COMMITTEE UPDATE: SOCIAL, HUMANITARIAN AND CULTURAL COMMITTEE (SOCHUM)

Transcription

1 COMMITTEE UPDATE: SOCIAL, HUMANITARIAN AND CULTURAL COMMITTEE (SOCHUM) Reintroduction: The Third of the General Assembly is the premier global forum for social, humanitarian and cultural affairs. Like all committees of the General Assembly, the third committee includes all 193 Member States of the United Nations, as well as two observer states (the Holy See and Palestine). With the exception of the observers, every member of the Third Committee has exactly one vote, ensuring that this body represents the interests of the entire international community. The work of the Third Committee affects the lives of billions of people around the world, and it is tasked with addressing a wide range off issues, including everything from the protection of the rights of children to the aging of the world s population. This year at GCIMSMUN, the Third Committee will be discussing the Rights of Indigenous People. Over the course of the past several hundred years, many nations have expanded to occupy and colonize new territory. These colonies took two main forms: extractive and settler. An extractive colony is one in which the colonizing nation extracts the resources of the colony; for example, by setting up mining operations that give the colonizing country access to a particular metal. A settler colony is one in which citizens of the host country move permanently to the colony and start new lives based in the conquered territory. Settler colonies, like the 17 th and 18 th century British colonies in North America that eventually became Canada and the United States, generally involve an occupying population displacing an indigenous population, i.e. the population that lived in an area before the occupation and colonization. Indigenous peoples have generally seen the seizure of their historical homelands. Many indigenous populations have seen their cultural heritage seized by occupiers. These indigenous populations face unique challenges when seeking an education. This update paper will address these dimensions of our topic area. While this update paper is not an exhaustive treatment of the issue of the Rights of Indigenous People, it should guide your research and inform debate at conference. Please also feel free to consult any sources cited in this update paper as you branch out in your research. Copyright 2016 GCIMUN 1

2 Economic and Territorial Disputes Native Lands and Settlement Disputes Synopsis The question of territories and native lands is an important one that dates back to the European colonial period. The modern study of territorial disputes can be traced to being a result of the nation-state model championed by European Empires, where a government controls land and establishes rule over the people living within borders. Prior to this, many parts of the world had no concept of a state. The Bedouin tribes of the Middle East inhabited Arabian and Syrian deserts but were nomads through their pursuit of food, water, shelter, and wealth. The aborigines of Australia and New Zealand lived in peace as 400 distinct cultural traditions developed. The Natives of the Americas lived in harmony with the land with no concept of ownership. We will explore the issue through three case studies and then consider questions for our resolutions off these studies. Black Hills The Pine Ridge Reservation of the Lakota People host some of the roughest conditions to live in the modern United States. In health, life expectancy for most people is mid-50s, almost half the population is plagued by diabetes by 40, and alcohol abuse is rampant. Economic outlook is not much better. Unemployment rates are consistently among 80%, average income is $8,000 a year, and half of the children live in poverty. What was once a wealthy nation of Sioux peoples living off the land of the Black Hills has become a decimated conglomerate of tribes where infighting on policies is rampant. 1 Such an example of this is the $1.3 Billion settlement the US Government is offering to pay the Sioux for the Black Hills. Although this was agreed upon in the 1980s, the Sioux refused the compensation, as they never felt the Black Hills were for sale. Unlike the mineral and resource rich Black Hills, the reservations the Sioux were relegated to were largely desolate places. Watch: Ted Talk on the Black Hills ( The Pine ridge Reservation is sometimes referred to as a Prisoner of War Camp. This is because in 1868, the United States signed a treaty at Fort Laramie that included the Black Hills as part of the Sioux reservations. However, when gold and other minerals were discovered in the Black Hills, settlers came in, conflict broke out, and pioneers broke the Fort Laramie Treaty. All American positions on Native American affairs can be traced to the Wounded Knee Massacre. Here, in the 1890s, the American government indiscriminately killed many living on Pine Ridge in retaliation for the Sioux taking a stand to maintain their control over the Copyright 2016 GCIMUN 2

3 Black Hills. This would allow prospectors to maintain their settlements on the Black Hills and continue to make use of its resources. 1 In the 1980s however, the Supreme Court ruled that this was an illegal seizure and ordered the United States to pay reparations for the land. The Sioux, however, refused, and another standoff at Wounded Knee between members of the American Indian Movement and the FBI and Federal Marshals lead to deaths on both sides. 1 Kosovo Kosovo today is suffering from massive unemployment, lack of local control by Serbian minorities living in the north, and political unrest not seen as intensely since it declared independence from Serbia in The country is 90% ethnically Albanian, and in 1998 the Albanian military launched a campaign to gain independence. The war was fought over the period of a year between the Kosovo Liberation Army, with air support from NATO and the Albanian Army, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which maintained control over modern Montenegro and Serbia. The conflict broke out as Kosovo Albanians felt they were being oppressed, but the Serbs regard Kosovo as a holy land in the Orthodox tradition. Thus, the question of who should rule over the land, Kosovo Albanians who made up the majority of population, or Serbia who regarded the land with religious importance. 3 Art Repatriation: Loss and Reclamation of a Culture According to the United Kingdom s House of Commons research, in July 2002 a value of US$6 billion per year was estimated to be registered in the illicit trafficking of antiques. 1 This big amount of illegal art movement brings back the question of whether the cultural heritage of a nation should be protected and preserved in another nation or if it has to be returned back to its original country? Art Repatriation can be defined as the return of the cultural art back to its original native country. In the past decade; this topic has gained much attention from many international organizations as well as some governmental agencies, and this lead to the return of many looted antiquities back to their original sources. Such measures indicate a massive shift from the historic events of plundering and looting of native arts into the protection and repatriation of the original countries 'identities. In the UNESCO Convention for The Fight Against Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property, not all arts of a nation are to be considered a "Cultural property" instead this term is only designated for some criteria among which are: inscriptions, objects of ethnical and religious significance, sculptures, drawings, rare manuscripts and many properties that belong to the heritage of the original nation. 2 Another important determinant is the age of a cultural object, and it is among the criteria that set whether an object should be considered as part of the heritage of a nation or not. Copyright 2016 GCIMUN 3

4 Accordingly, there have been two opposing ideas regarding this issue; the Cultural Internationalism vs. the Cultural Nationalism. Generally, the cultural internationalists believe in the preservation and enjoyment of cultural arts as belongings of a global community and not only to one nation, in addition, archaeologists consider that some war regions need to preserve their art by not keeping it in their counties, because wars and conflicts limits the enjoyments of those arts. Instead preserving them in a country with better resources and care would protect such arts from any damage. Opposing to this idea is the nationalist view, that believe in keeping the arts and antiques of one's nation within its borders, as those important objects represent the pride, history and the identity of that nation. Another main argument that supports the claim on repatriating artifacts is Article 31 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that stresses on the importance of these societies to maintain and control their own cultural and traditional arts. 3 This battle over who should keep ancient treasures the source country (the country of origin) or the market country (those who take the antiquities) is contentious because, at its base, [it is] a conflict over identity, and over the right to reclaim the objects that are tangible symbols of that identity". 4 History: Repatriation of Arts in Conflicts In the 18 th century the famous French leader Napoleon Bonaparte looted many famous art pieces from Italy, Egypt and other colonies and used the most distinguished types of artifacts to decorate the museums in Paris. 5 This strongly highlights the role of colonialism in art pillaging. Iraq: During the war on Iraqi in 2003, it has been reported that many of the artifacts were plundered from the Iraqi National Museum, and thousands of them were looted from their original sites. According to UNESCO statistics, more than 3000 thousand antiques disappeared from the country during the 1990s Gulf War, and around 15,000 artifacts were robbed from Baghdad s Museum, some of which were recovered and the rest are still missing. 6 Afghanistan: Since the start of the conflicts in Afghanistan in the 1990s several art locations has suffered wide destructions including the Buddhist monastery like Tepe Shotor Cave, and many other objects were found looted from the country's museums. 7 Syria: Under the current conflict taking place in Syria, the archeological sites as well as several churches and temples were found to be destroyed by the terrorist groups including ISIS (Also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria).The temple of Baal, the ancient city of Palmyra and other historical sites were reportedly destroyed. Furthermore, the terrorist group smashed several sculptures and ancient gates in northern Iraq in the known Assyrian capital "Nineveh 8 Mayan Heritage: Copyright 2016 GCIMUN 4

5 Located in Central America, the Mayan civilization lost US$10million worth of its artifacts as most of it were robbed or destroyed. 9 Africa: Most of the African countries lost 95% of their cultural arts due to conflicts and wars in the region. 10 China: More than 1.5 Million Chinese cultural artifacts are estimated to be scattered in 200 museums outside China. 11 Reclamation of the art: There have been many actions taken by governments and international conventions to enforce the recovery of some looted artifacts. For instance in 2010, Germany restituted to Iraq 22 ancient cultural objects that were looted back in Additionally, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland and the United States have returned about 13,000 artifacts to Afghanistan, and Britain has returned about 2,000 objects that were taken during the years of war in Afghanistan. 12 Another example of cultural heritage's restitution can be seen in Lebanon, where in 2009 Switzerland returned some of the ancient Phoenician antiquities back to Lebanon that was taken over during the Lebanese past Civil War. 13 Moreover, in China with the rise of their economy and the increase of the Chinese citizen's wealth; many citizens and corporations are buying back the Chinese antiques that are sold in some black markets in an illegal way. 14 Having said this, cultural heritage of a country represents the set of values, beliefs, ideas, history and all the past civilizations of that respective country. Since 1970s and up until now, UNESCO has been the first legal framework that fights against prohibition and prevention of the illicit imports, exports, and transfers of ownership of any cultural property; and it effectively created some bodies such as the "International Fund for the Return of Cultural Property" that assists in funding state members in the process of reconstruction and strengthening their cultural museums after wars and conflicts. On this manner, many countries are realizing the importance of their own cultural arts and thus are joining treaties in order to protect and preserve it. As of 2009, 122 nations have signed 1954 Hague Convention; 121 nations have signed the 1970 UNESCO Convention and 22 nations have signed the 1995 UN International Institute for the Unification of Private Law Convention (UNIDROIT). 15 Education Reform: Learning in Under-Resourced Locations Indigenous people constitute a large portion of the total world population and world cultures. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) put this into perspective in this statement: There are an estimated 370 million indigenous peoples in the world, representing approximately 5 per cent of the total world population. Indigenous Copyright 2016 GCIMUN 5

6 people account for more than 5,000 languages in over 70 countries on six continents; that is, nearly 75 per cent of all languages believed to exist. i Despite efforts by the UN to protect Indigenous peoples and their rights, discrimination against indigenous peoples with respect to access to basic social services, such as education, still exists extensively. Indigenous people experience educational exclusion at two levels. To start with, indigenous people are discriminated against in terms of access to education, denying them the right to education, as well as, in terms of the educational curriculum, in which their culture and history are excluded. The right to education for all does not only require the criterion of access to education to be met but also the criterion of quality education that ensures an enriching experience for all those involved. As UNESCO described it, education is about being proactive in identifying the barriers and obstacles learners encounter in attempting to access opportunities for quality education, as well as in removing those barriers and obstacles that lead to exclusion. ii Educational exclusion on the bases of ethnicity, gender, language, social class, religion, nationality, etc. has been outlawed in the UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education (1960), as well as, in several international treaties on human rights. The UNESCO Convention considered discrimination in education to include depriving any person or group of persons of access to education of any type or at any level, as well as, limiting any person or group of persons to education of an inferior standard. Nonetheless, several states are failing to meet the international standards and laws established by those treaties. iii Frequently, the national laws of countries that host indigenous groups ban or diminish these groups access to education or in other cases, national laws that guarantee these groups access to education are not implemented. In other cases, the educational curriculum disregards the history, legacy, heritage, contributions and culture of these groups. Moreover, education is frequently solely available in the official language of the dominant group, which indirectly lessens the importance of the indigenous groups mother tongues. In some cases, indigenous groups encounter personal abuse in education by their peers or even their teachers. Schools in the developing world in general, but more specifically, schools attended by indigenous groups and other minorities usually located in poor or remote areas, tend to suffer from overcrowding, poor building conditions, poor educational resources such as outdated or insufficient textbooks and incompetent teachers, and limited sanitary facilities, which reduces the educational and professional potential of millions around the world and perpetuates poverty. Evidence suggests that between 50 to 70 percent of children that are out of school belong to minority or indigenous groups. iv Of the many reasons behind low school enrollment rates, poverty remains the primary reason children do not go to school. Many rural families that depend on agriculture as their source of income and survival need the help of their children in household tasks. In this context, the poorer the family, the less likely the children will attend school. This is exemplified by education enrollment among indigenous in Guatemala: only 4 per cent of extremely poor indigenous girls attend school by the age of 16, compared to 20 per cent of poor indigenous girls and 45 per cent of non-poor indigenous girls. School tuitions remain significantly high, which acts as another barrier to education, especially for the poor. To address this issue, several international instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), compel countries to provide free primary education; nonetheless, approximately remaining 100 countries do not meet this duty. On a more positive note, at the start of the 21 st century, many countries have taken significant steps to reduce or even abolish school tuitions such as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi, which has multiplied enrollment rates in these Copyright 2016 GCIMUN 6

7 countries. Nevertheless, indirect fees such as schoolbooks, uniforms, and transportation still prohibit the enrollment of children belonging to the poorest and most marginalized communities. v Educational reform is increasingly needed in order to take into account the needs of indigenous people especially the poor among and to promote their right to education. In a broad sense, governments are looked upon to develop policies and regulations that are considerate of the needs, culture, language, goals and style of teaching of indigenous people, promote financially and morally initiatives that aim to reform the educational curriculum and teaching methods so that they are more inclusive, and carrying out trainings for indigenous groups to increase their understanding of their rights and obligations and enhance their leadership and negotiation skills. Such initiatives are more successful if their planning and management involves indigenous peoples. vi Schools that have proven to be more effective for indigenous children tend to have a robust and result-oriented school leadership, a positive environment that promotes the safety of students and staff and encourages a positive sense of Indigenous student identity, and trained teachers with cross-cultural skills and knowledge to efficiently involve Indigenous pupils and build strong relationships with them. These schools tend to be heavily involved in the community by helping to plan and implement of educational curricula, priorities, and school processes. vii Multicultural education best suits culturally diverse communities as it is based on the principle of educational equity and seeks to provide equal educational opportunities and potential for success to all students regardless of their culture. Culture in this case is used in its broadest sense to include race, nationality, class, religion, sexual orientation, etc. Multicultural education is defined as, any form of education or teaching that incorporates the histories, texts, values, beliefs, and perspectives of people from different cultural backgrounds. Practically speaking, multicultural educators have the responsibility to amend or delete any material, policy, program or lesson that discriminates towards a certain culture or does not sufficiently include different cultures. In that way, educators recognize that cultural heritage and identity significantly affects the ways in which students learn and think and consequently, effective education requires an inclusive approach to education. Multicultural education then strives to advance the educational attainment and success of all students, especially those that belong to cultural groups that have been repressed historically or lack educational attainment and achievement, such as indigenous peoples. viii References for Economic and Territorial Disputes: 1 Fritz, Mike, and Francine Uenuma. "Why the Sioux Are Refusing $1.3 Billion." PBS News Hour. PBS, 24 Aug Web. 20 Feb Khalidi, Walid. "Introduction: The Last Days of Ottoman Rule " Before Their Diaspora. Web. 20 Feb < 3 "Kosovo Conflict Balkan History [ ]." Encyclopedia Britannica Online Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 20 Feb < Copyright 2016 GCIMUN 7

8 References for Art Repatriation: Loss and Reclamation of a Culture: 1 UNESCO.The fight against the illicit trafficking of cultural objects the 1970 convention: past and future: Information Kit, 15 & 16 March Paris: UNESCO Headquarters, < 2 Carol A. Roehrenbeck, "Repatriation of Cultural Property Who Owns the Past? An Introduction to Approaches and to Selected Statutory Instruments." International Journal of Legal Information. 38 (2). Summer 2010, p < Pages United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. United Nations March < 4 Roehrenbeck, Roehrenbeck, UNESCO, 7 7 UNESCO, 6 8 Ömür Harmanşah,. "ISIS, Heritage, and the Spectacles of Destruction in the Global Media." Near Eastern Archaeology.Special Issue: The Cultural Heritage Crisis in the Middle East. 78(3), September 2015: < And Curry, Andrew. "Here Are the Ancient Sites ISIS Has Damaged and Destroyed." NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. 1 Sept < 9 UNESCO, UNESCO, UNESCO, Roehrenbeck, UNESCO, JamesCuno. Who Owns Antiquity? New Jersey: Princeton UP, Museums and the Battle over Our Ancient Heritage. Princeton University Press, < 15 Roehrenbeck, 200. References for Education Reform: Learning in Under-Resourced Locations: i ii iii "Indigenous People Education." United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Web. < "Inclusive Education Education." United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Web. < "Convention against Discrimination in Education 1960." United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Web. < URL_ID=12949&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html> Copyright 2016 GCIMUN 8

9 iv "State of the World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2009." Minority Rights Group International. July Web. v "State of the World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2009." Minority Rights Group International. July Web. vi "Inclusive Education Education." United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Web. < vii "Positive Learning Environments for Indigenous Children and Young People Closing the Gap Clearing House." Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. July Web. < viii "Multicultural Education Definition." The Glossary of Education Reform. Aug Web. < Copyright 2016 GCIMUN 9