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Content: Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)Contact: ecosoc@bermun.de “What is a Committee? A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary.” – Mark Twain
My name is Christina Babourkova and I will be your president at this year’s BERMUN conference. I’m a 17-year-old Bulgarian, attending the John F. Kennedy School. This will be my 12th conference and my 4th as a chair, so I’m once again looking forward to working with enthusiastic delegates in a committee. Besides working for MUN and chairing, I thoroughly enjoy dancing, riding and playing tennis. And my name is Levent Tuzun and I will be this year’s deputy president of the ECOSOC. I attend the Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey and this conference will be my 14th and my 7th time chairing. Even though you might think I’m only involved in MUN, you will also find me interested in soccer, basketball, music and reading. I have learned a lot from my MUN experience so I hope that you, the delegates of this year’s ECOSOC, will also profit from BERMUN and have a fun time debating and cooperating with us. Before we begin to introduce our council, we would like to explain why we chose this quote as the heading of our letter. Through it we would just like to announce our expectations for this year’s ECOSOC, meaning that we would like to be able to look forward to working with a council that resembles exactly the opposite of Mark Twain’s idea of a committee. Thus this letter should serve as a guide for you during your research in the next two months, so that you can come to our conference, prepared and ready to effectively contribute to our debates and therefore fulfill our hopes of chairing an outstanding council. The ECOSOC is the cooperative body of the UN because it consists of only 54 member states which are elected on a two-year basis. We have once again three topics for the ECOSOC this year:
Implementing the Convention on the Rights of the ChildThe Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted and opened for signatures on November 20, 1989, after its ratification and accession by the General Assembly resolution 44/25. In accordance with article 49 the Convention came into force on September 2, 1990. It spells out the basic human rights that children everywhere – without discrimination – have: the right to survival; to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. It protects these rights by setting standards in health care, education and legal, civil and social services. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of human rights: civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights. Although all except two United Nations member states have ratified the Convention, its implementation is the next step, for which not all nations have the means to take. Therefore a method needs to be found in which more developed nations, who have already implemented the Convention, cooperate with the less developed nations in order to enable the implementation on a global basis. During this process an emphasis on child labor should be set, as an estimated 246 million children are engaged in child labor. Of those, almost three-quarters (171 million) work in hazardous situations or conditions, such as working in mines, working with chemicals and pesticides in agriculture or working with dangerous machinery. In order to get close to insuring the rights of the child to all children globally, all nations should focus on eliminating child labor, or at least abolish the dangerous conditions in which children have to work.
Here some links you might find useful during your research: Preventing the further spread of HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia “In Eastern Europe and Central Asia the number of people living with HIV has risen dramatically in just a few years—reaching an estimated 1.4 million [920 000–2.1 million] at the end of 2004. This is an increase of more than nine-fold in less than ten years.”
Regional HIV and AIDS estimates, end of 2004 made by UNAIDSFor the last ten years, the severity of the AIDS epidemic has been explicitly expressed by many non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations as well as mass media and the United Nations itself. The statement above shows us how rapidly AIDS spreads through vast regions such as Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The reasons why AIDS has become a huge problem in this area are very diverse. Consequently, while researching and formulating prospective solutions for this question, we will have to consider all aspects such as ongoing social and economic transitions, sexual transmission, drug consumption and lack of health education. These above-mentioned factors increase the number of AIDS cases, so we will also have to come up with immediate actions that would ameliorate the quality of the already existent local health services.In order to create a comprehensive resolution, preliminary research would be utilized to realize the dimensions of the problem and introduce the issue at hand. Facts and statistics will help you determine which specific locations within these two wide regions need more specialized help. On the other hand, since our question is about both Central Asia and Eastern Europe, many of your solutions are likely to be linked as they may be implemented throughout the whole region. This balance between national and international solutions will make your resolutions stronger in content.
To help with your research we would like to share these research links with you:
Promoting development by further strengthening South-South cooperation“South-South” is often used as a synonym for “economic and technical cooperation among the developing countries.” Yet over time, the nature and scope of South- South cooperation have evolved, extending to non-traditional areas such as peace and security including human rights and electoral assistance.The flow of global trade, finance, investment, and ideas in general come mostly from the developed nations, hence, there are a limited number of emerging or benefiting countries around the world. The majority of the least-developed countries is not part of them, but is experiencing “reverse development.” Thus, South-South cooperation is a crucially important tool for developing and strengthening the economic independence of developing countries. It has considerable potential as a development strategy aimed at the transfer of critical expertise and experiences, such as effective governance, awareness building in respect to trade, investment and a stable public environment, public health, food security, education and the establishment of peace among developing countries. It is one of the means of ensuring the equitable and effective participation of developing countries – including Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs), land-locked countries and small island developing states - in the emerging economic order.
Here are once again some links to help you with your research: So, dear delegates, now it is your turn to begin researching your country’s policy on the given topics and of course the topics themselves. You will need to be prepared so that you can come to a consensus on the three topics. If you want to have a very early start into the conference you are more than welcome to post in our forum so that you can get to know each other and exchange ideas and get a head-start with lobbying. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to write us an e-mail at ecosoc@bermun.de. For now we wish you the best of luck with your preparatory work and are very much looking forward to working with you in November. Christina Babourkova and Levent Tüzün
Members of the Economic and Social Council for 2005
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Dear Delegates of the Economic and Social Council,
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