Welcome Letter from the Dais

Dear Delegates,

Welcome to the FALCON MUN 2023!

We are beyond excited to meet you and are eager to welcome

you to two days full of productive and stimulating debate. For
us, Model United Nations has become integrated into our
lifestyle; we view it as educational as much as it’s empowering
to have the ability to construct opinions on global issues through
the eyes of several different countries. We hope that as soon as
you log into the committee session you learn something new and
that hopefully by the end of the conference you have grown in
one way or another; whether it’s your ability to overcome your
fear of public speaking or your ability to lead large groups of
people.

If this is your first Model United Nations Conference, then don’t

worry too much and feel free to approach any of us at any point
in the conference if you need any form of support. Please do not
hesitate to reach out to any of us for any concerns you have. We
cannot wait to meet all of you!

Regards,

Shivam Gupta Parisa

(Chairperson) (Vice Chairperson)
About the committee
Work and priorities of UNCSW

UNCSW is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and

the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls,
UNCSW was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs
worldwide.
UNCSW supports UN Member States as they set global standards for
achieving gender equality, and works with governments and civil society
to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to ensure that
the standards are effectively implemented and truly benefit women and
girls worldwide. It works globally to make the vision of the Sustainable
Development Goals a reality for women and girls and stands behind
women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on four
strategic priorities:
• Women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance
systems
• Women have income security, decent work and economic
autonomy
• All women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence

Women and girls contribute to and have greater influence in building

sustainable peace and resilience, and benefit equally from the prevention
of natural disasters and conflicts and humanitarian action
UNCSW also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s work in
advancing gender equality, and in all deliberations and agreements
linked to the 2030 Agenda. The entity works to position gender equality
as fundamental to the Sustainable Development Goals, and a more
inclusive world.

Status of women
Gender equality is not only a basic human right, but its achievement has
enormous socio-economic ramifications. Empowering women fuels
thriving economies, spurring productivity and growth. Yet gender
inequalities remain deeply entrenched in every society. Women lack
access to decent work and face occupational segregation and gender
wage gaps. They are too often denied access to basic education and
health care. Women in all parts of the world suffer violence and
discrimination. They are under-represented in political and economic
decision-making processes.
Over many decades, the United Nations has made significant progress in
advancing gender equality, including through landmark agreements such
as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW).
Working for the empowerment and rights of women and girls globally,
UN Women’s main roles are:
• To support inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on
the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, global
standards and norms.
• To help Member States implement these standards, standing ready
to provide suitable technical and financial support to those
 countries that request it, and to forge effective partnerships with
civil society.
• To lead and coordinate the UN system’s work on gender equality,
as well as promote accountability, including through regular
monitoring of system-wide progress.

Best Practices to Research before an MUN:

(You can take these best practices into account, not only for
this MUN but for other MUNs as well.)
• Read the Agenda Guide, least 3-4 days prior to the conference,
and make a note of everything that needs to be understood. Do
read the Background guide. In case of a crisis situation always
read and look for the analysis and plausible rational on the
updates that may be issued a week before the MUN.
• Google/Search everything and find related documents (UN,
News articles, Scholarly articles) for whatever was not really
understood.
• After wholly understanding (subject to how in-depth you wish
to go for the research), try understanding your allotted country’s
perspective on the agenda.
• Make the stance in accordance with the country’s perspective
on the agenda which shall also define your foreign policy
(history, past actions, etc.)
• Understand the cues and hints that are given minutely in the
Background Guide that may come handy while the presentation
of contentions in committee.
 • Take a good look at the mandate of the committee as to what
you can discuss and what you can do in this council. This point
is placed here, just because your knowledge base shouldn’t be
limited to the mandate of the council. Know everything, speak
whatever the mandate allows.
• Follow the links given alongside and understand why they
were given. Read the footnotes and the links and hyperlinked
text.
• Predict the kind of discussions and on what subtopics can they
take place, thereby analyzing the subtopic research you have
done and prepare yourself accordingly. Make a word/pages
document and put your arguments there for better presentation
in the council.
• Download the United Nations Charter, the Geneva
Conventions of 1949 and additional protocols thereto and other
relative treaties and documents given.
• Ask questions regarding procedures to speak something etc., if
you have any, on the day of the conference.

Introduction to the Agenda:

Empowerment is a set of measures designed to increase the
degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in
communities in order to enable them to represent their interests
in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own
authority. Hence, Economic Empowerment of women is
important as it promotes women's ability to achieve their rights
and well-being while also reducing household poverty,
increasing economic growth and productivity, and increasing
efficiency. Economic empowerment is one of the most powerful
routes for women to achieve their potential and advance their
rights. But, there are a lot of issues with have to be dealt with to
promote the empowerment of women in economic sphere.
Global economic inequality is a complicated and issue. In
general, women tend to hold less skilled jobs than men, be paid
lower salaries, face unequal treatment and discrimination, and
much more. Female employment varies widely from country to
country, interacting with numerous socio-political factors which
can prevent women from exercising their economic rights. The
labor force participation rate among working-age women varies
from about 20% in the Middle East to slightly more than 60% in
Sub-Saharan Africa .A number of other statistics reflect the
varying types of economic inequality felt by women. The global
gender pay gap or the difference in earnings between men and
women is huge. It is clear that many women are deprived of the
means and opportunity to be economically equal to men.
The World Bank reports that women are disproportionately
responsible for unpaid care work; they devote 1 to 3 hours a day
more to housework than men, 2 to 10 times the amount of time a
day to care, and 1 to 4 hours less a day to market activities,
which negatively impacts their participation in the labor force. A
report by UN Women finds that “when paid and unpaid work
are combined, women in developing countries work more than
men, with less time for education, leisure, political participation
and self-care.” Women also work in vulnerable, low-paid, or
undervalued jobs at higher rates than men.
Current situation- Economy
“Gender equality and empowerment” are terms that open up to a
vast area of studies that can be divided in different areas of
concern: Economy, Society, Education and Health.”

A. Women, employment and the economy

“There are considerable differences in women's and men's
access to and opportunities to exert power over economic
structures in their societies. In most parts of the world, women
are virtually absent from or are poorly represented in economic
decision-making, including the formulation of financial,
monetary, commercial and other economic policies, as well as
tax systems and rules governing pay.” (from the Directory of
UN Resources on Gender and Women’s Issues)
Strategic objectives F.1 and F.2 of the “Action for Equality,
Development and Peace” platform originated from The UN 4th
World Conference on Women, held in 1995 in Beijing are:
Promote women's economic rights and independence, including
access to employment, appropriate working conditions and
control over economic resources and facilitate women's equal
access to resources, employment, markets and trade. Following
the same path SDG5 “achieve gender equality and empower all
women and girls” includes and undertake reforms to give
women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to
ownership and control over land and other forms of property,
financial services, inheritance, and natural resources in
accordance with national laws”. Nevertheless, data shows that
there still are consistent disparities between men and women
when it comes to paid work, unpaid care and domestic work and
access to resources.

Even though women make up 40% of the world’s workforce and

investing in them would lead to increases in the development of
economies and more equitable societies, the participation rate in
labor markets is unequal: in 2013, the male employment-to-
population ratio stood at 72.2 per cent, while the ratio for
females was 47.1 per cent. Studies show that if female
employment rates were to match male rates, overall GDP would
grow in the US by 5%, in Japan by 9% and in developing
countries like Egypt by 34%. Moreover, a transition to full
gender equality in labor market would lead to a theoretical gain
of 6800 € per capita for the EU as a whole. Ultimately, the
Global Gender Gap report, published by the World Economic
Forum, suggests a strong correlation between countries with
higher levels of gender equality and those who are the most
economically competitive.

Women’s impact is particularly strong on agriculture. In the

world at least 1.6 billion women - more than a quarter of the
total world population produces more than half of all the food
that is grown in the world, up to 80 percent in Africa and 60
percent in Asia. Nevertheless, for women, it is often particularly
difficult to own or control land due to legal or cultural
restrictions. A clear example is Uganda: women scarcely own
any land at all yet make up almost 75 percent of the agricultural
labour force.

Economic opportunities are linked to access to credit; however,

women entrepreneurs and employers face greater challenges
than men in gaining access to financial services. In developing
economies women are 20 percent less likely than men to have an
account at a formal financial institution and 17 percent less
likely to have borrowed formally in the past year. Even if the
access is in theory existent, there are multiple obstacles: women
may gain access to a loan, but not to other financial services,
there may be strict requirements such as a male family
member’s permission and a diffused lack of financial education
is permanently at the basis of the gender economic inequality.

B. Women and Poverty

“More than 1 billion in the world today, the great majority of
whom are women, live in unacceptable conditions of poverty,
mostly in the developing countries. Poverty has various causes,
including structural ones. Poverty is a complex,
multidimensional problem, with origins in both the national and
international domains.” (from the Directory of Un Resources on
Gender and Women’s Issues). Women in poverty face extreme
difficulties: more than 1.3 billion women don't have any
financial involvement in institutions. This includes banks,
cooperatives, credit unions, post offices, and micro finance
institutions. Women in poverty are unable to pay for their
education resulting in their children being forced into poverty
when they grow up. Furthermore, the issues build up on the fact
that children from poverty-stricken couples end up earlier in
sweatshops and heavy labour jobs at an early age thus depriving
them of the fundamental education received by children from
financially stable couples. Women play an important role in a
poverty stricken family. Since the family cannot afford certain
services such as laundry or household help, it's the women that
have to cope with up all the chores. Furthermore, the women
have to financially support their families as well and in certain
cases employ into illegal or socially unacceptable jobs such as
being self-employed for local drug dealers or end up as a sex
worker. More than men it's the women that pay a heavier
casualty when placed in poverty and are much more difficult to
escape the cycle. In addition to these issues women who don't
have a proper education end up in a lower pay than men, which
again contributes to the factor of poverty. Women from minority
groups face additional difficulties because they are looked down
on due to their racial profile.

C. Wage gap
In most countries women earn 60 to 75 % of men’s wages, but
an increase in the share of the household controlled by women
would lead to changes in the spending of it in ways that benefit
the children. Women could increase their income globally by up
to 76 per cent if the employment participation gap and the wage
gap between women and men were closed. One influential factor
is unpaid care work: women devote 1 to 3 hours more a day to
housework than men; 2 to 10 times the amount of time a day to
care (for children, elderly, and the sick), and 1 to 4 hours less a
day to market activities.
Moreover, women are more likely to work in informal
employment: in South Asia over 80 per cent of women in non-
agricultural jobs are in informal employment, in sub-Saharan
Africa, 74 per cent, and in Latin America and the Caribbean, 54
per cent.

D. Women and land rights

Women’s access to, use of and control over land and other
productive resources are essential to ensuring their right to
equality and to an adequate standard of living. These resources
help to ensure that women are able to provide for their day-to-
day needs and those of their families, and to weather some of
life’s most difficult challenges. Women’s access to land and
other productive resources is integrally linked to discussions
around global food security, sustainable economic development,
as well as the pressing fight against the HIV epidemic and
prevention of and responses to gender-based violence.
Throughout the world, gender inequality when it comes to land
and other productive resources is intimately related to women’s
poverty and exclusion. The obstacles which prevent women
from effectively enjoying these rights are complex and to a large
extent context specific. Still, many overarching similarities are
apparent. Barriers which prevent women’s access to, control and
use of land and other productive resources often include
inadequate legal standards and/or ineffective implementation at
national and local levels, as well as discriminatory cultural
attitudes and practices at the institutional and community level.
A major part of the challenge revolves around implementation
and enforcement. Even in countries where good laws exist,
women frequently do not enjoy their rights to access and control
productive resources. Implementation is too often hindered by
sociocultural norms and women’s lack of knowledge of their
entitlements.
In order to ensure that women enjoy their rights in practice, a
broad conceptualization of land rights and access to productive
resources that is pro-poor, gender inclusive and responsive to
human rights is vital. This would be consistent with international
human rights standards and with the human rights-based
approach to development. Austerity measures currently being
adopted in many countries should not roll back progress made
on the advancement of these rights for women. States should
prioritize investment in women and in these rights in order to
see the greatest impact on sustainable development, in terms of
both national expenditure and contributions to international aid.
Lack of access to land and other productive resources has a
negative impact on the enjoyment of various human rights for
women. Furthermore, the violation of certain human rights, such
as the right to information, participation, association, freedom
from violence, and education, prevents women from accessing
land and other productive resources.
Under a human rights-based approach, the plans, policies and
processes of development are anchored in a system of rights and
corresponding obligations established by international law. This
approach should also be applied to laws and regulations related
to development issues. This approach helps to promote the
sustainability of development work, empowering people,
especially the most vulnerable and marginalized, to participate
in policy formulation and hold accountable those who have a
duty to act. People are accordingly recognized as key actors in
their own development, rather than passive recipients of
commodities and services. Principles and standards derived from
international human rights instruments should guide the
legislation and policy processes as well as the programming in
all sectors, including land and other productive resources, and in
all phases of the programming process: assessment and analysis,
programmes planning and design (including setting of goals,
objectives and strategies), budgeting and financing,
implementation, monitoring (including the use of indicators) and
evaluation.

Points to address
The UNCSW recommends that delegates should address three
specific questions, applying them in generality to the topic in
question.

1. “What has been done so far and why hasn’t it been

enough?” The second part of this question is particularly
important, given the efforts clearly haven’t sufficed in any
aspect of this theme. It is also important to regard all
aspects of the matter, such as societal mindset, values,
history and others.
2. “What can be done (in solution form) in the future?” This
regards special consideration of economic background, as
well as cultural and societal issues as per discussed earlier
in the document and should turn out to be the basis of
documentation.
 3. How do countries, governments and organizations ensure
this solution to be both viable and sustainable?” Delegates
should take special regard with areas torn by war, serious
human rights violations, corruption and others.

Further links to Research:

• https://www.unwomen.org/en/csw/brief-history
• https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/economic-
empowerment/rural-women
• http://www.fao.org/3/ca5167en/CA5167EN.pdf
• https://www.cepal.org/en/publications/41200- 2030-
agenda-and-regional-gender-agenda-synergies- equality-
latin-america-and
• http://www.oecd.org/development/gender-
development/Dev-finance-for-gender- equality-and-
womens- economic-empowerment-2019.pdf
• https://www.sdgfund.org/gender-equality
• https://www.sdgfund.org/who-we-are
• https://www.un.org/esa/ffd/ffd3/commitments/commitment
/addis-ababa-action-plan-on- transformative-financing-for-
gender-equality-and-womens-empowerment.html
• http://www.unwomen.org/-
/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/csw/60/csw60%2
0agreed%20conclusions% 20conclusions%2
0en.pdf?la=en&vs=4409
• https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/w
omens- empowerment/undp-gender-equality-strategy-2018-
2021.html
• https://undocs.org/E/RES/2015/6
• https://undocs.org/E/RES/2016/3