SG World Conference On Women

ECOSOC & RB
World Conference
on Women
WELCOME TO THE ECOSOC & RB

Topic A: World Water Crisis: Disease Management and Sustainable Solutions
HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI
History of the Problem ................................................... 9

Current Situation ................................................................. 13
Questions a Resolution Must Answer ............... 19
Bloc Positions ........................................................................ 20
Suggestions for Further Research ....................... 21
LEGAL COMMITTEE
Topic B: Containing Epidemics in

the 21st Century
History of the Problem ........................................................ 21
Current Situation ..................................................................... 26
Past Committee Actions .............................................. 29
Central Questions .......................................................... 30
Questions a Resolution Must Answer ..... 31
Bloc Positions .......................................................... 32
Suggestions for Further Research ....... 32
LEGAL COMMITTEE
Eesha Khare | Harvard Class of 2017
Dear Delegates,
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the United Nations
World Conference on Women of the Harvard World Model United Nations 2016! My name is Eesha Khare, and I am honored to be serving as
your Chair for these important and crucial topics.
Originally from Saratoga, California, I am currently a junior at Harvard College studying Biomedical Engineering with a focus on chemistry
and materials on the bachelors of science track. Apart from my involvement in Model UN at Harvard, I am passionate about developing technology for a sustainable world and have worked on researching energy
storage devices, for which I was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 in
Energy list in 2014. I currently work as a biomaterials researcher at the
Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and enjoy connecting
world events with my research. I also love traveling, walking outside, and
most of all, dancing.
For the past two years, I have attended the Women in the World
Conference held in New York City. Each year, the conference serves as a
platform to address the larger issues regarding womens empowerment,
gender equality and violence against women. Yet to this day, gender
equality has not been achieved, and while conferences such as this shed
light on the many issues that surround gender dynamics, it is up to us to
carry through effective action on a day-to-day basis. My position as the
chair of the Womens Initiative in Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School
of Governments Institute of Politics, further served to confirm this belief
and I truly believe that the world can be made a much better place if we
worked to give underrepresented women the opportunity to participate
in society. This is an age-old problem, but I am confident that we as a
generation can work towards solving it.
This is my first WorldMUN and I am incredibly excited to meet

you all in March. By critically thinking about the many facets that build
this issue, we will be able to build a community of people and network
of ideas. I truly believe that this experience will be enriching, fascinating
and most of all, empowering. Please feel free to contact me if you have
any questions during your research and preparation. Looking forward to
WorldMUN 2016 and see you in Rome!
Best,
Eesha Khare
Chair, World Conference on Women
Harvard World Model United Nations Rome 2016
ekhare@college.harvard.edu
LEGAL COMMITTEE
Introduction
The United Nations Commission on the

Status of Women (CSW) called for the organization of the first World Conference on Women. The
conference was created in response to unmet needs
in the founding charter of the United Nations, which
includes a provision for equality between men and
women (Chapter III, Article 8). Since then, the UN
has organized four World Conferences on Women:
in Mexico City in 1975, Copenhagen in 1980, Nairobi in 1985 and Beijing in 1995. Gender inequality
remains a pressing issue and addressing it on an international level will enable greater economic, social
and cultural productivity.
This conference will address three of the 12
critical issues outlined by the UN World Conference on Women: violence against women, women
in power and decision making, and institutional
mechanism for the advancement of women. These
three topics are often not given enough attention and
thus are among the most demanding issues that both
enable delegate creativity and impact if appropriately
addressed. In particular, delegates will have the opportunity to understand the judicial system in a new
lens on violence against women and the ability of
women to enter governance in terms of institutionalizing advancement of women.
During our time together at the conference,
we will explore potential policy recommendations,
action plans and implementation of frameworks that
build on existing resources and partnerships. Discussion and debate will enable productive conversations
that analyze the strengths and improvements behind
each possible solution. Though the nature of these
issues is multifaceted, the goal is to create a comprehensive resolution that considers cultural landscape,
economic influence, and political capital. By considWORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN
ering such nuances within society, we will be able

to build a stronger solution towards creating gender
equality and incite meaningful change moving forward in 2016.
History of the Committee

In 1946, the United Nations Economic and
Social Council (ECOSOC) established the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to achieve
goals of womens empowerment and gender equality.
Among its many initiatives, CSW has organized four
World Conferences on Women in order to unite
the international community on objectives for the
advancement of women across the globe. The first
conference was organized in 1975 in Mexico City to
coincide with the newly passed UN resolution that
named 1975 as International Womens Year.
Each of the four conferences has resulted in a new
set of objectives for gender equality to be carried
out over the following years. The first conference in
Mexico City in 1975 resulted in the adoption of the
First World Plan for Action, calling on governments
to develop strategies for gender equality. The second
conference in Copenhagen in 1980 reviewed the
Mexico Plan for Action and agreed upon the 1979
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The third conference in
Nairobi in 1985 further updated and discussed the
plans laid out in the Copenhagen conference and
stressed the importance of women in social participation, political participation and decision-making.
The fourth and most recent conference in
Beijing in 1995 was perhaps the most pivotal in
dictating the goals for gender equality and womens
empowerment that are still in place today. Not only
was this conference critical in setting an agenda for
womens empowerment, but it was also the largest

conference the UN had organized. It built on the
platforms established by the three previous conferences and had over 17000 participants from NGOs,
journalists, and 189 government delegations in
attendance. At the conference, the 189 UN Member
States unanimously adopted the Beijing Platform
for Action, which outlined 12 critical issues for the
improvement of women. These issues include: women and poverty, education and training of women,
women and health, violence against women, women
in armed conflict, women and the economy, women
in power and decision-making, institutional mechanism for the advancement of women, human rights
of women, women and the media, women and the
environment and the girl-child.
Since 1995, governments have been

working towards the goals established in the initiative. The General Assembly and Economic and Security Council have mandated CSW to hold reviews
five, ten and 15 years after the Beijing conference to
evaluate progress on the 1995 goals. Currently, the
body required to follow up on the Beijing conference is the Division for the Advancement of Women
(DAW) within the CSW.
The 59th session of the CSW in March 2015
focused on producing a 20 year report, Beijing+20,
and included opportunities for gender equality and
womens empowerment post-2015. In preparation,
the UN undertook regional and national reviews and
ultimately adopted a draft resolution on the future
organization and methods of the CSW. This resolu-
Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.

Source: UNO Stamps. <http://www.unostamps.nl/subject_fourth_world_conference_on_women.htm> 15 Feb 2008. Web. 20 May 2015
WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN
tion reaffirms that the primary responsibility of the

CSW is to follow up on the fourth World Conference
on Women and continue advancing womens and
girls rights in the post-2015 years. Further, CSW will
work with the Bureau of the Commission to identify emerging issues and invite gender-specific UN
entities such as the Committee on the Elimination
of Discrimination against Women to collaborate on
implementation.
To date, many of the objectives outlined in
the Beijing Platform for Action from the 1995 Fourth
World Conference on Women remain unmet. The
CSW and subsequent world conferences on women
are tasked with following and reviewing the plan to
create specific objectives.
Structure and Modus

Operandi of the
Committee
This committee session will work towards

substantial practical resolutions that address women
in power and decision-making and violence against
women. This session will function like a standard
CSW committee, which will be focused on reviewing, revising and updating the objectives dictated in
the Beijing Platform for Action. This committee is
expected to come to practical and meaningful resolutions after debate and discussion. I expect each
delegate to be familiar with the facts, foundations
and underlying beliefs of their respective countries,
so that we can produce meaningful and informed
discussion and debates. Further, each delegate should
have thought of past actions, their countrys priorities and current issues facing the country in order
to best represent the real-life difficulty in arriving
at an appropriate resolution. Delegates will also be

required to have a basic understanding of the goals
outlined in the Beijing Platform for Action, as these
goals have formed the foundation of discussion on
topics regarding the advancement of women for the
past twenty years.
This debate will follow standard World Model
UN Parliamentary Procedure based on Roberts
Rules of Order to best reflect the standard format
on the real UN Commission on the Status of Women. There will be 45 delegations from around the
world, representing the geographic distribution of
UN Member States that currently exists in the UN
Commission on the Status of Women. The size of
this committee lends itself to the use of moderated
caucus to facilitate equitable and purposeful discussion. We will have a default speaker list and allow
un-moderated caucuses for the formation of blocs
and drafting resolutions. Throughout this session,
delegates are expected to act in accordance with the
parliamentary procedure; alterations are allowed
solely at the discretion of the chair.
This conference will act according to the following
rules dictated for its parent committee, Commission
on the Status of Women:
The Economic and Social Council
(ECOSOC) again modified the Commissions
terms of reference in 1996, in its resolution 1996/6, deciding that the Commission
should:
(a) Assist the Council in monitoring,
reviewing and appraising progress
achieved and problems encountered
in the implementation of the Beijing
Declaration and Platform for Action
at all levels, and should advise the
Council thereon;
(b) Continue to ensure support for
mainstreaming a gender perspective
in United Nations activities and de-
velop further its catalytic role in that

regard in other areas;
(c) Identify issues where United
Nations system- wide coordination
needed to be improved in order to
assist the Council in its coordination
function;
(d) Identify emerging issues, trends
and new approaches to issues affecting the situation of women or equality
between women and men that required consideration and make substantive recommendations thereon;
(e) Maintain and enhance public
awareness and support for the implementation of the Platform for Action
Topic A: Women in
Corporate and
Electoral Governance
History and Discussion of the Problem
Beijing Platform for Action 1995

Within the Beijing Platform for Action at
the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995,
the following actions were established in order to
promote women in power and decision-making. The
platform suggests governments commit themselves
to establishing goal of gender balance in governmental bodies and committees [by]setting specific
targets and implementing measures to substantially
increase the number of women. It further encourages governments to monitor and evaluate the progress
of representation of women, protect equal rights of
men and women to engage in politics, and review the
effects of having more women in politics.
The platform encourages political parties to
both remove barriers within their structures that
discriminate against or limit the participation of
women, and incorporate gender issues within their
agendas.
The platform also encourages private sector,
employers organizations and academic instructions to strengthen mechanisms to monitor womens access to senior levels of power, develop career
advancement programs, and support participation of
womens groups within the United Nations.
As of January 2015, 21 percent of parliamentarians are women, up from just 11 percent during
the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women in
1995. While the number of female politicians has
doubled within the past twenty years, women still
remain a far minority in governance. In a history
where women are already disadvantaged due to
discriminatory laws and practices, having women in
leadership roles both in electoral and corporate governance can make a difference that benefits society as
a whole and helps advance the status of women.
The history of the world has been filled with
influential women in positions of power, ranging
from Indira Gandhi, the first woman Prime

Minister of India (1966), to Margaret Thatcher, the
first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
(1979), to Benazir Bhutto, the first woman elected
Prime Minister of Pakistan and head of a Muslim
country (1988). However, these women have often
been edited out of history in an effort to hide their
stories. Further, the majority of women only gained
the right to vote within the past 50 to 100 years, and
in Saudi Arabia, women only gained the right to vote
in 2015. The rate of change has been glacially slow
and women in leadership and political power still
have a large distance ahead to cover before equality
for all is achieved.
Overall, these action steps are aimed at

increasing the number of women who participate
in decision-making and leadership and serve as a
guideline for member states.
Importance of Women in Political Positions

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
states that everyone has the right to take part in the
government of his or her country. In order for women to lead fulfilling lives, they need to take part in the
many levels of society, from personal life to public
life. By having a governance gender composition
that reflects that of society, the hope is that womens
perspectives can be incorporated in all levels of decision-making, thus leading to a more equitable and
advanced society. Currently, women fill only twenty-one percent of parliamentary positions and while
they are beginning to gain leadership in communi-
10
ties, negative stereotyping through media reinforces

a political domain where the major candidates are
still men.
Studies have shown that having more women
legislators in developed countries results in increases in social spending, decreases in poverty, and the
prioritization of health. First, because male and female legislators vote differently on certain gendered
issues, changing the composition of electoral bodies
will result in change legislative outcomes. Further, a
study in Belgium showed that an increase in womens
representation in legislature resulted in the greater
passage of womens friendly policies. While measuring women-friendly policies is complicated, an
appropriate guideline to help evaluate this measure is
by comparing the policy to the Beijing Platform for
Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference in
Beijing in 1995. In other words, policies that address
UN Infographic on representation of women in politics.

Source: UN Women. <http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/leadership-and-political-participation/facts-and-figures> 15 Feb 2015. Web. 20
May 2015
LEGAL COMMITTEE
violence against women, resources for women, womens rights and the promotion of womens economic
equality can all be categorized as women-friendly
policies. Within developing countries, a longitudinal
study demonstrated that an increase in womens legislative representation also contributed to improvements in child health. However, even within this
general consensus that an increase in womens representation results in an increase in female-friendly
policies, there are many nuances that affect how
women vote. One study found that party dominance
and attitudes towards women in legislature significantly affect the passage of women-friendly policy.
Other studies have found that party affiliation com-
plicates outcomes on womens policy. And still,

others have argued that altogether, the empirical evidence that women influence policy implementations
is inconclusive.
In recent years, the theory of critical mass
has been researched in corporate and electoral settings. Critical mass is the concept that women and
minority groups only have substantial influence in
a boardroom or governance if they grow from a few
people to 15 percent of the board. This is because
when under 15 percent, women were only considered tokens within the boardroom, but with over 15
percent, they were able to form alliances to address
gendered issues. Further, women often felt at greater
Womens share of board seats in European Stock Indexed companies in 2014.

Source: Catalyst. 2014 Catalyst Census: Women Board Directors. 13 January 2015. Web. 20 May 2015
LEGAL COMMITTEE
11
Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel.

Source: TIME Magazine. Brief History of Women. Web. 20 May 2015
12
ease in the boardroom if surrounded by other women. A subsequent study in 1988 demonstrated an
increased number of women in Swedish legislature
resulted in a decrease in resistance to womens participation in political positions. Moving to corporate
boardrooms, a widely publicized study in 2006 reported that having three or more women on a board
can create a critical mass where women no longer
are seen as outsiders. In other words, one woman
no longer represents the womans point of view and
because the women express different views and often disagree with each other [they are] treated as
individuals with different personalities. These initial

studies have been expanded on in multiple settings
including developed and developing countries. However, there is still much contention on the validity
of this theory. In a survey of corporate directors,
researchers found a tension between some responses
in support of critical mass and others in support of
the first and only status. Further, the direct link between critical mass and resulting legislative outcomes
remains unclear and researchers are still working on
solidifying the causal links to bring more support to
the theory. Despite these contentions, critical masss
effect on outcomes still has proved an important

justification for legislators and advocates of electoral
gender quotas.
Overall, the tremendous variety in the outcomes of having womens representation in power
makes the debate on the efficacy of actions such as
gendered electoral quota even more contentious than
it was initially.
Current Situation
Through the course of the past fifty years,
many electoral policies have developed in order
to increase the number of women participating in
legislature and corporate governance. Among these
include gendered quota systems and the local and
regional level. However, such measures raise much
concern on the overall status of women as political representations. Added factors such as negative
stereotyping of women in office in the media coupled
with studies that show that women in reserved positions merely serve as figureheads with no real power,
rather than actors, increase the complexity of how
increased womens legislative representation should
be achieved. This section discusses some of these
issues in greater depth in order to develop a foundation upon which delegates can create a resolution for
women in power and decision-making.
Gendered Quota Systems
Gendered quota systems have been among
the widest-reaching electoral reforms aimed at
Definition of Womens Substantive Representation

As outlined above, the core focus on gender
and politics is on the link between the number of female representatives (descriptive representation) and
the increase in womens policy legislative outcomes
(substantive representation). In other words, womens substantive representation is the actual outcome
of the women-related policy that gets passed through
legislature. However, key questions regarding the
translation of the number of females in office to the
policy implemented require further research. Do
women actually represent other womens interests?
Do women in politics make a difference? Which
bodies act for women and how does substantive representation occur?
Representation should be thought of as a
complex, fluid, dynamic process, which incorporates both numbers, critical actors and concerted
collaborations. While evaluating the composition of
a governing body is one thing, evaluating its actions
are what is even more crucial for bringing about
changes for advancement of women. For example,
the model of representation may significantly affect
how the elected official acts. In a trustee model, the
elected official acts with some autonomy, in contrast
with the delegate model, where the official acts solely
based on the voices of her constituency. The adoption of either model heavily depends on local and
regional contexts. This brings us to the fact that not
all women elected to parliament focus on womens
issues and, similarly, some men advocate for womens
issues despite not being phenotypically female.

A critical actor who initiates and propagates womens issues-related policy proposals can come from a
variety of backgrounds. This critical actor acts within
a context, which highly influences whether substantive representation of women is feasible. When the
womens movement was first being started in Sweden, womens activists used images of themselves as
mothers to dynamically shift the way institutional
contexts were organized.
The purpose of this section was to describe
how substantive policies for the advancement of
women come through multiple different critical actors in multiple backgrounds. The process of change
regarding womens issues is dynamic and should be
considered in a flexible way.
13
14
increasing the number of women in political office.

Over 100 countries adopted measures in which a
certain number of seats in local, regional or national
legislatures would be reserved for women. As a result
of this wide adoption, much focus of research on
women in politics has been focused on understanding the effects of the numbers of women elected and
impact of elections.
Advocates for quotas have argued that the
entrenched sexism in society requires large and
immediate transformations of elected bodies for socio-cultural transformation. In fact, many countries
have adopted quotas after periods of armed conflict
or authoritarian rule, where immediate socio-cultural transformation is necessary for a revitalized
democracy. However, such arguments for revitalized democracy have often fallen through as women
can often be selected by the party elites already in
control.
The three main types of quotas are reserved
seats, party quotas and legislative quotas. Reserved
seats mandate a minimum number of female legislators in countries that already have low levels of
female representation; however, the specific number
is often widely debated. Party quotas, the most common type of quota, are voluntary measures aimed
to commit parties to reach a certain percentage of
women as candidates for office. The last type of quota, legislative quotas, is more common in developing
countries. Such quotas are mandated by the government and generally require women to form 25 to 50
percent of all candidates. The efficacy of each of these
quota systems is highly dependent on implementation and design. Some suggest that party quotas may
be most influential in increasing womens substantive
representation because they are voluntary measures,
while others argue that legislative quotas can have
wider reaching effects because they mandate all parties to adopt quotas.
Each type of quota can be implemented in
different ways depending on the system of governance. As a result, not all quotas will create the same
rise in numbers of women elected to parliament or
increase womens substantive representation. For
example, Rwanda implemented a constitutional
mandate where women must account for 30 percent
of parliamentary seats, but remarkably now women account for close to half the seats in the lower
house of parliament. Other implementations have
resulted in smaller increases of women; France has
a parity law that stipulates 50 percent of all electoral
candidates to be female, but after the 2002 election,
there was only a 1.4 percent increase in the number
of women elected because of underlying attitudes of
political parties towards women. And yet others have
experienced setbacks in such as in Uganda, where
women are regarded as tokens in the government
and not true members.
Examples of such quotas are wide and varied.
India has a quota process for local governance that
resulted in small-scale local changes. The Panchayat
Raj Act in India reserves 50 percent of village, block
and district council positions for women. A study on
this movement determined that female council chief
members served as positive role models for girls in
the community, encouraging them to have greater
educational and career aspirations. Another study
found that leaders invest more in infrastructure that
directly relates to needs of their own genders, such
as drinking water and roads for women. The reservation has also erased the bias against female leaders
and has made it easier to elect female leaders in even
higher positions of power. For example, Sonia Gandhi is the President of the Indian National Congress
and Indira Gandhi was the former Prime Minister
of India. However, even with women in councils for
local decision-making, progress on womens issues
remains stagnant in India. India serves as a great example where attitudes about women in office do not
extend to attitudes on women in the household. This
Case Study: German Mandate of Gendered Quota for

Corporate Boards and Relationship with Economic
System
In March of 2015, Germany passed a contentious law requiring companies to give 30 percent
of their board seats to women starting 2016. This is
a large and significant law as Germany is home to
some of the worlds biggest multinational compa-
nies such as Volkswagen, BMW and Deutsche

Bank. In passing the law, Germany has followed the
European trend where countries including Norway,
Spanish, France and Iceland have passed similar laws
to legislate a greater role for women in the corporate
boardroom. The law specifically addresses the glass
ceiling many women currently face, where boards often accept one or two female members but not more
than that. In other words, the law aims to accomplish what has not happened organically, or through
general pressure: to legislate a much greater role for
women in boardrooms. Under the new law, roughly
200 women are expected to be promoted to corporate executive positions. However, still many business
groups and conservatives criticize the movement
citing that it does not address the real root of female
underrepresentation in business lack of childcare
and shorter school day.
In thinking about why the German law was
successfully passed, it is important to consider the
economic system in place. Germany has a social
market economy, which is a form of capitalism that
favors social policy and social insurance. The country refrains from planning production, but does
support efforts to influence the economy through
organic means. In contrast, the United States has a
capitalist economic system, which may be why the
notion of government quotas in the corporate boardroom has met with much resistance. In the capitalist
system, production is largely privately owned and
therefore, a government quota would be viewed as
an overreach of government power. Further, women
often do not want to fill the board position simply to
meet a requirement. Therefore, in the United States,
one solution that has been proposed is to combine
private persuasion with public pressure in the form
of money. Nager, the chief executive of the Newton
health care company SBSC Inc., quotes in the Boston Globe In this country, money talksmoney is
much more powerful than quotas. In that respect,
may be attributed to the deep penetration of sexism

in certain parts of Indian culture. Further, while
many women do serve on local councils, it is possible
that their husbands significantly affect their political
decisions.
The French constitution also stipulates
political parties to equally represent men and women within two percent for most elections or else
they will lose state funding. The law succeeded in
increasing the number of female candidates from
38.9 percent in 2002 to 41.6 percent in 2007. It also
resulted in the campaigns of women receiving much
more publicity, and has enabled women politicians to
gain a much higher profile in the country. For example, in 2007, Sgolne Royal, the Socialist presidential candidate, received much press coverage during
her campaign against Nicolas Sarkozy. However this
parity law has two weaknesses. First, it affects smaller parties that require the state funding more than
larger parties, which often win more seats in the end.
Second, it does not prevent women candidates from
being placed in elections with unwinnable seats. In
other words, the Union for Popular Movement (part
of Nicolas Sarkozy) had 38.4 percent women candidates but only 12.8 percent were elected. All in all,
France has been slowly moving towards its priority
of parity through a number of key steps; President
Franois Hollande instated a parity government
within his executive cabinet and now women comprise of 50 percent of cabinet and wider government
seats.
15
16
Womens share of board seats in European Stock Indexed companies in 2014.

Source: Catalyst. 2014 Catalyst Census: Women Board Directors. 13 January 2015. Web. 20 May 2015
movements such as the Thirty Percent Coalition,

which is a group of institutional investors, may be
able to privately push corporations to promote diversity on boards. Another solution may be venture
capitalists who could possibly require women on
board before investing a company.
Arguments against quota systems
The biggest argument against quota systems
is that it sets up token women who are just viewed

as proxies to their male counterparts. Especially
in postconflict countries or revitalized democracies, quotas often are less likely to empower women because political elites instate women more for
publicity and requirement purposes, rather than true
change. These women are likely to serve solely to
advance the platform of the existing political elite. As
seen explained in the Indian Panchayat Raj, women
Case Study: Tracing German Chancellor Angela

Merkels Rise to Power
In 2005, Angela Merkel defeated all odds by
winning the election to become the head of state
of Germany its chancellor. Not only was Merkel
a quantum chemist, and East German, but she was
also a divorced, remarried, childless woman-- none
of which make for an attractive candidate. However,
despite the odds against her, Merkel rose to power in
one of the worlds most advanced economies. Merkel
was raised in a Communist state as the daughter of
a Protestant minister. Following on a love of learning imparted by her mother, Merkel earned a doctorate in quantum chemistry in Berlin, and some
have attributed this scientific thinking as key to her
political success. Growing up, she was described as
a woman of few emotions, generally colorless and
mostly silent. However, these personality traits remained hidden behind a strong ambition and desire
to move forward. Merkel quickly learned the rules
of democratic politics of West Germany and found
mentors within the Christian Democratic Union
of Germany. While named the Minister of Women
and Youth under the chancellorship of Helmut Kohl,
Merkel was by no means a feminist position or was
economic parity for women on her agenda. Rather,
her focus was on financial and economic reform. On
the verge of losing her Party vote to determine the
unions candidate for Chancellor elections, Merkel
played a number of strategic moves, waiting on her
male opponents to make mistakes. And finally in
2005, Merkel was sworn in as Germanys first female
Chancellor. Ultimately, people attribute her diligence,
ability to listen, and stamina to her success.
Landscape
Currently, there are 22 females heads of state
including prominent figures such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Argentine President Cristina
Fernandez de Kirchner, Brazilian President Dilma
elected to local councils are often stand-ins for male

relatives. Further nomination of female candidates
is often based on party loyalty where subsequently
elected women are unnecessarily privileged, less capable and blindly loyal to male party bosses because
of the nature of certain electoral systems. In a study
of Argentina, which has mandated a 30 percent gender quota since 1991, researchers found that quotas
reinforced negative stereotypes of women in politics.
While a domestic constituency was used to support
the passing of quotas, the immediate implementation
resulted in a shift in the political attitudes towards
women without the accompanying cultural ones.
In other words, while the mandate did increase the
substantive representation of women in Argentine
office, the label effect that accompanied it resulted in
less substantive representation of outcomes.
Quotas may foster the belief that women
require special treatment in order to be elected. In
other words, quotas assume that women cannot win
positions under their own merit. Therefore, quota
women are viewed negatively by their colleagues in a
phenomenon termed label effect. As a result, legislators sometimes put women in less powerful positions or disregard their policy proposals. Key terms
surrounding this issue are tokenism, which refers to
an externally controlled legislator where parties
select candidates they can control; marginalization
where legislators are excluded from key leadership
positions; and invisibilisation where legislators are
not accounted for in decision-making.
Moreover, the quota system is based on the
assumption that only women can best represent
policies for women; this assumption completely
eliminates the role of men in womens representation.
Designating a certain number of seats for women
fails to account for men or non-gender conformers
that may advocate for gender parity. The quota also
assumes that women elected to office will be acting
in the best interest of other women.
17
Female heads of government as per data provided by an EIU study of government from 1900 to present. The study considers female heads of
government, but not heads of state.
Source: Clinton Global Initiative. No Ceilings Report. 2015. Web. 20 May 2015
History of female representation in national parliament.

18
Percent of men who disagree or strongly disagree that men make better political leaders than women do, as per the World Values Survey conducted in 2010.
Rousseff, and South Korean President Park Geunhye. Women are also more likely to vote than men
and a study of American women showed that 63.7
percent of female citizens voted in the 2012 presidential election compared to 59.7 percent of their male
counterparts. However, still women do not have the
right to vote in places such as Lebanon and Vatican
City, and Saudi Arabia only recently granted womens
suffrage in 2015.
Questions a Resolution must Answer

Improving the status of women worldwide
is an enormous and very complex issue. Keeping
the nuanced and multifaceted aspects of the issue in
mind, a resolution must answer the following questions:
How can previous actions outlined by previous World Conference on Women be modified or
improved on to promote greater government and
societal adoption of gender equality goals?
How can attitudes towards both womens political empowerment be fostered in local communities at a personal level to eliminate inherent prejudice
against women?
How can governmental and electoral conditions be made favorable to promote women in
governance?
Is increasing womens substantive representation the best way to improve conditions regarding
gender equality or is there an alternate method that
should be pursued towards reaching this goal?
Challenges
Despite increased efforts by governments, regional bodies and non-governmental organizations,
still many women face difficulty both in political participation as well as being elected to parliamentary or
corporate office. One major challenge is the lack of
a comprehensive solution that adequately addresses
social factors, issues with quotas themselves and cultural nuances. Because the very root of the problem
is still inconclusive, a sustainable and impactful way
to elect women to office may currently require concerted and carefully planned measures. For example,
it may be possible that increased access to child-care
and family support may enable more women to leave
the home and join the workforce. Another aspect
of the solution may be possible in addressing how
women are portrayed in the media. Because many
media outlets have biased coverage of womens campaigns that affect how women are perceived in general public, measures that specifically target equitable
media coverage may reduce public discoloring of
women in power. Further, issues surrounding quotas
and token women may be approached from a company perspective where companies regulate themselves towards their own public targets.
Social factors and specific cultural nuances
of various countries also pose challenges to bridging
the gap of women in office. Different societies may
require an incremental increase in the number of
women in decision-making, while others may wish
to fast-track it. The incremental track is where

womens representation will gradually increase to
bridge the gap of women in politics. The fast track
requires an immediate (usually within a year) placement of women in executive positions. This fast
track adoption may be necessary in societies where
entrenched sexism must be offset with drastic quota
measures. The adoptions of either of these measures
are heavily dependent on the particular history,
priorities and values of the local society. As discussed
before, India serves as a great example of this because
at the local level, women are well represented in local
village councils but still these political positions do
not translate to general attitudes surrounding women
in daily life. Therefore, understanding cultural values
is critical in evaluating what types of measures are
most appropriate for the specific country.
19
The formation of blocs will most likely be

based on governance method, with additional factors including system of regional cultures, economic
status, and social community norms. While there are
many fine details among each region and country
that will dictate how best to form an effective solution, the three main categories into which countries
can be divided are: republics, constitutional monarchies, and absolute monarchies.
Constitutional Monarchies
Countries in this bloc have a constitutional monarchy where the monarch serves either an
executive or ceremonial power in concert with
other bodies or parliaments within the government. Such countries face similar challenges as the
republic countries in terms of increasing the number of women representatives in their government.
However, the nature of the constitutional monarchy
allows a number of appointments to be made within
the government. Possibly appointing more female
positions within the government may be part of the
solution towards increasing the number of women
representatives. For example, a knighthood or honor
system in the United Kingdom may be used to bring
both men and women to prominence. Such countries
need to balance appointment versus encouragement
carefully in order to improve the situation for women
entering government.
Republics
Countries in this bloc have a republic system of governance have an executive leader with an
accompanying legislative body, where the citizens
either directly or indirectly elect their representatives. Such countries both present the opportunity
for women to serve in government, but also present
a number of challenges. Institutional barriers may
prevent women from accessing positions within
the government and countries in this bloc need to
make an active, conscious effort to increase womens
participation by addressing issues such as media
coverage, stigma, and legislation-to-societal change
translation. These countries will also have difficulty
because simple appointment of female in governance
positions is not as easy due to the nature of the democracy. Countries in this bloc will need to balance
how to increase female representation while still
maintaining the nature of their republics.
Absolute Powers
Countries in this bloc have absolute monarchies or communist bodies in which all the power
is vested in a single governing body. Such countries
have the power to make key decisions for their society with little resistance from opposing parties. In
this manner, countries with such a system of governance might be able to more quickly legislate certain measures to help improve the status of women.
However, this system of governance with a single
ruler often means that a male leader rather than a female one runs the country. A key challenge for these
countries will be in determining how to increase the
voice of women without sacrificing the nature of the
monarchic system. Proposals towards improving
gender equality may require direct government run
programs to reach out and ask for womens feedback and subsequently make laws that address these
issues.
How can legal action and law enforcement be

tailored to eliminate violence against women?
How can governments, international agencies, and NGOs work together to effectively propose
strategies for shifting the underlying roots with
which communities view gender issues in order to
promote a sustainable solution for gender equality?
Bloc Positions
20 WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN
Suggestions for Further Research
Topic B: Bureaucracy and

Violence against Women
History and Discussion of the Problem
To this day, women around the world experience violent crimes such as rape, assault and domestic abuse. More than one in four women worldwide
have experienced either intimate partner violence or
non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. This
is a staggering number. Violence against women is
defined by the United Nations as any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result
in physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to
women, including threats of such acts, coercion or
arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring
in public or private life. Such violence is important
to address not only because it prevents the advancement of women in terms of equality, development
and opportunity, but also because it is a violation
of the basic human right to ones own body. Violence against women is in part a consequence of the
historically unequal power dynamics between men
and women. This disparity has led to the domination
over and discrimination against women. This violence is preventable. Effectively addressing this issue
requires a delicate interplay of cultural, judicial and
bureaucratic factors; a combination that has yet to be
achieved in todays society. Understanding why rape
is underreported is pivotal in improving the legal
and criminal justice systems response to such cases.
Beijing Platform for Action 1995
Within the Beijing Platform for Action at the
Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, the
following actions were established in order to prevent violence against women. The platform begins by
In addition to this study guide, committee members

should utilize the official United Nations website
(www.un.org) and the website for UN Women (www.
unwomen.org) in order to learn more about initiatives that the UN is current conducting towards
improving gender equality. These websites will not
only provide a better understanding on the structure
and function of the World Conference on Women,
but will also serve as a more detailed guideline for
past and current actions of the committee. In particular, reading the seminal Beijing Platform for Action
1995 and its subsequent 20 year follow up (http://
beijing20.unwomen.org) will allow a much more
thorough understanding of where the issue currently
stands.
For this topic in particular, it is also important to develop a better understanding of the type
of governance in your delegations country. While
countries can broadly be grouped into a number of
different general systems of government, there are
nuances and legislations in each one that either allow
or prohibit certain actions. Next, an understanding
of the current electoral scene in your country is also
critical towards being able to make the most appropriate decisions in a resolution. For example, considering how factors such as media, culture, geography,
and law enforcement play in a candidates election
will affect how you choose to increase representation
within your government. Last, understanding the
current female and gender-equality key players within your government and how they advocate these
issues, will allow you to work with leaders in your
country to make the resolutions more tangible.
21
outlining the aforementioned definition of violence

against women and the imperative to address the
issue. It then outlines three strategies designed to
categorize respective actions.
The first objective is to take integrated
measures to prevent and eliminate violence against
women. The platform encourages governments to
promote visible and active policies that condemn violence invoking tradition, enforce penal regulations
and provide women who are subjected to violence
access to justice. It also urges governments to ensure
that women have access to such information, create
institutional mechanisms to keep their reports safe
and confidential, and adopt laws that punish enforcement for engaging in violence against women. The
platform encourages nongovernmental agencies and
other public and private bodies to provide relief shelters for women, organize informational campaigns,
and establish linguistically accessible services for
migrant women.
In terms of strategically targeting the effectiveness of preventive measures, the platform requests research, data collection, and dissemination of
information regarding the impact of gender stereotypes to promote a violence-free society.
Last, the platform also addresses suppressing
the trafficking of women and girls for sex trade as
another approach to addressing violence. It requests
governments to address the root factors and step up
cooperation to dismantle regional and international
trafficking networks.
Overall, the key strategies of the 1995 Beijing
Platform for Action are to enhance legal actions,
bolster preventative measures, and eliminate sex
trafficking of women.
Hillary Rodham Clintons Speech at Beijing
Hillary Clinton delivered remarks at the UN
th
4 World Conference on Women Plenary session
that have continued to echo through womens issues
22
today. Clinton discussed instances around the world

where women were experiencing unnecessary harm
such as treatable illness or domestic abuse. She then
calls on the international community to be mindful
of all the unnoticed experiences and take effort to
speak for those who do not have the opportunity.
Clinton concluded by leaving a message that human
rights are womens rights and womens rights are
human rights.
Her voice left an impact on the many visionaries that were in attendance at the conference as
well as those who had been involved in such issues in
years after. Many note her speech as the beginning
of a movementwhenever people meet her[they
say] I am committed to what this represented and
what you did. Her speech is important to understand in historical context, but also solicits a better
understanding of how visionary figures can change
societal focus towards certain issues. It may be possible that empowering a new male or female leader
and giving them the platform to share such ideas will
help redraw focus to womens issues.
Tracing the roots of gender violence in Africa
Violence against women is pervasive
throughout the world and traditional beliefs are often held as a measure to control the status of women
in society. Over 2000 years ago, Roman law allowed
men to determine the life and death of their wives.
Further, the idea of rule of thumb comes from an
English common law, which gave men permission
to discipline their wives and children with a whip
no wider than his thumb. In Africa, violence begins
at birth where female babies are often discriminated
against. One form of violence that is recognized is
early marriage. Girls in Africa are often married off
by their families in order to protect the girls virginity
as a symbol of family honor, prevent a family from
splitting or reduce household economic burden. A
study on domestic violence in Uganda stated that
documentation on plants of how to mitigate

the issue.
Cultural Pressures of Victim Shaming
Addressing violence against women is even
more challenging because many societies engage in
victim shaming or similar behaviors. Victim shaming
is the idea that the victims are responsible for the
crime that happened to them. The just world theory
created by Lerner in 1980 may serve to explain why
victim blaming happens. The theory argues that individuals get what they deserve and deserve what they
get because the world is a just and safe place. The
just world theory may result in conflicting beliefs if
a crime is commitment against a supposedly good
person. The manifestation of such conflict may be
either through trying to restore justice by punishing
the offender, or trying to deny the injustice by blaming the victim. As the latter is easier to accomplish,
victim blaming becomes a common phenomenon in
society. In the particular case of rape, victim blaming
often occurs to define the difference between a real
sexual assault versus a regrettable sexual experience.
A study found that gender is a strong predictor of
whether the person is likely to engage in blaming the
victim.
Another theory to explain victim blaming is
the attribution theory developed by Heider in 1958.
The theory relates to the way in which individuals
use information to arrive at casual explanations and
judgment for events. If more emphasis is placed on
the situation, the victim is less likely to be blamed.
If more emphasis is placed on the individual victim,
the victim is more likely to be blamed. The defensive
attribution hypothesis argues that people reduce
blame on the victim if they have increased similarities with the victim because the likelihood of such
victimization is higher for them. Understanding
why rape myths are accepted is important because
research shows that men who have a high rape myth
a widow was to be given off to another man in the

family because the family had paid for her in the
price of the dowry; she was family property. Another study found that if a woman tried to return to
her maternal house and her family refused to give
the dowry, she would be sent back to her husbands
house. Such early marriages often end in divorce
because neither party was able to select their spouse
and as a consequence, young divorced mothers often
have no other livelihood except to enter prostitution. Another form of violence commonly found in
28 countries of Africa is female genital mutilation,
which involves cutting off female genital origins. Ultimately, today the roots of violence against women
in Africa are embedded in economic reasons.
Efforts to end gender violence in Africa
in particular were discussed at the Africa UNiTE
Mount Kilimanjaro Climb in 2012 with an end
commitment from all African governments to end
gender violence by 2015. The climb was designed
to promote high visibility of commitments to end
violence against women and develop national laws to
punish such acts as well as national campaigns to engage various sectors in preventing violence. In total,
70 climbers participated from 28 countries in Africa.
In terms of opportunities created, the Kilimanjaro
initiative was able to garner support from the President of Tanzania in a strong, impassioned speech,
engaged many civil societies through side activities,
and was able to leverage three military climbers to
discuss violence against women in conflict zones.
The post-event analysis also states that the climb
attracted 50% youth participation, and focused on
developing leadership events for them. In terms of
opportunities missed from the climb, the initiative
could have worked on better developing opportunity to partner with the private sector and leverage
media as a method to widely broadcast the event. To
date, more needs to be done to increase visibility in
Africa of violence against women, with continued
23
acceptance are more likely to be a perpetrator of

rape. This is because rape myths act as neutralisers
which enable men to turn off their inhibition and
rape their victim because she deserved it. Understanding these nuances is also important because
it heavily impacts how victims are perceived and
treated, and how the cultural acceptance of rape is
propagated in society.
Lack of laws or enforcement to prevent violence

against women
It is important to understand the laws, or
lack thereof, that protect women from gender-based
violence in order to design the scope and strength by
which laws can help appropriately address the problem. A recent book studies laws regarding violence
against women and rated 196 countries from 2007 to
2010 on the strength of their laws against rape, marital rape, domestic violence and sexual harassment.
Across the globe, Europe and North America had the
strongest overall legal protections and Western Asia
had the weakest. The study found that as the num-
ber of women in legislature increases by 10 percent,

the country is 10 percent more likely to adopt full
legal protections against sexual harassment. Next, an
interesting note is that as a countrys gross domestic
product increases, there are lower sexual harassment
legal protections possibly because those protections
are more likely to be enforced in the private workplace. The study also found that international law
does make a difference, contrary to popular opinion
on the weakness of such laws. A country that has ratified the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination of Women is more likely to adopt
full legal protections against domestic violence after
a number of years. Last, the study concludes that
strong laws do matter because countries with stronger protections have less gender inequality.
International law is interesting because
whether sex counts as rape is highly dependent on
the country it is in. For example, Sweden counts sex
with an unconsenting sleeping woman as rape, but
President Rafael Correa of Ecuador does not support
the same belief. Similarly, rape within marriage is
Strength of anti-violence against women laws from around the world.

Source: Violence Against Women and the Law. Washington Post. 2015. Web. 20 May 2015
Total legal protection around the world against the four forms of violence against women. Numbers correspond to strength of law. 0 indicates no
protections and 12 indicates full protection.
Source: Violence Against Women and the Law. Washington Post. 2015. Web. 20 May 2015
Supreme Court stated that a sexual harassment claim

is valid if the harassers conduct is unwelcome. It
further ruled that it does not follow that a complainants sexually provocative speech or dress is
irrelevant as a matter of law. In other words, in the
United States, the totality of the situation, including
dress, speech, and environment of the sexual advance
must be considered before ruling a rape or assault.
Within the judicial system, the effect of
gender of the judges on judicial decisions is difficult
criminalized in many Western countries, but not in

China or other Muslim countries. This diversity of
laws also points to another issue regarding legal status of rape. Many women are unaware of laws or do
not have the access to proper legal means to report
their cases. This further prevents a number of rape
cases from being reported.
In the United States, the first sexual harassment case that the Supreme Court assessed was
Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson. In this case, the
25
to unravel. A judge is supposed to be neutral to bias.

Yet many supporters of increasing diversity of judges
proclaim that their views should be influenced by
their gender and backgrounds. Balancing this neutrality with innate bias due to personal background
has led to a series of discussions regarding the effect
of personal background on judges decisions. Knowledge of this effect is relevant to rape and violence
against women, because if women are proven to be
more understanding of rape cases, perhaps an effort
should be made to instate more of them as judges.
Two professors in the United States found that while
US judges were able to separate their judgments from
stereotypes of skin color, they were unable to do the
same with sex. Further studies have confirmed that
male judges often adhere to the status quo and rule
in favor of staying to traditional roles of men and
women in society. To counteract these gender biases,
courts in the US have tried to enhance legal representation of women litigants, increase the number
of women lawyers, and form judicially appointed
task forces. However, does this growing number
of women judges actually change the verdict? One
study found compared the rulings of black and female judges in Detroit Chicago and determined that
there were no racial differences and very few gender
differences. Others argue that women judges merely
serve an educative function to break stereotypes that
all lawyers are male or keep the public trust that the
judgeship represents the local population. Ultimately,
only if women actually do bring new perspectives to
the judiciary branch will their voices make a difference in rulings.
Current Situation
Developing a holistic approach to this problem involves building educational systems that
inform women, better bureaucratic enforcement
methods, and mutual self-respect between men and
26
women. However, recent advances in society call for

a reevaluation of challenges that must be tackled.
Modern technology and advancements in communication have led to a number of interesting and new
avenues for preventing and addressing violent crimes
against women. Such advances include but are not
limited to technology, social media, journalism, and
online campaigns. Understanding how these advances play a role in perpetuating or solving violence
against women will help delegations arrive at a thoroughly rounded resolution.
Case Study: Skinny Jeans Defense
In May of 2010, the Australian court acquitted a man of rape charges because the woman was
wearing tight-fitting jeans that required assistance in
taking them off; the conclusion was drawn that she
must thus have assisted him and was therefore not
raped. This justification has been colloquially termed
the skinny jeans defense. Perhaps surprisingly, the
role of skinny jeans in rape cases has been extended
worldwide, including recent cases in Italy and South
Korea. These defenses have caused much shock in
the global community on the handling and logic
behind the trials. In Italy, the judge who ruled in
favor of the jeans defense was shocked by the publics
response to the decision and said, of course, saying that a woman cant be raped if she wears jeans is
stupid, its ridiculous. In other words, jeans cannot
be compared to any type of chastity belt. The prosecutor argued that clothing is irrelevant in the trial
because any piece of clothing can be taken off with
force.
This absurd ruling is an over exaggeration of
a much more common belief that occurs today that
women should dress appropriately to not be raped.
This issue is much more complex that it may initially
seem. On one hand, dressing provocatively could be
the womans expression of her freedom to dress, but
on the other, it might be a way for her to buy into her
Popular media encouraging violence against women

Of late, many cultural artists have come
under attack due to pieces that can be interpreted
as sexualizing or promoting violence against

women. An anti-violence group has petitioned the
Australian government to ban the US rapper Tyler
the Creator from entering the country due to his
songs, which promote violence against women and
genital mutilation. For example, some of his song
lyrics joke about rape and how he desires to tie her
body up and throw her in my basement. Opponents
of his visit to Australia state, violence affects women everyday in the real world so these types of lyrics
mock their violence. Its chilling to listen to. These
and other similar instances point to the importance
of understanding how pop culture affects and possibly worsens violence against women.
Another song that has received much controversy is Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke. Called
rapey by some, critics have accused the song for
promoting rape culture because of the lyrics I know
you want it and feature of nude models in the video.
Such songs and media undermine the importance of
consent in sexual relationships, which further exacerbates the idea that date rape is a gray area rather
than a real rape. These messages are critical to
analyze because they often promote the idea that she
was asking for it, which is a classic example of victim
blaming. Further, songs that are in popular media,
while not explicitly promoting violence against women, may help inadvertently reinforce current practices of rape and victim-blaming that are occurring
today.
A study conducted in within the past decade
discussed the effects of television viewing and rape
myth acceptance among college women and determined that women who watch more television are
more likely to believe that rape accusations are false.
Compared to prior research, which focused on the
effects of consumption of pornographic movies, this
study focused on general daily television use. While
television use did not correlate with the overestimation of rape in society, the paper argues for greater
own objectification. This tension is also evident in research that suggests that womans clothing is a factor
in sexual assault while others that suggest it does not
determine who is victimized. A law review study on
the role of dress in sexual assault cases in the United States found that there was a lack of cases where
dress was used as evidence either because of US law
or because the target was not generally provocatively
dressed. Therefore, the study determined that dress
was used not in legal proceedings, but more in who
the assailant chose to target as victims. The study
further looked into how a womans dress plays into
her targeting as a rape victim. The conclusion is that
womans dress has little impact in whether she will
be sexually harassed, but rather the idea that provocative clothing causes rape is more a societal justification for why rape happens to someone else and
not them. Ultimately, issues of dress in rape cases in
the United States are not common and are more a
societal justification for explaining why rape happens
to certain woman than a major factor contributing to
who is targeted.
The SlutWalk movement in 2011 saw women in the United Kingdom protesting the popular
rhetoric that women are responsible for their own
rape due to the clothes they wear. In the movement,
men and women were invited to dress in sexually
provocative clothing to protest this idea that womens dress influences their rape. A study on Muslim womens dress in Europe during this period of
SlutWalk revealed that the use of slut in SlutWalk
may prevent the issue from being appropriately addressed. Further, because Muslim women often have
to balance the liberal European culture, with the
traditional Muslim one, such strong language may
prevent their full realization of sexual freedoms.
27
exploration of the link between television viewing

and rape misperceptions. Rape myths have significant potential to undermine the importance of an
issue that victimizes many women around the world.
A 1994 study by Lonsway and Fitzergald reported
that 25 to 35% of respondents agreed with the rape
myths presented to them by the researchers. These
myths can have unintended consequences on society. For example, they serve to obscure and deny
the personal vulnerability that all women are raped
by suggesting that only other women are raped. In
other words, rape myths otherize rape and make
them seem like a more distant problem than they
may actually be. This issue can be further worsened
by the fact that viewers who do not view the problem
as personally relevant are less likely to be receptive
to messages designed to change their own behaviors.
An important distinction to note is that while men
is generally more accepting of rape myths, distorted
perceptions are held by both men and women.
The exhibition of these songs and related
movie scenes in modern-day culture raise important questions regarding the mechanisms required
to achieve cultural change. Should such lyrics be
banned or be only allowed on certain age-restricted
websites? Even before banning the songs, do such
songs actually create a change in consumer behavior?
The cultivation theory is the idea that heavy consumption of television leads to distorted, media-influenced perceptions of reality. An understanding on
what types of content and to what effect such content
changes viewer perceptions is important to consider
before making a decision on censoring pieces in pop
culture.
Terrorism and violence against women
Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist who
was shot by the local Taliban when advocating for
girls to attend schools. Yousafzai survived the attack
and the assassination attempt sparked a worldwide
28
conversation on intersection of terrorism and violence against women. Yousafzais incident is not
alone. Rape and violence has been used as a weapon
of war in multiple regions. Rape was used as a form
of religious terrorism in the war between East and
West Pakistan where men were engaged in a cosmic
war with women, who are considered evildoers.
Similarly, rape was used as a weapon of terror in
Bosnia, where mass rapes were an element of ethnic
cleaning of non-Serb Bosnians. Rape is common in
conflict zones and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has organized security patrols
to relocate vulnerable women to safer areas.
Role of media in covering rape
An article titled A Rape on Campus was
published in the December 2014 issue of the Rolling
Stone and has since been retracted by the publisher
due to inaccuracies and significant discrepancies.
The article described how several members of a
fraternity raped an unidentified woman as a part of
an initiation ritual of a fraternity at the University of
Virginia. The story sparked a strong reaction from
the university and local community and resulted in
the vandalism of the fraternity and the defamation of
members of it. However, after a series of subsequent
interviews, the story was revealed to be false and
reporters began observing a number of discrepancies in the way in which the story was investigated.
It turned out many of the claims the girl had made
were false and the incident may not have actually
happened at all. The poor journalism and ethics of
the article raised a robust media reaction, which
the piece receiving Columbia Journalism Reviews
Worst Journalism of 2014.
This case is important to understand because it has a number of consequences both on
how rape is reported and whether it is perceived
as real. Some journalists are concerned with how
such fragile cases are reported and how misreport-
ing can yield disastrous consequences. Reporters

need to be more aware on how to rigorously check
their stories and perhaps, more severe journalistic
punishments should be instated for misconduct.
However, the damage extends beyond journalistic
credibility. Because this piece was so widely read,
it resulted in such a high level of defamation of the
fraternity that may be very difficult to undo. Others
are concerned that this piece will set back efforts to
reform university systems that do actually tolerate
sexual misconduct. Still others are worried that real
vicious rapes will be treated frivolously or viewed as
an exaggeration on the part of the victim. This is not
ideal because evidence suggests that only about 2 to
10 percent of rape allegations actually turn out to be
false. Thus, the reverberations from this bad coverage
in the Rolling Stone calls for a reevaluation of journalistic ethics and rape.
Past Committee Actions

1994 Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
The 1994 establishment of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women (SRVAW) was
part of a series of initiatives to recognize violence
against women as a human rights concern for the
United Nations. The mandate of the SRVAW is to
seek information on violence against women, recommend means towards its elimination and work
closely with other UN bodies. The SRVAW produces
Tech Community
This idea of censorship also pervades to social media and other technology currently available
today. Because of the free speech act in countries
such as the United States, social media companies
allow the posting of rape and violent videos, which
has had consequences on attitudes towards women. In December 2012, an Icelandic woman named
Thorlaug Agustsdottir posted a piece condemning a
Facebook group called Men are better than women,
which subsequently posted distorted altered photos
of her face with violent messages. When asked by
Agustsdottir to remove the groups post, Facebook
replied that it did not violate Facebooks Community Standards on hate speech and instead labeled the
post at Controversial Humor. Only after significant
attention did Facebook apologize for its mistake and
take down the harmful post. This case highlights the
complexities of free speech: on one hand, it promotes
the open spread of different ideas. On the other
hand, it often amplifies dangerous ideas, further val-
idating their pathology. This raises important

questions such as who is enabling the dissemination
of such content and should someone be controlling
it. Another interesting contrast is that companies
are highly responsive to intellectual property interests but when it comes to violence against women,
only react in response to bad press. Unfortunately,
this case is not singular: many women often receive
threats if they speak against violence against women.
In cyberspace, threats are often even more dangerous
because the victim does not directly know who is
attacking them and how serious the threat is. Further, rapists are now filming their rapes in order to
blackmail their victims from reporting the crime.
For example, a girl was gang-raped in India and was
threatened that her rape video would be posted on
the Internet if she told her family or police.
Through these avenues and others, technology is becoming an increasingly potent tool to permeit
violence against women. Understanding whether
censoring these websites will foster or prevent further attacks on women is a key question to be answered. Further, altering the current gender makeup
of tech companies, which at senior levels is up to
96 percent male, may provide another avenue to
achieve female-friendly policies in cyberspace. These
questions and others provide interesting grounds for
law-making and decision-making.
29
annual reports that provide a normative framework

for addressing gender-based violence. The SRVAW
focuses on domestic violence, trafficking and migration, armed conflict, and reproductive rights.
Because the SRVAW is designed to treat the problem comprehensively, it works on both determining
the root causes and consequences and building a
relevant law and order framework. This explicitly
stated responsibility of understanding causes and
consequences helps tackle the issue in ways previous
initiatives have been unable to. The SRVAW has also
shifted its focus from womens victimization to womens empowerment by trying to build up health and
educational support systems. Ultimately, the SRVAW
offers the ability to set standards in relation to empowerment, combining sexual rights, and providing
fuller coverage of health and reproductive rights,
violence in the context of migration, and institutions
for monitoring violence against women.
UN HeForShe Campaign
The HeForShe Campaign is a solidarity
movement for gender equality that was kick-started
by the United Nations with Emma Watson, the UN
Women Global Goodwill Ambassador, and launched
at the UN Headquarters in New York on September
20, 2014. Under the HeForShe Commitment, men
commit to taking action against gender discrimination and violence for the purpose of achieving
the basic human right of equality for women. The
campaign is framed such that womens rights are
not viewed as womens issues but rather has human
rights issues that benefits all. The campaign aims
to engage UN Women and UN entities, collaborate with government official to promote HeForShe
events, and spread awareness that men and boys can
take part in eliminating violence against women. In
other words, it stresses bringing men into the conversation and helping them realize their active role
in achieving equal womens rights. The HeForShe
campaign relies on local, university, corporate and

governance boards to implement their plan of action.
Implementing the HeForShe requires appointing a
HeForShe focal point, developing a localized implementation plan with measurable goals, allocating
campaign resources, and launching the event. Highly
dependent on such local efforts, the HeForShe campaign hopes that putting various local events under
its brand name will help spread greater awareness of
the cause.
The HeForShe Campaign has received a lot
of critique since its launch and inception. Some
have criticized the campaign for not being inclusive enough or for being very gender binary. Such a
campaign does not explicitly recognize non-binary
genders such as trans-female, trans-male, etc. or
those who do not identify with a gender pronoun.
Others have pointed to the lack of acknowledgement of discrimination against men and how such
a conversation is important for complete equality.
Still, advocates have lauded efforts of the UN to bring
men into these traditionally female conversations
and change the definition of feminism to include a
broader array of people. They argue that involving
men is critical to developing a plan of action that is
comprehensive and addresses the root of the problem of violence against women.
Central Questions
The World Conference on Women currently
stands on the formal documentation of the Beijing
Platform for Action from 1995 with subsequent
five-yearly reviews. The platform has established
many thorough goals, but given the diversity and
difficulty in tackling the issue, little progress has been
made regarding the status of women worldwide.
In other words, legislation has often been followed
by lack of strong action towards achieving gender
equality. This conference will focus on developing
ence will ensure maximum adoption of the

proposed goals. The United Nations must only serve
as a body that dictates resolutions, suggestions and
recommendations, it does not have the power to impress direct orders or mandates on sovereign countries. Therefore, to increase the impact of its actions,
the World Conference on Women must work with
individual countries and develop strong incentives to
increase resolution adoption.
Last, reevaluating how the World Conference
on Women approaches these issues regarding gender equality is key to ensuring a sustainable solution that moves beyond 2016. Since the first World
Conference on Women in XXXX, progress in gender
equality has remained stagnant and slow. In order
to truly create strong strides in this issue, a paradigmatic shift in the form of a novel, radical approach
is required. Committee members are encouraged to
think creatively about out of the box and nonstandard solutions to the problem.
This conference will address these central
themes and stimulate debate to drive the World Conference on Women towards game-changing resolutions that truly address the core issues surrounding
gender equality. Although the issues at hand are
complex and finely nuanced, the strength and critical
thinking skills of the committee members will ensure
that each issue receives its due attention.
Questions a Resolution must Answer
Improving the status of women worldwide
is an enormous and very complex issue. Keeping
the nuanced and multifaceted aspects of the issue in
mind, a resolution must answer the following questions:
How can previous actions outlined by previous World Conference on Women be modified or
improved on to promote greater government and
societal adoption of gender equality goals?
more concrete, tangible and achievable legislation

that addresses the roots of the problem while dictating detailed measures that hold nations accountable.
Given the diversity of issues surrounding this
challenging topic, there are several central themes
that must be considered when developing a concrete
agenda towards addressing violence against women
and increasing womens representation in corporate
and electoral governance. First, the committee must
consider how to balance cultural nuances and behaviors with global accountability. This balance is critical
in ensuring that the legislation is appropriate for the
nation and will be reasonably accepted by its people, while also recognizing the need to match global
standards. In other words, the legislation needs to
be made appropriate for the particular country such
that it matches the countrys cultural expectations,
but it also needs to attain some level of international standard. For example, an action in the United
States might not be appropriate for Rwanda, but
both should aim to achieve the international level of
reducing violence against women by say 50 percent.
After understanding how to balance regional differences with international standards, another
important theme is the development of priorities to
address short-term and long-term gender equality goals. On one hand, instating gender quotas for
electoral governance may help increase womens
substantive representation in the government almost
immediately. On the other hand, this quota may only
serve as a temporary measure. Long term actions towards increasing womens substantive representation
in government may come from empowering women
socially and politically and changing the attitudes
of the surrounding community. Given the limited
resources available to the conference, understanding
how to prioritize these short and long-term goals for
maximum impact is key.
Determining how to incentivize governments
to accept the recommendations from the confer-
31
How can attitudes towards both womens

sexual empowerment be fostered in local communities at a personal level to eliminate inherent prejudice
against women?
How can legal action and law enforcement be
tailored to eliminate violence against women?
How do new issues such as technology, media
and advocacy play a role in sexual empowerment
and how can governments better use these avenues
to eliminate violence against women?
How can governments, international agencies, and NGOs work together to effectively propose
strategies for shifting the underlying roots with
which communities view gender issues in order to
promote a sustainable solution for gender equality?
Bloc Positions
The formation of blocs will most likely be based on

regional cultures, with additional factors including
system of governance, economic status, and social
community norms. While there are many fine details
among each region and country that will dictate how
best to form an effective solution, the three main
categories into which countries can be divided are:
patriarchal, matriarchal and gender-equal nations.
Patriarchal Nations
Countries in this bloc include those whose
governance mostly consists of males and whose
societies are deeply embedded in patriarchal roots.
These countries often have laws that prevent women
from achieving security. Further, they often have
embedded patriarchal values that require a womans
submission. Such countries need to invest in factors
such as teaching gender equality in schools and eliminating laws that disadvantage women. This bloc is
wide-ranging because there are many developing and
developed nations alike that face this problem.
32
Matriarchal Nations
governance mostly consists of a significant number
of females and whose societies are deeply embedded
in matriarchal roots. While some may believe that
matriarchal societies often do not face as many problems regarding violence against women, this in fact
is not true and these nations need to work towards
building a proper system of law enforcement that
targets the issue.
Gender-equal nations
governance has a roughly even division of males
and females. While no nation has achieved complete
gender equality, nations close to achieving gender
equality in governance often have laws that are more
equitable towards men and women. Such nations
have to work on further developing measures, which
improve the status of women in their society. These
nations also have to search for lesser known places
where gender discrimination happens in order to
further eliminate violence against women.
Suggestions for Further Research
In addition to this study guide, committee
members should utilize the official United Nations
website (www.un.org) and the website for UN Women (www.unwomen.org) in order to learn more about
initiatives that the UN is current conducting towards
improving gender equality. These websites will not
only provide a better understanding on the structure
and function of the World Conference on Women,
but will also serve as a more detailed guideline for
past and current actions of the committee. In particular, reading the seminal Beijing Platform for Action
1995 and its subsequent 20 year follow up (http://
beijing20.unwomen.org) will allow a much more
thorough understanding of where the issue currently
stands.
For this topic in particular, it will be very

important to read opinion and news articles from
your own country in order to better understand how
womens issues are perceived within the society. Such
sources are a great place to capture societal perspectives and nuances on such issues. Next, an understanding of regional culture and religion will be helpful in determining how gender violence issues are
manifested and justified. Referring to local culture or
religion sources will help in interpreting the societys
attitude towards this issue. Finally, an understanding
of the status of violence against women in your country is important in determining what kinds of legislative changes are necessary to improve equality within
the country.
Position Papers
Closing Remarks
Gender equality is an issue that has and
continues to stay on the forefront of societal issues
today. It is simply outrageous that in many aspects of
the world, women still are not treated as their male
counterparts are. By effectively addressing issues
surrounding women in electoral and corporate governance and violence against women, the entrenched
discrimination against women can be reversed and
women will be able to have a strong voice in world
affairs in the next many years.
This study guide provides only a brief summary of issues and perspectives regarding the two
topics of the conference, but there are still many
avenues and ideas yet to be explored. In addition to
reading the study guide and learning more about
your countrys position and policies, it is important
In preparing for the conference, you will need

to write a well-planned position paper that details
your nations nuanced stance on the issue. This
paper should summarize your countrys policies on
the issue and subsequently reflect on your current
position based on those policies. Keep in mind that
you are the representative of your government and
should be acting on your governments positions on
these issues. It is also important that in building your
position paper, you think critically about the problem-solving process and solutions towards the issues
presenting in this study guide rather than a simple
rehashing of the problems outlined.
Your position paper should address both topics in a comprehensive manner. You should include
a discussion on your countrys views on the issue as
well as specific factors relevant to your country that
would help achieve the goals outlined in the con-
ference. You should also discuss previous and

current actions your country has taken towards each
problem and evaluate which are the most important and challenging aspects your country is facing
in solving the problem. Make sure to consider the
Questions a Resolution Must Answer (QARMA) in
your proposal, as these questions will be key common points which you and your fellow delegates will
collaborate on. You are encouraged to think creatively and practically when developing your solutions
and most importantly, remember to be true to your
countrys position and betterment of its people so
that we can best reflect the actions of the real United
Nations.
Your position paper should be clear and
concise and one page single-spaced. Please use Times
New Roman size 12-point font. Position papers are
due two weeks before the start of the conference.
33
that you read about a diverse range of challenges

and perspectives on the issue to broaden your understanding of how this issue unravels on the global
scale. In particular, reading opinion and news articles
from current affairs will allow you to develop a better
awareness of womens issues and think more critically about how these challenges can be addressed.
Solving these two challenges requires nimble thinking and much research, but I strongly believe that
with delegates as motivated and creative as you, we
will be able to resolve these deeply entrenched challenges with innovative solutions.
As chair, my role is to foster a wonderful
experience that is both intellectually stimulating and
personally satisfying at the same time. I am confident
that we will not only have incredible discussions, but
will also develop meaningful friendships during our
time together. Please do not hesitate to contact me at
ekhare@college.harvard.edu any time with questions.
Congratulations and welcome to Harvard World
Model United Nations 2016.
Timeline of Important
Events
1910 The Socialist International meeting in Copenhagen establishes a Womens Day to honor the
movement of womens rights. It was adopted by 17
countries and over 100 women.
1975 First World Conference on Women in Mexico
City and International Womens Year
1977 UN General Assembly adopts a resolution
proclaiming a United Nations Day for Womens
Rights and International Peace
1980 Second World Conference on Women in
Copenhagen
1985 Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi
1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in

Beijing in which the Beijing Declaration and the
Platform for action was adopted unanimously by 189
countries.
Recent
June 2014 Global Summit to end sexual violence
in conflict; summit of 1000 high-level government
officials regarding the issue
August 2014 European convention on ending
violence against women after 10 ratifications from
regional countries. This is legally binding and is referred to as the Istanbul Convention.
September 2014 Emma Watson delivers speech for
HeForShe campaign.
December 2014 Malala Yousafzai wins the Nobel
Peace prize for her fight to promote education for
women.
Endnotes
World Conferences on Women. UN Women, n.d.
Web. 24 May 2015.
UN ECOSOC.
UN Women. Facts and Figures: Leadership and
Political Participation. February 2015.
UN Women. The United Nations Fourth World
Conference on Women.
Liam Swiss, Kathleen M Fallon, and Giovani Burgos.
Does Critical Mass Matter? Womens Political Representation and Child Health in Developing Countries.
and Families. 2006.

Rainbow Murray, Towards Parity Democracy? Gender in the 2012 French Legislative Elections. 2013.
Sylvia Tamale, Introducing Quotas in Africa: Discourse and Legal Reform in Uganda. 2003.
Lori Bearman, Esther Duflo, Rohini Pande, and
Petia Topalova. Female Leadership Raises Aspirations and Educational Attainment for Girls: A Policy
Experiment in India. 2012.
Raghabendra Chattopadhyay and Esther Duflo.
Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India. 2004.
Lori Bearmna, Rohini Pande and Alexandra Cirone.
Politics as a Male Domain and Empowerment.
Murray, 2013.
Alison Smale and Claire Miller. Germany sets gender quota in board rooms. (New York Times).
Smale and Miller.
Caroline Copley. German parliament approves legal
quotas for women on company boards. (Reuters.)
Shirley Leung, Gender quotas not the answer. (Boston Globe).
Susan Franceschet and Jean Piscopo, Gender Quotas
and Womens Substantive Representation: Lessons
from Argentina, 2008.
Franceschet and Piscopo 2008
Franceschet and Piscopo 2008
Par Zetterberg, The Downside of Gender Quotas?
Institutional Constraints on Women in Mexican
State Legislatures. 2008.
George Packer, The Quiet German. (The New Yorker).
World Health Organization. Violence against women.
World Health Organization.
Hillary R. Clinton. Remarks to the U.N. 4th World
Conference. 1995.
Erin Delmore. Hillarys Beijing speech: a watershed
2012. (Oxford University Press).

Michele Swers. Are Congresswomen More Likely to
Vote for Womens Issue Bills Than Their Male Colleagues? 1998.
Karen Celis. Substantive Representation of Women:
The Representation of Womens Interests and the
Impact of Descriptive Representation in the Belgian
Parliament (19001979). 2007.
Swiss, Fallon, Burgos. 2012.
Amy Caiazza, Does Womens Representation in
Elected Office Lead to Women-Friendly Policy?
Analysis of State-Level Data. 2008.
Sarah Poggione, Exploring Gender Differences in
State Legislators Policy Preferences.
Leslie Schwindt-Bayer, Still Supermadres? Gender
and the Policy Priorities of Latin American Legislators. 2006.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Some Effects of Proportions
on Group Life. 1977.
Kanter, 1977.
Drude Dahlerup. From a Small to a Large Minority:
Women in Scandinavian Politics. 1988.
Vicki W. Kramer, Alison M. Konrad and Sumru
Erkut, Critical Mass on Corporate Boards. 2006.
Kramer, Konrad, Erkut. 2006.
Lissa Lamkin Broome, John M. Conley, and Kimberly D. Krawiec. Does Critical Mass Matter? Views
From the Boardroom. 2011.
Karen Celis, Sarah Childs, Johanna Kantola and
Mona Lena Krook. Rethinking Womens Substantive
Representation. 2008.
Sarah Franceschet and Mona Lena Krook. Measuring the Impact of Quotas on Womens Substantive
Representation: Towards a Conceptual Framework.
2008.
Dahlerup and Friedenvall 2005
Franceschet and Krook. 2008.
Franceschet and Krook. 2008.
Elizabeth Powley. Rwanda: The Impact of Women
Legislators on Policy Outcomes Affecting Children
35
moment for womens rights

PBS. Origins of Violence Against Women.
Mary Kimani. Taking on violence against women in
Africa. 2012.
Berhane Ras-Work. Violence against women as a
traditional practice.
UN. Mount Kilimanjaro Climb Report.
Fetchenhauer et al., 2005, p. 26.
Rebecca Hayes, Katherine Lorenz, and Kristin Bell.
Victim Blaming Others: Rape Myth Acceptance and
the Just World Belief. 2013.
Amy Grubb and Emily Turner. Attribution of blame
in rape cases: A review of the impact of rape myth
acceptance, gender role conformity and substance
use on victim blaming. 2012.
Bohner et al., 1998 Rape myths as neutralizing
cognitions: evidence for causal impact of anti-victim
attitudes on mens self-reported likelihood of raping.
European Journal of Social Psychology, 28, 257-268.
David Richards and Jillienne Haglund. How laws
around the world do and do not protect women from
violence. 2015.
Rape laws: Crime and Clarity. Economist Sept.
2012.
Theresa M. Beiner, Sexy Dressing Revisited: Does
Target Dress Play a Part in Sexual Harrassment Cases? 2007
Johnston & Knapp, Sex Discrimination by law: A
Study in Judicial Perspective. 1976
N.J. Wikler, On the Judicial Agenda for the 80s:
Equal Treatment for Men and Women in the Courts.
1980.
Cassia Spohn. Decision Making in Sexual Assault
Cases: Do Black and Female Judges Make a Difference? 2010.
Vanessa B., Lori B., and Laura K. Women at a
Glance. 2014.
Alessandra Stanley. Ruling on Tight Jeans and Rape
Sets Off Anger in Italy. 1999.
Vanessa, Lori and Laura. 2014.
36
Beiner, 2007.
Beiner, 2007.
Jason Lim and Alexandra Fanghanel. Hijabs, Hoodies and Hotpants; negotiating the Slut in SlutWalk.
2013.
B Cioppa. Daily Mail. June 2015.
Brinkley. Wall Street Journal. 2013.
LeeAnn Kahlor and Dan Morrison. Television
Viewing and Rape Myth Acceptance among College
Women. 2007.
Kahlor and Morrison 2007.
Lonsway and Fitzgerald 1994.
Markova and Power 1992
Kahlor and Morrison 2007.
Jessica Rehman. Rape as religious terrorism and
genocide the 1971 war between East and West Pakistan. 2012.
Cheryl Benard. Rape as terror: The case of Bosnia.
1994.
USA Today. Rolling Stone report leaves trail of damage: Our view. 2015.
Catherine Buni and Soraya Chemaly. The Unsafety
Net: How Social Media Turned Against Women.
2014.
Buni and Chemaly 2014.
UN HeForShe.
UN HeForShe.
Cathy Young. Time. 2014.

SG World Conference On Women

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

SG World Conference On Women

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

ECOSOC & RB

WELCOME TO THE ECOSOC & RB

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

History of the Problem ................................................... 9

Topic B: Containing Epidemics in

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

Eesha Khare | Harvard Class of 2017

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

This is my first WorldMUN and I am incredibly excited to meet

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

The United Nations Commission on the

ering such nuances within society, we will be able

History of the Committee

womens empowerment, but it was also the largest

Since 1995, governments have been

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.

tion reaffirms that the primary responsibility of the

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

Structure and Modus

This committee session will work towards

at an appropriate resolution. Delegates will also be

velop further its catalytic role in that

Beijing Platform for Action 1995

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

from Indira Gandhi, the first woman Prime

Overall, these action steps are aimed at

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

Importance of Women in Political Positions

ties, negative stereotyping through media reinforces

UN Infographic on representation of women in politics.

plicates outcomes on womens policy. And still,

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

Womens share of board seats in European Stock Indexed companies in 2014.

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel.

WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN

individuals with different personalities. These initial

effect on outcomes still has proved an important

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

Definition of Womens Substantive Representation

issues despite not being phenotypically female.

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

increasing the number of women in political office.

Case Study: German Mandate of Gendered Quota for

nies such as Volkswagen, BMW and Deutsche

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

may be attributed to the deep penetration of sexism

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

Womens share of board seats in European Stock Indexed companies in 2014.

movements such as the Thirty Percent Coalition,

is that it sets up token women who are just viewed

Case Study: Tracing German Chancellor Angela

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

elected to local councils are often stand-ins for male

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

History of female representation in national parliament.

Questions a Resolution must Answer

HARVARD WORLDMUN ROME MMXVI

to fast-track it. The incremental track is where

The formation of blocs will most likely be

How can legal action and law enforcement be