Participate

How to paticipate | Conference focus | Sub-themes for Participating Students | Resources |Tips for writing a Plan of Action

How to participate

35-45 delegates from the United States, Canada, and Mexico will meet at UN Headquarters in New York on December 2nd to draft a Plan of Action related to this year's theme: HIV/AIDS and Human Rights: from Awareness to Action. Additional classrooms from other countries around the world will be linked by videoconference and webcast.

The interactive forums are only open to middle or secondary students. In order to participate, teachers can register their students or students can register themselves.

Conference Focus

The purpose of the 7th Annual UN Student Human Rights Conference is to unite youth from around the world, at the UN Headquarters in New York, and through web casting and video conferencing to discuss the inescapable reality of HIV/AIDS. Sooner or later the youth of today will be forced to face the devastating consequences from decades of fear, silence and neglect. This forum is intended to be an opportunity for discussion, collaboration, and action. It is essential that Human Rights be incorporated into any strategy designed to confront this great threat to humanity. The destructiveness of the current AIDS pandemic can be directly attributed, to a great extent, to past neglect of several universal human rights including: the rights to education, information, non-discrimination and access to sufficient health care.

Prior to the conference, participants will conduct their own research, to be shared and exchanged through a web-based forum about how, why, and to what extent Human Rights tie into the HIV/AIDS pandemic. During the conference, student representatives in New York will work with students participating by video-conferencing and web-casting to develop a consensus on these questions and draft a Plan of Action. The chairperson of the conference will present this document to the President of the UN General Assembly at the end of the proceedings on December 3, 2004.

Sub-themes for Participating Students

Below are five sub-themes and related topics that are important in considering the theme of Human Rights and HIV/AIDS. Participants should explore and research them thoroughly to prepare for the two-day conference. Some useful website addresses and documents are listed at the end of the sub-themes to help you get started.

1. Factors contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS

• Poverty
• Lack of education and information
• Discrimination
• Women’s inequality and lack of power
• Sexual practices
• Prostitution and trafficking
• Inadequate health care systems

2. Social and economic impacts of HIV/AIDS

• Orphans (By 2001, AIDS had killed one or both parents of 13.4 million children still under the age of 15. By 2010, the total number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS is expected to nearly double to 25 million).
• Stress on family systems (in many countries, grandparents who may be in poor health themselves are left to care for orphans)
• Discrimination in employment
• Impact of loss of teachers on education
• Cycle of Poverty

3. Gender and HIV/AIDS

• Greater vulnerability of women
• Discrimination against women with HIV/AIDS
• Widows, especially in countries where women lack inheritance rights
• Impact on women as mothers

4. Rights issues and HIV/AIDS

• Dealing with discrimination in education
• Employment
• Access to medical care and housing
• Media images of people with HIV/AIDS
• Developing tolerance and advocating for rights of people with HIV/AIDS

5. Taking action against HIV/AIDS

• Role of education in prevention--what works
• Treatment options and access to drugs in developing countries
• Addressing social and economic factors that contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS
• Creating political will
• Youth and students taking action

Tips for writing a Plan of Action

1. Preamble – The introduction to a formal document that explains its purpose which may include reference to the U.N. charter, citations or statements made by the U.N. body or agency on the issue, recognition of achievements of the work or efforts of regional organizations in dealing with the issue, general statements on the topic, its significance, its effects and its challenges.

Suggested Preambulatory Phrases:

2. Operative Clauses – Clauses that are set out to achieve the main goals of the issue. Operative clauses should be organized in a logical progression, and each clause should contain a single idea or policy proposal. This may also include strategies on achieving a goal.

Suggested Operative Phrases:

3. Appendix – add one if needed

Activities to help you write a Plan of Action

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