AGENDAS E

WAF MUN 2016 28th -30th December

Background Guide to the United Nations Human Rights Council

AGENDAS 1. Strengthening the International Framework to combat human trafficking and migrant smuggling with special emphasis on Middle-East and South Asia 2. Discussing the Rights and Treatments of Prisoners of War according to the Geneva Convention

Message from the Executive Board Dear Delegates of the UNHRC, It is an honour and privilege to welcome you to the WAF MUN 2016! This background guide will give you a basic outline of the agendas. It is a sincere advice that this background guide shall be treated as one of the resources in your research and that you are expected to research far beyond this guide. At this point, I would also like to remind you that your knowledge on the agenda is very important, however there are certain other aspects of the conference that are equally important as well. • Mandate Every committee and specialised agency has a very specific mandate. The discussion of an agenda and proposal of solutions should be within the mandate of the UNHRC. • Procedure The purpose of putting in the procedures in any committee is to ensure a more organized and efficient debate. Although the executive board shall be fairly strict with the procedure, the discussion of agenda will be our priority. So don‘t restrict your suggestions because of hesitations regarding procedures. • Foreign Policy Following the foreign policy of your country is the most important aspect in a Model UN Conference. This is what differentiates a Model UN from any debating format. Violation of Foreign Policy is the worst thing a delegate can do. • Research Knowledge about the history of UNHRC, the Agenda and all the aspects of the agenda helps the delegate to contribute more effectively in the Council. A wellresearched delegate is always appreciated by the executive board. Looking forward to a memorable conference.

Chinmay Sharma Chairperson, UNHRC [email protected] WAF MUN 2016 WAF Model United Nations 2016

Shubham Maheshwari Vice Chairperson, UNHRC [email protected] WAF MUN 2016 Page 1

Topic 1: Strengthening the International Framework to combat human trafficking and migrant smuggling with special emphasis on Middle-East and South Asia Human trafficking is "the enlistment, transportation, harbouring or receipt of people, by method of coercion, abduction, deception or abuse of power or of vulnerability, for the purpose of exploitation,” including “sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery and slaverylike practices.”." Human trafficking is a noteworthy road of worldwide criminal movement and a region of expanding global concern. Individuals are trafficked in various ways. Some are seized and constrained into work or prostitution. Others are sold by their folks to people who drive them to work or offer them to others. Still others offer their work or bodies to traffickers. In any case, the outcome is some sort of oppression. For instance, individuals might be snuck into an outside nation and compelled to reimburse their section through sexual misuse, constrained work, military administration, or organ evacuation. On the other hand they might be detained in a home or business in their own particular nation, not able to get away. The correct degree of human trafficking is obscure. Most government measurements essentially uncover the quantity of trafficking cases tended to by the criminal equity framework. To beat this issue, worldwide associations, for example, the UN International Labor Organization (ILO), have concocted measurable models that venture from known cases to touch base at assessments of all trafficking exercises. As indicated by a 2012 report by the ILO, somewhere around 2002 and 2011, 20.9 million individuals (around 3 individuals out of each 1,000 individuals around the world), were "casualties of constrained work internationally, caught in occupations into which they were forced or deluded and which they [could not] leave." Of these, 74% were grown-ups, and 26% were kids. A larger number of females than guys were trafficked: 11.4 million (55%) of the casualties from 20022011 were ladies and young ladies, "ILO Global Estimate of Forced Labor: Results and Methodology," June 2012, 9.5 million (45%) were men and young men. In 2011 particularly, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that ladies and youngsters contained 82% of trafficking victims. In 2011, the vast majority who were trafficked were sexually misused (around 53%); 40% were compelled to work in ventures, for example, fabricating, cleaning, development, material generation, cooking and household subjugation; 0.3% were utilized for organ expulsion; and the rest of the 7% fell into "other" classes that did not fall into the previous three classifications. Trafficking for constrained work has had the best increment in share of trafficking purposes lately, constituting just 32% of trafficking cases in 2007, however 40% by 2011. The normal casualty of human trafficking was misused for year and a half. Most (98%) of the general population who were trafficked for sexual misuse were ladies and young ladies. Men and young men were for the most part trafficked for work. People who were misused for sex were by and large (74% of the time) trafficked crosswise over universal outskirts, while the individuals who were constrained in the process of childbirth were typically abused in their nation of origin. By and large, from 2002-2011, around 6 million individuals (600,000-800,000 every year) were trafficked crosswise over WAF Model United Nations 2016

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universal outskirts. More than the 80,000 Africans who were transported to the Americas every year at the pinnacle of the slave trade. The UNODC states that the wrongdoing of trafficking in people influences for all intents and purposes each nation in each area of the world." From 2010-2012, "casualties with 152 unique citizenships were distinguished in 124 nations over the globe." According to the ILO, somewhere around 2002 and 2011, The AsiaPacific district accounted for by a long shot the most astounding supreme number of constrained workers – 11.7 million or 56% of the worldwide aggregate. The second most noteworthy number was found in Africa at 3.7 million (18%), trailed by Latin America and the Caribbean with 1.8 million casualties (9%). The Developed Economies and The ILO see constrained work and human trafficking as equivalent. ILO, "ILO Global Estimate," UNODC, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (Vienna: United Nations Publications, 2014), UNODC, "Worldwide Report on Trafficking in Persons," 2014, "ILO Global Estimate ," ILO, "ILO Global Estimate,". See additionally Alison Siskin and Liana Sun Wyler, "Trafficking in Persons: U.S. Approach and Issues for Congress," Congressional Research Service, 23 December 2010, "The Face of Modern Slavery," New York Times, 16 November 2011, UNODC, "Worldwide Report on Trafficking in Persons," 2014, p. 7. 10 2 European Union accounted for 1.5 million (7%) constrained workers, while nations of Central, Southeast and Eastern Europe (non-EU) and the Commonwealth of Independent States had 1.6 million (7%). There were an expected 600,000 (3%) casualties in the Middle East. Countries influenced by human trafficking fall into three classifications: nations of starting point, travel, and goal. In a 2004 report by UN Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer, Kristiina Kangaspunta, 147 nations were specified in any event once as a nation of inception. Among these, the regularly refered to were the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Nigeria. The starting point was Asia, with the previous Soviet coalition nations positioning second and Africa positioning third. Of those, Central and Eastern European nations were regularly said. At last, 150 nations were said as goals, of which the regularly referred to were the United States, a few European Union nations, and Japan. Created nations were the most well-known goal. The Asian locale was referred to similarly as a nation of cause and goal (second to the industrialized world). In particular, South East Asia was the most as often as possible noted territory of both beginning and travels and was simply behind South West Asia as a destination. Between 2010 and 2012, trafficking for constrained work was more basic in South Asia, East Asia, and the Pacific while trafficking for sexual misuse was more basic in Europe and Central Asia. Both happened in generally measure up to extents in the Americas. While every district had a tendency to have a more noteworthy extent of one sort of trafficking, trafficking for constrained work, sexual abuse, and different purposes, for example, organ evacuation, happened in all regions. For instance, of the 103 traffickers indicted in the US in 2007, the lion's share (83%) had occupied with sexual misuse, and the rest (17%) were included in labor exploitation. Human trafficking disregards huge numbers of the fundamental human rights affirmed by the General Assembly in its 1945 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), including "the privilege to life, freedom and security of individual," the privilege not to "be held in subjugation or bondage," and the privilege to be free from "unfeeling, cruel or debasing treatment." As the GA subWAF Model United Nations 2016

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advisory group accused of enhancing human rights, what could and ought to the GA-3 do to urge UN Member States to convey a conclusion to human trafficking, both as a rule and among the most helpless ILO, "ILO Global Estimate of Forced Labor,". "Mapping the Inhuman Trade," 8-12, 16-18. UNODC, "Worldwide Report on Trafficking in Persons," UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), "Worldwide Report on Trafficking in Persons," February 2009, History and Current Events To decrease or dispose of human trafficking, particularly trafficking in ladies and kids, it is important to comprehend its causes, which incorporate the financial powers of free market activity for work, and in addition social, and political standards about ladies, youngsters, needy individuals, and individuals from various ethnic and religious gatherings. Human Trafficking as an Economic Activity As noted, 40% of trafficked people get to be casualties of constrained work. Subsequently, trafficking is, in addition to other things, a financial movement, and can be comprehended, to a limited extent, regarding the market powers of interest and supply. On the request side of the condition, it is important to consider who profits by trafficking. The answer is: many individuals. Coordinate recipients incorporate people who oppress others as family unit hirelings, organizations who acquire specialists from "enlistment offices" 16 keep running by traffickers, and governments that detain individuals in labor camps. Circuitous recipients incorporate financial specialists who claim stock in organizations that benefit from such exercises, and also buyers who buy products and enterprises that are made by trafficked labourers and are lower in cost than they would be if the specialists were paid at market rates for their skill.

Middle-East The trafficking of people is the quickest developing and most productive criminal movement after medication and arms trafficking1. According to the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, human trafficking is characterized as takes after: "Trafficking in people might mean the enrolment, transportation, exchange, harbouring or receipt of people, by method for the risk or utilization of compel or different types of pressure, of kidnapping, of extortion, of double dealing, of the mishandle of force or of a place of weakness or of the giving or accepting of instalments or advantages to accomplish the assent of a man having control over someone else, with the end goal of abuse. Misuse might incorporate, at the very least, the abuse of the prostitution of others or different types of sexual misuse, constrained work or administrations, subjection or practices like bondage, subjugation or the evacuation of organs." Prevalence As per the diary of Foreign Affairs, the mechanical states have neglected to invest much push to reduce the issue. Believe is, the issue is not one of political capacity, but rather political 1

http://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1028&context=globaltides

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will. A test in battling human trafficking in Middle Eastern nations is that the administrations deny there is an issue. The absence of political will is halfway the aftereffect of exhaust dangers from the universal group, yet the greater part of it can be credited to further financial strengths and sociological elements at play. In article "Worldwide Tides," Stephanie Doe expresses that sex trafficking is a touchy point in the Middle East for different reasons. On one level, it proposes moral debasement, which suggests the melting away impact of Islamic values in the public arena. On a more noteworthy level, in most Middle Eastern nations, in light of the fact that the legislatures are in charge of protecting custom and maintaining Islamic power, it challenges their capacity to hold a country bound together by Islam. Thus, if the legislature was to recognize sex trafficking as an issue, it could be deciphered as implying the state's reducing power. It is hard to evaluate how vast the issue of human trafficking is on account of trafficked people are generally kept beyond anyone's ability to see and in unavailable areas. Human trafficking is a secret movement and the casualties are alluded to as a "concealed populace." The benefits from this industry regularly experience a procedure of IRS evasion, making it hard to follow the exercises of traffickers. Girls and ladies who are sexually misused by assault, constrained prostitution, or sexual subjugation are corrupted with social marks of shame for whatever is left of their lives. The connection to sexual perversion additionally compounds this disgrace. Once that connection is made, the harm the lady's notoriety can never be undone. In 2003, a study distributed in the Journal of Trauma Practice found that 89 % of ladies in prostitution needed to get away. Furthermore, 60%-75% of ladies in prostitution had been assaulted and 70%-95% had been physically assaulted.2 Types of trafficking in the Middle East For the majority of the 1990s, human trafficking was incorrectly defined as illegal migration, smuggling, or sex work. The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons defines trafficking comprehensively: its focus is on coercion for the purpose of exploitation, and it precludes the possibility of legal consent by the victims of traffickers. In the Middle East, some of the most prevalent forms of human trafficking are forced labor of migrant workers, sexual enslavement and forced prostitution and camel jockeying of young boys. Forced labor Today slavery typically involves women and children being sold into involuntary servitude by the means of violence and deprivation. There is a clear lack of labor protection laws for domestic workers in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries. The international community recognizes the trafficking of women and children as a modern form of slavery. Many migrant people, mainly from Asian states, are tricked into coming to the Middle East, where they find themselves in a forced labor situation or working for very low wages. Traffickers trap their victims by coercion, force, or fraud. The forced labor of migrant workers is especially prevalent in the oil-rich Persian Gulf states of Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.3 The workers are frequently held to pay off the debt they have accumulated from the costs of travel and housing. Trafficking from South Asia to the Middle 2 3

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2006-11-01/new-global-slave-trade http://www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw/researchdigest/trafficking/

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East is a serious problem, with about 200,000 person’s trafficked over 20 years, and 3,400 children over the last 10 years. The International Labor Organization estimates the minimum number of persons in forced labor in the Middle East and North Africa is around 230,000.4 Sexual enslavement Most commonly, but not exclusively, human trafficking is exploitation in the form of forced prostitution or sexual enslavement. State authorities have typically confused sex trafficking with prostitution. Some young impoverished women are attracted to the sex industry because it appears to offer quick and easy money. Traffickers often lure desperate young women with the promise of a better paying job or higher education into a destination country where their documentation and passports are forcibly taken from them as soon as they arrive. These women often find themselves in slave-like situations. Once trafficked into the sex industry, traffickers control the women through physical and psychological means. Prostitution in the Middle East is strictly illegal, along with all sexual activity outside lawful marriage. The religious outlawing of extramarital sex reinforces this trade and consequently further bolsters the demand for prostitution. The issue is exacerbated by the lack of legislative actions taken by states to control prostitution and trafficking.5 Camel jockeying Even though the most common forms of human trafficking are sexual enslavement and forced labor, these are not the only cases. The type of trafficking that is quite unique to the Middle East is the forced camel jockeying of young boys. Camel racing is a particularly dangerous and violent practice that young boys are forced into against their will. Boys from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are recruited around five years of age to be camel jockeys in Middle Eastern countries such as the United Arab Emirates. Their parents normally sell them to agents who go around poor districts in these countries and offer to take male children away to the UAE to work. These agents tell parents that the children will earn large sums of money that will be sent home to the families. The parents are typically deceived about the conditions of work. They are led to believe that the children are going to obtain good jobs and will have a better future than if they remain at home. Usually the boys do not know who is taking them abroad or for what purpose. Most of the boys are not aware they will become camel jockeys against their will. When they arrive in the UAE, the children are transferred to azbas, which are camel training complexes in the desert. The children are subject to several forms of abuse during their stay, including punishments such as a lack of food and electric shocks. Lack of food is a common practice because their owners try to maintain their weight at less than 20 kg (44 lbs) for racing purposes. Deaths and injuries of children during racing is another major concern. If children accidentally die during a race they are buried straight away to avoid police investigations of the death. The conditions in the azbas are very restricting. Children are not allowed to leave the camel training complex. They sleep on cardboard boxes, making them very prone to scorpion bites. The children rise at 4:00am to begin exercising the camels. Every day they take the camels for rides until 11:00am. Then they are allowed to rest for two hours before feeding and cleaning the camels. Then they exercise the camels again until nightfall. The children are supposed to be paid for their work but that is almost never the case. The agent usually takes the salary and keeps it without 4 5

http://iom.ch/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/policy_and_research/gcim/rs/RS5.pdf http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ilj/vol26/iss3/7/

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allocating any to the child or his family. Running away is a virtual impossibility for children deployed as camel jockeys since the azbas are usually in remote desert locations. Usually children leave when they become too old or heavy and are no longer considered suitable for camel racing. Other children are sent home because they become seriously injured from racing. Police or immigration rescues are virtually unknown in the azbas. Driving forces behind trafficking a) Foreign migration One of the major forces driving human trafficking in the Middle East is the large influx of foreign migration. Research conducted in 1996 on the routes of illegal migration, smuggling and trafficking concluded that over the period 1992-97, the majority of illegal migrants to Europe had originated from Iraq, China, Pakistan, India or Africa. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) notes trafficking of women from Ghana to Lebanon, Libya and EU countries, women for domestic service from Central and West Africa to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and even voluntary migrations of women from Ethiopia to the Middle East, where working conditions are considered to be virtual slavery. The Middle East is a destination region for men and women trafficked for the purpose of commercial and sexual exploitation. Wealthy Arab men from the Persian Gulf area have been known to rent flats that are ‘furnished with housemaids’ for anywhere from a few hours to a few months. Most of the prostitutes and human trafficking victims tend to be from Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Very few countries in the Middle East are devoid of the commercial sex industry.6 b) Poverty Of the many locations where human trafficking is prevalent in the Middle East, most are characterized by poverty. Human trafficking is a market fuelled by principles of supply and demand. Therefore, where there is poverty, there is a likely supply to meet the growing demand for sexual entertainment. Economic vulnerability increases the likelihood of women becoming sexual commodities for wealthy Arabs in the Persian Gulf area. Although there are overwhelming social implications, there also seem to be regional financial patterns that perpetuate this trend. Fewer work opportunities for women have led to prostitution as an alternative. For example, in Egypt, women from lower-class backgrounds see that a few nights in prostitution generate more money than one month’s work in the public sector. This makes Egypt a popular location for international sex tourism. Despite sex tourism being illegal, Egyptians find it hard to turn away Gulf hard currency due to their crumbling economy. The proliferation of prostitution, sex tourism, and misyar marriages can be understood as the consequence of uneven economic development, further exacerbated by principles of supply and demand. Persian Gulf nationals have the will and the means to pursue sexual entertainment, and poorer Muslim communities can supply services in return for financial security.7 c) Misyar marriages To avoid the repercussions of sex outside marriage, Middle Eastern men and women in certain countries engage in a common practice by the name of "misyar marriage", also called Nikah Misyar. This type of marriage was born for the sole purpose of physical pleasure. 6 7

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J189v02n03_03 http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol12/iss3/

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It can be defined as a “temporary marriage,” or its literal translation, “traveling marriage.” Misyar marriages do not require cohabitation of the husband and wife, long-term commitment, welfare provisions to the wife, or the intention of procreating, which are all the elements of a traditional Islamic marriage. While misyar marriages do have a technical contract, the duration of the marriage is not explicitly stated in the contract but instead implied. Misyar marriages have been commonly referred to as “legal prostitution,” A marriage of this kind is not an option for a woman who wants to be viewed as respectable because it compromises many of her rights and basic values. Despite its controversial nature, misyar marriages are both religiously and legally accepted as valid marriages. According to Syed Ahmad, misyar marriages are popular in Islamic countries because it legitimizes sexual relations outside conventional marriages. Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, a leading authority and one of the few remaining figures of Islamic scholarship, states that the misyar marriage is religiously legitimate. Al-Qaradawi adds that “there is no doubt that such marriage may be somehow socially unacceptable, but there is a big difference between what is Islamically valid and what is socially acceptable.” He is indicating that as long as both parties accept the terms of the marriage contract, they are legally married in the eyes of Allah. Misyar marriages purportedly prevent unmarried youth and widows from fulfilling their sexual desires outside marriage, which would traditionally be considered sinful. Misyar legitimizes these acts that would otherwise be seen as unlawful. The Middle East is well known for its strict observation of moral codes and sensitivity to the taboo subject of sex. In most societies of the Middle East where Islam is the dominant religion, premarital and extramarital sex is considered fornication. In a few countries, fornicators receive one hundred lashes of a whip with a crowd of witnesses for sins such as premarital sex. Zina is the word in many Middle Eastern countries for the concept of sexual misconduct by men and women. Despite all of these repercussions for extramarital sex, media coverage and human rights groups are revealing that prostitution is present and thriving in the Middle East. Misyar marriages also tend to exploit the economic vulnerability of women in poverty.

South Asia Human trafficking in locales, for example, Southeast Asia has for quite some time been an issue for the territory and still is pervasive today. It has been watched that as economies keep on growing, the interest for work is at an untouched high in the mechanical area and the sex tourism part. A blend of devastated people and the craving for more riches makes a domain for human traffickers to profit in the Southeast Asia district. Numerous countries inside the district have taken safeguard measures to end human trafficking inside their fringes and rebuff traffickers working there. Nature of the problem Human trafficking, is characterized by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in their Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons report as "the enlistment, transportation, exchange, harbouring or receipt of people, by method for the danger or utilization of constrain or different types of intimidation, of snatching, of extortion, of duplicity, of the mishandle of force or of a place of powerlessness or of the giving or accepting of instalments or advantages to accomplish the assent of a man having WAF Model United Nations 2016

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control over someone else, with the end goal of exploitation. "This definition applies to collecting of organs, subjugation or constrained work, and sexual misuse. As indicated by an International Labor Organization (ILO) a report utilizing a philosophy based off national overviews reported, as of late as 2012, 20.9 million individuals were being held without wanting to in different types of constrained work the world over. The major parts of these workers were ladies at 55% and guys at 45%. According to Besler, yearly benefits from businesses represent considerable authority in constrained work have arrived at the midpoint of 44.3 billion dollars in 2005.8 Past the extension Southeast Asia, the Asia-Pacific area contains the biggest number of constrained workers anyplace on the planet however just has a pervasiveness rate of 3.3 for every 1000, which is one of the lower commonness rates when contrasted by region. This is expected with the way that the Asia-Pacific locale has a much bigger populace when contrasted with whatever is left of the world's areas. In Southeast Asia human trafficking is generally viewed as interregional with workers being gathered from nations inside the district and eventually working inside the area. Casualties from Southeast Asia have additionally been found in numerous different nations around the world. In Southeast Asia human trafficking comprises of constrained sexual work and constrained work which, in numerous nations in Southeast Asia, can prompt to blended types of human trafficking. In Thailand and Malaysia trafficking for the most part appears as sexual abuse, while in Indonesia constrained work is watched is more common, yet both types of sexual and constrained work can be found. It is assessed that 10,000 workers are betrayed or caught into constrained work every year in the locale.9 Causes The primary driver of human trafficking in Southeast Asia are all inclusive components, for example, neediness and globalization. As indicated by Betz, destitution is not the base of human trafficking and that there are different elements, for example, the yearning to have entry to upward portability and learning on the riches that can be picked up from working in urban communities, that at last pulls in ruined people to human traffickers. Betz claims the industrialization of the area in the mid twentieth century prompted to a reasonable division between developing economies and stagnant ones. This industrialization of blasting economies, similar to that of Thailand and Singapore made a draw for poor vagrants looking for upward portability and people needing to leave war torn countries. These transients were an undiscovered asset in developing economies that had officially depleted the shoddy work from inside its outskirts. A high supply of vagrant specialists looking for business and popularity from an economy looking for modest work makes a flawless blend for human traffickers to flourish. Still in the new thousand years the market for constrained work is gainful; class-divisions and the economies' requirement for untalented work keep traffickers in the market.

8 9

http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=forcedlabor http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/Trafficking_in_Persons_2012_web.pdf

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The sex business rose in Southeast Asia in the mid twentieth century as a path for ladies to create more pay for battling vagrants and local people attempting to bolster families or themselves. Nicola Piper asserts the business' development all through the area can be ascribed to developing tourism and army installations that dabbed the district amid times of real wars.10 Sex ventures initially took into account military faculty on leave from bases however as army bases retreated the business turned its regard for developing tourism. With little mediation from governments because of potential mischief to the tourism showcase, the sex business' development was uninhibited. Even as the business is looked downward on today there is still a huge secret market that is requesting from traffickers. Source Countries Philippines, a source nation and travel nation with regards to constrained work and sexual abuse. Thailand is one of the greatest providers of constrained work in the Southeast Asia area and around the world. A large portion of the constrained workers are acquired from close-by Southeast Asian nations like Myanmar, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Vagrants wilfully move into Thailand where they can wind up in constrained work or sold into its own particular sex industry. Laos is named as a source nation of men, ladies, and youngsters for the sex slave industry and the constrained work industry. A large portion of the Lao transients move to nations like Thailand or are sent to China from a travel country. Lao vagrants are principally streamed into parts of serious work with little pay. 70% of transients from Laos are female and a significant number of them are looked for the utilization of residential work. In Thailand there is no work insurance for residential specialists, which can prompt to dangers for the transient Lao females. Cambodia is a source nation for vagrants because of large amounts of unemployment and neediness. This leaves locals with little open door and abnormal amounts of hazard for human trafficking. Numerous Cambodian ladies are trafficked into sexual or work businesses, while men are trafficked into the angling, horticultural and development divisions in numerous nations inside the Southeast Asian region. Myanmar's history of run under a military administration is one reason the nation is viewed as a source nation. The administration's poor administration of the economy and human rights manhandle put the nations natives at hazard for human trafficking. Men, ladies and youngsters are liable to work misuse in Thailand, China, Pakistan, South Korea and Macau. Children are trafficked in Thailand to be constrained into asking, while young ladies are trafficked into China to work in the sex slave industry.11

10 11

http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/ http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2012/192367.htm

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Destination Countries Philippines, is a goal nation notwithstanding being source nation. Transients from a few nations searching for work are pulled in to Thailand's promising economy. Thailand's economy likewise vigorously depends on transient specialists because of the way that it is firmly work escalated, with real divisions being development, angling and business agriculture. Cambodia is a goal nation for females being trafficked into the sex exchange industry. Cambodia has one of the biggest wellsprings of interest for youngster prostitution and sex tourism in the district. Females are brought from provincial locales of Cambodia and Vietnam to significant urban areas where they are sold or sexually exploited. Vietnam is a goal nation for kids who are subjected to constrained sexual work and work trafficking. Youngsters from rustic ranges of the nation are brought into significant urban areas where through dangers and obligation subjugation is constrained into the sex exchange, asking industry, and modern segments. With Vietnam being a goal for tyke sex tourism, the extensive request gives traffickers motivating forces to enrol youngsters into the exchange.12 Victims A large portion of the casualties that are as of now working under constrained work conditions are doing as such on the grounds that they were either deceive about openings for work or were subjugated or compelled to against their will. According to a strategy brief on human trafficking in Southeast Asia, in spite of the fact that casualties incorporate young ladies, ladies, young men, and men the lion's share are ladies. Ladies have a tendency to be all the more very focused by traffickers because of the way that they are looking for circumstance in a range of the world where restricted financial open doors are accessible for them. Incompetent and ineffectively instructed ladies are ordinarily driven into human trafficking. According to the UNODC report, the numbers for ladies and men in constrained work might be skewed because of the way that exclusive a couple of nations discharged the numbers for grown-up men. The constrained work showcase in this locale additionally is overwhelmed by male grown-ups and females while the exchange of kids is clear it is viewed as little in contrast with the aggregate. A large portion of these labourers are undocumented and from various nations of starting point than the nation they work in. Nations like Thailand and Laos draw in vagrants of comparable social foundations and dialect. Ethnic lion's share transients from Laos are pulled in to the likenesses between the two nations and move to Thailand where they can acclimatize easily. The mix of undocumented specialists and comparative societies can bring about issues for powers to appropriately archive and gauge the quantity of trafficked people without mistaking them for unlawful settlers and local people.13

12 13

http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2008/105389.htm http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2012/192366.htm

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Traffickers Three nations gave information demonstrating that in Southeast Asia a larger number of ladies are arraigned than men for wrongdoings in human trafficking. The information additionally demonstrates that the interest rate among females in the trafficking business is slanting equivalent to or higher than guys. Traffickers in Southeast Asia are of both sexual orientations however in this area female extents are higher than that of ones in the Americas or in Africa. Japan reported that traffickers of outside nationalities have been expanding in the course of recent years. In 2006 up until 2009, 7% of people sentenced were remote nationals while in 2009 that number had ascended to 23%.14

Prevention Policies The United Nations (UN) has discharged rules on how human trafficking can be forestalled on a worldwide scale. As per the rules countries ought to distinguish request as a noteworthy reason for trafficking to exist. It is likewise prescribed that destitution, disparity and segregation be analysed as these components, contingent upon predominance, can prompt to trafficking. According to a give an account of human trafficking counteractive action, it is suggested that it is the administration's business to enhance the choices that are accessible to its subjects and vagrants through different projects that will prompt to a general enhanced life. Training on different open doors and the numerous risks of relocating through the assistance of human traffickers. Governments can likewise help by expanding law implementation against traffickers to meet lawful commitments and by giving appropriate recognizable proof to all citizens.15 The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, particularly Women and Children (here and there alluded to as the Trafficking Protocol) is a convention made by the UN to help countries with human trafficking issues. The fundamental motivations behind the convention are to make a rule to start protection measures to anticipate and battle human trafficking inside the nation outskirts. The convention is additionally utilized for the help and assurance of the casualties connected with human trafficking, while likewise making collaboration between the gatherings of the state. All countries inside Southeast Asia have marked and sanctioned this convention, except for Thailand being the main country yet to involve endorsement in the wake of marking the protocol.16 The United Nations International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families is an assention that plans to make associations 14

http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/Trafficking_in_Persons_2012_web.pdf http://www.crime-preventionintl.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Publications/Towards_Human_Trafficking_Prevention_A_Discussion_Document _-_May_27.pdf 16 https://www.afppd.org/files/1113/8206/9530/Policy_Brief.pdf 15

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between human rights and vagrant laborers and in addition their families. The assention focuses on the significance of transient work and the acknowledgment that ought to be compensated to the vagrant laborer, likewise contending that the vagrant specialist is liable to correspondence and protection. This understanding has yet to be marked by numerous countries in Southeast Asia however there are a couple that have consented to and approved the arrangement like Indonesia and the Philippines and Cambodia which is yet to ratify.17 Against Trafficking in Persons Act are laws passed by numerous nations in Southeast Asia to keep traffickers from utilizing snatching, misrepresentation, duplicity, manhandle of influence and giving or getting cash to get assent from the person for control over them as a methods for the enlistment, transportation, harboring of people by method for compel or dangers, deal, loaning and contracting of a person with or without their consent. Countries, for example, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Philippines, Cambodia and Indonesia all have their own Anti-Trafficking in Person Acts that are utilized to counteract human trafficking and indict the individuals who damage this demonstration.18

17 18

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CMW.aspx http://www.no-trafficking.org/resources_int_tip_laws.html

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Migrant smuggling 28 April 2015 - In another report, UNODC cautions that the sneaking of transients represents a huge danger to Asia, creating a yearly estimation of $2 billion for criminal gatherings and prompting to passings and human rights manhandle. The report, entitled Migrant Smuggling in Asia: Current Trends and Related Challenges, breaks down the pirating of vagrants in 28 states from the Middle East to the Pacific and finds that criminal systems are imaginatively abusing holes amongst request and consistent movement, with sneaking expenses to get to a few goals now reported as high as $50,000. The report likewise focuses on that a critical number of transients utilize runners to cross fringes with a specific end goal to look for a superior life, yet wind up in human trafficking circumstances. Far from home and working wrongfully, snuck vagrants have little capacity to attest fundamental rights and get to be distinctly helpless against mishandle, trafficking and misuse. Southeast Asia keeps on serving as a vital source, travel and goal for transient carrying, with the lion's share of sneaking occurring inside the area yet with courses additionally achieving nations to the extent Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.19 Jeremy Douglas, UNODC Regional Representative in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, underlines the centrality for the area, as snuck transients are more hard to recognize among the expanding number of normal vagrants that go with territorial reconciliation. "The crossfringe development of individuals in Asia is relied upon to develop quickly and at phenomenal levels, to a limited extent because of new foundation ventures and the opening of outskirts." Transient bootleggers work in exceptionally adaptable systems and rapidly adjust to evolving conditions, for example, diverting courses because of expanded fringe controls. "Moreover, the generation and utilization of deceitful archives are far reaching," said Mr. Douglas. "Individuals that make utilization of runners face expanded dangers to their wellbeing and security." 20 The mind boggling wonder of transient sneaking in Asia challenges short-sighted arrangements. UNODC approaches nations to extensively address transient carrying, inserted in more extensive trafficking, movement and advancement strategies - in accordance with the UN Convention on Transnational Organized Crime. 21

19

https://www.oecd.org/migration/Can%20we%20put%20an%20end%20to%20human%20smuggling.pdf http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/danger-conflating-migrant-smuggling-human-trafficking1139692383 21 https://www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/MigrantSmuggling/Smuggling_of_Migrants_A_Global_Review.pdf 20

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To address the circumstance, the report suggests fortifying information era and understanding, and enhancing national laws and strategies while ensuring the privileges of vagrants, and also constructing operational limit at outskirt intersections to distinguish, explore and arraign pirating and trafficking systems, and the security of casualties. This will require worldwide collaboration and political will, and in addition the improvement of moderate, open and safe roads for legitimate movement.2223

22

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-security-idUSKCN11X1NH

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https://www.google.co.in/search?q=migrant+smuggling+in+middle+east+un+reports+2014+2015+2016&oq= migrant+smuggling+in+middle+east+un+reports+2014+2015+2016&gs_l=serp.3...28130.36318.0.36790.28.26.1 .0.0.0.466.4203.0j7j6j2j2.17.0....0...1c.1.64.serp..10.8.1655...33i160k1j33i21k1.rXZH3VfBvek

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Topic 2: Discussing the Rights and Treatments of Prisoners of War according to the Geneva Convention Introduction All through history, the destiny of POWs has customarily relied on upon fortunes and the generosity of one's captors. Best case scenario, an important hostage may have been kept in various chambers, bolstered well and engaged while delivered and even from a pessimistic standpoint, tormented, oppressed or killed by assaulting raiders. Albeit a hefty portion of the early worldwide law specialists proclaimed that treatment of POWs was not totally ungoverned under national law, it was not until the mid-nineteenth century that the meaning of POWs and their comparing treatment was laid out in a lawful system. Progressively, all through the nineteenth century and up to 1929, the rights and benefits of POWs were progressively better characterized. The issue that developed, then, was not setting up insurance, it was authorization and usage. To state that Germany, Italy, Japan and the Soviet Union overlooked IHL (International Humanitarian Law) amid the Second World War appears like a gross modest representation of the truth. Maybe, then, it is not astounding that even with the proceeding with codification of IHL in the twentieth century POWs were ceaselessly subjected to poor treatment, mishandle and were really utilized as political apparatuses as a part of a worldwide ideological battle. The Geneva Conventions were an endeavor to clear up the standard of lawfulness (and apparently profound quality) in fighting. However, all law must be translated and without a requirement instrument to do as such, self-elucidation of what the standard of lead ought to be happens. The article will exhibit that when it went to the treatment of POWs, this translation was overwhelmed by the weights of the Cold War in inspecting these issues; the article will adopt a chronicled strategy. A sequential examination of the occasions and hypothetical advancements gives a clearway to show and outline what happened and afterward clarify these occasions in the more extensive setting of the Cold War. It is a dispute here that a verifiable approach is suitable while considering the progressions, variances and inconsistencies of the Soviet position and the response of the West. Furthermore, by taking a gander at the sequence, the paper tries to show that when it went to the part of IHL wide open to the harsh elements War, every contention/emergency regarding POWs served to fabricate and in this way fortify a culture of doubt and question which affected the improvement of the law and the way it was taken care of politically. At long last, while legitimate and literary methodologies can give a comprehension of the law, taking an authentic view helps us that the occasions to remember the most recent 60 years from the crystal through which we view such law today. Accordingly, in adopting this authentic strategy with reference to how ideological contrasts and saw objectives assumed a huge part in the execution and consequent improvement of IHL, this guide will take a gander at two interrelated patterns: to begin with, how IHL was translated and actualized, and second, how this influenced and thus impacted the advancement of IHL. In following these two patterns, this guide will first take a gander at the effect of ideological pressures exposed to the harsh elements War's initial stages and afterward the contentions rising out of the wars of national freedom where Western and Communist armed forces ended up going up against each other in struggle. It will then take a turn how the encounters of these contentions and the proceeded with political battle came to impact the advancement of IHL in connection to POWs.

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Pre-1945 Ideological Background: The West and the Soviet Union Western Europe had a long established convention of regular law restrains on fighting originating from the Romans, through St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and the early global legal counsellors. The development to systematize IHL rose on both sides of the Atlantic moderately suddenly and free of each other. In America, Francis Lieber drafted 'General Orders 100: Instructions for the Government of Armies in the United States in the Field' (what therefore got to be distinctly known as the 'Lieber Code') in 1863 for the Union Armies amid the Civil War. In Europe, the principal gatherings of what might turn into the International Committee of the Red Cross were held. Both events would goad the codification of IHL in the 1864 Geneva Convention, the 1874 Brussels Declaration, the 1899 and 1907 Hague Regulations and the 1906 Geneva Convention on POWs. The push to arrange these conventions originated from many sources – however above all the conviction that despite the fact that war was to remain part of the human condition, something should be possible to dispose of the superfluous enduring of the injured officer, the caught detainee and regular citizen made up for lost time with the wrong side of a battling line. This conviction mirrored the developing accentuation set on ensuring people in times of war and the idea of a centre gathering of human rights that were sacred, notwithstanding amid snapshots of emergency. In spite of the fact that infringement of this recently classified law occurred amid the First World War, it is noteworthy to note that no nation clearly protested being liable to the laws that had been set out. Considering the general level of wretchedness in the 'Incomparable War', it is presumably not an embellishment to recommend that POWs, generally, were dealt with in a sensible way. These were likewise the suppositions that were to impact the West in the twentieth century when it went to the improvement of IHL and the insurance of POWs. The Russian Empire, under Tzars Nicholas I and II, had assumed a noteworthy part in calling for and supporting global gatherings to encourage the drafting and codification of IHL. Actually, the Russian agent to the 1864 Diplomatic Conference (that would set up the main Geneva Convention) had freely spoken to the representatives to stretch out securities to POWs in the Convention. Right now, dispositions towards worldwide law had been to a great extent moulded by Western thoughts and sources. The greater part of this changed with the October Revolution in 1917. Alongside alternate organizations overseeing Russian culture, the place and part of worldwide law was tossed into question. With the solidification of Russia after 1920, legal advisors started to swing to the subject of how the new Soviet state could and ought to identify with the other industrialist nations that encompassed it. Legal counsellors started to apply Leninist standards to worldwide law at times inferring that global law was not official on the Soviet express, that distinctive laws connected between the relations of communist nations than amongst entrepreneur and communist nations or that universal law was just a transitory game plan as the advance of history would dispense with nations, states and consequently the requirement for law. To state, in any case, that there was a steady strategy towards global law, not to mention IHL, before the Second's over World War would be extremely deceptive. Works on worldwide law were liable to Stalin's approaches and Soviet outside arrangement – and the 4 histories of Soviet global law are brimming with the stories of lawful researchers who traded allegations and constrained relating and open reprobation against each other on a genuinely standard premise. Maybe obviously, the main steady was that Soviet global legal advisors were relied upon to bolster and legitimize the approaches of the Soviet Union under any conditions –such as the intrusion of Finland, Poland, Romania, and so on. It was under these befuddled, totalitarian conditions that the Soviet Union's disposition towards global law would enter

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the Cold War and that these ideological contrasts between the two sides came to affect the treatment of POWs.

1945-49: The Early Cold War Period Repatriation, the end of the Second World War left millions of POWs stranded in the countries in which they had been held. For the Allies (particularly the United States and the United Kingdom), the issue of repatriation posed two problems – mostly stemming from the fact that both the countries were exhausted from the war and wanted to deal with this humanitarian issue as quickly as possible. In the first instance, 400,000 German POWs held by the Americans were handed over to the French en masse in the summer of 1945. The Germans who were kept in POW camps and then sent to work throughout France in Post War reconstruction projects fared far worse than they had under the Americans. Thousands died from what one critic of the policy called ‘the politics of vengeance’: POWs were poorly treated, forced to work long hours and not infrequently forced to clear minefields. In Russia, the situation was very much the same. After the war, Stalin’s first five-year plan depended heavily on German and Austrian POW labor. For many years and under often gruesome conditions, German and Austrian prisoners built power plants and railway tracks, the Metro in Moscow, defence industries in the Ural Mountains and others. The ‘Hunger Winter’ of 1946–47 took another heavy toll on Germans in the Soviet Union. By 1950, 30,000 German POWs still remained, and the final prisoners were not repatriated until 1955–56 to establish diplomatic relations with the Federal Republic of Germany. On the other hand, there were those who did not want to go back. Throughout the Second World War, the Nazis had deported millions of Russian slave labourers to Germany and throughout their occupied territory. Repatriation accords were concluded at Yalta in February 1945, and an agreement in Halle in May 1945 formalized this policy. Therefore, the United States and the United Kingdom adopted a policy where all claimants to Soviet nationality were to be released to the Soviet government irrespective of their wishes. Once repatriated to the Soviet Union, most of the Russian prisoners vanished in the Gulag system. Of approximately 1.8 million prisoners eventually repatriated to the USSR, 150,000 were sentenced to six years of forced labor for ‘aiding the enemy’ and almost all others experienced the hostility engendered by Josef Stalin’s infamous Order 270, which had called all Red Army soldiers who allowed themselves to be captured alive ‘traitors to the motherland’. The problem lay with the legislation as it was written. In the First World War, the humanitarian law governing the repatriation of prisoners, article 20 of the 1907 Hague Convention, specified that all prisoners were to be released after the conclusion of peace. Given the length of time between the Armistice and the Paris Peace Treaty signed in 1919, this issue was taken up in the 1929 Geneva Conventions. Article 65 (6) of the Convention specified that repatriation would then take place ‘with the least possible delay’ after the end of hostilities, even in the absence of a formal treaty. There was nothing for prisoners who wanted to claim asylum from their home country – if anything, their journey home had been made quicker by the legislation. However, there were other reasons that the Western nations (especially the United States) were willing to trade the reluctant Soviets home: blackmail. In December 1944, after several POW camps had been liberated by the Russians, Foreign Affairs Commissar Vyzcheslav Molotov refused the United States access to its POWs and went so far as to accuse it of mistreating Soviet prisoners. There have been several reasons given for this policy. First, the US Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Averell Harriman, speculated that the Soviets had implemented this policy to keep Western observers out of Poland until the pro Soviet Lublin regime was established. This view was backed by the senior American military officer in Russia, Major General WAF Model United Nations 2016

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John R. Deane. Second, it has been suggested that in addition to protecting interests in Poland, the Soviets may have been embarrassed over the presence among their POWs liberated in the West of thousands captured in German uniform. They agreed to fight for the Germans against their own country under General Vlasov –a Russian General and POW who switched sides after his capture. It was only after repeated and insistent protest by the Americans that Moscow allowed a single US officer and one army doctor into Poland, and then rendered their mission ‘practically useless’ by forbidding them to leave the city of Lublin. Repeated demands for access to the American POWs were met with continued refusals of access, assurances that the Americans were being treated well and recurring charges that the Americans were the ones who were really abusing the Soviet prisoners. Therefore, given the fact that the Russians were still holding thousands of American POWs, the Americans were understandably nervous about returning the only bargaining chips they had to ensure they got their soldiers back. However, as both sides gradually came around after some diplomatic wrangling, the exchange process was speeded up. For what it is worth, as Nolan points out, the decision to repatriate the Soviet prisoners was not as clear cut as it seems to us now in hindsight. Aside from the confounding factors of blackmail listed above, the Soviet Union had been an ally in the war, and some of the Soviets caught in German uniforms had actually inflicted casualties on Allied soldiers, whereas others willingly collaborated with the Nazis. Still, for those caught up in this process, the result was tragic. In one camp in Austria, 134 Soviets committed suicide in June, after which the British authorities forced the remaining 30,000 on the train to Moscow. There were similar happenings on throughout Western Europe. It was only in mid1947 that Secretary of State George C. Marshall decided that not even those who had collaborated with Nazi Germany should be repatriated to Soviet bloc countries against their will, declaring that forced repatriation went against the American tradition of granting political asylum. To say that the issue of repatriation was a major cause of the Cold War would be to misstate the case being made here. Instead, this issue should be seen as a warning light to the Americans that there was to be a drastic change in relations between the two countries, that the Americans could not trust the Soviet Union and (if it was not already obvious) that the USSR had profoundly different attitudes towards the fundamental Western values of liberty and freedom. In this way, the POW issue at the end of the Second World War contributed to the atmosphere of suspicion and rivalry that was dawning with the new bipolar age.

The Geneva Conventions of 1949 Ever since the Revolution in 1917, the relationship between the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Soviet Union was very problematic. In socialist eyes, the ICRC was a conservative, bourgeois organisation that came from a suspiciously neutral country. The Soviets did not approve of the even handedness with which the ICRC treated both sides in the Spanish Civil War and felt that the International Committee was soft on fascism – the same fascism which had almost destroyed it during the Second World War. The ICRC had also tried to maintain a presence in the Soviet Union during the Civil War and the years following in an attempt to gain access to the Gulags. The Soviets undermined and denied the ‘monarch of ascist’ ICRC wherever it could. Given this history, and the problematic/fluctuating stance on international law discussed above, it is not surprising that the Soviet Union was hostile to the ICRC and its proposal for a new Geneva Convention. However, its method of protest did not amount to more than a policy of ignoring the ICRC. The Soviet Union did not send any delegates to any of the preliminary diplomatic conferences that occurred before the 1949 Conference. Western countries then looked to the delegations of the Soviet satellite countries WAF Model United Nations 2016

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(who, it was assumed, were towing the Moscow line on the issues) to figure out where Soviet policy lay on humanitarian issues. It was therefore quite a surprise when the Soviet Union and several satellite states sent delegations to the Diplomatic Conference in 1949. Historian Geoffrey Best argues that although the French were rather desperate to get the USSR involved in the negotiations, the Americans had a relatively laissez-faire attitude towards Soviet participation. Either way, the Soviets had given no indication that they were planning to attend – not even to the Conference organisers. Suspicion was therefore raised over why the USSR, who had participated in none of the drafting of the conferences, was suddenly actively interested in updating the laws of war. Early concerns that the USSR was there to disrupt the Conference were relieved when the Soviet bloc delegation ‘behaved’ in an orderly, if not exemplary manner. Soon, however, it became apparent that Cold War politics would play a role. As best argues, ‘From the moment that Soviet participation became known . . . an infusion of politics was to be expected.’ The first of these issues was indiscriminate bombings. To the clauses protecting civilians, the Soviet delegation proposed banning ‘all other means of exterminating the civilian population’ causing ‘extensive destruction of the [civilian] property’. It was clear that the Soviets were aiming to ban the atomic bomb. This put the Western delegation in the unfortunate position of having to vote down the Soviet proposal and looking as if they were somehow supporting indiscriminate bombing. Although they looked for a better way out of the situation, the Soviet proposal was voted down on 6 July 1945. POWs were another hotly contested issue during the course of the Diplomatic Conference. The point in dispute was the text that would eventually form article 85 of the Third Geneva Convention. The 1929 Convention dealing with POWs contained no provision concerning the punishment of crimes committed by POWs before their capture. Those provisions that did deal with offences and punishment only referred to acts committed during captivity. During the war crimes tribunals that followed the Second World War, a number of military personnel being tried had requested to be afforded the protections guaranteed by the1929 Conventions with regard to judicial proceedings. The Allies turned down these requests arguing that it was ‘a well established rule of customary law that those who have violated the laws of war may not avail themselves of the protection which they afford. Captured members of enemy armed forces who have committed war crimes cannot therefore claim the status of prisoners of war.’ This was the same attitude that the West maintained through the preliminary conferences leading up to the 1949 Diplomatic Conference. The ICRC was concerned over these events, given that in most countries, proceedings against war criminals were based on special ad hoc legislation and not on the regular penal legislation of the countries concerned. Furthermore, it seemed unjust to pre judge the guilt of the accused, because they were deprived of the protection of the Convention before actually having been found guilty of war crimes. The ICRC proposed that POWs should continue to receive all of the benefits of the Convention until their guilt was definitively proven. The suggestion, however, received only limited support – the Anglo Saxon powers were particularly hostile. Perhaps it was the chill of the Cold War and the increased likelihood that Western soldiers would soon be fighting against communist nations, but the Anglo Saxon nations had changed their mind on the issue by 1949 and now agreed with the ICRC position. In fact, they even went further that POWs should continue to enjoy those benefits of the Convention even after they had been judged. Article 85 was therefore submitted to read: ‘Prisoners of war prosecuted under the laws of the Detaining Power for acts committed prior to capture shall retain, even if convicted, the benefits of the present Convention.’ The argument now came from the Soviet Union who argued for the original proposal – that POWs were only protected under the convention until after they had been convicted. The Soviet delegation argued that there was no reason why POWs convicted of such crimes should not be treated in the same way as persons WAF Model United Nations 2016

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serving sentence for a criminal offence committed in the territory of the detaining power. Best points out that it was the Soviets who had consistency on their side. Beyond that ‘they could also plausibly claim to represent the general opinion of mankind. That POWs accused of perhaps terrible crimes should enjoy the benefits of the Convention through the period of arrest and trial, was not unreasonable, and the USSR was not proposing anything else; but that such lavish benefits should continue after conviction was incredible.’ The article was voted on and passed as written above. The Soviet Union, maintaining its position, insisted upon a reservation to the article: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics does not consider itself bound by the obligation, which follows from Article 85, to extend the application of the Convention to prisoners of war who have been convicted under the law of the Detaining Power, in accordance with the principles of the Nuremberg trial, for war crimes and crimes against humanity, it being understood that persons convicted of such crimes must be subject to the conditions obtaining in the country in question for those who undergo their punishment. The other Socialist bloc countries expressed similar reservations upon the ratification as well. Aside from the (fairly successful) attempt at putting the West in the now in situation regarding prohibition on using the atomic bomb, and its failure to participate in any of the drafting, the political role of the 1949 Geneva Convention in terms of the Cold War was rather mild. However, the impact of the Conventions– including the Soviet bloc reservation to article 85 – would play a major role in the fate of POWs throughout the Cold War, especially as international wars became less frequent and the wars of decolonization, conflicts with a very ambiguous status, became the norm rather than the exception.

POW Status at the End of the Cold War The United States and the Rejection of the 1977 Additional Protocols The Reagan administration hard line policies to combat Communism at the beginning of the 1980s did not blend well with the new protections for those engaged in wars of national liberation in the Additional Protocols. Certainly, the US delegation to the 1974–77 diplomatic conference felt that the improved legislation represented progress in terms of the laws of war. The Head of the US Delegation, Ambassador George Aldrich argued in a series of articles that the Protocols represented a ‘new life for the laws of war’ and ‘a major accomplishment for international law and for human rights’. Interestingly, one of the main arguments Aldrich put forward for ratification was improved protection for POWs. Aldrich had actually worked on the problem of treatment of American POWs in Vietnam for the State Department during that conflict and felt he, as well as America, had a vested interest in strengthening guarantees for captured personnel. Additional Protocol I article 5 stipulated that each side of the conflict must designate and accept a protection power that would ensure that POWs were not being abused, and Aldrich argued that this provision would have been very valuable in Vietnam. Additionally, Aldrich argued that the Protocols drafted a single, non-discriminatory set of rules that were applicable to all combatants. Therefore, exceptions to the rules, which Communist forces had argued in the past, were made as narrow as possible and provided presumptions and procedures to prevent abuse of the exceptions. The Soviet Union in Afghanistan considering the effort it had put into securing rights for belligerents in wars of national liberation; the Soviet Union ended the Cold War in a twist of irony with regard to the laws of war. On 24 December 1979 Soviet forces entered Afghanistan after an ‘invitation’ from the government. Throughout the invasion and the subsequent fighting to maintain control of the country, there were reports of widespread human rights and IHL abuses. Immediately, in 1979 the ICRC requested access to the zone of conflict, which they were granted, but in June1980 WAF Model United Nations 2016

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the organization was ordered out of the country. For IHL and the law applicable to POWs, there were some interesting parallels to Vietnam. Once again the status of the conflict was debated – although the Soviets claimed that the conflict was purely an internal matter, many scholars were quick to argue that the conflict was international – and in fact a war of national liberation. Therefore, the resistance to the Soviet occupation was deserving of POW status. Yet, it was clear that such a designation and corresponding rights were not coming. It was not until January 1987 that the ICRC was provided access to detainees in the conflict – after many had either died or suffered years in Soviet controlled jails. Thus, by the end of the Cold War, it was clear that other than some (highly debatable) strides made in customary law, POWs did not have much more protection than they had at the beginning in law or practice.

Present Condition In the popular imagination, the term POW often conjures up images of Hogan’s Heroes or The Great Escape rather than intense political debates. Yet, it is clear that IHL was seen as an instrument by both sides in the Cold War and POWs were then considered political tools (or even weapons) rather than a genuine humanitarian concern. Perhaps, this should not be so much of a surprise with the creation of the Geneva Convention in 1864, states were automatically given an instrument that they could use as a propaganda weapon against their enemies and accusations of IHL violations have occurred in almost every major conflict ever since. Still, with the division of the international environment into two camps after 1945, the political role that IHL played had tragic results for many thousands of POWs and impacted the drafting of future IHL agreements. It is the contention of this article that it is possible to point to two interrelated directions stemming from the ideological pressures of the Cold War: first, the impact of politics on the implementation of IHL and second, the drafting of IHL itself. As discussed above, in the early years of the Cold War, Communism had a tenuous relationship with IHL. Yet, although the doctrine of international class warfare by its very nature posed challenges to the foundations of the Geneva Convention, the Communist nations did eventually sign them. It was in the interpretation of IHL that POWs would suffer. The reservation made to article 85 by Communist nations that ‘permitted’ them to treat captured prisoners as ‘war criminals’ was partially to blame. However, the bigger picture here was the lack of will to implement humanitarian law. In this respect, Communist nations were not the only ones to blame, especially if one considers the willingness of the West to hand over Soviet POWs to Stalin, or NLF operatives to the South Vietnamese without much consideration of whether they were violating the spirit of IHL principles. The second way Cold War ideologies impacted humanitarianism was through the development of IHL. As we have already seen, the Cold War’s influence on the making of IHL, especially as it relates to prisoners was not benign. National liberation groups sought POW protection as a way of securing international legitimacy and pushed for the further development of IHL in this area to secure this political rather than humanitarian goal. That many of these organizations did not take their humanitarian commitments seriously is clear. Today, even after the fall of the iron curtain, IHL – including the law as it relates to POWs – reflects the legacy of the Cold War. In part, this reflects the fact that there have been no major developments in the law as it relates to POWs, despite the new Customary Law Study by the ICRC. Still, this does not mean that the issues and controversies have disappeared – the law drafted during the Cold War forms the prism through which we examine many of today’s IHL controversies, including that for POWs. For example, there continues to be significant controversy over the necessary requirements of POW status that has come to be a highly significant issue in the War on WAF Model United Nations 2016

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Terror. In some ways, then, the challenge for humanitarians continues to be ensuring that in the struggles and conflicts of global politics there is at least some protection for prisoners and victims between political imperatives and narrow self-interest. 24

QARMA (Questions a Resolution Must Answer) 1. What and who remains the main causes of trafficking in human? 2. What were the past accomplished actions taken by the respective governments/organizations to fight the trafficking in human? 3. What were the pretexts behind failing of the past actions to cure the trafficking? 4. What could be the possible futuristic solutions/actions to fight the menace of human trafficking? 5. Suggestive measures for fighting back the migrant smuggling. 6. What political or other purpose does it serve to a nation to hold back the other side men as prisoners? 7. What remains the continuous reason of non-follow up of the Geneva Convention? 8. How the UNHRC in accordance with its mandate and under the preview of the UDHRC could serve to provide for the basic and special follow up of the rights of the prisoners of war and end the ill treatments of the POWs?

Few good authentic and admissible Sources: All UN Reports, State Government Reports, Website links: (control+click to follow the link)* http://www.ungift.org/ http://www.humantraffickingsearch.net/ http://htrt.org/ http://www.nightingaleschildrensproject.co.uk/ http://rickymartinfoundation.org/ http://www.orphansecure.com/ http://www.humantrafficking.org/ News Channel/Paper Reports (CNN, BBC, Guardian, Aljazeera, Reuters, Telegraph, Times etc.)

HAPPY RESEARCHING! *****

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http://www.hg.org/prisoners-of-war.html http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/LawEnforcementOfficials.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/training5Add1en.pdf https://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/irrc_857_aeschelimann https://www.hrw.org/news/2003/03/11/legal-prohibition-against-torture http://www.nmun.org/ny_archives/09%20Guides/GA1-09.pdf

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