Hofstra University Model United Nations Conference 2020

Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian Committee (SOCHUM)

Daniela Guido

Chair

Introduction to the Committee

The United Nations General Assembly, currently in its seventy-fourth session, includes

representatives from 193 countries of the world,1 and its General Assembly is comprised of six

smaller committees which all deal with different types of world issues.2 The Third Committee of

the United Nations General Assembly is the Social, Humanitarian, and Culture Issues

Committee. Informally known as SOCHUM, the Third Committee handles a wide range of

issues that address social, humanitarian affairs, and human rights, including:

the advancement of women, the protection of children, indigenous issues, the treatment

of refugees, the promotion of fundamental freedoms through the elimination of racism

and racial discrimination, and the right to self-determination. The Committee also

addresses important social development questions such as issues related to youth, family,

ageing, persons with disabilities, crime prevention, criminal justice, and international

drug control.3

During the seventy-third session, chaired by H.E. Christian Braun of Luxembourg, over

sixty draft resolutions dealt with human rights issues.4 Among the committee sessions that ended

in the past year (November 2019), eight resolution drafts were passed on issues that included

children’s rights, reproductive health, and the International Criminal Court.5

Introduction to the Topic

In total, there are over one billion people all over the world who have disabilities.6

According to the World Bank, there are 370 million indigenous people,7 among whom an

estimated 54 million (nearly fifteen percent) have disabilities.8 Indigenous people already face

many types of discrimination in the countries they live in, which makes it more difficult for

Disabled and Indigenous Persons to protect their rights.

While the UN has not created an agency to specifically address issues related to Disabled

and Indigenous Persons, it has been working to improve the lives of these people by creating

several programs and adopting policies to enforce the rights of people who can be categorized as

belonging to indigenous groups, and who also happen to be disabled. “In 2006, the General

Assembly adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which entered

into force in 2008.”9 The goal of this document is to have countries view people who are

disabled in a different light, as well as emphasize the fact that these people should be able to

exercise their rights. Additionally, the General Assembly adopted the UN Declaration on the

Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007.10 Both of these documents have made progress with the

issue of the integration of Disabled and Indigenous Persons, however there still has not been a

complete change towards the attitude of the people, and the rights of these people have not been

explicitly stated. Delegates must come together to determine how to define the rights of Disabled

and Indigenous Persons, how their concerns can be addressed on the international level, as well

as figure out the best ways for them to be integrated into society.

The Integration of Disabled and Indigenous Persons

There are many Disabled and Indigenous Persons living in different areas around the

world. Indigenous people are those who “are inheritors and practitioners of unique cultures and

ways of relating to people and the environment.”11 Examples of Indigenous peoples include the

Inuit in the Arctic and the Maasi in East Africa.12 In certain areas, most are denied their rights, as

well as several other privileges. This is mostly due to the fact that non-indigenous citizens

typically want indigenous people to conform to modern society, but indigenous people have no

desire to give up their own culture and are looking for ways to protect it. To try and help resolve

this issue, the General Assembly introduced the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous

Peoples before the end of its sixty-first session, which took place in 2006. The Declaration on

the Rights of Indigenous Peoples touches on many different areas and perspectives of the issue at

hand. In the document itself, there is a specific clause that states:

Welcoming the fact that indigenous peoples are organizing themselves for

political, economic, social, and cultural enhancement and in order to bring to an

end all forms of discrimination and oppression wherever they occur[.]13

This specific paragraph indicates that various indigenous groups are organizing themselves on a

global scale to address common challenges to their communities in order to try and improve their

lives. Despite efforts to organize, the issues at hand against Disabled and Indigenous Persons are

still prevalent in today’s society and are not improving all that much. In addition to the

previously mentioned UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the United Nations

has also adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.14 This document

“follows decades of work by the United Nations to change attitudes and approaches to persons

with disabilities.”15

While the UN estimates that more than 54 million people fall under the category of being

both disabled or indigenous, their basic rights need special consideration. SOCHUM is

responsible for dealing with indigenous and disabled peoples because this a current social issue

that is very prevalent in today’s world, and SOCHUM has the tools and resources to best deal

with this issue.

Case Study One:

The following case study will illustrate the challenges that indigenous communities face

and how they might respond when faced with a crisis. The indigenous people of Papua New

Guinea were closely observed to see how they were affected by various events of “…extractive

industries through funding provided by the World Bank Group (WBG).”16 Besides being

deprived of their rights, one of the biggest problems that indigenous people face is the concept of

modernization, which is currently taking place in many countries around the world. Through

modernization, many countries are investing in factories, building major cities, and are

introducing new concepts to their citizens, such as highways, Wi-Fi, and more innovative

technology.

Papua New Guinea is one of the most indigenous countries in the world. The country is

“…almost 100% Indigenous, having over 800 different local tribes.”17 Although the native

Papuans own approximately ninety-five percent of the land, any minerals found on the land are

state-owned, according to the laws of Papua New Guinea. In this regard, mining companies work

with the government to secure contracts, and usually view the concerns of the people as an

obstacle to their business.18

Since Papua New Guinea is full of minerals, it is one of the most sought-out countries for

natural resources, including gold, copper and natural gas. This creates an issue for the indigenous

people because all of these extracting technologies are invading their land, causing damage to

their home. The indigenous people have no say about these activities and feel like outsiders are

invading these areas with no regard for them. They also feel that the government does not have

much sympathy, since they want their country to become more modernized.19

However, various conflicts between indigenous Papuans on one side and the government

and mining companies on the other, have made the people willing to organize to prevent negative

activities on their land before they become a crisis.

As people became more educated and aware of issues surrounding extractive

industries, many of them became vocal on the distribution of benefits and

compensation for loss of resources or environmental damage. This was

particularly the case where the government had initially failed to address them in

a genuine manner...As these actions became more frequent, they added to the

increasing costs associated with exploration and government taxes on the

industry.20

Guiding Questions for Delegates:

1) What is the population of indigenous people in your given country?

2) How might the concerns of the indigenous people in your country compare to those in

other countries?

3) How can indigenous people create a voice against these activities that invade their area?

4) What actions can the UN take to keep these people safe?

Case Study Two:

This case study will illustrate the types of challenges that disabled people are confronted

with in regards to how the treatment they receive from medical professionals. At the University

of Sydney in Australia, a study was conducted to see how human rights are considered in

different medical disciplines. The “…case study reveals that three allied health professions—

exercise physiology, physiotherapy, and radiography—incorporate a rights-based approach to a

lesser degree than the other three—speech pathology, occupational therapy, and rehabilitation

counseling.”21 This study was put together “…as a first step toward holding universities to

account in implementing their obligations under the [UN Convention on the Rights of Persons

with Disabilities] in the context of allied health professional education.”22

However, in this case study, University students were surveyed about whether they were

taught different forms of ethics and law relating to disabilities. These students were surveyed

from the United Kingdom and the United States. In the United Kingdom, “[while] 57% of these

students thought that human rights issues were important, only 20% indicated that human rights

were included in their education.”23 For the results from the United States, “[only] 37% of the

surveyed schools had offered some level of human rights education during the past academic

year, and time constraints (82%), lack of qualified instructors (41%), and lack of funding (34%)

were perceived as barriers to teaching about human rights.”24 Both of these results indicate that

because of a lack of education on basic ethics, human rights, and law, prospective medical

professionals are not fully informed about the rights that disabled people should have and how

these rights should be incorporated into their practice of medicine.

What does this have to do with how the international community can protect the right to

healthcare for disabled people? Because of all of this lack of education, medical professionals are

uneducated about the basic human rights that disabled people deserve. Article 25 of the

Convention requires that Member States to provide people with disabilities with equal access to

healthcare, including:

…the same range, quality and standard of free or affordable health

care...including early identification and intervention as appropriate, and services

designed to minimize and prevent further disabilities...Prohibit discrimination

against persons with disabilities in the provision of health insurance, and life

insurance...Prevent discriminatory denial of health care or health services or food

and fluids on the basis of disability.25

Additional provisions require Member States to protect the informed consent of disabled

patients, which includes advocating for human rights and the rights of the disabled in the

facilities where they provide care. 26

Even though 181 United Nations member states have adopted the UN Convention on the

Rights of Persons with Disabilities and 163 organizations have joined as signatories,27 protecting

people with disabilities is an ongoing struggle. Even though this is an international document

pertaining to people’s rights, many people on the ground may not know that it has been created,

which therefore limits the ability of people to call for rights and privileges of disabled people all

across the world.

In the case of Disabled and Indigenous Persons, protections offered through national law

or international agreements do not necessarily match the views of their communities.

“Contemporary literature indicates that indigenous communities find the term ‘disability’ to be

alien and somewhat contradictory to their traditional beliefs concerning impairments.”28 For

example, an indigenous woman that participated in this study did not view herself disabled. She

explained, “I find that word [disability] a negative, disgusting, deficit word. I don’t know why

anyone would want to dis my ability, its that simple.”29 To a certain extent, when indigenous

persons believe that they do not have any impairments because of the way that their culture

views different body types, their views should be respected. Although it might be an unexpected

viewpoint from the non-indigenous viewpoint, the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabilities

would still define their views as one of the rights that needs to be protected.

Guiding Questions for Delegates:

1) How can the United Nations improve the education of healthcare providers to include

more information about ethics, human rights, and law?

2) Is there any way that the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities can

be improved or better enforced? Does it go far enough in protecting Disabled and

Indigenous Persons?

3) How can the General Assembly persuade countries with different perspectives to give

more rights to disabled people and not have them underprivileged?

1 "Growth in United Nations membership, 1945-present".

https://www.un.org/en/sections/member-states/growth-united-nations-membership-1945-

present/index.html

2 “United Nations, Third Committee, Social, Humanitarian, Cultural, Main Body, Main Organs,

General Assembly.” United Nations, United Nations, www.un.org/en/ga/third/index.shtml.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 “The United Nations and Indigenous Persons with Disabilities Enable.” United Nations, United

Nations, www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/issues/the-united-nations-and-

indigenous-persons-with-disabilities.html.

7 “Indigenous Peoples.” The World Bank Group. September 24, 2019.

https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/indigenouspeoples

8 "Study on the situation of indigenous persons with disabilities, with a particular focus on

challenges faced with regard to the full enjoyment of human rights and inclusion in development

(E/C.19/2013/6)." United Nations Economic and Social Council. February 5, 2013.

https://undocs.org/E/C.19/2013/6

9 “The United Nations and Indigenous Persons with Disabilities Enable.” United Nations, United

Nations, www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/issues/the-united-nations-and-indigenous-

persons-with-disabilities.html.

10 Ibid.

11 “Indigenous Peoples at the UN For Indigenous Peoples.” United Nations, United Nations,

www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/about-us.html.

12 “Issues.” Issues | Cultural Survival, www.culturalsurvival.org/issues.

13 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf.

14 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) Enable.” United Nations,

United Nations, www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-

with-disabilities.html.

15 “Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) Enable.” United Nations,

United Nations, www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-

persons-with-disabilities.html.

16 “A Case Study on Indigenous People, Extractive Industries and the World Bank. Papua New

Guinea.” Forest People Programme,

www.forestpeoples.org/sites/default/files/publication/2010/08/eirinternatwshoppngcaseapr

03eng.pdf.

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid.

20 Ibid.

21 “Case Study: Degree of Integration of Disability Rights Into Allied Health Professional

Education.” Health and Human Rights Journal, 21 June 2018,

www.hhrjournal.org/2018/02/case-study-degree-of-integration-of-disability-rights-into-

allied-health-professional-education/.

22 Ibid.

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid.

25 "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities." Office of the High Commissioner on

Human Rights.

www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRPD/Pages/ConventionRightsPersonsWithDisabilities.aspx#25

26 Ibid.

27 "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)." United Nations Department

of Economic and Social Affairs. www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-

rights-of-persons-with-disabilities.html

28 Velarde, Minerva Rivas. “Indigenous Perspectives of Disability.” Disability Studies Quarterly,

dsq-sds.org/article/view/6114/5134.

29 Ibid.