Conference Theme:
"The Snags in Fast Fashion"
The full background guides will outline for delegates the key issues around each of the topics and subtopics indicated here along with some key instructive moments in the history of fashion and textile history. Several nations will be singled out as examples along the way, but it will be important to recognize the role that every nation plays in this complicated topic.
And you thought your purchase from Shein, from H&M, from Fashion Nova, from TEMU was somehow “just a good deal.”
The full background guides will outline for delegates the key issues around each of the topics and subtopics indicated here along with some key instructive moments in the history of fashion and textile history. Several nations will be singled out as examples along the way, but it will be important to recognize the role that every nation plays in this complicated topic.
And you thought your purchase from Shein, from H&M, from Fashion Nova, from TEMU was somehow “just a good deal.”
NOVICE-Level Committee = General Assembly - Second Committee: ECOFIN
Topic: Fashion Supply Chain Transparency: “Fast Fashion”
The fashion industry, and more broadly textiles, has long been a challenging area to regulate and protect workers and work spaces. Even at its best, the inequalities between developing nation suppliers and developed nation consumers made international agreements for human rights, labor practices, inspections, waste management, and black market prevention nearly impossible. Now, with the growing demand for “fast fashion”--the quick production of cheap, low-quality clothing in the style of popular brands–the situation has become more complex and more urgent. Producers point at the outrageous demands of buyers and consumers; consumers point at the poor management and corruption among suppliers. And somewhere in between, along a half a dozen or more stops in the supply chain, accountability and responsibility is lost.
ECOFIN will address this growing crisis, focusing on its choice of protecting labor rights, protecting the environment from industrial waste, or addressing the wasteful disposal of a new and catastrophic level of textile waste. At the heart of the problem: transparency, the ability for everyone from producer to consumer to see where and how products are produced, traded, and carried to final retail. Not until we can openly trace the failures of the system can we hold anyone accountable. But how do we do it? And from which end of the chain might we start?
The fashion industry, and more broadly textiles, has long been a challenging area to regulate and protect workers and work spaces. Even at its best, the inequalities between developing nation suppliers and developed nation consumers made international agreements for human rights, labor practices, inspections, waste management, and black market prevention nearly impossible. Now, with the growing demand for “fast fashion”--the quick production of cheap, low-quality clothing in the style of popular brands–the situation has become more complex and more urgent. Producers point at the outrageous demands of buyers and consumers; consumers point at the poor management and corruption among suppliers. And somewhere in between, along a half a dozen or more stops in the supply chain, accountability and responsibility is lost.
ECOFIN will address this growing crisis, focusing on its choice of protecting labor rights, protecting the environment from industrial waste, or addressing the wasteful disposal of a new and catastrophic level of textile waste. At the heart of the problem: transparency, the ability for everyone from producer to consumer to see where and how products are produced, traded, and carried to final retail. Not until we can openly trace the failures of the system can we hold anyone accountable. But how do we do it? And from which end of the chain might we start?
| ecofin.pdf |
JV-Level Committee = UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion: UN Alliance
Topic: Building a Framework for Fashion Trade Reform
The UN Alliance is a networking of several UN committees and agencies dedicated to confronting the challenge that SEMMUNA will simulate with representatives from member states debating across several topic areas (i.e. Environment, Development, Agriculture, Finance, etc.). Building on the problems posed in ECOFIN, the UN Alliance will confront not a single focus area to solve, but instead compound the issue by addressing a cross-section of several areas.
Delegates will take on the supply chain question at the intersections of labor rights, working conditions, industrial pollution, and aftermarket waste. More, the framework they build will distinguish between start-ups and direct-to-retail, multi-level distributors (producers, agents, wholesalers, retailers), and partners in logistics, transport, customs, and warehousing, all areas of vulnerability for corruption in the trade system. In their work to build trust and accountability, they will confront a deeper question: Is the emerging market of fast fashion only the newest example of neo-colonialism, a trade imperialism which keeps poor countries poor?
The UN Alliance will work to demonstrate that (some) solutions are possible, growing trust and accountability, and reversing the imagery of predatory wealthy nations.
The UN Alliance is a networking of several UN committees and agencies dedicated to confronting the challenge that SEMMUNA will simulate with representatives from member states debating across several topic areas (i.e. Environment, Development, Agriculture, Finance, etc.). Building on the problems posed in ECOFIN, the UN Alliance will confront not a single focus area to solve, but instead compound the issue by addressing a cross-section of several areas.
Delegates will take on the supply chain question at the intersections of labor rights, working conditions, industrial pollution, and aftermarket waste. More, the framework they build will distinguish between start-ups and direct-to-retail, multi-level distributors (producers, agents, wholesalers, retailers), and partners in logistics, transport, customs, and warehousing, all areas of vulnerability for corruption in the trade system. In their work to build trust and accountability, they will confront a deeper question: Is the emerging market of fast fashion only the newest example of neo-colonialism, a trade imperialism which keeps poor countries poor?
The UN Alliance will work to demonstrate that (some) solutions are possible, growing trust and accountability, and reversing the imagery of predatory wealthy nations.
| un_alliance.pdf |
VARSITY-Level Committee = International Labour Organization (ILO)
Topic: Fostering Fashion Trade Market Legitimacy
SEMMUNA will present the unique ILO much as its members are in the actual body. Each nation state will have up to three members, representing labor organizations, employer companies, and governments. Thus, one school may be assigned a German labor representative, while another may have the German government. Each member will have a slightly different policy agenda in this case, but delegates will be challenged to not only solve the problem before them, but to attempt to put together a united front before the larger body. The committee promises some unique challenges!
The ILO is meeting on topics which parallel those of the other committees. More specifically, the ILO will address this key question: What strategies best create an international market for fashion that will be trusted by producer and consumer alike? Accompanying questions may include areas like IP protection, the public right to know product sourcing, greenwashing, and black market undermining of UN efforts. However–as we might suspect–a developing scenario related to one or more of these questions will emerge, testing the mettle of delegates to resolve the new complications without fracturing their internal coherence as three-delegate partners.
SEMMUNA will present the unique ILO much as its members are in the actual body. Each nation state will have up to three members, representing labor organizations, employer companies, and governments. Thus, one school may be assigned a German labor representative, while another may have the German government. Each member will have a slightly different policy agenda in this case, but delegates will be challenged to not only solve the problem before them, but to attempt to put together a united front before the larger body. The committee promises some unique challenges!
The ILO is meeting on topics which parallel those of the other committees. More specifically, the ILO will address this key question: What strategies best create an international market for fashion that will be trusted by producer and consumer alike? Accompanying questions may include areas like IP protection, the public right to know product sourcing, greenwashing, and black market undermining of UN efforts. However–as we might suspect–a developing scenario related to one or more of these questions will emerge, testing the mettle of delegates to resolve the new complications without fracturing their internal coherence as three-delegate partners.
| crisis_-_ilo.pdf |
| character_bios__1_.pdf |
DELEGATE RESOURCES
A few articles for all delegates to start with:
Carbone, Paula M.. “Fast-Fashion Brands Need a Dressing Down.” US News & World Report, 19 Nov. 2024, www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2024-11-19/shein-zara-and-other-fast-fashion-brands-need-a-dressing-down.
Malhotra, Sunny. “Cheap Clothes, High Costs: Individual Choices Can’t Thread the Needle on Fast Fashion.” Roosevelt Institute, 12 Sep. 2024, https://rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/cheap-clothes-high-costs-individual-choices-cant-thread-the-needle-on-fast-fashion/.
A Much-Needed “Hard Talk” on Sustainable Fashion | Connect4Climate. 21 July 2021. https://www.connect4climate.org/initiative/much-needed-hard-talk-sustainable-fashion.
| appendices.pdf |