EYP-UA Weekend in Mykolaiv. Academic preparation kit

ACADEMIC PREPARATION KIT EYP-UA WEEKEND IN MYKOLAIV 15-16 OF MARCH, 2014

INTRODUCTION Dearest delegates, This booklet which was prepared by your chairpersons will briefly introduce you to your topic, walk you through all of the vital background information, inspire your inquisitive minds to think beyond our limits, and greatly prepare you for EYP-UA Weekend in Mykolaiv.

I will for now just leave you with 3 small pieces of advice to help you through this week until we finally meet: - Read your topic overview at least twice; the more knowledge a committee has, the more powerful and emotion-filled time you will have; - Take a closer look to links for further research; - Prepare to amaze and be amazed.

Wish you a successful preparation and interesting reading!

Good luck everyone, we are looking forward to meeting every single one of you very soon.

President of Mykolaiv EYP-UA Weekend, Iryna Garbuz

Committee on Human Rights (DROI) LGBT rights: With tension between adopting anti-discrimination law and conservative electorate. What steps should the Ukrainian government take to protect the freedom of LGBT people and prevent cases of homophobia?

Ukraine is on the edge of big changes. Either these changes will be European or Eastern, they will be touching a so-called LGBT question.

Further European integration and the signing of the Association Agreement means the complete modernisation of Ukraine not only economically or politically, but socially as well. This will be possible only if all the requirements of the European Union are met, which also includes the adoption of new legislation acts, among which the antidiscrimination law is.

Message from European politics is clear: “If you adopt laws, you became closer to an agreement.” LGBT community in Ukraine doesn`t attract much attention, but according to to the different sources it is said to be around 1 million gay people in the country. New legislation would allow them to have the same rights as all the people have, what includes employment equality (the proposed law No. 2342 would prohibit employers from rejecting workers basing on their sexual orientation), inheritance, adoption and harassment protection (the last three have not been discussed yet). For now, all the discussions on this topic in our government are frozen without further plans on being renewed.

Such a delay is not surprising. Our post-soviet society is not yet ready to accept the LGBT community, and let it “come closer”. Several times radicals have been attacking gay parades or activists that were coordinating human rights organisations; thus, this is more about the mentality and religious views. Following Russia`s experience, Ukrainian parliament has even tried to adopt a draft law that would make it illegal to talk about homosexuality in public, in the media and to promote, distribute and broadcast video, photo and audio products that “encourages homosexuality”.

On one hand, the adoption of anti-discrimination laws would make Ukraine closer to the Western countries, allow single-sex couples to adopt children(what potentially gives them a chance to have a better life) and make it easier for them to be involved in the social life. On the other hand, people are not ready to accept LGBT, since the adoption may lead to an unexpected riots and increase the tension in the society.

Committee on Human Rights faces the moral challenge: what steps should be taken to make people more tolerant and how should the laws be changed in order to satisfy both EU and Ukrainian society? Human rights versus conventional wisdom: is there a place for further discussions or should they be stopped once and for all?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Ukraine Recommended videos: Gay rights violations in Ukraine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-WdA431TyU A history of LGBT rights at the UN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvpHn_zdkTY Anti-gay laws http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYpVnxi1Yek

By Oleksii Prylipka

Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) Young, active, and unemployed: Youth unemployment rate is above 20% and constantly growing. Consequently, unpaid internships are becoming popular, how can the EU protect the rights of young workforce from cases of abuse?

The survey of National Association of Colleges and Employers, England, in 2012 showed that after unpaid internship 37% of workers got a job and their year salary was $35,721, 35% of those with any internship at all, and salary $37,087 per year got a job and 63% those who had any history of a paid internship with $51,930 year salary were employed, and such situation is common in countries of Western and Central Europe as well.

Today all companies and employers want skilled workers first of all. Not a secret, it is more profitable to take experienced people, who already know what to do and how. However, for all beginners during a job search, a problem of a lack of the work experience exists. The ability to take the internship in this case is optimal. Particularly beneficial is an internship, when you can gain experience by working and earning money. That stimulates a person to work hard and approve oneself. This is another key to successful employment in the company. There are no documents, which can guarantee that a worker will be employed after unpaid internship. There are cases in European countries, when an official intern is obliged to work for three years in a company that had provided him with internship once his internship period is finished.

During the practice each intern faces different problems, the most common though are the following: - At the end of the unpaid internship one can stay employed ; - Health insurance health care and other social benefits do not apply to unpaid interns; - Interns may be forced to do work that is not part of his professional duties; - In case of prosecution in court, it will be difficult to defend oneself, because one is not an official employee, etc.

The main problem of an unpaid internship is that no matter how much valuable experience workers receive, it is always necessary for them to have a place to live, money to rent an apartment, to buy food as well as some other personal expenses. With this in mind, which actions can be taken in order to make the interns’ life easier?

Recommended videos: Internship in USA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89rgcWKmYPc Debates on internship in UK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8229MO3LEM General overview on internship https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv7UfqTKvsY

By Oleksandra Tychyna

Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety II (ENVI II) Tobacco industry: Tobacco is accounting for 700 000 premature deaths each year in the EU and Ukraine is among the top ten cigarette consuming countries in the world.

What actions should Ukraine take to protect its citizens’ health from the expanding business?

Tobacco is the second biggest ‘killer’ in the world causing 1 in 10 adult deaths annually and the number rises each day. Unless urgent action istaken, tobacco could kill one billion people during this century. Besides, tobacco is the fourth most common risk factor for disease worldwide.

Fortunately, there are many effective tobacco control measures that can be used in different conditions and can decrease the tobacco consumption. The most effective strategies are public policies, such as bans on direct and indirect tobacco advertising, tobacco tax and price increases, smoke-free environments in all work- and public places and other measures which are stated in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) by World Health Organisation.

On the one hand, in recent years the amount of smokers in Ukraine has been increasing. On the other hand, both the public and the authorities have become more aware of the harm tobacco causes and the need for tobacco control measures. In 2005, the Law on Measures to Prevent and Reduce the Use of Tobacco Products and their Harmful Impact on the Health of the Population was adopted. In 2006, Ukraine ratified the FCTC. Tobacco advertising is banned on television and radio, on transport vehicles, in shops and through advertising activities such as some forms of sponsorship, campaigns, competitions and so on, and since 2010, in the print media. Since December 2012 smoking in public places has been 100% banned which prevents tobacco exposure.

However, the legislation is not completely enforced.

On the other hand, the tobacco industry is one of the most profitable businesses and totally banning the use of tobacco would be devastating to the economy. The following would be either out of business or drastically effected: tobacco farmers, labourers, paper companies, factories, smoke shops, taxes on which the government depends, and so on. The tobacco industry estimates that about 33 million people worldwide are employed by tobacco farming. Governments can earn more than $9 billion a year on the tobacco taxation. On top of that it would cause bootlegging similar to when alcohol was illegal. Besides, freedom of choice to consume a legal product is a human right which cannot be denied.

American researches show that despite tobacco industry making billions of dollars every year, the costs of smoking are far higher than the income from cigarette sales. For instance, productivity losses due to smoking among workers cost the US economy an average of almost $97 billion yearly (for 2000-2004).

The development of tobacco control policy is currently at a turning point. On the one hand, smoking has increased in recent years and reached very high rates. On the other hand, the ratification of the FCTC and adoption of tobacco control legislation combined with initiatives by the President and government have established good conditions for determined tobacco control policies to reduce tobacco-related deaths and disease. The challenge is to prevent people from starting to smoke, to get rid of the cause of the issue, and well as find some new innovative measures which will help smokers quit.

Recommended videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hpjhmN4L1w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJFgKrsD6sw http://www.tobaccoatlas.org/products/cigarette_consumption/annual_cigarette_consu mption/ http://www.tobaccoevidence.net/pdf/sea_activities/kl_may05.pdf

By OlenaYermakova

Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety ENVI I Deadly infection: HIV remains a significant public health issue with the WHO estimating more than 2 million infected in Europe. As Ukraine and Estonia are among the leading countries, what steps must be taken to prevent the spread of the incurable disease?

The first case of an infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) ever registered in the former Soviet Union goes back to the year 1987. At first, the spreading of the virus was slow; in the 1990’s Ukraine was still a country with low risk of an HIV epidemic. However, since this very first case other approximate 350 000 new infections have occurred with another 100 000 – 300 000 being infected without knowing or registering. Nowadays 1.1% of the adult population has this virus and the rate of infection is increasing by about 10% every year.

In the last century, the diagnosis of HIV was an absolute death sentence. With today’s modern drugs one can live almost normal life. However, the therapy is lifelong and, unfortunately, is not available for nearly two third of those who need it. The AntiRetroviral therapy is usually a combination of three different drugs that need to be taken every day - every day for the rest of the patient’s life.

There is no cure for HIV/AIDS, the goal of the combination therapy is to keep the virus’ activity to a minimum, support the patient’s immune system, and try to stop the quick spread of AIDS. An important thing that we should pay attention at when it comes to HIV therapy is that a patient who takes these drugs does not only regain a considerable amount of life quality, the chances of passing on the disease also go down to almost zero. When taking into account how quickly the virus is spreading in Eastern Europe this is an important fact to keep in mind.

One of the major issues of this topic is that those life-saving drugs are unfortunately not available for a majority of the people who need them now. The Ukrainian health care system does not work in favour of HIV patients; in addition there are still many doctors who would rather not examine a patient because they are scared to be infected. At the same time, the more HIV patients are left without help, the quicker AIDS will spread, which will cause a growing amount of people strongly dependent on health care and hospitalisation. It will be a real challenge for the country’s health care system.

There are different funds and organisations that are working on local and international level such as Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), The World Health Organisation (WHO),The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria whose aim is to fight against this horrible disease by adopting different strategies and initiatives, starting different programmes and simply supporting and helping governments and infected people itself. But as we can see, it is still not enough‌ So what else should be done to solve this problem? How can we use already existing therapies to stop this epidemic? And is there a way to make modern and effective drugs available even for the ones who cannot afford them now?

Recommended videos: http://www.cdc.gov/CDCTV/HivAids101/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COfdnY27LP4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYiWxSWMneM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06mQyXQlR08

By Violetta Kolisnichenko