Committee Name: UNICEF

Chair Name: Annie Ren

Committee Level: Novice

Overview
The United Nations Children Fund is a UN program that provides humanitarian aid to mothers
and children in developing countries. The organization creates programs on behalf of children
to ensure that children around the world are protected, have education, and have gender
rights. UNICEF currently improves policies and services that protect all children, works towards
decreasing child mortality rate everywhere, ensures that children amidst conflict of crisis have
access to education, and fights for the equal rights of women and girls with their participation
in political, social, and economic development. In this committee, delegates will discuss child
labor and abduction, as well as the situation and conditions for children in UNHCR Refugee
Camps.

Topic 1: Child Labor

Introduction:
According to the UNICEF, around 246 million children across the globe are engaged in full time
jobs, with no access to education or play time which all children are deserved to. Child labor
includes being exposed to dangerous working conditions, slavery, and illegal activities including
drug trafficking and human trafficking. Serious concerns on food, water, and healthcare, along
with physical safety must be addressed for children who are forced to work to earn a living.
Approximately 50 to 60 million working children are between the age of five and 11 years, and
they are exposed to hazardous circumstances, which can have great effects on their physical
and mental health.
Many countries use child labor to increase their growth in economy. Reasons for continued
child labor include lack of education, cultural values, easy profit for businesses, and poverty
within families. In addition, enforcement of currently existing child labor laws is weak, so many
protocols and conventions denouncing child labor are ineffective. To address this issue, the
UNICEF has launched a number of key programs to combat and reduce child labor, by including
in-state negotiations and civil-society partnerships. It is important for the United Nations
Children’s Fund to encourage nations to be active in enforcing existing laws to eradicate child
labor.

Case Study: Child Labor and Soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
The DRC has gone through a period of war and violence that resulted in the death of an
estimated 3.9 million people between 1998-2004. Although the Second Congolese War officially
ended in 2003, stable peace has proved difficult to maintain in a country nearly the size of
Western Europe. With 20,000 personnel on the ground, the UN peacekeeping mission in the DR
Congo is one of the largest UN peacekeeping operations in the world in an attempt to establish
the security to initiate development projects, such as those under UNICEF.
In the DRC, children are often recruited to fight as child soldiers in violent situations that can be
extremely dangerous and mentally devastating. Children that are forcefully recruited are
crudely trained and are motivated generally through coercive measures, such as starvation and
punishment-based threats. Furthermore, in order to fuel and finance war, factions exploit child
labor to mine in resources. This mining work offers little or no pay, with working conditions
considered by the UN to be “extremely hazardous.” The mined precious gems and metals is
collectively known as conflict minerals, and proves a consistent source of profit for the
exploiters.

Past UN Actions
UNICEF in past years had worked on building a protective environment for children that
prevents them from exploitation and abuse. UNICEF has helped children in the DRC who have
been subjected to child labor by assisting their reintegration back into society. UNICEF has
offered activity workshops to train useful skills and offer education to empower them. Former
child soldier Ghislain Muhindo, now 19, taking a role in a UNICEF supported NGO program that
taught him carpentry skills, allowing him to work for proper wages and avoid combat.
 Problems that Should Be Addressed
1. How can specific issues facing children in conflict, specifically in regards to child soldiers, be effectively
addressed through the international community?

2. What special needs of further marginalized groups of children, specifically girls, impoverished
children, disabled children, and children in rural areas, need to be addressed?

3. How can UNICEF increase the support of local governments in anti-child labor initiatives?

Bibliography
Seck, Ndiaga (23 July 2015). From fighter to builder: A successful reintegration in the Democratic
Republic of Congo. United Nations.
Retrieved 29 July 2015 from: [Link]

United Nations (20 November 1989). "Convention on the Rights of the Child." UN Human Rights: Office
of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. 1990. United Nations.
Retrieved from: [Link]

UNICEF (29 July 2015). "NO LOST GENERATION." UNICEF. 2014. United Nations.
Retrieved from: [Link]

UNICEF (22 March 2011). Child Protection from Violence, Exploitation and Abuse: Armed Violence
Reduction. 2011. United Nations.
Retrieved from: [Link]

International Labour Organization (2017). Child Labour and Armed Conflict.

Retrieved from: [Link]
 Topic 2: Situation for Children in the UNHCR Refugee Camps
Introduction
Refugees are individuals who have been forced out of their homes and their countries due to conflict or
natural disasters. Refugees are vulnerable and face challenges to their personal security, livelihood, and
health – but the children of refugees are especially vulnerable.

Refugee children are affected by various factors including disease, natural disasters, and violence, which
harm their physical and psychological wellbeing. The vulnerability and dependent nature of children
creates the need for immediate aid and assistance for unaccompanied minors. The absence of a family
structure disrupts their sense of security, and in order to help them, it is imperative to protect and
educate them. Refugee children not only are deprived of a permanent home, but are also deprived of a
permanent lifestyle.
Food, water, shelter, education, and medical care are all issues that set the situation serious for those
refugee children living in the camps. Children are the most vulnerable ones; it is significant for them to
get the basic essentials.

Many organizations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) exist to provide refugee
children around the world with basic necessities such as healthcare, nutrition, education, shelter, and
emergency relief. The ultimate goal is to provide permanent shelter and a stable lifestyle to refugee
children and their families.

Case Study
Children in the UNHCR camps are not getting a childhood as they supposed too, a lot of them
don’t even have any families with them when they fled. There are issues regarding to the water
and sanitation, nutritional, living conditions, and medical challenges in the camps, which
children are the most vulnerable and followed by getting sick. Overcrowding is common, half of
all the UNHCR camps are not able to provide enough sanitary water in a daily basis.
Malnutrition is a constant concern for children, and with the desperate conditions in most
camps, children are getting sicker every day.
Here are two stories from the UNHCR website about unaccompanied South Sudanese refugee
children from in Ethiopia’s UNHCR camp. Gatech is just 11 years old, and he misses his shoes
and clothes, he had walked all the way from South Sudan without shoes. Nyarout, 13, misses
when food was plenty, she also is accompanying her 1-year-old sister, who is malnourished,
which appears in a rate of 1 in 10 of the refugee children. There are a lot more desperate
stories from these unaccompanied refugee children in UNHCR camps around the world.

Past UN Actions
Donations from the UN were the main supplies refugee children would get. The main policies
that sets standards concerning children is the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Although it
is not a treaty specific to refugees, it applies to all children under the age of 18 years. This
particular convention is the only international human rights treaty that permits non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) the power to partake in its implementation. Guidelines
consist of non-discrimination, best interests of children, and the basic rights to life survival, and
development. The CRC is also monitored by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which
requests reports from governments taking initiative, organizes workshops to discuss
appropriate action plans, and issues recommendations regarding the safety and wellbeing of
children to governments and the General Assembly.

Problems That Should Be Addressed

1. How can we improve existing camps for children instead of constructing new ones?
2. How do we create sustainable, long-term solutions for children?
3. How can new technology be implemented into helping improve living conditions?

Bibliography

McNeish, H. (2014, December 15). Stories of Refugees and Aid Workers. Retrieved from UNHCR Tracks:
[Link]
behind/#_ga=1.150422454.1028522092.1485972828

UN. (2015, June 18). Security Council, Adopting Resolution 2225 (2015), Adds Parties Abducting Children
During Armed Conflict to List Monitoring Grave Human Rights Violators. Retrieved from United
Nations: [Link]

UNHCR. (1993, August 6). UNHCR Policy on Refugee ChildrenUNHCR Policy on Refugee Children.
Retrieved from UNHCR: [Link]