Contact: hrc[at]bermun.de

Human Rights Committee

Dear Delegates of the Human Rights Committee,

Our names are Leonard Sandow and Tatiana Pratskevich and it is our honor to serve as your Chairs of the BERMUN HRC 2008.

The Human Rights Committee of BERMUN 2008 will focus on two issues:

1. Promoting the Self Determination of Women in Regards to Sexual and Reproductive Health
2. Ensuring Legal Protection and Human Dignity for Famine-Driven Migrants

All topics are current human rights issues. Women around the world need to be integrated into the decision about sexual and reproductive health in order to effectively bridge the gender gap. Additionally, thousands of migrants currently have to endure miserable conditions. Legislation needs to be instrumented to secure migrants’ rights and to cease existing conflicts between the government and the migrants. With your help, the HRC will take the initiative to establish these important steps.

Promoting the Self Determination of Women in Regards to Sexual and Reproductive Health:

According to the UNFP, “one woman dies every minute during pregnancy or childbirth” in spite of “global promises to improve maternal health and prevent maternal deaths”. This manifests the world-wide insufficiency of sexual and reproductive health. The international community commenced the fight towards reducing this deficiency through the fifth Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which aims to reduce maternal mortality by 75 percent until 2015. Despite this global attempt, women in Asia and Africa have no—or barely any—possibility of attaining sexual and reproductive health. Additionally, parts of Eastern Europe and South America confront the same problem. Why is it so difficult for the UN to fulfil the fifth MDG?

In order to fully comprehend this issue you, as delegates, should be well versed on the general terminology. The World Health Organization (WHO) regards reproductive health as “a state of physical, mental, and social well-being in all matters relating to the reproductive system at all stages of life”. Sexual health refers to “the integration of the physical, emotional, intellectual and social aspects of sexual being” (WHO). An important part of reproductive health is that every human being should enjoy reproductive rights. Reproductive rights rest on the recognition that all couples and individuals should enjoy the right to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children. This includes having access to sufficient information in order to make adequate decisions, thereby ultimately being able to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health (WHO).

In very few countries, women and men enjoy equal legal, social and economic rights; widespread gender gaps in regards access to and control over resources, in economic opportunities, in power and political voice prevail. Therefore, the UN initiated the third MDG, which calls for the empowerment of women. As half of the world’s population is under 25 years old, it is advisable to especially regard sexual education programs for adolescent females. Also, due to different religious, social, and political situations in the various member states, cultural specific techniques are necessary to promote gender equality and reproductive health.

A severe problem in Lesser Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs) is the lack of contraceptives and medication for sexual diseases. Most women either have no access to these products, fear their side effects, or abstain from using them on the basis their ideologies. Sexual education, medication, and medical commodities, including contraceptives and medical supplies, are vital to prevent unintended pregnancies, maternal deaths, and to combat HIV/AIDS.

The following organisations are already working actively towards the further promotion of reproductive and sexual health: World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Bank, and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). With their efforts it is possible to improve reproductive health.

So far, the global progress towards meeting the fifth and third MDG has been uneven and it seems impossible to achieve these goals by 2015. Through detailed research and innovative thinking, it will be your chance to find new effective solutions to this issue in order to safe and secure the lives of mothers and their children.

See you in November,
Tanya and Leonard

Research Links

• http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
• http://www.who.int/reproductive-health/
• http://www.unfpa.org/rh/
• http://www.unicef.org/health/index_documents.html