Due to discrimination, women in many developing parts of the world struggle to maintain the equal rights they are entitled to. In developing nations, the status of women is far below that of men. Women have fewer occupational and educational opportunities. When women can find jobs, theywork harder and are paid less than men, often at menial tasks. Many are entirely unaware of their rights and therefore feel powerless to defend them. In many cases, women are prevented from leaving their homes and fully taking part in society. When women do not have equal societal opportunities, developing nations lose a great deal of their potential to prosper.

When a developing country does enforce women’s rights, women gain access to better healthcare and family planning due to awareness of reproductive rights, and are more likely to have well-paying jobs that help the community. As well, they are better educated and can, for example,take opportunity to take part in politics. Increases in gender equality can pay great dividends across the board for developing nations.

Although awareness about lack of women’s rights is high, and many organisations and people have petitioned globally, inequality most definitely still persists. The very wide gender gap in developing nations is an obstacle that has been difficult to overcome. In 2010, the UN General Assembly voted to create the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, to focus on accelerating the attainment of equal rights for women. Crucially, promoting gender equality is also one of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, which were created in the year 2000 and are intended to be achieved by 2015. These UN initiatives have certainly helped spread awareness of the rights of women and have allowed thousands of women around the world gain individuality. SOCHUM will be called on to navigate the critically important issue of gender equality in developing nations, and attempt to ensure that the related Millenium Development Goal is met.

Many children are born into countries devastated by war. Hundreds of thousands of them are used as child soldiers: in fact, up to 300,000 children around the world participate in armed combat each year. Although many of these children are permanently injured or killed,nearly all who survive emerge up with severe psychological trauma such as post-traumatic stress disorder. Child soldiers—who are sometimes under the age of ten—are subjected to harsh conditions. Prior to their recruitment, many live in poverty and are uneducated. They are given barely any training or instructions on their weaponry, and are usually not given sufficient nourishment. Moreover, female soldiers are often subjected to rape or sexual abuse.

The use of child soldiers has spread to become a real problem, especially in developing nations. Girls can sign up for battle as an alternative to domestic violence or enforced marriage. Although children sign up, oftentimes voluntarily, due to poverty-stricken communities, the influence of warfare, or desire for power and status, many others are abducted from their homes or forcibly recruited. Child soldiers are frequently given the task of gunfighting or mine-laying, which can be extremely dangerous. They are often drugged to become killing machines. Children are used in warfare because they are less expensive, overall, than adult soldiers, and are easier to recruit or press into service. They are more impressionable than adults and therefore easier to control.

There are currently organizations, such as Amnesty International and War Child, that fight against the use of child soldiers. The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was signed by over 100 countries and was made legally binding in 2002. This protocol has suspended the use of child soldiers in many countries. In 2008, President Bush signed Child Soldiers Accountability Act into law, which has allowed the US to prosecute Americans who have recruited or used children as child soldiers. Although these initiatives have made a significant impact on the declining usage of child soldiers, the problem remains vastly important and SOCHUM will need to come to a consensus on the implementation of effective measures to drastically minimise the use of child soldiers.