In-School+Conference

=  **In-School Conference on Child Labor: Wednesday, November 25 ** =

**2009 In-School Conference** This year’s In-School Conference was on the issue of child labor. The issue was discussed through moderated caucuses until three working papers were produced by Bangladesh, the US, and Russia. Bangladesh’s and the US’ papers focused on respecting individual sovereignty with minor differences between the two, Russia’s paper included a plan to disperse aid from wealthier countries to fund schooling. Through several unmoderated caucuses the three working paper’s were more or less condensed into one resolution written by Bangladesh and sponsored by the US, China, UK, India, and Mexico. This resolution set an age range for what could be considered child labor, and set plans for punishing those companies using child labor with fines which would go directly to UN programs that would help ex-child laborers. Most of all it respected the sovereignty, leaving education to the state. The resolution was passed with the amendment that a deadline of 2025 be set for these changes. At the end of the conference three countries and their delegates were awarded prizes for best delegates. First place went to Bangladesh with Nathan Rifkin and Tovah Rosenthal, second went to the United States with Cathy Li and Judy Cuker, and third went to India with Carter Merenstein. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Jon Gewirtzman and Jared Hirsch United States of America: Judy Cuker and Cathy Li People's Republic of Bangladesh: Tovah Rosenthal and Nate Rifkin Republic of India: Carter Merenstein Federal Republic of Germany: Kyle McKibbin and Greg Fry Republic of Indonesia: Rebecca Gladstone and Lindsey Benjamin Federative Republic of Brazil: Rachel Feldman and Kaitlyn Brady Federal Republic of Nigeria: Jason Pollack and Josh Drossner People's Republic of China: Johanna Press and Aurora Janes Russian Federation: Ross Fine and Seth Harrison Japan: Ryan McCann and Kevin Baik United Mexican States: Tom Parsons, Mitch Wang, and Albert Shu Islamic Republic of Pakistan: Zach Bohm and Seth Carver Republic of Peru: Mike Martua
 * Country Assignments:**

Moderators: Zach Gellman and Ben Zauzmer

 Word document with a good summary of the issue.  http://www.unicef.org/ protection/index_childlabour. html__ UNICEF’s site on child labor provides a good overview of the issues. There are statistics here that will help you get a broad understanding of the problem around the world.

http://hrw.org/children/labor. htm__ The Human Rights Watch website on child labor will give you an idea about what kinds of jobs children perform in different sectors.

http://fieldnotes.unicefusa. org/2008/06/world_day_against_ child_labor.html__ This site from the U.S. Fund for UNICEF will give you an idea about the World Day Against Child Labor. Make sure to look at the link to the UNICEF-supported National Child Labor Project in India for an idea about how new programs might work.

http://www.childinfo.org/ labour.html__ This website contains many of UNICEF’s statistics on child labor around the world. It may be a little confusing to follow, but it does contain some very interesting information. Make sure to check your country’s data on Country Data section of the site.

[] Guide to writing position papers with a short example at the bottom.

http://www.unausa.org/munpreparation/rulesofprocedure Short description of conference procedure.

5. "This is about more than Model UN. This is about who's friends with who." - Rebecca Gladstone, Bangladesh 4. "Eight minutes left? I'm gonna write a new working paper." - Carter Merenstein, United Kingdom 3. "Indonesia ... WE DECLARE WAR!" - Tom Parsons, Germany 2. "Who's gonna make all of the toys?" - Matt Gellman, China 1. "Great ... you merged ... we'll work out the details later ... the resolution passes!" - Jon Ferrari, Moderator
 * Top five moments, 2008:**[[image:Model_UN_3.JPG width="255" height="204" align="right"]]