United Nations Human Rights Council
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United Nations Human Rights Council BACKGROUND GUIDE Vancouver Model United Nations The Twentieth Annual Session | January 29–31, 2021 Dear Delegates, William Tsai Secretary-General My name is Nick Liu, and I am thrilled to serve as your Director at UNHRC at VMUN 2021. Alongside myself are Rafeeq Kassam-Jiwani, your Chair, and Katrina Sun, your Assistant Director, who are both juniors at West Point Grey Academy. All three of us on the staff team are looking forward to a weekend filled with thoughtful discourse, intense Vivian Gu debate, and memorable moments. Director-General I am currently a senior student at Fraser Heights Secondary School, and I have been Derek Wu immersed in the Model United Nations community ever since I entered high school. I Chief of Staff often think back to why I fell in love with MUN: the committees filled with young diplomatic minds, sparks of clashing debate, and midnight crises filled with betrayals and Tyler Rosenzweig surprises. Albeit cliché, my career would not be worth it if not for the close friends forged Director of Logistics from the occasional late-night rants and countless embarrassing moments. I am sure each delegate is familiar with the difficulties that COVID-19 has brought the past year; however, that has not changed the value Model United Nations possesses in Joyce Chen training public speaking and diplomacy skills. In light of those challenges, I implore you USG General Assemblies to take this year’s online conference as an opportunity to research more about the unprecedented and unexpected situations that can affect the human rights of migrant Ethan Jasny workers and whistleblowers. USG Specialized Agencies If you have any concerns or questions leading up to the conference, please do not hesitate Vivian Liang to contact either myself or one of my fellow Dais members via email at [email protected]. USG Conference The Dais team is beyond ecstatic to welcome you to the United Nations Human Rights Council at VMUN 2021. Jonah Ezekiel USG Finance With warm regards, Laura Choi Nick Liu USG Communications UNHRC Director Armaan Jaffer USG Delegate Affairs Mia Tsao USG Delegate Affairs Position Paper Policy What is a Position Paper? A position paper is a brief overview of a country’s stance on the topics being discussed by a particular committee. Though there is no specific format the position paper must follow, it should include a description of your positions your country holds on the issues on the agenda, relevant actions that your country has taken, and potential solutions that your country would support. At Vancouver Model United Nations, delegates should write a position paper for each of the committee’s topics. Each position paper should not exceed one page, and should all be combined into a single document per delegate. For the United Nations Human Rights Council, position papers are not mandatory but highly recommended, especially for a delegate to be considered for an award. Formatting Position papers should: — Include the name of the delegate, his/her country, and the committee — Be in a standard font (e.g. Times New Roman) with a 12-point font size and 1-inch document margins — Not include illustrations, diagrams, decorations, national symbols, watermarks, or page borders — Include citations and a bibliography, in any format, giving due credit to the sources used in research (not included in the 1-page limit) Due Dates and Submission Procedure Position papers for this committee must be submitted by midnight on January 22nd, 2021. Once your position paper is complete, please save the file as your last name, your first name and send it as an attachment in an email, to your committee’s email address, with the subject heading as your last name, your first name — Position Paper. Please do not add any other attachments to the email or write anything else in the body. Both your position papers should be combined into a single PDF or Word document file; position papers submitted in another format will not be accepted. Each position paper will be manually reviewed and considered for the Best Position Paper award. The email address for this committee is [email protected]. Human Rights of Migrant Workers .............................................................................................. 3 Overview ...................................................................................................................................................3 Timeline ....................................................................................................................................................4 Historical Analysis ..................................................................................................................................6 Case Study: South Africa ...................................................................................................................................6 Case Study: Post-World War II .......................................................................................................................7 Case Study: Persian Gulf ...................................................................................................................................8 Past UN/International Involvement .....................................................................................................8 International Labor Organization ...................................................................................................................8 International Organization for Migration ......................................................................................................9 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers ................................9 UN Involvement Impacting Female Migrant Workers ................................................................................9 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ..................................................................................................... 10 Global Compact on Migration (GCM) ........................................................................................................ 10 Current Situation ................................................................................................................................. 11 Women Migrant Workers ............................................................................................................................. 12 Case Study: Italy and Xenophobia ................................................................................................................ 12 Case Study: Philippines and Remittances .................................................................................................... 13 Case Study: Qatar and the World Cup ......................................................................................................... 14 Possible Solutions and Controversies ................................................................................................ 14 Ratification of the 1990 Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers ........... 14 Human Rights Data Collection, Reporting, and Monitoring Systems .................................................... 15 Reducing Reliance on Migrant Remittances ............................................................................................... 16 Reforming Temporary Worker Programs................................................................................................... 16 Bloc Positions ........................................................................................................................................ 16 Migrant-Receiving Countries ........................................................................................................................ 17 Migrant-Sending Countries .......................................................................................................................... 18 Discussion Questions ........................................................................................................................... 19 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 20 Vancouver Model United Nations 2021 1 Strengthening Whistleblower Protection Policies ..................................................................... 24 Overview ................................................................................................................................................ 24 Timeline ................................................................................................................................................. 25 Historical Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 26 Past UN/International Involvement .................................................................................................. 29 Regional Conventions .................................................................................................................................... 29 UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime ....................................................................... 30 UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) ........................................................................................ 30 Current Situation ................................................................................................................................