Training Day November 31st 2019
The Organization of ILYMUN is a very large undertaking and requires a lot of people to cooperate and work together in order to assure the quality of the whole conference. On november 30th, training day was a way to prepare all teams; press, admins, logistics just to name a few, to ensure that we could have the best possible conference for everyone involved.
Committees are the lifeblood of any MUN conference. Focus groups meet together in an attempt to solve a wide array of inequalities and problems throughout the world all connected to one larger topic, in this case water.
In committees, chairs are in charge of leading the debate in order to mediate it and enable all parties’ opinions and questions to be heard. Delegates, on the other hand are required to represent their country to the best of their ability and present their ideas on the topic in a constructive way.
The I.C.J. or International Court of Justice is in charge of solving an argument between two opposing points of view. Their job is to listen to people’s views on a given subject and decide what the best course of action is. An essential part of the ICJ is the detective aspect of the judges. They are required to put witnesses on the stand and question them for information. During the training day, they started off discussing simple subjects such as ‘Pineapple on Pizza’ to get used to their roles of advocates and judges. They later moved on to debating a topic more relevant to this year’s theme. They chose to discuss the dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project built by Salini Impregilo. Both sides needed to gather evidence to support their cause and the judges questioned the witnesses for information.
The Public Health Epidemics Committee debates on different issues linked to public health. Their aim is to find ways to prevent or at least weaken the spread of dangerous and infectious illnesses throughout the world. This is a vital part of this year’s subject of water as there are many dangerous diseases that can come from the lack of clean water. During training day, the subject of the AIDS epidemic was discussed and a resolution was drafted which involved that, considering the direct link between homosexuality and the AIDS epidemics, it could be benificial to create a specialised police force dedicated to inspect homosexuals in order to avoid spreading of the HIV virus, it also involved the deportation of any one who has been identified as carrying the HIV virus to allow them to receive treatment. Ultimately, this resolution did not pass as most debating countries were against it.
The Sustainable Cities committee discusses all ideas destined to make a city more ecological and help in the transition to make the whole world more ecologically responsible. For instance during training day, a motion was submitted by Japan and co-submitted by Columbia, proposing that an emphasis be put on recycling projects in all countries and economic aid from the wealthiest, most polluting countries should help to make this a reality. In addition, a global conference based around the exchange of public transportation technology and instruction expertise should be organised yearly, and the Fukuoka solid waste landfill system developed in Japan should be set up in countries with large amounts of waste. The atmosphere tensed as the delegate of Japan accused the delegate of the USA of not being interested in anything else than increasing its own capital. That tension persisted as the delegate of China urged developing countries to not repeat the same mistakes as “selfish” western countries. After a lengthy discussion the delegates eventually moved on to the voting. The motion passed with a majority of seven votes in favor and only two votes against.
The zero hunger committee is dedicated to solve the world food shortage and help the poorest countries overcome their lack of food. One example of a subject this committee could discuss the ongoing situation in south sudan and talk about how we would be able to help them overcome this horrifying crisis and others like it.
Freedom of speech and press : This committee is in charge of ensuring the freedom of the press and freedom of speech is upheld in every country in order to ensure that everyone in the world’s fundamental rights are met. Countries such as Turkmenistan have poor conditions for freedom of the press and issues such as imprisonment or violence against journalists in such countries are debated on.
Human trafficking is still a problem to this day and requires MUN to have a special committee who’s purpose is to stop it no matter the cost. Exploitation for monetary gain is still rampant. Nowadays, there are many types of trafficking, including that of migrants across borders. This is an issue that does not discriminate according to nationality and occurs everywhere on the planet.
Arthur Quairel
