Sample Paper

Submitted by: Cameroon
School: Any School H.S.
Committee:      United Nations Children’s Fund
Topic B:           HIV Education

Delegates: John Williams and Katie Smith         

Around the world, AIDS is shattering young people’s opportunities for healthy adult lives.  Nevertheless, it is young people who offer the greatest hope for changing the course of the epidemic.  The Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by virtually every nation of the world, recognizes: “The right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health” (Article 24).  It is this globally acknowledged right, which UNICEF strives to protect in the consideration of expanding HIV education.  Cameroon, as a developing nation, recognizes many problems concerning children.  One of these problems, shared by the community of developing nations, is the lack of adequate health education for children; specifically, that children do not have access to the information and education necessary to combat HIV infection.  The extension of this information is integral to improving the welfare of developing nations, and imperative to helping the status of children around the world.

The Cameroon Republic realizes the dilemma at regarding HIV education.  The majority of adolescent girls and boys do not have access to the information and services they need, and many lack the skills required to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS.  Young people have a right to be given all the information they need about HIV.  They have a right to assistance to develop the skills and attitudes that will help them deal with situations that may expose them to the virus.  Cameroon places a major emphasis on broader education as an effective safeguard against infection.  By keeping children in school and teaching them life skills, they are protected and empowered.  Younger girls remain particularly vulnerable to infection, and as such, Cameroon has focused its educational aims on that group.  Ambassador to the U.N. Martin Belinga-Eboutou, noted in a Security Council meeting on Africa’s future that “the efforts of the international community to implement various analyses and recommendations had not always equaled the requirements of the situation in Africa.  Slowness and timidity had been a source of great frustration for Africans.”  Cameroon believes, that the solutions recommended by UNICEF must be the ones that work for Africa.

At every step of the process, young people need to be involved.  Interactive methods, including peer education, where adolescents talk to each other about relationships, safer sex, peer pressure and their expectations should be considered.  Although the Cameroon Republic supports all these actions, the primary problem for our nation is the lack of health infrastructure and necessary funding.  It is in the best interests of the developed nations, private health corporations, non-governmental organizations, and other members of the international community, to reach out to those nations in need.  Our battle for a healthy child population is the world’s battle. It is the Cameroon Republic’s expressed hope that through effective education, useful health services, and adequate outside funding, that education can save the world’s children from the scourge of HIV/AIDS.