United Nations General Assembly Third Committee- SOCHUM

INDEX

1. Letter from the Executive Board…………………………………………………………………. (3)

2. Introduction to the Committee……………………………………………………………………. (4)
3. Agenda 1: Prevention of Statelessness and Safeguarding Rights of Stateless People.…………… (5)

3.1. Historical Background......................................................................................................................(5)

3.2. Causes of Statelessness.....................................................................................................................(6)

3.3. Current Situation...............................................................................................................................(7)

3.4. Actions taken hitherto.......................................................................................................................(9)

4. Agenda 2: The Effects of New Technologies on Abuse and Exploitation of Children……...…… (10)

4.1. Identifying and Describing the Problem..........................................................................................(10)

4.2. Evaluating the Problem....................................................................................................................(11)

4.3. Combating the Problem....................................................................................................................(12)

5. Committee Directive.........................................................................................................................(13)
6. References……………………………………………………………………………………..…. ..(14)

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LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE BOARD

Esteemed Members of the SOCHUM,
In our capacity as the Executive Board of this meeting of the SOCHUM, we hereby issue this letter dated
28th April, 2022 acknowledging the presence of all the member State representatives who shall be present to
discuss the agenda in consideration, its implications, and what measures can be adhered to so as to fulfil the
goals entrusted to this Council via its mandate, while ensuring compliance to the principles laid down in the
Charter of the United Nations.
History has shown that peace and security can be built only on the basis of respect and mutual acceptance.
And therefore keeping into consideration the spirit of mutual respect, we request every concerned
stakeholder to look at the agenda with a multi-dimensional approach in order to allow the conclusion to be
more holistic and substantially fulfilling.
The negotiation on proliferating peace and stability cannot be conceptually or practically decoupled from
matters of regional trust and security and it is expected from you as responsible and integral members of the
global community to appreciate and apply said nexus in the forthcoming discussions.
Initiation of a productive and substantive deliberation shall be the first step towards this and we shall
acknowledge the significance that it carries so as to bring out the most assuring results in the coming course
of time.
We look forward to stimulating debate and a wholesome exchange of ideas during the proceedings in the
upcoming meeting of this Council, with a strong emphasis on decorum and diplomatic etiquette. We are
certain that these proceedings shall prove to be fruitful in determining the path to be taken to solve some
issues that prove to be a great challenge to the maintenance of a peaceful global status quo.

Tushar Rajput Bhargav Bhamidipati

Co-Chairperson Co-Chairperson

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Introduction to the Committee

The Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee (SOCHUM) is the Third Committee of the General
Assembly of the United Nations and focuses broadly on the welfare and human rights of protected groups
such as refugees, children, victims of discrimination, and many others. The General Assembly allocates to the
Third Committee, agenda items relating to a range of social, humanitarian affairs, and human rights issues that
affect people all over the world. The Committee also discusses questions relating to 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,
aging, persons with disabilities, crime prevention, criminal justice, and international drug control.

The mandate of the Third Committee allows it to discuss, deliberate, and find solutions to the following:

1. The advancement of women

2. The protection of children
3. the protection of indigenous populations, and related issues
4. The treatment of refugees, and related issues such as racism and discrimination
5. The promotion of fundamental freedoms
6. The right to self-determination
7. Youth, family, and aging
8. The rights of persons with disabilities
9. Crime prevention and criminal justice
10. The international drug trade, and related issues

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About the Agendas

Agenda 1: Prevention of Statelessness and Safeguarding Rights of Stateless People

Historical Background

A stateless person is someone who, under national laws, does not enjoy citizenship which is nothing but the
legal bond between a government and an individual, in any country. The main tragedy that led to a manifold
increase in statelessness was World War II. The aftermath of World War II and the collapses and the
reconfiguration of nation-states created a surge of stateless populations. A lot of people were denied
citizenship in any of the nations. This led the drafters of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights to
include Article 15. It states that “everyone has the right to a nationality” and no one should be deprived
arbitrarily of his or her nationality. Statelessness exists in every region of the world but remains a largely
“hidden” problem without government recognition.

With the failure of the League of Nations and the growing ramifications of the Second World War, stateless
persons continued to increase. As the war came to an end, there was large-scale displacement and
denationalization of people, and organized states were re-organized. This was one of the major challenges that
States had to confront. The Economic & Social Council (ECOSOC), of the then-recently, formed United
Nations requested the then Secretary-General Trygve Lie to facilitate a clean study of this issue, to see if any
internationally conjoint measures were necessary. Hence, the United Nations‟ Study on Statelessness was
published in 1949. It observed that “statelessness is a phenomenon as old as the concept of nationality‟‟ and it
was growing in an unprecedented manner.

There are two types of stateless persons. While some people are de jure, or legally stateless persons (meaning
they are not recognized as citizens under the laws of any state), many people are de facto, or effectively
stateless persons (meaning they are not recognized as citizens by any state even if they have a claim to
citizenship under the laws of one or more states). the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless
Persons, and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness are two of the several conventions that
have tried resolving this issue at hand. UNHCR was entrusted with certain responsibilities with regard to
stateless persons, but for many years the organization devoted little time, resources, and efforts to
statelessness.

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Causes of Statelessness

Nationality and citizenship are fundamental elements of human security because they provide people with a
sense of belonging and identity. They provide a legal basis for the exercise of many human rights. Persons
without a nationality are in many countries denied numerous human rights that citizens take for granted, like
access to schools and medical care, ownership of property, marriage, and foundation of a family, and
enjoyment of legal protection. Globally, an estimated 15 million people are considered stateless.

There are many reasons why a person has to bear the consequences of becoming stateless which include: Lack
of birth registration and birth certificates; Birth to stateless parents; Political change and transfer of territory,
which may alter the nationality status of citizens of the former state(s); Administrative oversights, procedural
problems, conflicts of law between two countries, or destruction of official records; Alteration of nationality
during a marriage or the dissolution of a marriage between couples from different countries; Targeted
discrimination against minorities; Laws restricting the acquisition of citizenship; Laws restricting the rights of
women to pass on their nationality to their children; Laws relating to children born out of wedlock and during
transit; Loss or relinquishment of nationality without first acquiring another. Governments may change their
nationality laws and deny certain groups nationality under the new laws in order to marginalize them or to
facilitate their expulsion from the state‟s territory. The transfer of territory or sovereignty or the disintegration
and formation of new states may leave thousands of people stateless or with disputed claims of citizenship.

Gaps in nationality laws are a major cause of statelessness. Every country has laws that establish under what
circumstances someone acquires nationality or can have it withdrawn. If these laws are not carefully written
and correctly applied, some people can be excluded and left stateless. An example is children who are of
unknown parentage in a country where nationality is acquired based on descent from a national. Fortunately,
most nationality laws recognize them as nationals of the state in which they are found. Another factor that can
make matters complicated is when people move from the countries where they were born. A child born in a
foreign country can risk becoming stateless if that country does not permit nationality based on birth alone
and if the country of origin does not allow a parent to pass on nationality through family ties. Additionally, the
rules setting out who can and who cannot pass on their nationality are sometimes discriminatory. The laws in
27 countries do not let women pass on their nationality, while some countries limit citizenship to people of
certain races and ethnicities. Another important reason is the emergence of new states and changes in borders.
In many cases, specific groups can be left without a nationality as a result, and, even where new countries
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allow nationality for all, ethnic, racial, and religious minorities frequently have trouble proving their link to
the country. In countries where nationality is only acquired by descent from a national, statelessness will be
passed on to the next generation. Finally, statelessness can also be caused by loss or deprivation of nationality.
In some countries, citizens can lose their nationality simply from having lived outside their country for a long
period of time. States can also deprive citizens of their nationality through changes in the law that leave whole
populations stateless, using discriminatory criteria like ethnicity or race.

Current Situation

According to a study published in 2020, 4.2 million stateless people are reported in the new data published,
which covers 76 countries. As the Global Trends report explains, “fewer than half of all countries in the world
submit any data and some of the most populous countries in the world with large suspected stateless
populations do not report on statelessness at all”. UNHCR concludes that “the true extent of statelessness is
estimated to be much higher”, but does not provide a concrete projection.

UNHRC has provided four important measures to help prevention of statelessness: Identification, Prevention,
Reduction, and Protection.

The #IBelong Campaign has been launched by the UNHCR to end Statelessness, in November 2014. It has its
objectives in line with the Global Goals for Sustainability. Though there is no explicit mention with respect to
the state of stateless people, the campaign targets improving the living conditions of the stateless people.
However, there is still a dearth of substantial deliberation on the topic.

UNHCR estimates that there are over 10 million stateless persons in the world. This is just a rough estimate
and the exact figure is beyond reach. This technically means that the actual value is very much likely to be
higher than this. This happens primarily due to gaps in the collection of data by governments, the UN, and
civil society. A tally of approximately only 3.5 million stateless persons is being kept through statistical
reporting. Further analysis of the data shows that in most analysis reports about 97.6% of the total number of
stateless people can be found in just 20 countries. Each of these 20 countries houses over 10000 stateless
persons. Less than 84,000 stateless persons are spread across the remaining 55 countries. This perspective on
the global statelessness figures demonstrates that although it is an issue that affects people in all parts and
indeed most countries of the world, the spread of the problem is uneven.

In absolute numbers, statelessness is documented as affecting far more people in Asia and the Pacific than in
any other region of the world. The UNHCR has reported as many as 1,422,850 persons under its statelessness
mandate in Asia. There are six countries in which the number of stateless persons has been reported to be over

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10,000. 9 more countries in this region also have high numbers of stateless people. This means that there are
as many as 15 countries in the regions suffering from heavy statelessness (out of the total 45). Myanmar,
Thailand, Uzbekistan, Brunei Darussalam, Tajikistan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Kyrgyzstan are some of the 15
countries. Statelessness is severely underreported in Asia and the Pacific. It can be safely projected that the
actual number of stateless people in Asia and the Pacific is likely to be as high as double the current reported
figures. There are widespread problems of statelessness in India, Indonesia, Nepal, and Pakistan, as some of
the available information suggests there might be.

In contrast, the Americas currently reports the lowest number of stateless persons (at just over 200,000) and is
indisputably the region with the fewest people affected by statelessness. This region can give credit for such a
low number to the jus soli approach to nationality. This approach recognizes the conferral of nationality at
birth to all children born in the territory. This prevents statelessness from being passed on to the next
generation. However, the situation that has unfolded in the Dominican Republic over the past year is the most
egregious new violation of international human rights norms relating to nationality and statelessness that the
world has witnessed in the 21st century. There has been significant under-reporting leading to a lack of
reliable statistics pertaining to this region.

In (sub-Saharan) Africa, statelessness has been exceedingly difficult to accurately quantify. Only four out of
47 countries in this region were accounted for in UNHCR‟s end-2013 statistics. These are the countries where
there has been significant advocacy on the issue and a parallel effort at reporting. There are many countries
with significant stateless populations that cannot at present be tallied in UNHCR‟s statistics. They totalled
721303 stateless persons as of 2014. Alternative data sources show widely varying estimates, for instance for
Madagascar and Zimbabwe. In other cases, there are no numbers at all, such as in the DRC and South Africa
which is technically impossible. This demonstrates that there is a severe underreporting of statelessness in the
region.

Comparatively, statelessness is more comprehensively mapped in Europe than in any other region. Statistical
reporting on statelessness has been achieved in 40 out of the 50 countries that fall within the scope of
UNHCR‟s Europe regional bureau. Around 85% or even more of the total reported number of stateless
persons can be found in just four countries (Latvia, the Russian Federation, Estonia, and Ukraine). This is like
to be a product of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Thus, just as it is anywhere else in the world,
statelessness is a great problem in Europe. Although Europe has an adept reporting of statelessness there are a
few glitches in the statistics and their reporting. There is a problem of persons being reported as holding an
„unknown nationality „, which is obscuring the true number affected by statelessness. There is also some
amount of undercounting of the number of stateless persons in this region because they could not be correctly
identified.

There are reports that plot almost 10000 stateless persons in countries like Syria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and
Iraq from the region of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This figure excludes stateless Palestinians.
Furthermore, the absence of any data for three countries that are known to have significant statelessness
problems points to substantial under-reporting of statelessness. Quantifying the problem is a massive

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challenge in this region though, because of the diversity of the groups affected and the underlying causes, as
well as the high political sensitivity of questions of citizenship and demography in many countries.

While not all stateless persons are refugees and, not all refugees are stateless, there is some overlap between
these two groups. A person can be both stateless and a refugee for the purposes of international law. However,
stateless refugees are not included in UNHCR‟s statelessness statistics to avoid double counting. This report
also canvases the world‟s most significant stateless refugee populations, including for instance Black
Mauritanians, Faili Kurds, stateless Kurds from Syria and Rohingya refugees. One more fallacy in the
counting and reporting is that stateless persons of Palestinian origin have been largely excluded from
statistical reporting. While, from the point of view of international law, many Palestinians are likely to meet
the definition of a stateless person, their situation is nevertheless complex.

Actions that have been taken hitherto

The two primary universal instruments on statelessness are the Convention relating to the Status of
Stateless Persons (1954) and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness (1961). Article 1
Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons defines a stateless person as a person not considered a
national (or citizen) under the law of any state. In addition to providing a definition of statelessness, the
Convention seeks to improve the status of stateless persons and helps ensure that stateless persons enjoy
fundamental rights and freedoms without discrimination. It regulates, inter alia, the legal rights of stateless
persons, and their access to work and welfare and urges states to facilitate their assimilation and
naturalization.

Other international instruments dealing with the right to nationality include, inter alia, Article 15 Universal
Declaration on Human Rights, which stipulates the right to a nationality and the right not to be arbitrarily
deprived of nationality, and Article 5 CERD, which seeks, with respect to the right to nationality: „To
prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right to everyone, without
distinction as to race, colour, or nationality or ethnic origin, to equality before the law.‟

International instruments dealing specifically with the right to nationality with regard to women and children
include the Convention on the Nationality of Married Women (1957), CEDAW (Article 9), and CRC
(Articles 7 and 8). The instruments concerning women seek to ensure that they enjoy equal rights to acquire,
change or retain nationality, while those covering children deal mainly with the right of children to be
registered and to acquire nationality from birth.

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Agenda 2: The Effects of New Technologies on Abuse and Exploitation of Children

Identifying and Describing the Problem

Not all forms of ICT-facilitated child abuse and exploitation are necessarily new or fundamentally different
from existing forms of child abuse and exploitation. In a number of instances, however, ICTs not only
facilitate the commission of an abusive and/or exploitative act but also give rise to new types of child sexual
abuse and exploitation. Although a consistent typology is still lacking, the main forms of ICT-facilitated child
abuse and exploitation can be identified by a survey of practice.

A 2006 study based on research findings and police practices in the United States, the United Kingdom,
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia conducted by the United States
Department of Justice, found that in addition to assisting in the proliferation of child sexual abuse material,
the Internet facilitates child sexual abuse by allowing networking among child abuse perpetrators. It can be
used to seek out and groom victims, for cyberstalking, as well as to promote child sex tourism and trafficking
in children.

The European Union offers three categories to explain forms of behavior related to ICT-facilitated child abuse
and exploitation. The first category is described as online harm from content, which conceives of the child as
a passive recipient of pornographic or harmful sexual content. A second category refers to harm from contact,
where the child is targeted as a participant by an adult or another child in activities such as sexual abuse that is
recorded and then distributed; this category also includes online grooming for sexual abuse or cyberbullying.
The third category refers to harm from conduct, where the child actively initiates risky online behavior
including the production of self-generated content, bullying others, or physically meeting online “friends”.
Overall, while generic categories can be identified, it is clear that there is fluidity between types of offending
behaviors, with some actions capable of falling into more than one category.

Advances in technology have become instrumental in the commercial sexual exploitation of children,
including trafficking of children for the purposes of sexual exploitation, and the abuse and exploitation of
children in the travel and tourism industries. International law defines trafficking in persons as “the
recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or
other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of
vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having
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control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Another major form of commercial sexual
exploitation of children is abuse and exploitation in the travel and tourism industries. This is also commonly
referred to as “child sex tourism”. Child sex tourists may be either “preferential” abusers, who deliberately
seek out children for sex, or “situational” abusers, who take advantage of an opportunity or a feeling of
anonymity afforded by travelling.

The terms “cyber enticement”, “solicitation” and “online grooming” are commonly used collectively or
interchangeably to describe communications made by adults through the use of ICTs for the purpose of
sexually abusing or exploiting minors. Within the European Union, “solicitation of children for sexual
purposes” refers to the intentional proposal, through information and communication technologies, by an
adult, to meet a child who has not reached the age of majority under domestic law, for the purpose of
committing sexual abuse or producing child pornography where this proposal has been followed by material
acts leading to such a meeting. Whereas, “Grooming” can be considered as conduct that takes place as part of
cyber enticement or prior to a solicitation. It refers to a series of actions that facilitate cyber enticement or
solicitation deliberately undertaken with the aim of befriending and establishing an emotional connection with
and gaining the trust of a child, in order to lower the child's inhibitions in preparation for sexual activity with
the child.

Evaluating the Problem

The advent of ICTs has led to a continuum of effects on the abuse and exploitation of children. Some conduct
facilitated by ICT, particularly crimes involving contact sexual abuse, shares many features and similarities
with forms of nontechnology facilitated abuse and exploitation, and can be countered with similar methods. In
some instances, the effect of technology on an existing form of abuse and exploitation is so transformational,
however, that it must be prevented and countered in new ways. In a few cases, the use of new information and
communication technologies has given rise to completely new forms of child abuse and exploitation. The use
of ICTs in the commission of offenses can increase levels of harm to victims, in particular by facilitating the
layering and intertwining of offenses such that multiple forms of abuse and exploitation facilitated by
technology can take place simultaneously or be committed against the same victim over time.

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Depending upon their structure, offenses and aims, groups of child sexual abuse material offenders that exist
around online sharing platforms may or may not meet the definition of an organized criminal group for the
purposes of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Article 2 (a) of the
Organized Crime Convention specifies that an organized criminal group “shall mean a structured group of
three or more persons, existing for a period of time and acting in concert with the aim of committing one or
more serious crimes or offenses established in accordance with the Convention, in order to obtain, directly or
indirectly, a financial or another material benefit.

The majority of child sexual abuse material is exchanged via non-commercial channels, including public peer-
to-peer platforms, as well as Tor, or the dark web. A large number of loose online groups of offenders exist
around such platforms. Such groups may trade in specific forms of child abuse material, such as specific types
of children based on gender or race. Other groups may enable users to share tactics on committing child
sexual abuse material-related offenses. Still, others may specialize in providing advice to those in search of
victims of contact abuse. Many groups serve all of these purposes simultaneously. While some commercial
activity may occur, such groups tend to be primarily focused on facilitation, sharing, and community-type
functions. They can provide members with an affirmation of the acceptability of abusive conduct and even
encourage pedophilia, through the use of euphemisms and seemingly positive terms.

Combating the Problem

Over the course of the last century, international law has increasingly recognized children as the bearers of
rights, and as deserving of respect and special protection. Accordingly, several international legal instruments
require States Parties to take measures to protect children from abuse and exploitation, as well as to engage in
international cooperation in the investigation and prosecution of child abuse and exploitation crimes. The
status of ratification, however, varies between instruments, as well as the degree to which the international
measures have been incorporated into national law.

The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children,
supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime requires its 165 States
Parties to criminalize the trafficking of persons, including children. It also contains provisions relating to the
prevention and combating of trafficking, the protection and assistance of victims of trafficking and to
international cooperation between States Parties in order to meet those objectives. A key value of the Protocol

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lies in the fact that it renders irrelevant the consent of any child victim of the practice of trafficking in persons
within the scope.

The Guidelines on Justice in Matters involving Child Victims and Witnesses of Crime,250 adopted in 2005 by
the United Nations Economic and Social Council, set forth “good practices based on the consensus of
contemporary knowledge and relevant international and regional norms, standards and principles.” They are
intended to provide governments, law, policymakers, civil society, and practitioners, especially the judiciary,
with a practical framework for adopting adequate legislation, policies, and practices, in order to ensure full
respect for the rights of child victims and witnesses of crime. The Guidelines also seek to contribute to the
effective implementation of the CRC and to assist, support, and improve the assistance, treatment, and care
for child victims so as to meet these children‟s special needs and best interests. The principles and guidelines
are relevant with regard to the sexual exploitation and abuse of children insofar as they also pertain, in
general, to victims of abuse and exploitation crimes within or without the context of ICTs. Moreover, some
specific guidelines, such as ones related to the right to privacy, the right to protection from hardship, and the
right to safety, are essential in affording child victims and witnesses of sexual abuse and exploitation a due
amount of protection against re- and secondary victimization.

UNICEF has reported gaps concerning child prostitution in the criminal laws of many States Parties to the
OPSC. These gaps include laws that only criminalize the prostitution of children below the age of consent to
sexual activity in the national legal system or that define prostitution in gender-specific terms, or exclude
certain sexual acts. For example, national legislation on trafficking often focuses on the sexual exploitation of
women and girls, which neglects the trafficking of boys for sexual exploitation. The laws of some countries
focus on the immorality of sexual activities rather than the exploitation and abuse that have occurred. As a
result, trafficking survivors may be held legally accountable for acts committed as a result of sexual
exploitation.

Committee Directive

The Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee will convene to address the commercial sexual
exploitation of children, debating measures that will combat the root factors of this violation of human rights.
The committee will attempt to resolve illicit exchanges of underage pornography on the Deep Web, notably,
Tor. While CSEC is a violation of fundamental human rights, it should be noted that CSEC in the forms of

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sex tourism and trafficking is a lucrative sector for certain national economies, as is the case for Thailand,
India, Cambodia, and the Philippines. Consequently, many countries lose the incentive to properly address it.
Delegates should be prepared to present and defend their country‟s position, even more so in the event that
said the country is breaching its legal and humanitarian obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of
the Child. According to the International Organization for Migration, “Within the next decade, human
trafficking is predicted to surpass the illegal arms and drugs trade in its incidence, the cost to human
wellbeing, and profitability to criminals.”67 This rapidly escalating crisis requires intervention by the Third
Committee of the General Assembly, whose conclusions will represent the first step in a long battle toward
effectively combating the commercial sexual exploitation of children, which is critical in achieving the MDGs
and the UN‟s long-term objectives in the post-2015 agenda.

REFERENCES

1. https://www.un.org/en/ga/third/
2. https://www.state.gov/other-policy-issues/statelessness/
3. https://www.humanrights.is/en/human-rights-education-project/human-rights-concepts-ideas-and-fora/the-
human-rights-protection-of-vulnerable-groups/stateless-persons
4. https://www.unhcr.org/ending-statelessness.html
5. files.institutesi.org/ISI_statistics_analysis_2020
6. https://www.unodc.org/documents/Cybercrime/Study_on_the_Effects.pdf

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