Synace Mun 2.
BACKGROUND
GUIDE
UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON THE
STATUS OF WOMEN
Deliberation upon gender inequality with special
emphasis on slavery and modern sex trafficking.
UNCSW
Letter from the Executive Board
Greetings Members!
We, the Executive Board Members of the UNCSW, find immense
pleasure in being a part of the SYNACE 2.0 MUN 14-15 December ,
2024. Only if you work with full determination and with a will to learn,
will you be able to gain perspective in understanding the
importance of debating at the platform that is provided to you right
here and widen your horizons. It would help if you didn’t feel
anxious, but rather enthusiastic, because we have this marvellous
opportunity to debate such an important and more significantly, a
widespread world topic. We want you to be confident and engage
as much as possible since MUNs are about learning, not just
winning, so be prepared and not be concerned about the outcome.
Our competence will be put to efficient use as a guide, mentor and
trainer. We want to be able to make this MUN Conference flourish
by assuring that everyone learns enough about the UN system,
rules of procedure, and the issue at hand. We are looking forward to
an engaging conference with all of you and hope that we can all
maximise the overall brand of experience that Montfort Model UN
will deliver. Looking forward to meeting everyone, and please do not
hesitate to contact us, if you have any questions before attending
the MUN.
Regards,
Executive Board
POINTS TO REMEMBER
1. PROCEDURE
The purpose of putting procedural rules in any committee is to
ensure a more organised and efficient debate. The committee will
follow the UNA USA Rules of Procedure. Although the Executive
Board shall be fairly strict with the Rules of Procedure, the
discussion of the agenda will be the main priority. So, delegates are
advised not to restrict their statements due to hesitation regarding
the procedure.
2. FOREIGN POLICY
Following the foreign policy of one’s country is the most important
aspect of a Model UN Conference. This is what essentially
differentiates a Model UN from other debating formats. To violate
one’s foreign policy without adequate reason is one of the worst
mistakes a delegate can make.
3. ROLE OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD
The Executive Board is appointed to facilitate debate. The
committee shall decide the direction and flow of the debate. The
delegates are the ones who constitute the committee and hence
must be uninhibited while presenting their opinions/stances on any
issue. However, the Executive Board may put forward questions
and/or ask for clarifications at all points of time to further debate
and test participants.
4. NATURE OF EVIDENCE
This Background Guide is meant solely for research purposes and must
not be cited as evidence to substantiate statements made during the
conference. Evidence or proof for substantiating statements made during
the formal debate is acceptable from the following sources: United
Nations: Documents and findings by the United Nations or any related
UN body are held as credible proof to support a claim or argument.
Multilateral Organisations: Documents from international organisations
like OIC, NAFTA, SAARC, BRICS, EU, ASEAN, the International
Criminal Court, etc. may also be presented as credible sources of
information
VALID EVIDENCE IN THE COMMITTEE
1. STATE OPERATED NEWS AGENCY
These reports can be used in support of or against the State that owns the
News Agency. These reports, if credible or substantial enough, can be
used in support of or against any country as such but in that situation, they
can be denied by any other country in the council. Some examples are,
Evidence or proof from the following sources will be accepted as credible
in the UNCSW:
I. RIA Novosti (Russia)
II. IRNA (Iran)
III. BBC (United Kingdom)
IV. Al Jazeera (Qatar)
V. Xinhua News Agency (PR China)
2. GOVERNMENT REPORTS
These reports can be used in a similar way as the State Operated News
Agencies reports and can, in all circumstances, be denied by another
country. However, a nuance is that a report that is being denied by a
certain country can still be accepted by the Executive Board as credible
information. Some examples are, I.) Government Websites like the State
Department of the United
3. UNITED NATIONS REPORTS
All UN Reports are considered credible information or evidence for the
Executive Board of the UNHRC.
I) UN Bodies like the UNHRC, etc.
II) UN Affiliated Bodies like UNICEF, International Committee of the Red
Cross, etc.
III) Treaty Based Bodies like the Antartic Treaty System, the International
Criminal
Please Note- Reports from NGOs working with UNESCO,
UNICEF, and other UN bodies will be accepted. Under no
circumstances will sources like Wikipedia, or newspapers like
the Guardian, Times of India, etc. be accepted
About the committee
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) first met at Lake
Success, New York, in February 1947, soon after the founding of the
United Nations. All 15 government representatives were women. From
its inception, the Commission was supported by a unit of the United
Nations that later became the Division for the Advancement of Women
(DAW) in the UN Secretariat. The CSW forged a close relationship with
non-governmental organizations, with those in consultative status with
the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) invited to participate
as observers.
From 1947 to 1962, the Commission focused on setting standards and
formulating international conventions to change discriminatory
legislation and foster global awareness of women’s issues. In
contributing to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, the CSW successfully argued against references to “men” as a
synonym for humanity, and succeeded in introducing new, more
inclusive language.
Since the codification of the legal rights of women needed to be
supported by data and analysis, the Commission embarked on a global
assessment of the status of women. Extensive research produced a
detailed, country-by-country picture of their political and legal standing,
which over time became a basis for drafting human rights instruments.
The Commission drafted the early international conventions on women’s
rights, such as the 1953 Convention on the Political Rights of Women,
which was the first international law instrument to recognize and protect
the political rights of women; and the first international agreements on
women’s rights in marriage, namely the 1957 Convention on the
Nationality of Married Women, and the 1962 Convention on Consent to
Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages. The
Commission also contributed to the work of UN offices, such as the
International
Labour Organization’s 1951 Convention concerning Equal
Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value,
which enshrined the principle of equal pay for equal work. In 1963,
efforts to consolidate standards on women’s rights led the UN
General Assembly to request the Commission to draft a Declaration
on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which the
Assembly ultimately adopted in 1967. The legally binding
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW), also drafted by the Commission, followed in 1979.
In 1999, the Optional Protocol to the Convention introduced the right
of petition for women victims of discrimination.
As evidence began to accumulate in the 1960s that women were
disproportionately affected by poverty, the work of the Commission
centred on women’s needs in community and rural development,
agricultural work, family planning, and scientific and technological
advances. The Commission encouraged the UN system to expand
its technical assistance to further the advancement of women,
especially in developing countries.
In 1972, to mark its 25th anniversary, the Commission
recommended that 1975 be designated International Women’s Year
—an idea endorsed by the General Assembly to draw attention to
women’s equality with men and to their contributions to
development and peace. The year was marked by holding the First
World Conference on Women in Mexico City, followed by the 1976–
1985 UN Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace.
Additional world conferences took place in Copenhagen in 1980
and Nairobi in 1985. New UN offices dedicated to women were
established, in particular the UN Development Fund for Women
(UNIFEM) and the International Research and Training Institute for
the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW).
The Commission served as the preparatory body for the 1995 Fourth
World Conference on Women , which adopted the Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action. After the conference, the
Commission was mandated by the General Assembly to play
a central role in monitoring implementation of the Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action and advising ECOSOC
accordingly. As called for in the Platform for Action, an
additional UN office for the promotion of gender equality was
established: the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender
Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI). In 2011, the
four parts of the UN system mentioned on this page— DAW,
INSTRAW, OSAGI and UNIFEM—merged to become UN
Women, now the Secretariat of the Commission on the Status
of Women
About the agenda
Women and girls comprise over two-thirds of the estimated 40
million people living in modern slavery. But slavery is not just
about individuals falling victim to crime. It is about inequalities
and the structures which reinforce them, routinely deny power
or agency to the most vulnerable, and exploit the most
vulnerable for profit. From commercial sexual exploitation to
exploitative domestic work, from bonded labour to sexual
abuse or coercion behind factory gates, girls and women
experience modern slavery in ways that reflect deep-rooted
attitudes about gender roles, pervasive gender stereotypes,
and repressive or oppressive social norms. They are exploited
as domestic servants and as low-paid workers in factories or
on farms where they also frequently face sexual harassment
and abuse. They are trafficked for sex work, often from a young
age. They are victims of child marriage or forced marriage,
resulting in many cases in a life of forced childbirth and
domestic and sexual servitude.
This gender discrimination and lack of autonomy – from the
individual and household level to the structural and systemic
level – is one of the key drivers of the trafficking, exploitation
and abuse of women and girls. The ways in which gender
inequality and discrimination puts women and girls at greater
risk of modern slavery include:
• Lower social status and legal standing
• Lack of voice, autonomy and rights – at individual, household
and community level
• Often seen as a financial burden by their families
• Less control of financial assets
• Less access to education and training
• More likely to work in unregulated/informal industries, often
hidden from view in private homes, massage parlours or closed
factory complexes
• Greater risk of sexual and gender-based violence and abuse
• Less representation in decision- and policymaking.
The need to break the cycle of gender inequality and women
and girls’ exploitation is becoming ever more urgent. The social
and economic consequences of the covid pandemic and the
climate crisis mean that, for vulnerable and marginalised
people, life is becoming ever more precarious. At the Freedom
Fund, we have been closely monitoring the impact of these
crises on the people and communities we work with2 – and we
have seen continuing evidence of how deeply interconnected
the injustices of gender inequality and modern slavery are
Issues
Lack of access to decent work
While the spectrum of vulnerability factors is broad and most
victims are driven into slavery by a combination of circumstances
and adverse events, the one characteristic that is common to
almost all of them is poverty. In hundreds of interviews with victims
across our frontline programs, the top reasons people give for why
and how they slipped into exploitation were remarkably similar:
financial insecurity, lack of access to basic services and affordable
credit, and lack of a job or alternative sources of income. Women
and girls are the backbone of most families and communities,
shouldering responsibility for family upkeep, child rearing and care
of the sick and elderly. At times of hardship, they also face
increased pressure to earn money for their family – and increased
risks of forced marriage, trafficking or the types of exploitative work
that specifically target women and girls and that may be the only
source of income that is available.
Vulnerability to unsafe migration.
Millions of people around the world are on the move – within their
own country or across borders. Many have been displaced by
conflict, political instability, natural disasters and the impacts of
climate change, or driven by poverty and economic crisis to seek
work elsewhere in the hope of a better life. With all forms of
displacement comes a plethora of risks – especially for women
and girls. Amongst the most vulnerable are refugee women and
girls, who – forced into unsafe circumstances, with limited
resources and protection from abuse – can be easy prey for
traffickers and sexual predators. Refugee women’s inability to gain
nationality or work permits to enter the formal economy further
increases their risk of entering into exploitative labour
arrangements, including sexual exploitation
Exposure to violence and abuse Sexual violence and
abuse
– or the threat of it – is a pervasive theme blighting
women’s lives across all countries and cultures, often from
a young age, with serious physical and mental health
consequences. This abuse is an expression and tool of male
power and domination – and for too many women and
girls, it is a manifestation of the control over and
exploitation of another person that constitutes modern
slavery. While broader vulnerability factors like poverty,
membership of marginalised ethnic groups or castes, and
the prevalence of harmful gender norms greatly increase
women’s exposure to sexual violence, women and girls in
(or at risk of) slavery are one of the world’s most at-risk
groups. They are trafficked specifically for sex work. They
are victims of child marriage or forced marriage. They
experience sexual violence and abuse as a daily
occurrence in the factories, fields and private homes where
they are trapped in exploitative work. The sexual violence
and abuse that these women and girls experience is often
ignored, tolerated, or even specifically enabled by their
families and communities. Many of the girls and women
trafficked into sex work, or into domestic servitude, forced
marriages, or exploitative work where sexual violence and
abuse is commonplace, are led into those positions by
relatives or friends acting as intermediaries. To make
matters worse, survivors of modern slavery then face
stigma and ostracism for b
MODERN DAY SLAVERY AND SEX
TRAFFICKING
While many states have made progress towards
implementing law enforcement frameworks to address the
issue, more needs to be done to ensure a human-rights/
survivor-based, and gender/agesensitive approach – an
approach that responds to the tailored needs of men, women,
girls and boys as different groups with specific needs
Responses to trafficking continue to place a greater emphasis
on the prosecution and conviction of traffickers rather than on
support for victims and survivors. The provision of adequate
support and assistance by specialized and comprehensive
services, irrespective of whether survivors agree to participate
in criminal proceedings, is essential.
Prevention: Ensuring that response strategies to trafficking are
in place is crucial; however, the issue of prevention requires
much more attention than it has received to date. Prevention
measures should be strengthened through awareness-
raising, including targeting groups of vulnerable populations
that are at risk of becoming victims of trafficking. Prevention
strategies should also include measures addressing the root
causes and risk factors that increase the vulnerability of
women, men, girls and boys, with particular emphasis on how
intersectionalities1 render certain groups more vulnerable to
trafficking and exploitation. States should therefore expand
their trafficking prevention measures to address gender
norms and unequal power relationships, which contribute to
gender specific poverty, unemployment, limited access to
education, gender specific risks posed by unsafe migration
processes and gender based discrimination in general.
Professionals dealing with human trafficking require tailored
training that supports a gender and age-sensitive approach,
which ensures the protection and adequate provision of
services to victims (including health, justice, immigration,
education, shelter, etc.). For example, victims of trafficking for
sexual exploitation often face severe health ramifications,
such as unsafe abortions, complications with their
reproductive system and exposure to sexually transmitted
diseases.
A gender sensitive approach also requires addressing the
concerns and fears that prevent trafficked persons from
seeking out services and help. For example, female trafficked
victims can face particular issues with reporting, which can be
due to different factors such as: lack of female guards, fear of
lack of confidentiality, fear of stigmatization from their
community or attachment to their traffickers (who could also
be their legal ‘husbands’).
LEGAL FRAMEWORKS
The United Nations Women:
UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender
equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion
for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate
progress on meeting their needs worldwide.
It works globally to make the vision of the Sustainable
Development Goals a reality for women and girls and
stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects
of life, focusing on four strategic priorities:
-Women lead, participate in and benefit equally from
governance systems
-Women have income security, decent work and
economic autonomy
-All women and girls live a life free from all forms of
violence
-Women and girls contribute to and have greater influence
in building sustainable peace and resilience, and benefit
equally from the prevention of natural disasters and
conflicts and humanitarian action
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) : CEDAW is a
convention or treaty, which means that it is part of
international law and is legally binding for countries that
have ratified the convention.
CEDAW requires countries to eliminate discrimination
against women in the public as well as the private sphere,
including in the family, and recognizes that traditional
gender roles and stereotypes must be eliminated in order
to end all forms of discrimination against women and girls.
For countries that have ratified CEDAW, local and/or national
NGOs (including youth groups) can contribute to the country’s
official initial and periodic reports on the progress that has been
made in implementing CEDAW and draw attention to challenges
and suggest ways that government can advance women’s and
girls’ rights in line with the Convention.
Belém do Pará:
The Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment,
and Eradication of Violence against Women, known as the
Convention of Belém do Pará (where it was adopted in 1994),
establishes women’s right to live a life free of violence. This inter-
American human rights treaty has served as the basis for the
adoption of laws and policies on prevention, eradication and
punishment of violence against women in its States Party, as well
as the formulation of national plans, the organization of
campaigns and the implementation of care protocols and
services, among other initiatives.
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action:
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of 1995 is a
visionary agenda for the empowerment of women. It still remains
today the most comprehensive global policy framework and
blueprint for action, and is a current source of guidance and
inspiration to realize gender equality and the human rights of
women and girls, everywhere.
This landmark text was the outcome of the Fourth World
Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China, in September 1995.
After two weeks of political debate, exchange of information on
good practice and lessons learned, and sharing of experiences,
representatives of 189 Governments agreed to commitments that
were unprecedented in scope.
Economic and Demographic Overview
More than 30,000 people also participated in the Forum of non-
governmental organizations in Huairou, a unique space of
advocacy, networking, training and knowledge [Link]
Platform for Action covers 12 critical areas of concern that are as
relevant today as 20 years ago: poverty; education and training;
health; violence; armed conflict; economy; power and decision-
making; institutional mechanisms ;human rights; media;
environment; and the girl child .
The United Nations Protocol against Trafficking in Persons - the
foremost international agreement in this area - entered into force
in 2003. The Report shows that in the past few years the number of
Member States seriously implementing the Protocol has more than
doubled (from 54 to 125 out of the 155 States covered). However,
there are still many countries that lack the necessary legal
instruments or political will.
Conclusion
It’s not by chance that more than two-thirds of victims of trafficking
and exploitation worldwide are women and girls. It’s an inevitable
consequence of the gender inequality that oppresses the lives of
women and girls everywhere. Around the world, nearly 30 million
women and girls are estimated to be living in conditions of slavery
because of the systemic gender discrimination – from lack of
opportunity to lack of rights – that makes them more vulnerable to
trafficking and exploitation.
Through our work alongside our partners and with the women and
girls who are victims, survivors or at ever-present risk of
exploitation, we have learned that to make a lasting difference, we
need to play our part in building a multifaceted response that both
supports women’s empowerment and addresses the deep-rooted
gender inequality and discrimination that drives and enables
modern slavery.
We need to provide survivors, victims and at-risk women and girls
with the information they need to know their rights, understand the
risks, and make informed choices. We need to support them to
gain the education and livelihood opportunities they need to avoid
trafficking and exploitation, and for survivors to avoid re-trafficking
and further exploitation. We need to provide the mental health,
selfcare and confidence-building support that enables women
and girls to reclaim their self worth and agency.
Governments everywhere need to step up to ensure women
and girls are afforded all necessary protections and given
equal access to resources, education, medical care,
affordable credit and decent work with equal pay.
Businesses all along global supply chains need to take
decisive action to eradicate environmental, human rights
and gender- based violations from their operations and
business models. And civil society partners in the global
movement to end modern slavery must continue to act as
catalysts of systemic change, drawing on insights into the
larger systemic forces and inequities gained from working
alongside and in support of women and girls at the sharp
end of those discriminatory systems.