HagaMUN – 6,7 and 8 March 2020

 SPC 1Countering toxic narratives about refugees and migrants (UNHCR)6th, 7th and 8th of March 2020Gymnasium Haganum, The HagueForum: SPC 1Issue:Countering toxic narratives about refugees and migrants (UNHCR)Student Officer:Hussain FurniturewalaPosition:President ChairIntroductionRefugees have been suppressed, demeaned and unheard. The nations welcoming these refugees harbor such toxic and hostile relations that arise conflict and division. These refugees currently lack a voice due to insecure feelings, where they feel unwelcome or unwanted. It is imperative for society to understand the perspectives of these refugees, their struggles and their backgrounds. What the general public lacks is an insight, an insight on the horrors and struggles of seeking asylum. Refugees entering a country brings about many stereotypes of that population. Refugees prominently from Islamic states produce toxic narratives where safety becomes a concern. Media misrepresentation of Islam impact the stereotypes and oppression these refugees face. The public is always apprehensive of the dangers that come with obtaining refugees. As a result, many refugees face poor housing, low employment rates and discrimination within a workplace. The fear of terrorism or “Islamophobia” is still prevalent today. Other claims are how refugees are just extra baggage for a nation. UN bodies are collectively working together to eradicate such feeble mindsets that deteriorate progressive thinking, to eliminate toxic narratives associated with refugees. Various acts throughout history such as the 1951 refugee act and the 1967 refugee status convention were important moments that clarified refugees as individuals that needed protection. Originally, refugees were only classified to enter a country based on their literacy rate, The Immigration Act of 1917 specified how only literate individuals could gain citizenship into the country and they tested these individuals for validity. Children are exposed to the atrocities of seeking asylum through the harsh roots of xenophobia. UNICEF is prevalent in preventing xenophobia and discrimination at the final destination for refugees. Disinformation about refugees is a constant issue in social media. In this ever-developing era of media, false claims and disinformation is easily spread which criminalizes many refugees instilling false public fear. Google, Facebook and Twitter pledged in 2019 to censor false information by evaluating public posts. It’s important to note the extent this can be monitored as social media is connected to a broadened spectrum of the world where illicit information can easily be transmitted.Definitions of Key TerminologyRefugeeA person forced to leave their home nation due to persecution, war, oppression or natural disasters. Asylum SeekerA person who has left their native country as a political refugee in search for asylum/shelter in another country.StereotypesA broadened widely held and oversimplified image of a particular person or group of people.PersecutionIll treatment and hostility due to race and religion.Ratification Providing formal consent to a treaty.Suppression Confining a voice or action to certain limits.XenophobiaPrejudice and dislike of people from different nations.ExclusionLeaving out/ excluding a group of individuals from certain acts. IslamophobiaPrejudice against Islam/MuslimsMajor parties involved SyriaMarch 2011 in Syria was the beginning of extreme oppression towards The Syrian civilization, peaceful protests escalated into a civil war. Over 220,000 civilians have died in the civil war. Most people staying there are living in terrible living conditions where homes are destroyed along with extreme human rights violation measures. A sparsity of food and medical aid as a result. Consequently, Syrians have migrated across the world to seek shelter or asylum. Originally, it was Jordan and Lebanon taking these refugees, slowly European countries like Greece and Turkey also started to participate. Recently, countries such as Canada and Germany have been highly prominent showcasing their potency when taking in refugees. Afghanistan2015 reported over 2.5 million Afghan refugees. Country rebels gained control of the nation in 1994. The entire nation became destabilized by The Taliban. The main refugee population of Afghanistan is young, due to this, many children have been displaced and orphaned. 25% of civilian casualties in Afghanistan are children, refuge is extremely imperative. Majority of Afghan refugees are situated in Iran and Pakistan. Afghanistan refugees still receive low income housing and are situated with the lower economic balance of Pakistan. Many of which in Iran are demeaned through which faith they follow, either being Sunni or Shia. Minorities of Afghan Sikhs choose to flee to India as a result of this oppression and fear of persecution.United States of AmericaOver 3 million refugees have migrated to The US since 1975. Since 2012, 12,000 refugees have been admitted. A decline in the number of refugees being admitted into the country has been seen in recent years. The leading country of origin is Burma (Myanmar) that have migrated to the US for refuge. Refugees in the US are currently oppressed systematically. Segregation and hateful political rhetoric spur in the media to exclude refugees from the nation. Since Trump’s presidency, refugees are becoming more and more secluded, the increasing amount of travel bans to The United States have drastically increased. Many refugee parents struggle with “Americanizing” their children. Refugees are also barricaded to many health services and insurance, low economic housing as well as poverty. Such discrimination leads to them relying on agencies and case managers. CanadaMore than 25,000 refugees have settled in Canada. As of 2017, over 40,000 Syrian refugees have sought asylum in Canada. Canada has been welcoming and forthcoming for Syrian refugees under the leadership of Justin Trudeau. The Canadian government has aided refugees through many settlement programs. The Resettlement Assistance Program comprises staff welcoming refugees at the airport, providing adequate and sufficient housing for them as well as attending to important needs. Private sponsors also aid towards sheltering refugees. Another important and potent program is the In-Canada Asylum program, this program helps Canadians who face discrimination and persecution by providing them with protection or relocating them. IRC (International Rescue Committee)The IRC is a popular non-governmental global humanitarian aid organization. They aid refugees and asylum seekers. The IRC is effective in educating and providing green cards or citizenship to refugees and asylees. They have identified issues that many refugees face is poor access to the internet which makes it tough for them to communicate across borders. As well as this, refugees also face transportation issues. The main provision of educating refugees is to eliminate language barriers, these language barriers restrict them from getting employed. IRC has published many flowcharts, hosted conferences and provided translators to improve coherence in comprehension of the issue at hand, and to spread awareness on the matter.Timeline1891The establishment of The Bureau of Immigration1917The Immigration Act of 19171948The Displaced Persons Act1951The convention relating to the status of refugees1952 and 1953The INA (Immigration and Nationality Act) and The Refugee Relief Act1959-1962The Fair Share Refugee Act and the exclusion of Cuban refugees1967The Refugee Status convention of 1967, UN High commissioner 1980The 1980 Refugee Act1998The Haitian Refugee Immigration fairness Act2002-2003Department of Homeland Security establishedRelevant UN treaties and eventsUNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)The UNHCR was formed shortly after the Second World War where many refugees were displaced. UNHCR is known for its powerful impact in safeguarding the rights and well-being of refugees. They also assist stateless people and guiding them to gain citizenship and shelter. In 2016, they collaborated with The UN General Assembly where they addressed the issues of refugees and migrants. The approach to the situation was known to be on a more humanitarian approach where member states would collaborate with each other to ensure security and safety. The primary focus was on human rights and global cooperation. The UNHCR also partnered with The UN Food and Agricultural Organization in Tehran to combat the issue of starving displaced Afghan children. UNICEFUNICEF is crucial in looking after displaced children worldwide, this comprises refugees and asylees. UNICEF’s objective is to provide security and protection for these children. They ensure these children are placed in a safe environment with all the necessary resources. Turkey is one of the refugee countries they have heavily supported. Supported and placed over 250,000 Turkish refugee children in schools as a part of their Back to School Campaign. Assessments were done train Syrian volunteers and Turkish teachers to ensure a promising education for these refugees. UNICEF has also been proactive in publishing articles and reports to raise further awareness on the unjustifiable actions that take place for refugees, and stereotypes that most of them are forced to abide to. Refugee convention 1951The Refugee convention in 1951 was the first convention hosted by the UNHCR. It defined the term refugee, it was a legal document ratified by over 145 State Parties that outlines the rights of displaced individuals and the legal obligations that were needed to protect them. The convention received over 19 signatories classifying it as a success in history. The convention stated and outlined a perceptive statement where the main objective is to keep refugees secure, to not let them approach their home nation if its war torn with major unrest. 1967 refugee status conventionThis was a key treaty in discerning refugee international law. 1951 restricted geographical locations or in other words, travel bans. As a result, the 1967 protocol lifted these geographical restrictions. This was beneficial in places such as Madagascar that were going through a decolonization process after WWII. General Assembly resolution 2198- The statues of refugees and asylum seekersEvaluation of previous attempts1951 refugee conventionThe 1951 refugee convention was deemed successful as it defined the legal rights for the protection of refugees. Additionally, the formation of The UNHCR was based on this act. It's only drawbacks were that the US didn’t sign the convention and the convention was only applied to a limited scope. 1967 refugee status conventionThe benefits for this convention were that it removed any geographical and temporal limits. This was an amendment to the 1951 act where the act was applied universally with a broadened scope. This was the first act that looked at refugees worldwide. It was extremely effective in its approach as it gave refugees worldwide a status. This was done through The UNHCR.1953 relief actThis act authorized over 200,000 non-quota special immigrant visas for refugees and escapees from different communist countries. This was effective as The US evoked hope for many refugees worldwide. A disadvantage was the illicit acts that translated with taking in refugees. Xenophobic mindsets erupted where the refugees were demeaned as well as given low level occupations.Possible solutionsCombating hate speechCertain laws against hate speech should be created, stating or specifying law produces a censored mindset where someone would think twice before saying something. It wouldn’t be advisable for anyone to condemn hate speech as monitoring this on a large scale would be seemingly impossible. Due to this, discrimination should be prohibited, segregation within educational systems should be eliminated. Discrimination could reduce by providing more occupational opportunities as well as receiving an all rounded access to education. On the other hand, people might argue how providing more opportunities for refugees’ insights more hate speech against them. More importantly, international law should condemn all violent acts and behaviors specifying towards refugees as safety is of main concern for these refugees. Combatting disinformation about refugeesDisinformation about refugees is spread across nations that stage them as savages, uneducated, illiterate individuals as well as presenting them as destructive individuals in the form of terrorists. Fact checking in the media should be applied everywhere. In 2018, there was news circulating how a refugee was killed by an American teenager for raping his sister. This was seen prominently on social media without any visual evidence. Google redirected all searches related to this to fact checking websites that debunked any myths connected to this case. As of 2019, BBC and many tech firms such as Google, Twitter and Facebook worked on combatting disinformation. The effectiveness of this was viewed on Instagram where posts had a fact check warning before a person could publish the post. As we are moving into an era of advanced social media where sensitive information could easily be spread, condemning illicit false information should be implemented in social media and the general media itself.Disinformation could also be prevented by hosting public seminars, preferably NGO’s, incentivized by the UNHCR. These seminars should present the current refugee status in the nation as well as combating false claims that have arisen. Creating encounters between refugees and host communities As stated before, seminars should be held in order to spread information about refugees. Another objective of seminars would be for the public to understand the struggles that refugees experience. These seminars should make the public perspective on the issue of refugees. Additionally, encounters with refugees can also aid their comprehension on the matter at hand. These public seminars could invite refugees to talk about their struggles being a refugee so they provide more insight for society. There should be public visiting days for refugee camps or fun events that create good rapports between refugees and the public. The idea of humanity should be of main priority when spreading these messages. Messages and messengersThis refers to inviting celebrities or influencers to speak on the matter of refugees and to combat racial claims. An influencer has a much greater impact than a UNHCR official. Due to this, these influencers could be invited to certain seminars to speak on the matter. The UNHCR should make an increased effort in stretching out to more and more influencers to join their campaign. Charitable concerts could be held by these celebrities where the funds obtained could be used to fund counselors for refugees and improved shelter. Providing incentives for people make them more inclined to help or support something, providing the public with certain incentives such as publishing a list of names of all the volunteers or donators could be of one, where their support is recognized, though this shouldn’t be of priority. Ensuring laws are metPenalties should be mentioned if certain laws are not met. Penalties are an effective tool to ensure hate speech, discrimination and segregation activities do not take place. Implementing penalties as a monitoring mechanism where conscious efforts to produce hate speech or racial demeaning claims would not be done. These penalties ensure the public to abide to the law. Moreover, social media should apply certain bans of politically hated speech, penalties should be applied towards these tech firms if they do not appropriately censor hate speech and derogatory behavior. An example of political advertising is the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where third party access of data was utilized to sell Trump’s campaign. Bibliography UNICEF’s Agenda for Action for Refugee and Migrant Children | UNICEF. 2020. UNICEF’s Agenda for Action for Refugee and Migrant Children | UNICEF. [ONLINE] Available at:?. [Accessed 03 February 2020].UNHCR. 2020. UNHCR: International Conventions and Treaties. [ONLINE] Available at:?. [Accessed 03 February 2020].. 2020. Refugee Timeline | USCIS. [ONLINE] Available at:?. [Accessed 03 February 2020].Migrant and refugee crisis | UNICEF. 2020. Migrant and refugee crisis | UNICEF. [ONLINE] Available at:?. [Accessed 03 February 2020].UNTC . 2020. UNTC . [ONLINE] Available at:?. [Accessed 03 February 2020].United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 2020. UNHCR?- Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees. [ONLINE] Available at:?. [Accessed 03 February 2020].United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 2020. Refworld | Note on International Protection (Submitted by the High Commissioner). [ONLINE] Available at:?. [Accessed 03 February 2020].Refugee History.. 2020. Timeline — Refugee History.. [ONLINE] Available at:?. [Accessed 03 February 2020].Appendix statistics and graphics on refugee and migrant children | UNICEF. 2020. Latest statistics and graphics on refugee and migrant children | UNICEF. [ONLINE] Available at:?. [Accessed 03 February 2020].OHCHR | Convention relating to the Status of Refugees . 2020. OHCHR | Convention relating to the Status of Refugees . [ONLINE] Available at:?. [Accessed 03 February 2020]. ................
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