimes including 3 counts of genocide, 5 counts of crimes against humanity and 2 counts of murder.

• In February 2009, the UNAMID tried to organize peace talks between the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudanese government.

• In March 2009, the ICC ordered for the arrest of the Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir.

• In August 2009, General Martin Agwai, the UN Peacekeeping General positioned in Darfur, officialy declared the real war over.

Related Countries

United States of America

During the course of this war, the United States has continuously been one of the most significantly involved countries in this issue. The United States has overseen this situation by diplomatic as well as militaristic means by organizing the deployment of international peacekeepers in the region. The then-President, George W. Bush, while expecting the African Union's peacekeeping force to lead the aforementioned efforts, also called for a bigger role and involvement from NATO so as to ensure maximum security and stability as well as peace in the region. While the United States never involved its own military directly, it has had a significant influence on other such policies made by the UN, the African Union, etc. The U.S. government has also started sending air-drop shipments of peacekeeping equipment in January 2009 in order to support stationed peacekeeping officers.

Chad

In November 2006, the Janjaweed, the rebellious Arab militia group, started attacking the areas close to the Sudanese border. These attacks were mainly driven by the fact that the nearby cities had been aiding more than 15,000 Sudanese refugees for some time. In addition, the government of Chad has been accused of aiding the militant groups for some time.

Eritrea

The Eritrean government has been accused of abetting and training the rebels destabilizing and wreaking havoc in Darfur. According to Mr. Abu-Bakr, an Eritrean National Democratic Front (ENDF) leader, the training camps provided by the Eritrean government have been used several times by rebellious groups such as the SLA and JEM. According to other sources, the Eritrean government also has ties with the Darfur government that go back further and that may be based primarily on geopolitical interests.

Possible Solutions

Possible solutions that may be proposed to improve the situation in Darfur could be:

• Providing immediate relief for civilians, • Mediating the conflict,

• Raising awareness background information of the conflict so as to be able to offer valid solutions,

• Influencing other countries involved with the Sudanese government to try to provide a more convincing attitude so as to drive the Sudanese government to start and maintain peace talks until adequate ends are met.

UN Involvement

The UN has been one of the most deeply involved organizations since the beginning of this issue. So far, the UN has contributed to peacekeeping efforts by sending nearly 20,000 peacekeeping soldiers, goodwill ambassadors, by assigning various NGOs to conduct research and devise effective strategies to improve on the situation, etc. The most notable and effective decisions of the UN have been the many Security Council resolutions: 1556, 1564, 1590, 1591, 1593, 1672, 1679, 1706 and 1769; the most significant of which are: 1590 and 1769. The latter two resolutions have been written specifically for the purpose of assigning an effective peacekeeping force in the region. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has also been involved several times in this issue, particularly with the trial of Omar al-Bashir who has been accused of committing war crimes and even genocide, by some autorities. The main mandate of the UN has been the same since day one: establish peace and stability in the region while mediating peace talks between parties.

Maps

The map to the right shows the villages destroyed by the war in Darfur.

The map of Sudan with Darfur in the Western part of the country.

Useful Links

The Main Article of Wikipedia on "the War in Darfur": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Darfur

The Two Security Council Resolutions Regarding the Peacekeeping Corps:

1590: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1590

1769: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1769

The Detailed Timeline of the War: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_War_in_Darfur

Works Cited (Bibliography)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Darfur

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_response_to_the_Darfur_conflict

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/17/AR2006021701935.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_War_in_Darfur

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8224424.stm

http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2009/January/20090115132552dmslahrellek0.9125025.html

Rolling Stone Magazine, December 2009-January 2010 Edition, Editorial on the Situation in Darfur

http://www.afrol.com/printable_article/13898

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15655588/

http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040815/news_lz1e15darfur.html

http://www.browndailyherald.com/campus-news/disagreement-over-solutions-for-darfur-crisis-at-conference-1.1675225

http://www.enoughproject.org/publications/irresolution-un-security-council-darfur