Horace Mann Model United Nations Conference XXV

SOCHUM Chair: Katie Cacouris Moderator: Rebecca Segall

Social, Cultural, And Humanitarian Committee

Topic A: Child Rights, Labor, and Trafficking Topic B: The Genocide in Darfur

Table of Contents

Topic A: Child Rights, Labor, and Trafficking……………...……………………………3 Children in the Workforce………………………………………………………...5 Child Slavery and Sex Trafficking…………….………………………………...10 Child Soldiers……………………………………………………………………13 Possible Questions a Resolution Should Address……………………………….15 References………………………………………………………………………..15 Topic B: The Genocide in Darfur………………………………………………………..17 Overview of the Conflict………………………………………………………...19 State of the Refugees…………………………………………………………….20 Sudan-China Relationship……………………………………………………….22 The Arms Trade………………………………………………………………….23 Past UN Actions………………………………………………………………….23 Possible Questions a Resolution Should Address..…………………………..…..26 References………………………………………………………………………..26

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TOPIC A: CHILD RIGHTS, LABOR, AND TRAFFICKING

2

Introduction

The United Nations deems children a vulnerable group when it comes to protection of human rights, namely because children often do not have the resources, the education, or the ability to defend themselves in the face of human rights abuse. In 1989, the United Nations held the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) to explore and address human rights issues specifically related to children, including the right to food and water, freedom from slavery, and protection from violence. There are still many obstacles hindering the social, physical, emotional, and mental development of children in the world today that this committee seeks to address. Child labor, child trafficking, and child soldiers remain among the most extreme cases of human rights abuse.

Child labor is a heated topic of debate throughout the international community today. Around the world, children are subjected to different types of labor, either by force or voluntarily. Groups such as the International Labor Organization (ILO) seek to prevent children from entering the workforce and to ensure that working conditions meet certain international standards. However, as children present a cheap source of labor, it is not uncommon for children to work in factories and on farms if they need the income or have no other resources, such as education, available to them.

However, while disagreements play out on the global stage over whether or not children should be allowed to have jobs, more extreme conditions are imposed on children through the implementation of child slaves and child soldiers. For example, the Pan American Development Foundation recently found that as many as 225,000 children in Haiti are involved in some sort of slavery. When impoverished families cannot afford to provide for all of their children, child trafficking can ensue out of desperation. The ILO estimates that tens of millions of children worldwide are currently involved in the

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most extreme cases of child labor, including extremely hazardous jobs, drug trafficking, and the sex industry. Child trafficking for the purpose of prostitution is among the most egregious of human rights abuses against children. Although numerous groups including the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT International), Interpol, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the ILO, and various other nongovernmental organizations have committed to ending child trafficking and prostitution, children as young as age 5 continue to be sold or taken into brothels around the world. Child prostitution rings in South Asia are among the most powerful, bringing in tens of thousands of tourists each year looking to partake in this widely overlooked form of sexual abuse.

Additionally, child soldiery remains an issue in many countries, especially in Africa. Subjected to the most violent of jobs, thousands of child soldiers are forced to fight in harsh conditions, usually without proper nourishment or shelter. Recruitment and trafficking of child soldiers are an effect of the same poverty and lack of resources as child trafficking for slavery and the sex industry as well.

The UNCRC lays out specific international standards to protect against these gross abuses of human rights, such as setting minimum ages for child recruitment into the workforce and committing countries to work on eradicating child trafficking and labor. 193 of the 195 recognized countries in the United Nations have signed and ratified the Convention. The remaining two countries are Somalia, whose current transitional government is not qualified to sign and ratify UN treaties, and the United States. However, this means that the millions of child workers, slaves, prostitutes, and soldiers worldwide subjected to different types of abuse live in countries that have in name resolved to end these human rights crimes. It is the goal of the Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian Committee to carefully examine the causes of these unjustifiable conditions that befall children and come up with creative solutions to address them and ensure the implementation of basic human rights.

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Children in the Workforce

The ILO estimates that about 250 million children, or persons under the age of 18, work today. However, although many of these children are involved in hazardous, abusive conditions, the sex industry, the drug trade, slavery or armed conflict, tens of millions of children are working of their own free will and for salary. The distinction must me be made between forced child labor—which is explicitly unacceptable under the international standards set in the UNCRC and the UN Declaration of Human Rights—and voluntary child labor—which, if working conditions are carefully monitored and meet certain standards, may be the only way a family can provide for its children.

While many anti-child labor activists focus on the use of child workers in sweat shops and factories in the exporting and manufacturing industry, the greatest concentration of child laborers is in subsistence agriculture. Since two thirds of Africa’s population still lives in a rural environment, the continent has the highest rate of child labor—nearly one in three children works. However, with greater development and globalization, child labor rates have been falling in increasingly urbanized areas such as East Asia. East Asia is where the sharpest decline occurred-

in

child dropping

labor from

has 26

percent in 1980 to 8 percent in 1999. Child labor rates have also declined in Latin America since the 1980’s. This may suggest that greater industrialization and economic progress could lead to the natural eradication of child labor over time. However, increasing industrialization in regions without strict labor laws allows for child labor to flourish in harsh factory conditions.

Big business and multinational corporations often look to developing countries for a market in which to manufacture their goods. If a corporation wants to make the greatest

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profit, it will look for a market in which it can hire workers cheaply and will not have to struggle in order to meet certain workplace standards, such as safety and environmental norms. Since child workers are generally paid less than adult workers, children are sometimes susceptible to harsh conditions in factories and sweatshops in developing countries. 193 of the 195 countries in the United Nations have signed and ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, meaning that they have committed themselves against abusive or dangerous work environments for children. However, because the economic growth and industrialization that efficient factories and profitable corporations offer to developing countries, governments may be willing to look the other way when it comes to child labor. It is estimated that industrializing countries such as China, Malaysia, South Korea, India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh—the biggest implementers of sweatshop labor—control about one quarter of the international economy.

For example, the ILO recently launched a campaign to eradicate child labor from the garment industry in Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s economy relies heavily on the manufacture and export of textiles and clothing, and children provide a means for inexpensive production of these goods. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics recently conducted a National Child Labour Survey and found that the working child population between ages 5 and 17 is 7.9 million. Of these, 1.4 million work in industry, such as factories and sweatshops. Working up to 14 hours a day, and in some cases seven days a week, children in sweatshops face brutal conditions. They are often at risk for working with dangerous machinery in an environment that does not prioritize safety or health. In Asia, 3 million people die each year from the direct effects of pollution, with industrial factories being among the biggest polluters.

The National Child Labour Survey reported that poverty was a main cause of child labor, resulting in factors such as “rapid population growth, adult unemployment, bad working conditions, lack of minimum wages, exploitation of workers, low standard of living, low quality of education, lack of legal provisions and enforcement, low capacity of institutions, gender discrimination and traditional arguments in favor of child labor.” A child with no access to education, low living standards, and a family need for

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income could be drawn to any source of money, despite the hazardous machinery and the impeded physical development that results from such strenuous physical labor at such a young age. Though a traditional Western view is that sweatshops are an objective wrong that must be fixed, many impoverished children see working for $1 or $2 a day as an opportunity to help pull themselves out of poverty. While many activists argue for boycotting companies that use child labor, one thing to consider is that a company facing boycott will lay off workers to save costs, meaning that the children formerly working there will subsequently have no source of income. With little education and healthcare offered to them in the most under-developed of countries, working may be the only choice available to children living in abject poverty.

Some argue that child labor is a necessary step in the economic development of certain Asian and Latin American countries, and that it would be unfair to force those countries to meet the same international standards that developed countries hold themselves to. For example, during Britain’s Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, thousands of children were working under lethal conditions in mills and factories, forced to work for up to 16 hours a day with little rest. However, as the economy grew and developed, stricter reform and standards could be imposed, giving rise to one of the most powerful economies in the international community. The same could be said of the United States during its industrial revolution at the start of the 20th century.

However, the United Nations aims to ensure that no child is forced to work against his or her will, and that children have access to basic human rights such as education and freedom from abuse in harsh working conditions. How can the global community monitor child labor conditions in developing countries? Can the United Nations enforce certain standards to ensure that no child is exposed to dangerous or abusive conditions while still making an income?

The carpet industry in India is an example of an industry where child labor is being addressed and decreased. Once notorious for extreme working conditions for children, long hours, and minimal pay, the Indian carpet industry was recently removed

7

from the U.S. Department of Labor’s list of goods made with child labor. Once Western consumers were informed about the horrendous conditions under which the Indian carpets

were

manufactured,

where

children’s

physical

development

suffered

tremendously from the strenuous physical labor, organizations such as Rugmark began inspecting carpets and giving certificates to those that were made without the use of child labor. The economic profitability of the rugs with certificates galvanized the Indian government to implement its own third party monitoring system in 2001, which inspected factories more closely to discourage child labor. However, while this has drastically decreased the percentage of child labor in the carpet industry, inspections can only certify looms that are registered with the government. Unregistered looms, as well as Indian traders who work with companies based in countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh, still export uncertified carpets made by abused child workers through Indian trade channels.

While free trade economists debate the inevitability of child workers in industrializing countries, the fact remains that the vast majority of child workers are agricultural, not industrial. Child labor rates are much higher in rural areas than in urban ones. In the United States, hundreds of thousands of children are employed as agricultural farmers. Under the United States’ Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which sought to improve working conditions for children, children can still work up to 10 hours a day with dangerous and heavy machinery. Child agricultural workers in the United States die at four times the rate of other

United

States

working youth and have a much higher school dropout

rate.

Children’s

Act

The for

Responsible Employment, currently up for debate in U.S. Congress, would raise

8

fines for child labor violations and require better data collection and analysis on the part of the Department of Labor. However, the Act would also preserve the exception that children may help work on their parents’ farm. This begs the question: what kind of child labor is acceptable and what kind is unacceptable?

For family subsistence farmers around the world, who grow the majority of the world’s food supply, the family’s children must work in order for the family farm to be efficient and produce enough food. However, countries must determine what defines a working condition as safe and healthy rather than dangerous to a child’s health and development.

Child Slavery and Sex Trafficking

While agricultural and industrial child workers may or may not have the option of entering into the workforce, child slaves have even less freedom and basic human rights. Families living in abject poverty that have no other way to provide for their children may resort to selling their children into forced domestic servitude. Child slaves are vulnerable to rape and sexual abuse, prone to malnutrition in poor households, denied education and basic freedoms ensured in the UNCRC, and virtually unable to speak up for themselves.

Haiti is one example of an environment in which the horrendous poverty rate, the growing population, and the lack of access to proper education contribute of one of the world’s most successful child slavery rings. In Haiti, where 78 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day, and employment is scarce, approximately 30 percent of all households host “restaveks”- children from families that are too poor to take care of them. The care and responsibility for restavek children-generally from rural families- are essentially given over to the new host family along with the child’s forced domestic servitude. Of the estimated 225,000 restaveks in Haiti, many of them face rape and other forms of physical abuse, among the most condemnable of all human rights abuses.

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The U.S. Department of State estimates that roughly 300,000 to 400,000 children are bought and sold across international borders each year. The majority of these children are female and end up in the sex industry, either working as child prostitutes or in child pornography. Children as young as 5 are sold into brothers around the world, either because of their family’s inability to support them or because they have no other resources open to them. According to the International Bureau for Children’s Rights, the majority of child sex workers come from poor rural areas with little economic opportunities. Out of desperation, many families in East Asia will give their children to recruiters who promise them jobs in the city, though the recruiters often turn the children over to brothels. According to ECPAT International, 200,000 American children are at risk of being trafficked into the sex industry- less than 10 percent of the 2.5 million girls exploited in the international sex industry.

Sex tourism is a popular attraction for developing countries in East Asia. The 2003 U.S. Child Protection Act helps law enforcement track convicted sexual predators across international borders. However, this pushes sexual offenders to developing countries with more lenient law enforcement. For instance, Fight Against Child Exploitation

(FACE),

a

coalition based in Thailand, estimates that nearly 5,000 tourists come to Thailand each year with the specific purpose of having sex with children in the brothels. Because such developing countries rely on tourism so heavily to help sustain the economy, police and government workers often turn a blind eye to the burgeoning child prostitution ring, despite the fact that many Southeast Asian countries have passed laws criminalizing child sexual exploitation. Sowmia Nair of the United States Department of Justice said, “Police have been known to guard brothels and even procure children for prostitution. Some police directly exploit the children themselves.”

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Living in appalling conditions, girls as young as 10 may be expected to service up to 30 clients a night in South Asian brothels. They are also at risk for physical abuse and beatings from their pimps, AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases. Because of the poverty in the region and the secrecy and lack of documentation for the children, it makes it impossible for them to receive proper health care. While some sex tourists rationalize their visits to the brothels by arguing that they are helping the child prostitutes gain economic independence, many of the girls receive none of the money they earn and are forced to live at the mercy of their pimps.

In more developed countries, although child brothels aren’t as popular, websites such as Craigslist.com are used to advertise and sell child prostitutes. In April 2009, U.S. military Sgt. Sterling Terrance Hospedales was charged with (and later pled guilty to) using the website to sell the services of two teenage girls for $150 an hour, giving the girls none of the money they earned. Eventually, police found incriminating text messages sent from Hospedales to the girls threatening to beat them if they did not bring home all of the money they earned, and had enough evidence to try and convict him. However, it is easy to see that with less monitoring and even encouragement on the part of law enforcement in South Asia, child prostitution thrives.

Organizations such as ECPAT International (End Child Prostitution Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) seek to eliminate child prostitution, child pornography, and all forms of child sexual exploitation. ECPAT works with non-governmental organizations, international human rights bodies such as UNICEF, and governments to create legislation and policy that prevent commercial sexual exploitation of children. The ECPAT Code of Conduct is one of the world’s premiere tools in combating child trafficking and exploitation. The Code commits governments and businesses in the public and private sector to investigate and punish all accounts of child exploitation. By creating awareness-raising campaigns, ECPAT can put pressure on a company or an industry to cease child sexual exploitation. Then, by working with the government or company, ECPAT can create a specific policy plan,

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committing the business to adhere to the ECPAT Code of Conduct, submit itself to certain standards of transparency, and punish all violators. For instance, in July 2010, a Hilton Hotel in China was found to be hosting an underground child prostitution ring. ECPAT is now involved in a campaign to coerce the Hilton chain into signing onto its Code, following the example of major tourism chains such as Radison, Country Inn & Suites, and others.

Increasing transparency among businesses is one way to eradicate child prostitution and sexual trafficking. However, sovereign governments may not be willing to crack down on child trafficking at the risk of loosing economic activity. Also, in places such as Haiti, where the local law enforcement lacks significant presence and is conducting little analysis into child labor, it is easy for children to be sold off without any documentation.

Child Soldiers

Child trafficking for the purpose of war is yet another unfortunate circumstance that millions of impoverished children find themselves in around the world. Over the last 10 years, 2 million children have been killed in armed conflict. Children have been involved in armed conflict in at least 36 countries since 1998. Child soldiers are severely mistreated, often the subjects of physical and sexual abuse, commonly malnourished, and may require much rehabilitation after such social and emotional trauma. Grace Machel, UNICEF delegate and children’s rights advocate, once said, “War violates every right of a child – the right to life, the right to be with family and nurtured and respected.”

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Where poverty is high and education is inaccessible, children who have no other prospects can be easily manipulated into performing difficult tasks in war. Kidnapping is another popular form of recruitment of child soldiers in Africa. Although the most common age for child soldiers is between 15 and 18, significant recruitment begins at age 10. Amnesty International estimates that approximately 250,000 children are currently involved in armed conflict, while hundreds of thousands more are part of armed forces that could be mobilized at any time. Governments and armed groups in countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, Columbia, Angola, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Burundi, Somalia, and Uganda are known implementers of child soldiers. In addition to front-line combat, children may be involved in any other aspect of war, including serving as guards, messengers, cooks, spies.

Significant action has been taken by the UN to eradicate child soldiery around the world. Collaboration between the UN Office of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, UNICEF, member states, regional organizations, NGOs and other civil society groups have worked to increase awareness of the issues internationally, strengthen global standards on child protection, and prioritizing child safety and welfare through the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council. National and International Tribunals, such as the

International

Court, have prioritized

investigating cases of

child labor and trying

violators.

Special Representative

for Children and Armed

Conflict

exclusively

has

worked

Criminal

Also,

with

the

the

Peacebuilding

Commission

regional bodies such as

the European Union and

the African Union to

create

plans

demobilizing

soldiers,

investigating

child

cases of child abuse in

armed

rehabilitating

child soldiers.

former

13

conflict,

and

for

and

The United States has taken action to ensure against funding governments that implement child soldiers by passing the Child Soldier Prevention Act. This Act prevents military assistance to countries until they meet monitoring standards to ensure against child soldiers. It provides incentives for governments to ban the use of child soldiers and also a lot of US funding towards eradicating child soldiery and rehabilitating child soldiers. Legislation such as this provides a template for other developed countries of the world to help developing countries gradually eliminate child involvement in war.

Possible Questions a Resolution Should Address •

Should there be a distinction between voluntary and forced child labor?

•

If so, what delineates this distinction?

•

How can workplace standards in industry and agriculture be monitored so that children are in acceptable conditions, if they are allowed to work at all?

•

How can the transportation and trafficking of children be better regulated, especially over international borders?

•

How can law enforcement in developing countries be encouraged to crack down on commercial child sexual exploitation?

•

How can the United Nations improve conditions for children lacking basic food, education, and healthcare for current and former child workers, prostitutes, or soldiers?

•

How can the United Nations enforce child soldier standards to keep children from fighting in armed conflict?

References: http://www.unicef.org/crc/index_30160.html http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/12/24/haiti.child.slaves/index.html ?iref=allsearch http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=108&subsecID=900003&content ID=250458 http://www.ecpat.net/EI/Ecpat_history.asp 14

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2325416&page=1 http://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/asro/newdelhi/ipec/responses/banglad esh/index.htm http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/us_removes_indianmade_carpets_from_child_labor_list http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/12/24/haiti.child.slaves/index.html ?iref=allsearch http://www.sctnow.org/contentpages.aspx?parentnavigationid=5814&viewcontent pageguid=29d295d1-5818-4e7a-bde1-f61690fa44a8

http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/army_sgt_pleads_guilty_to_pimping _teen_girls_on_craigslist

http://www.child-soldier.org/

http://www.amnestyusa.org/children/child-soldiers/page.do?id=1051047

http://www.amnestyusa.org/children/child-soldiers/background--help-end-theuse-of-child-soldiers/page.do?id=1191009

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TOPIC B: THE GENOCIDE IN DARFUR

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Introduction

Genocide is one of the most egregious human rights abuses known to man. The United Nations defines genocide as acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” In 1948, in the wake of the Holocaust, the United Nations held the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment on the Crime of Genocide to ensure that in the future, no group would be the subject of such horrific ethnic cleansing. However, appalling acts of genocide are being committed right now against villagers in Darfur, a region in western Sudan. After 7 years of armed conflict in Darfur with minimal documentation, estimates of the total death toll range. However, it is widely recognized by the international community that hundreds of thousands of Darfuris have been killed in the genocide so far, while countless others have been the victims of other forms of abuse.

The main perpetrators of the acts of genocide—the displacement, assault, rape and mass murder of civilians in Darfur- are the Janjaweed militia group and the Sudanese government, which supports the Janjaweed economically and with troops. Inter-tribal and ethnic hostility fuels the violence against black African farmers and villagers in the Western region of Sudan. Over 2.7 million Darfuri civilians have been displaced as a result of the genocide, and continue to suffer today. Although United Nations peacekeeping forces have attempted to maintain the peace agreement between North and South Sudan, the Security Council has done very little to end the conflict. The plight of the Darfuri refugees has not been widely addressed by the international community, although several countries have granted refugees amnesty. Many non-governmental organizations and human rights groups have attempted to help to bring food and supplies to the refugees, but the Sudanese government continues to support the systematic eradication of the black African villagers regardless of international law or basic human

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rights standards. It is the responsibility of the Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian Committee to come up with creative solutions to end the conflict, restore peace to the region, help alleviate the condition of the refugees, and preserve human rights and human dignity.

Overview of the Conflict

Sudan, home to many different ethnic tribes, has long been a place of ethnic tension. The population is primarily split into Arab and black African cultures, with hundreds of diverse ethnicities, tribes, and language groups. The northern part of Sudan, which includes the majority of the urban and industrializing centers, is made up of primarily Arabic-speaking Muslims. The southern portion, consisting mainly of hundreds of black African tribes, has long been the effective loser of an ongoing Sudanese civil war that has been waxing and waning for the greater part of the 20th century. Lacking upto-date

infrastructure

development

and

relying mainly on the subsistence economy, Sudan

farming the

south

population

of

approximately 6 million has

suffered

abject

neglect,

poverty,

displacement

at

and the

hands of the northern and

primarily

Arab

government. In 2003, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality League (JEM), two political groups from the primarily black south of Sudan, rebelled against the northern Sudanese government, accusing the authority in power of oppressing black Africans and favoring Arabs in the region. In response, the government helped

18

mobilize “self-defense militias”—namely, the Janjaweed militia, an Arab militant group—in order to overpower the rebellion.

For the past 7 years, the Janjaweed has raided and pillaged villages of black African civilians in the south and west of Sudan, forcing millions to flee their homes, looting and stealing, and raping and murdering hundreds of thousands of Darfuris in an attempt to purge the population. The largest concentration of the violence has been in villages in Darfur, a region in the west of Sudan. Although the government publicly denies its ties to the militia, it has been secretly funding and supplying weapons and machinery to keep the conflict going. Government aircraft have committed hundreds of air raids over civilian towns in Darfur, and the Janjaweed has used guns purchased by the government. Although a peace treaty between the militia groups was signed in 2004, the Janjaweed had violated it on countless occasions to methodically wipe out the black African villagers.

In the summer of 2010 over 700 Darfuris were killed. However, accurate figures are nearly impossible to obtain. Though the United Nations has confirmed that at least 300,000 Darfuris have been killed, and former U.N. Humanitarian Chief Jan Egeland has set this minimum at 400,000, Sudan President Omar al Bashir has said that only 10,000 civilians have been killed by militia groups and that the violence is being exaggerated. Additionally, the figures don’t distinguish between the systematic murder of the civilians or the deaths that result from disease and starvation in the Janjaweed concentration camps.

State of the Refugees

The Arab Janjaweed militia has been keeping black Darfuri civilians prisoner in concentration camps to gradually ethnically cleanse the population. Over 2.7 million civilians who fled their homes during the violence are currently detained in the camps, where conditions are dismal. According to the BBC, “the Janjaweed patrol outside the camps and men are killed and women raped if they venture too far in search of firewood

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or water.” However, as the Sudanese government does not allow in foreign journalists and analysts, it is hard to report on the extent of brutality used in the camps, although the situation is clearly a gross violation of human rights and human dignity.

Approximately 200,000 to 215,000 refugees have sought safety in neighboring Chad, camping along the 372-mile border between Chad and Sudan. These refugees are still vulnerable to attack from militia groups on the Sudan side of the border. Also, because the ethnic makeup in eastern Chad is similar to that of southern Sudan, much of the ethnic tension and rebel group violence has begun to spread over the border, displacing refugees and residents of

the

border

region.

Amnesty

International estimates that this spread of violence has uprooted at least 170,000 Chadians, exposing them to the same ethnic violence and village raids that have been occurring in Darfur.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has established refugee camps in Chad, where both Sudanese and Chadian refugees receive food, shelter, education, and health care. The government of Chad has honored its commitment not to send home Darfuri refugees from the camps, as they would be the victims of governmentsponsored ethnic cleansing if they were to return home. However, Chad lacks a national refugee policy. This means that refugees may have no long-term solution and be forced to remain in the camps indefinitely without the option of settling down in Chad. Additionally, the camps,

20

which are intended to be safe-havens for victims of war, are also vulnerable to attacks from rebel militia groups in the area.

Hundreds of thousands of Darfuri refugees have walked across the northern portion of Africa and crossed the Egyptian border into Israel, whose refugee policy in the wake of the Holocaust is to grant amnesty to any refugee of genocide. After going through a screening process to separate the Darfuri refugees from potential Egyptian terrorists, refugees are allowed to live in the State of Israel and apply for citizenship. Many non-profit groups and organizations there have attempted to teach Darfuri refugees Hebrew and English, find employment and housing for them, and help integrate them into Israeli life. Because of cultural, ethnic, and language differences, Darfuri refugees face some discrimination in education and employment. However, for now, they are granted unconditional refuge and legal protection, despite Israel’s small size and growing population. Western countries such as the United States have yet to take initiative to grant amnesty to Darfuri refugees or to retrieve them from the dismal conditions they face in Sudan.

Sudan-China Relationship

Sudan is a country rich in natural oil, which makes the land very valuable to the international community. China has great manufacturing and exporting capacity, but no natural source of oil to satisfy its large population and increasing industrialization. Because of this, Sudan and China have formed a very powerful bilateral trade agreement. China, a notorious leader in the international arms trade, is the largest supplier of arms to the Sudanese government. According to Amnesty International, China supplied a total of $83 million worth of arms, ammunition and firearm parts to Sudan in 2005 alone. Since China needs international trade to support its growing economy, and needs oil to sustain its industrialization, it is benefiting greatly from the escalating violence in Darfur.

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The United Nations established an arms embargo on Darfur in 2005 to ensure that the government did not obtain any more weaponry with which to arm the militia that was raiding civilian towns. China has violated this embargo numerous times. Under the embargo, nations are to obtain authorization for everything being shipped into or out of Sudan borders. China does not get this clearance for any of the weaponry it transports into Sudan. As the United Nations has no concrete way to enforce its resolutions, and China is a permanent member of the Security Council, the Security Council has little authority to stop China from shipping guns, aircraft, and other military weaponry directly into the conflict zone. With free trade in place and no regional trade barriers between China and Sudan, it is unlikely that this bilateral agreement will cease while it remains mutually beneficial.

The Arms Trade

Despite the 2005 UN arms embargo on Darfur, weapons also continue to flow into the region from Chad, Eritrea, and Libya. A 2006 UN report found that there is a thriving illicit arms market in Sudan. The Central African Republic, a regional governing body, is one source of illegal weapons. However, the report revealed that most of the arms used against civilians during raids originally came from Sudan government stockpiles. Two major flaws of the embargo are that it does not require any sort of arms inventory, making it easier to quietly a lot weapons to militia groups; and that it only applies to the region of Darfur, not the rest of Sudan.

Only 25 governments in the world have laws established to regulate arms brokers, or individual arms salesmen, but the majority of those laws do not enforce rule over international arms trade. For instance, according to Amnesty International, an Irish arms dealer negotiated the trade and transportation of 50 T72 tanks from Ukraine to Sudan in 2004. Since Ireland lacked laws governing third party arms brokering between two foreign countries, the deal was under no jurisdiction and could not be prevented by law.

22

An international agreement setting arms trade standards with Sudan, along with a way to regulate and enforce the law, would help diminish the damage of the raids in Darfur.

International Action and United Nations’ Role

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has established refugee camps in Chad, which are still vulnerable to rebel attacks. Also, Unamid, the joint African Union- UN peacekeeping mission, is currently employing over a thousand peacekeepers in the region. However, these peacekeepers are not allowed into the Janjaweed camps and are just as vulnerable to militia attacks as the civilians they are seeking to bring aid, food, and supplies to. The UN, along with the African Union, the Arab Union, and Qatar, is sponsoring peace talks between the Sudan government and JEM. However, the systematic violence and Janjaweed raids on Darfuri towns are ensuing every day.

Although the U.S. and many other sovereign governments have declared the situation in Darfur a case of genocide, the United Nations has yet to make that distinction. Declaring the violence as genocide requires a unanimous vote from the Security Council, of which the five permanent members are the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China. Since China is economically involved in the 23

conflict, and would benefit best from the conflict continuing and the government purchasing more guns for the Janjaweed militia, it has vetoed Security Council measures to declare the genocide. This veto impasse has prevented the United Nations from taking significant, proactive measures to end the violence, which could include sending aid, money, food, medical personnel and more peacekeepers to the region; strongly sanctioning countries that fund the Sudan government; and putting political pressure on the Sudan government to cut ties with the Janjaweed and other militia groups by giving economic incentives and sanctions.

In 2009, UN military commander General Martin Agwai reported that the conflict was “effectively over” and that the region’s main issues were now only “ isolated attacks and banditry.” Although most of the international community has recognized the Sudanese government and its President Omar al Bashir as responsible for backing the militia and supporting genocide against the people, China’s veto power on the Security Council has effectively hindered the UN from doing so as well. The Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights has merely recognized the mass killings as “serious allegations of a troubling nature.”

Additionally, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has stated that the funding for aiding the situation is being exhausted, and that little aid will be available in the future. In the first three months of 2008, the World Food Program’s Humanitarian Air Service received no funding to help alleviate the situation. It eventually received $6 million in last-minute donations in May, which it used to send food aid and supplies, but UN assistance is constantly at risk of collapse. In 2008, the UN estimated that a cease of UN funding in the region would result in up to 100,000 civilian deaths each month.

In 2009, the International Criminal Court, an international body connected to the United Nations, issued a warrant for the arrest of Omar al Bashir. This is a reversal of a previous ruling in which the Hague court determined that there was not enough evidence to hold Bashir accountable for crimes against humanity. Bashir had announced a

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ceasefire in 2008, but the violence had escalated since then and the charges were revisited. The current ICC warrant adds three counts of genocide onto Bashir’s charges. In 2008, the court also called for the arrest of three Sudan army commanders charged with acts of genocide. However, unless Bashir and the commanders leave Sudan, where they have been in hiding since the warrant was released, it is impossible to bring them to justice. The Sudan government is protecting Bashir from facing international law within Sudan. Also, the African Union, due to the push from the Sudan government, has said that it will not honor the warrant. For these reasons, it is unlikely that Bashir will be tried in the near future.

Possible Questions a Resolution Should Address •

Should the United Nations recognize the conflict in Darfur as a genocide?

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If so, what would this entail?

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How could the peace treaty between the militia groups and the north and south of Sudan be enforced?

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How can the International Criminal Court and international law be implemented to bring President Omar al Bashir to justice?

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How can the United Nations monitor arms trade to Sudan?

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How can the United Nations increase funding for aid to alleviate the condition of the refugees? Should it prioritize this funding?

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How should the United Nations help protect refugees? Can it improve existing refugee camps in Chad?

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How can Darfuris living in Janjaweed camps be helped?

References http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3496731.stm http://www.amnestyusa.org/darfur/darfur-facts/darfurrefugees/page.do?id=1102022 25

http://www.amnestyusa.org/darfur/darfur-facts/darfur-armstrade/page.do?id=1101999 http://www.genocideintervention.net/educate/darfur http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JQP/is_368/ai_n6080772/ http://www.savedarfur.org/pages/background/ http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/sudan.htm http://www.iansa.org/regions/cafrica/sudan-embargo-violated.htm

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