What do the topics, cases, or press activities you are proposing for your committee mean to you personally? Why do you care about them? Why do they matter to you as a person?
The General Assembly’s proposed topics are “Healthcare Rights”, “Access to Education”, “Access to Drinking Water and Food”, and “Drug Crisis”. Each of these topics are absolutely and extremely relevant in our world today. In terms of what they mean to me personally, in some cases and in regards to certain topics, I am very privileged. For example I’ve always had access to food and clean water, and I’m very grateful to say I’ve been able to, in fact required to, receive an education. I cannot imagine how difficult it would be without such access as having this access is so normal to me; however, it’s so crucial at the same time. Unfortunately, though I and a majority of people in my country are blessed enough to have access to education and food/water, 39% of the world population have poor or no education and 829 million people are undernourished in the world. I believe that access to water and education is a fundamental right. Education is empowering and enabling, and water is simply an uncompromisable necessity. In terms of “Healthcare Rights”, I believe that this issue is quite complicated and requires delicate balance. Unlike access to education and food/water, while, in the US, we have relatively good policy in regards to public health (e.g. sanitation, information, and clean water) I find access to medical treatment to be heavily flawed and lacking. Especially in terms of equal access, discrimination, and cost. I have seen how in countries with universal healthcare, because healthcare isn’t lucrative, there is a lack of medical professionals and it’s very hard to receive treatment in a timely manner. However, in the US, inadequate health insurance coverage and high costs of treatment/medical attention also makes access to healthcare extremely unjust, unequal, and flawed. I believe that policy on healthcare should take both these extremes into consideration to find a healthy middle ground. That being said, while I believe that such balance is necessary it should tip more left than right given that I believe that health is a human right. What I mean by this is that access to healthcare should be given utmost importance and that policies that make investing in healthcare lucrative should simply be made to stimulate the system to avoid pitfalls such as lack of professionals, availability, and incentive for innovation/progress. I believe that viewing health as a human right creates a legal obligation to ensure access to affordable, timely, and adequate healthcare of acceptable quality as well as to address underlying detriments of public health such as sanitation, information, education, equality, safe water, housing, and food. Our final topic is the “Drug Crisis”, and this topic I have the least personal ties to. However, I do have community ties to this topic. Coming from an area very close to Atlantic City, I have definitely been exposed to and aware of how the consequences of drug addiction and abuse doesn’t only harm an individual but extends to communities for generations to come.