Letter From The Dais
Dear Delegates,
It is my delight to welcome you to the to the Council on Mass Human Enslavement in the Modern Age at the Security Council Simulation at Yale XL. The knowledge that I am to serve as your Chair brings me great joy and I hope to make this conference a successful one for you.
We often take the world for granted, resisting change, simply for convenience’s sake, rather than through well-reasoned thought. While change, for the sake of change must be desisted from, necessary change is often eschewed too. This committee seeks to address one such pressing issue – proposing change which could shake our globe up to say the least and requires you to carefully analyse the merit it bears.
A bit about myself, I’m an academic at heart, with a love for the natural sciences and economics, and a flair for playing the piano. I believe that while research, oratory skills and paperwork are important, they can only take one so far. Success in this council will be achieved by setting aside your personal beliefs and biases; completely inhabiting the role you have been assigned, and being able to handle the dynamics of the swiftly changing committee environment well.
I encourage you to contact me with any questions you may have with regard to this council, SCSY or any other matter. I wish you the best of success.
Godspeed and Fair Wind,
Krish Desai
Topic History
Human Rights Violations
The topic of human rights violations for corporate and business purposes emanates from the beginning of human history. From the Pharaohs using slave labour to build pyramids; to the Russian oil oligarchs, for all intents and purposes, enslaving the weakest social classes in the erstwhile Soviet Union; to the more modern sweatshop labour in South and South-East Asia where persons and compelled to work in slavish conditions for practically no pay; corporate human right abuses have been innumerable. The motive is rather simple. All corporations desire success, by gaining consumers and maximising profits. To capture the market, they must provide goods and services at a large scale, at low prices. But with increasing regulation and fair standards requirements in the developed world, the need to seek alternative sources of cheap materials and labour increases as well. Many work within the framework of humanity and outcompete their fellow corporations through better research and technology, while some seek the easy solution, turning their powerful gaze towards emerging markets whose labour and human capital they may exploit with far fewer restrictions.
The foreign investment they bring with them often compels the finance-starved states they exploit to turn a blind eye to their activities. Their financial power bent to lobbying has lawmakers at home promote their activities, treating their modern day human enslavement as a necessary evil of the dollar colonisation of emerging markets. It is only when the scale of human tragedy cannot be contained and bursts forth on the international stage that action is taken briefly against select perpetrators, with the status quo restored in time spans sometimes as short as months.
These violations also include the forced extraction raw materials from the land at the lowest possible prices in shockingly subhuman conditions. The trickle-down effect claimed as the benefit of such processes is nearly non-existent, and the workforce scarcely receives the fruits of its labour. The race to work around minimum wage, labour safety and basic human-rights laws leads to human right violations in their most common form: basic human needs and dignities being denied.
The industrial revolution of the 1700s saw an increase in child labour. The term 'sweatshop' is believed to have originated in this era. Used to describe a subcontracting system in which the middlemen earned profits from the margin between the amount they received for a contract and the amount they paid to the workers, the margin was said to have been “sweated” from the workers because they received minimal wages for working long hours in filthy conditions.
In places where institutional slavery was legal and acceptable, they were abused to further the economic desires of slave-owners. Capitalism has a place in the modern world for certain. But when capitalism demands the treatment of fellow human beings as tools, causing them undue danger in cases where it can be avoided then there is a good argument to be made about Human Rights eclipsing capitalist concerns.
Examples of violations run deep and bloody through history. Despite being such a pervasive issue, few concrete steps have been taken to stop these violations. With the agitation (lead by 'victim' nations) in the UN for more concrete rules being industrialized countries, any such actions come to a deadlock and finally fall through. There is an urgent need for emerging markets to stop being moral crusaders and to realize what industrial countries will be willing to attempt, and for industrialized countries to loosen the corporate-capitalist hold on them, both while still remaining true to the principles that bring them to the table. That is the only way in which a comprehensive workable solution can be come upon, which might lead to a safer corporate set-up for the future while still having the concerned stakeholders agree to it.
Legal Aspects
The primary set of documents from which human rights executive action draws it legal basis are the three International Covenants on Human Rights:
1. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 16th December, 1996
2. International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, 16th December, 1966
3. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 18th December, 1979
Further, an important document that is particularly pertinent to this council is ‘UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, 2011’.
This council must also be able to determine the permissible limit to which the international community can intervene in and intrude upon and dictate private corporate affairs and the domestic affairs of sovereign states with regard to the subject under consideration.
International human rights law principally affects two categories of actors who may be held liable for abuses:
1. States, through the concept of state responsibility, which is usually civil. States are custodians of the full range of human rights, whether defined in treaties or through customary law.
2. Individuals, through the concept of individual responsibility, primarily criminal. Individual responsibility applies to a far smaller range of abuses, principally characterized by the gravity of their physical or psychological assault on the individual.
Building upon the traditional notion wherein international law generally places responsibility on states, it is pertinent to question the effectiveness of the international legal process to enforce human rights obligations directly on corporations. Although numerous developed countries recognize human rights protection from unethical corporate activities, a number of emerging markets argue that the duty to protect human rights rests with the state, and that it may be held liable before the international community if it fails to.
“International law has a critical role to play in ensuring that business enterprises comply with international human rights norms. There are two main reasons for this: first, operations of business enterprises are no longer constrained by artificial territorial boundaries; second, several states are unwilling or unable to act robustly against powerful corporate actors even within their territory or jurisdiction.” – James Stewart.
Delegates may use current, legal, relevant documents to substantiate their arguments and may also utilize clauses from these documents in their paperwork to provide a better framework for the international community. It is up to the Council, to devise a legal framework within which it may act to ensure that the accountability of corporations regarding human rights violations is maintained.
The Council is expected to determine whether corporations are to be prosecuted by the government of the State under which they have been incorporated or the by State where they have committed violations. The country of incorporation may on account of its distance from the damage, not prosecute the accused with as much assertion as the country which directly faces the consequences of the corporation’s actions; however, emerging markets, where a majority of violations take place, often have malleable judiciaries which may be manipulated to the corporation’s benefit.
The Council must also determine the duties of Corporations towards indigenous peoples, and to what degree may such peoples be granted special protections, privileges and rights.
Current Situation
Blood Diamonds
Blood diamonds or conflict diamonds is the term used for diamonds extracted in a war zone and sold to finance an insurgency, or invading army's war efforts; or a warlord's activity. This term evinces the negative results of the diamond trade in these regions. Diamonds Angola, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone are almost universally considered to be conflict diamonds due to ongoing civil war, but these are not the only nations engaged in this practice. The issue is far broader, and the bleeding trail of these diamonds can be traced to the powerful diamond lobbies of Antwerp, Belgium, and Switzerland. Blood diamonds are only mined and sold because there exist buyers overseas. It is improper to treat these as simply human rights violations in conflict zones, it also involves powerful lobbies with vested interests in cheaper diamonds.
The conflict in these regions, lead to the formation of the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme, which places extensive requirements on nations to achieve the non-conflict diamond certification. This scheme is chaired on a rotational basis by member countries.
Despite these measures, in Angola, a former Portuguese colony, mining blood diamonds is rampant. Although now independent, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) had fought a civil war from 1974 to 2001. Between 1992 and 1998, in violation of the Bicesse Accords, 1991, UNITA sold diamonds, valued at $3.72 billion, to finance its war effort. Angola’s dictatorship has refused to acknowledge these problems. Instead, it has filed criminal defamation charges against journalists who have documented more than 100 murders and the torture of over 500 people in two diamond mining towns. In an attempt to downplay the issue, Kimberly selected Angola to chair it in 2015, to show that all was well.
In Côte d’Ivoire, around 300,000 carats of diamonds are mined annually through slave labour in rebel held regions and sold to fund violent conflict. Ivory Coast also acts as a route to transport diamonds from Sierra Leone and Liberia to Western and Eastern Europe and South-East Asia. The UN Security Council banned all diamond exports from Ivory Coast in 2005, but illegal smuggling of diamonds is rampant and refuses to die down in response to new and powerful demand from the Republic of Korea, as well as old demand from Antwerp, Belgium and Surat, India.
The Democratic Republic of Congo suffered several looting wars in the 1990's. During the 1998 USA bombings, the Al Qaeda reportedly bought jewels from Liberia. Though they did join the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme after regaining peace from the civil war, as of 2014 the U.S. Department of Labor's List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor reported that their diamonds were produced through child labour.
The United Nations has recognized this problem and has taken steps to resolve it. The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1173 and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1176, banned the purchase of Blood diamonds from Angola. Resolution 1173 was the first resolution by the UN, which specifically mentioned diamonds in the context of funding a war.
Since then, a conscious effort has been maintained to prevent the support of blood diamond mining, with some foreign investors withdrawing investment from these nations. However, there is still a long way to go and these conflicts are far from being resolved. Slave militia are used with shocking regularity to precipitate blood baths. Warlords and rebel groups force locals into the diamond mining and processing in slaving conditions with threats of death and destruction if the locals fail to comply. A practical solution must be found, which should be applicable even to the grassroots, which will secure the approval of the requisite members of the Council.
PORTFOLIO POWERS
As the executive organ of the United Nations, the Security Council is granted an array of powers to enforce international peace and security and in conjugation with other organs of the UN with the enforcement of international legislation, pan-national treaties & conventions, and Human Rights.
Under Article 25 of the Charter of the UN, member states agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the UNSC. However, in the case of controversial decisions against the interest of powerful member nations, in practice the binding nature of these decisions is firmly set in stone.
The explicit powers and functions of the UNSC are detailed in articles 24, 25 and 26 of the Charter and there exists much literature, both formal and informal discussing them. A valuable source is the relevant page of the United Nations Website.
This Committee has the form of a traditional United Nations Security Council and will have the composition of the same. Voting too shall be in accordance with the rules of the Security Council as they exist on 30th September, 2017.
List of Committee Positions
The Permanent Members:
1. People's Republic of China
2. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
3. French Republic
4. Russian Federation
5. United States of America
The Non-Permanent Members:
A) Africa:
1. Republic of Côte de Ivorie
2. Democratic Republic of the Congo
3. Islamic Republic of Mauritania
B) Asia-Pacific:
1. Republic of Indonesia
2. People's Republic of Bangladesh
C) Latin America and the Caribbean:
1. Republic of Ecuador
2. United Mexican States
D) Western Europe and Others:
1. Kingdom of Belgium
2. Swiss Confederation
E) Eastern Europe:
1. Ukraine
Questions To Consider
What is the degree to which mass human enslavement exist in the contemporary world and in what forms?
To what extent does the international community have the right to interfere in private affairs and domestic affairs of sovereign states when human slavery in any of its forms exists and is ongoing?
How can a balance be struck to come to a compromise which is neither tolerant of gross human rights violations nor politically and financially indigestible to the states which are required to implement it?
How and where should mass human enslavement be prosecuted, under what legal framework, and what method should be established to determine the compensation?
Of the array of powers granted to the Security Council, which one is most suitable to deal with this issue effectively while mitigating the harmful effects of an overly blunt instrument?
Further Research
The Security Council is arguably the most important organ United Nations organization and has been instrumental in resolving issues of human rights and social justice, two of the most fundamental problems that we face today. The dais looks forward to assiduous debate by well-researched delegates coupled with meticulous paperwork. The issue we shall deliberate over in this Council is variants of mass modern human slavery conducted by large international corporations with the explicit or implicit consent of sovereign states. We expect that the delegates shall forge a comprehensive solution, which shall be agreeable to all pertinent stakeholders. Delegates are expected to recognize that this guide is simply a foundation for them to further their research upon.
Other Historical And Contemporary Cases To Consider
Note: These cases only serve as a guideline for cases you might wish to reference. You are free to add and drop from this list as you find suitable in particular with reference to your State you represent.
Bhopal Gas Tragedy, India
Nike, Labour Outsourcing, Bangladesh
Chevron-Texaco, ‘Rainforest Chernobyl’, Ecuador
Chevron, Oil Extraction and Private Militia, Nigeria
Chevron-Unocal, Human Rights Violation Lawsuit, Myanmar
Gap Inc., Textile Outsourcing, Bangladesh
Several Apparel Brands, Rana Plaza, Bangladesh
Tazreen Fashions & Aswad Composite Mills, Fires, Bangladesh
HSBC-Sime Darby-Wilmar International, Palm Oil Extraction, Indonesia and Malaysia
Wilmar International-HSBC, Deforestation and Displacement, Kalangala Island, Uganda
HSBC-Al Rajhi, U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, USA, Saudi Arabia, Mexico
Illegal slavery, Uzbekistan
Human trafficking and forced prostitution, India
Debt Bondage, Pakistan
Eastern Europe, Sexual Slavery, Moldova
Vietnamese Forced Migrant Labour, Cannabis Farming, United Kingdom
Illegal human slavery, Mauritania
