South Fraser Model United Nations 2014

SOCHUM

The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights
cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.
- Ayn Rand

Introduction


While it is clear that a democratic or decent hierarchical
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regime must guarantee the
expression of the popular will through majority rule, it is equally clear that it must
guarantee that the majority will not abuse use its power to violate the basic and
inalienable rights of the minority. But that being said, many nations do not have enough
stability to administrate a decent form of government, where basic right of all people are
guaranteed. In many areas around the world, minorities are discriminated against because
of their race, their political views, and their religious views. Their basic human and civil
rights are neglected because of these reasons. Human Rights is viewed by most
intellectuals as roughly the same rights that citizens have in a reasonable constitutional
democratic regime; this simply expands the class of human rights to include all the rights
guaranteed in a liberal regime. Human rights, as described by John Rawls in Law of
People, express a special class of urgent rights, such as freedom from slavery and
serfdom, liberty (but not equal liberty) of conscious, and security of ethnic groups from
mass murder and genocide. The international society has condemned the violation of this
class of rights.

SOCHUM will take this issue further and bring the discussion on enforcement of human
rights for all minorities worldwide.


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Decent Hierarchical regimes are regimes that are not liberal or democratic, but people
within these nations have a majority of their human rights respected and there is a decent
or above decent life standard within the nation. (Eg. Kuwait, United Arab Emirates)

Overview

Nature hath made men so equal in the faculties of body and mind as that, though there be found one man
sometimes manifestly stronger in body or of quicker mind than another, yet when all is reckoned together the
difference between man and man is not so considerable as that one man can thereupon claim to himself any
benefit to which another may not pretend as well as he. For as to the strength of body, the weakest has strength
enough to kill the strongest, either by secret machination or by confederacy with others that are in the same
danger with himself.
-Thomas Hobbes Leviathan (1651)

Minorities come in different forms. There are racial minorities, such as the African Americans in
1920s America. Then there are political minorities, such as colonialists during the American
Revolution. Political minorities may have the same ethnical and cultural background as the
majority of people in a society, but have different viewpoints on political, economical and social
affairs. These viewpoints may oppose the policies of their government. Libertarians during
communist Russia would be another example of political minorities. And finally, there are
religious minorities, such as the Muslims in Burma or the Jews in Germany during world war two.
Minority discrimination has left countless numbers of dark marks in human history.
Discrimination also comes in different forms, some more extreme than others. Incidences such as
the exploitation of people through slavery or oppression, genocide and mass murder, are classified
as extreme forms of discrimination. Although occurrences such as lack of political participation for
minorities and xenophobic attitudes towards them are not classified as life threatening or an
extreme violation of basic rights, they should always be fought, otherwise we are putting at stake
the opportunity of living in an egalitarian society, where all humans are truly equal.

Equality has been a point brought up by many philosophers, but it was only after the French
revolution that we see a form of early equality within a constitution. The proposition All men are
born equal is the firsts point brought up in the American declaration of independence. But if
according to the American constitution all men are equal, why is that it took approximately 100
years for slavery to be abolished in a nation that believed in equality?

In a society of reasonable democratic people and decent hierarchical people, more rights are
guaranteed to the people than the special class of basic human and civil rights described by John
Rawls. In a utopian society, populaces of democratic regimes should have equal rights and
opportunities, no matter what race or views they have. So how can many democratic and decent
hierarchical regimes lack this view, to higher or lower extent? Well, a major issue in western
nations (all of which are democratic regimes) is the vast amount of xenophobic views towards
minorities. Many minority groups are not guaranteed equal rights by the constitution, or in a
circumstance where equal rights for all people is guaranteed by the constitution, we witness a
failure in the security of these sections when it come into play.

In a decent hierarchical regime, racial and religious minorities are tolerated. These tolerations
include formal equality meaning that no matter what ethnical background a person comes from,
they are treated equally in the court of law. This is where cultural discrimination and stereotyping
minorities comes into play. Xenophobic views towards minorities prevent a clean moral judgment
on the action of a particular person. We witness this lack of equal judgment in all nations,
including democratic ones.


But even though there is minority discrimination in democratic and decent hierarchal regimes, it
seems to be minuscule when compared to the occurring in many burdened societies around the
world. In history, there are many horrid events that have led to mass genocide, such as the
holocaust or the Rwanda.

Possible Solutions
Eliminating minority discrimination is a realistic goal, but the United Nations faces many
challenges in accomplishing this aim. As SOCHUM, the delegates should attempt to come up with a
list of priorities in which

Although it is true that many nations do not have a stable enough system to promise equal
privileges and opportunities for minorities, they must tolerate and respect minorities by granting
them equal rights in the constitution and treating everybody equally in front of the law.

Xenophobic attitudes towards minorities are a social problem, which needs to be fixed at the root
of the future generations, the educational systems. Developing different educational systems
around the world into a system in which all youth are educated as one no matter what ethnic
background they have. This allows for future generations to be tolerant towards minorities and
not see themselves as superiors, but as equals.

In nations where the system is denying the basic human rights of minority groups, it is the duty of
the international community to force the said nation to govern its minorities without breaking the
Declaration of Human rights. The United Nations can do this through approving economic
sanctions on the nation, forcing it to negotiate according to the principles of human rights. When
this fails, the UN has a mandate to protect minorities in a case of genocide, and although military
intervention should only be used as a last resort, it should never not be an option.





Bloc Positions
To determine your countrys position on this issue, you must examine different factors both
governmental and cultural. If your nation has many controversial aspects to it, such as an
illegitimate government or a dark history of human rights abuse, you are obviously not going to
support military interventions in your region, or even sanctions put up against you or your
nations allies.

As a democratic and developed nation, you must seek peaceful resolutions such as help to set up
strong educational systems in nations where minorities are known to be discriminated against.

You will also want to consider sanctions in cases where there is extreme minority discrimination
such as mass murder and genocide.

All nations will want to speak for their citizens that have immigrated to different nations. For
example, North African nations will want top speak up for the North Africans that have
immigrated to France and are being neglected of their given rights in their new nation,