"UN General Assembly - Third Committee - Social, Humanitarian & Cultural" Un.Org. 2

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2 Letter from the Dias: Hello fellow delegates! My name is Elena Rohaizad, and I will be playing the role of the Director of General Assembly 3. I am a sophomore at Lone Star College- Montgomery, and am looking to major in Finance, French and Journalism, and minor in International Relations. By Fall 2019, I hope to be at UT Austin or NYU! In 2018, I participated in the National Model United Nations (NMUN). Representing Cote d Ivoire for the United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA) committee- my partner and I were awarded the Best Position Paper award, and my delegation was awarded the Outstanding Delegation award. In the coming 2019 NMUN, I am looking forward to serve as chair or rapporteur on the UNEA committee. For this year s HAMUN, the GA3 committee will be concentrating on two topics: the Uighur crisis in China, and Vigilantism in Africa. My expectations for the all the attending delegations is simple: foster collaboration and diplomacy among all countries, and hone skills in compromise and negotiation. It is crucial for all present Member States to recognize the main purpose of the United Nations: maintain world peace and develop strong relationships among nations. At HAMUN, or any other MUN, the purpose of UN is reflected in the actions and words that reverberates around the globe. Committee Background: According to the United Nations website, the GA3 specializes in social, humanitarian, cultural, and human rights issues. With 193 members, SOCHUM recognizes the importance of addressing the development of exploited and vulnerable individuals, groups or communities such as women, children, indigenous people, immigrants, refugees, and disabled people. In addition, The Third GA bears the responsibility of protecting the rights and the freedoms of the aforementioned groups by ensuring elimination of discrimination and moral treatment of all 1 communities. As the world s largest governing body and forum that deals with humanitarian and human rights issues, GA3 meets annually, throughout October and November, and adopts draft resolutions on each agenda item and reports to the General Assembly Plenary. The General Assembly s mandate includes initiating studies, making recommendations, considering reports from other UN organs, and encouraging the respect for human rights. At the seventy-third session, H.E. Mahmoud Saikal from Afghanistan chaired the GA3, and facilitated discourses related to social progress for the youth, ageing, and disabled persons, literacy for life, 2 and the advancement of women. Instrumental in operationalizing recommendations, the Third Committee primarily works through the creation of non-binding resolutions and the initiation of 1 "UN General Assembly - Third Committee - Social, Humanitarian & Cultural" Un.Org. 2 "A/73/251 - E" Undocs.Org.

3 studies. Furthermore, a multitude of relevant UN bodies are employed to aid the work of GA3 such as OHCHR, UNHCR, UN-Women, and UNODC. Statement of Problem: Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a landmark document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, mentions the rights and freedoms all human beings are entitled to without discrimination of race, sex, color, language, religion, origin, political opinion, or other status. At the seventy-third session of the Third Committee that occurred on September of 2018, resolution A/C.3/73/L.2 included an agenda on the protection and and promotion of human rights, including effective approaches to improve the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The resolution also calls for the Human Rights Council to undertake proper and relevant measures on actions that impede or act as obstacles to the full realization of human rights. In addition, Member States are called upon to commit and 3 respect the international laws, the Charter, the resolutions signed on human rights. Mentioned seven times in the Human Rights Declaration, human rights is a fundamental prerogative that demands Member States to protect each and every right listed. According to a 2017 World Report by the Human Rights Watch, more than 90 countries are accused of violating human rights, ranging from low-income nations to high-income nations. While the rights which are violated differs from each country, the stark dismissal, ignorance and the lack of attention paid to these violations are similar in all countries. Reported by the HRW, China is culpable of infringing upon fundamental human rights such as the freedom of expression, association, religion, and assembly. Although there were modest improvements in recent years, China is still systematically hampering the liberty of 4 citizens through wrongful convictions, abusive laws, and a weak judicial system. History of Problem: Considered as an autonomous region, Xinjiang is located on the far-west of China. Although the territory is closer to Kyrgyzstan than it is to the supposed homeland, the Chinese government have historically rejected any means of separation and disassociation. Uighur 5 separatists identifies the area as East Turkestan or Uyghuristan and rejects the name Xinjiang, which was given by the Chinese. Historically, the region has struggled with power and foreign conquest. When Chinese rulers first invaded Xinjiang, the emperor in power, Wu Ti, sent an army and occupied the area. In the second century, Uzbek invaders overthrew the Chinese, but in the seventh century, China defeated and took over a crucial region in the northwest. The Gok Turkhans drove the Chinese out at the end of the seventh century, but their rule was short-lived. 3 A/73/32-L Undocs.Org

4 In the 700s, Uighurs took over their region from the Gok Turkhans, and was able to sustain independence for a century. In 1911, China s Manchu rulers unraveled a dynasty unraveled upon the region and continued their rule till Uighurs attempted at succession multiple times throughout 1931 to 1949, and in that last year, the nationalists were able to establish their independence, and called their nation Eastern Turkestan Republic. In late 1949 and 1995, the Communist revolution stripped the Uighurs independence away, and defined the region as an autonomous providence. Uighurs are recognized as one of the 55 minorities that make up the Chinese population. The China constitution, by law, recognizes the religion and the language practiced by the Uighurs. However, in governmental policies, numerous public spheres and in the politics dimension, there is an evident discrimination against the Uighurs. In Xinjiang, government expenditure on public security surpasses any other regions. Invested billions of dollars as part of their westward development, the government spends on extra security and surveillance on the Uighurs, and conduct specific trainings for the imans for the Communist Party ethnic and 6 religious policies. 6 Frontline World China Facts.

5 7 Figure 1: Domestic security spending in China, by region, in 2016 and Current Situation: An ongoing predicament that began in 2007, the Uighur crisis in China rooted from the predominant objective of annihilating and transforming terrorism. The government has administered the criminalization and politicization of Islam in numerous public spheres, such as banning students, civil servants and teachers from fasting and observing the month of Ramadan. In addition, the Chinese government had enforced police patrols and heavy surveillance in mosques, religious schools, and conducted strict screening on educational literatures. To suppress its Uighur Muslim population even further, China emulated the American Islamophobia that augmented after the 9/11 attack, and took robust and severe measures to hamper their independence and to seize a substantial geopolitical landscape from the Uighurs. Criminalized merely for practicing Islam in a region where the religion is commonly associated with terrorism and subversion, the treatment against the Uighur Muslims are customarily referenced to the treatment of Japanese Americans during the World War II, and the Jews in the Holocaust. Considered as an ethnic cleansing system run by the Chinese government, 8 the objective of the designation is to annihilate the the tens of millions of Muslims in Xinjiang. Muslims in the west of China are facing one of the worst examples of oppression and ethnic cleansing today. The crisis China is undergoing is a considerable violation of human rights: the Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang are thrown into internment camps, they are forced to eat pork and drink alcohol, which are violations of the Islamic faith, and are coerced into intensive trainings that extract their religion and culture out of the community. The freedom to observe a religion is significantly violated in the case of the Uighur Muslims. Member States of the United Nations such as Germany, Canada, Iceland and numerous Asian countries have condemned and denounced the Republic of China for its actions taken towards the Uighurs in Xinjiang, in particular for the mass detention centers. In addition, the UN Member States have called Beijing to protect the religious freedom of the Uighur and Muslim minorities, to halt the harassment of human rights advocates, activists and lawyers, to release the arrested victims, and to abolish all forms of internment camps and detention centers. Local oppositions have included both non-radical and radical forms such as peaceful protests, bombings and violent attacks. In 2009, a local protest broke out in the capital of Xinjiang, which resulted to a riot. The protest was focused on going against the treatment by the Han majority and the government. 7 Feng, E Security spending ramped up in China s restrictive Xinjiang region. Financial Times. 8 Beydoun, Khaled, "China Holds One Million Uighur Muslims In Concentration Camps". Aljazeera.Com html.

6 China has opposed the criticisms of other Member States, and instead defend their actions by citing its domestic laws. Furthermore, China is able to justify their detention camps as re-education system that places the Uighur Muslims in indoctrination programs, although still maintaining the usage of waterboard and other varying forms of torture. These education centers are considered as training and vocation centers, according to the Beijing government, with the purpose of combating extremism. 9 Figure 2, Spectrum of Religious Persecution As seen in the graphic above, Uighur Muslims are classified in the far end of the spectrum of high religious persecution. In 2016 and 2017, the Chinese government has further implemented repressive policies to increase surveillance and curb the religious freedom of the people in Xinjiang. Intrusive government systems are implemented such as public body scanners, face recognition cameras, mandatory apps, GPS trackers, and surveillance drones are used in every inch of the territory to keep close supervision of the Uighurs. In addition, the pressure on the local Muslims has multiplied tenfold, with the number of people detained in internment camps increasing, the number of babies and children take away to nurseries and orphanages to denounce Islam as their faith, and the Muslims are detained indefinitely without charge, put in education centers to denounce religion and to praise Communist Party. Conclusively, the discrimination conducted upon the Uighurs and other minority Muslims have substantial consequences such as declining levels of Muslims in the nation, and tighter control over the Uighur culture, peaked and increase violence, and the rise of Uighur separatist movements and strict crackdowns on any Muslim activities in the country. 9 Freedomhouse.org, The Battle for China s Spirit

7 10 Figure 3. Religion in China Over Time Discussion Questions: (1) Is the progress reflected by China in improving and expanding the freedoms and human rights contentious? Why do Chinese allies applaud China s pale endeavors in comparison to other countries that deal with relatively fewer issues in terms of human rights? (2) How can the Third Committee collaborate with other UN governing bodies, NGOs, and international actors to aid the efforts in humanitarian efforts in areas where harsh violation occur? (3) Is substantial funding necessary to combat the Uighur crisis? If so, which governing body deals with such matter at hand? Blocs: Allies of China such as North Korea, Syria, Cambodia, Cuba, Kenya, Namibia and South Africa have commended the nation for their progress in protecting human rights. The mentioned countries have championed and gave a vocal support at the 2018 Human Rights Council 11 convention to China s efforts to suit its anti-human rights agenda. European countries, the United States, Canada and other Western countries has soundly expressed their concerns and criticize China for its extreme violation on human rights. 10 Religion in China China criticized by the UN Human Rights Council.

8 References: 1. Third Committee of General Assembly Uighur Muslims in Concentration Campshttps:// ation-camps html 3. Human Rights Watch Universal Declaration of Human Rightshttp:// 5. Amnesty International Vox Report on the Uighur Crisis in Chinahttps:// 7. Al Jazeera report on Xinjiang crisishttp://studies.aljazeera.net/en/reports/2014/02/ html 8. Financial Times on the Uighur Crisishttps:// 9. The Uighur American Association reporthttps://uyghuramerican.org/article/battle-china-s-spirit.html 10. Xinjiang territory profile by BBChttps:// 11. Tension between Chinese and Uighurshttps:// 12. Council on Foreign Relationshttps:// Application: Substantial, concrete, viable and within the mandate of the General Assembly are a few of the characteristics of the solutions included in your Position Paper. Delegates should study, scrutinize and contingently apply other nations methods in combating the violation of human rights and freedoms. Delegates are expected to maintain decorum throughout both informal and formal caucus. Collaboration is key and crucial in passing resolutions, therefore Member States should identify their allies and other nations that may share similar views on the issues at hand. Member States should also identify states that oppose their own stance, and putting their judgments in perspective to be able to understand their position more clearly.