Model UN (FIRMUN) — April 2014 — Results
9-12 April, 2014 on the Faculty of International Relations of Belarusian State University was held Model United Nations. For today this activity has become regular and gathers every half a year around 100 students from different BSU Faculties and other Universities. This time Model UN was held with the support of the FIR BSU, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and INA «Evolutio».
During this Model three UN Organs were simulated: Security Council, Human Rights Council and 6th (Legal) General Assembly Committee. The last one (6th GA Committee) was for the first time at our Model conducted in Russian. But still the most significant innovation of this Model was an online broadcasting: during all 3 days of FIRMUN (10—12 April) everybody could have watched the Opening Ceremony and Security Council Sessions online.
First day (9th April) traditionally was devoted to trainings and Informal Opening. Each body had its training separately as far as the Rules of Procedure are different in various committees. On trainings Chairpersons simulated a factitious session for the participants with the following agenda: “How to make delegates learn the Rules of Procedure”. During Informal Opening participants had an opportunity to get to know each other and to find allies with similar position for the forthcoming sessions.
On 10th April at 10 am the Official Opening started. The Opening Ceremony was attended by our Honourabe Dean Mr. Shadurski and UNHCR Law issues Consultant Mr. Solodkov. Mr. Shadurski delivered a speech about the importance of such events and the opportunities which they present and the UNHCR representative mentioned the actions of the UN and UNHCR which they undertake in order to handle the situation with Refugees around the world and in Belarus in particular. Mr. Solodkov also told the audience that he had participated in the Model UN when he was a student.
Brief description of sessions in the Committees. In the Security Council three topics were set as an Agenda: Strengthening UNPKO (UN Peacekeeping Operations) in order to ensure international peace and security; Separatism movements as a challenge to global community and Issue of refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Middle East region. During two days of debates delegates actively discussed the topics and as a result of their common efforts adopted two resolutions (S/RES/3 (2014) and S/RES/4 (2014)).
In the Human Rights Council there were two topics on the Agenda: Ways and means to promote the Human Rights of refugees and Combating intolerance and Negative stereotyping and stigmatization of, and discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against persons based on religion or belief. During the sessions a great amount of points were submitted in which the representatives of different countries showed their understanding of the problem and suggested some decisions for the issues under discussion.
Of course there were some tense moments. On the second day of discussions on the floor was an unpredictable point which stated a suggestion of several states to create a new world religious movement which could eventually replace all existing religions. Absolutely against were the delegations of Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Venezuela and several more. Therefore, HRC divided into two groups and when this point failed with the difference in one voice, the representatives of four countries left the Session Hall without the permission of the Chair and were not allowed to come back. Notwithstanding some miscommunications, resolutions were adopted by the end of each day (A/HRC/RES/1/1 and A/HRC/RES/1/2).
It’s worth mentioning that all of the delegates showed their adequate preparation and high level of English. Countries’ Delegations not only tried to follow the policy of their countries, but also made coalitions for adoption of coordinated decisions.
In 6th (Legal) General Assembly Committee during two days were discussed such important issues as Responsibility of the State for Internationally Wrongful Acts and Superiority of Law on National and International Levels. First half of each day was preserved for lobbying. By drawing lots the house divided into two working groups which prepared two draft resolutions. At the end of each day just one resolution was adopted (A/C.6/RES/1/1 and A/C.6/RES/1/2), so it has brought a sense of competitiveness, pushed delegates to stand firm on their position and offered an opportunity to try to change the opponent’s Resolution in order to satisfy needs of delegate’s country by amending it. It was a first experience for the Organising Committee in simulating UN Organ in Russian and we hope it was successful.
Last day brought a lot of surprises as well. This day was held an extraordinary session of the General Assembly due to situation of unilateral extension of border by state X without an accordance with the neughbouring state Y. Delegates were in a urgent situation where they had to decide what to do as quickly as possible in order to prevent the escalation of conflict between two countries. Delegates suggested a lot of options and strategies trying to maintain international peace and security, but unfortunately, our participants didn’t come to an agreement. That is where we should think about the difficulties which UN faces every day in real life.
And the last but not the least, Best Delegates named by the Chairs in each committee:
Security Council: Jordan (Laura Simonyan, Human Rights and Democratisation, Master student) and United Kingdom (Sergey Navitsky, 3rd year International Law);
Human Rights Council: United Kingdom (Darya Bogdan, 1st year International Law) and Venezuela (Marianna Chobannyan, 3rd year International Relations);
6th (Legal) General Assembly Committee: Japan (Dmitri Krupoderov, 1st year International Law) and Germany (Katyaryna Shafranskaya, 4th year International Relations).
We express our gratitude to the FIR BSU and its Dean Mr. Shadurski and Deputy Dean Mr. Selivanov, UNHCR, INA «Evolutio», and also to Elizaveta Zhuk, Anton Vtiurin, Alina Liakhovskaya, Anastasiya Starovoitova, Alexey Zhaldybin, Elena Khodarcevich, Viktoria Zubko, Anna Nazarova, Olga Dashkovets, Darya Bohdan and Darya Kovalchyk for the help in organizing Model UN.