Team — Check!
Countries — Check!
Intense studies — Check!
This year’s team is chosen and getting ready for the Paris International Model United Nations 2013! Check the tab above to follow our progress!
As we begin our preparations for the Paris International Model United Nations, the Malmö University representatives – Head Delegate Ilia, and Delegates Laura, Ivan, Hampus and myself – are getting excited about being 5 out of 500 university students coming from all around the world to participate in this student simulation of the United Nations! It is going to be 3 days of deliberations, debate and maybe a bit of debacle as we head out to Paris 18 – 20 May as Delegates for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. So it’s on with our socialist revolution caps, on with our anti-capitalist caps, and on with the work as we get ready for this very cool opportunity to work amongst international students to develop solutions to problems facing the globe today.
¡Olé!
Kara
After all, on the last day a former NMUN participant who made her career in the Peace Corps presented her top ten career tips. She also asked some questions: Who speaks a language other than English? A lot of hands go up, maybe a bit more than half of the present students speak one or more foreign languages. Who has ever lived in another country? A lot of hands go up again. Still, by far fewer than before. Who has ever lived in a country that has a different language than one’s mother tongue? A lot of hands go down – some stay in the air. Who has ever studied in such a country? More hands go down. And five people keep having their hands in the air – Malmö University’s delegation. What we did throughout this trip was not purely academic. Sure, I can tell you all about Belarus’ strategies when it comes to fighting illegal weapon trades and Annie will be happy to quote statistics about the spread of HIV/AIDS in this country, but this is not why we went to the US. In the end, I believe, we have done what Malmö University tries to teach us every day: Study what you love to study, work on your own, take responsibility for your actions, ask for help, when you need it. Work on your own, but also connect with others, discuss and analyze your thoughts and findings in groups, apply them to real life, see them in different cultural contexts.
True – we did not win any awards. But was this even a goal we had? We were all new at this and none of us saw this simulation as a competition. I believe that all of my delegates did a very good job, and I even considered giving them awards of my own, but decided not to do so. I don’t want to compare them to each other; all of them achieved incredible outcomes, not only at the conference, but also when they stayed up after 26 hours of travelling or 12 hours of conference to finish and submit their exams – they are all different and special in their own ways, part of the diversity that is every-day life at Malmö University.
//Lena
Although we havent exceeded six hours sleep last five nights the delegation of Belarus was extremely awake during the final day of NMUN. With eight draft resolutions on the floor of which seven resolutions raised great concern to Belarus, negotiations became intens as time run out. Belarus clarified the comittee during formal debated that although several EU countries had forwarded their polcies as European policies, Belarus had other points of view. And that EU countries should refrain from using EU and Europe as equal definitions. This resulted in public apologies from EU countries to the address of Belarus. In the following session was Belarus able to ammend resolutions supported by the USA and EU. Belarus recognised, welcomed and appreciated the efforts by the UK, Italy, USA, Turkey and Sweden among others. Finally Belarus was able to vote in favour of two resoltions by the last named countries, besides its own resolution in collaboration with the Russian Federation, the Peoples Republic of China and Japan. Unfortunately Belarus could not agree upon the fourth resolution that passed since it undermined the capacity of sovereign governments. Overall Belarus was delighted with the work done by all delegates and the cooperation amongst them. Now Belarus would like to motion for an adjournment of this session. Motion is in order.
//Sven
Sven and I are very proud to let you know that at the voting during the last session our resolution was unanimously passed by the other member states with not even one objection.
We worked very hard during the last session and during my last speech I called on member states to incorporate a program/ policy that we had developed. In order to achieve tolerance of all religions and beliefs we came up with a strategy we called RSD (report, strategize and dialogue) where a voluntary forum is created for member states to collaborate their efforts. This was received well by the assembly and gave our delegation our unique touch for negotiations.
All in all we were very proud of the outcome and of our other delegates from Malmö University. I think it was great exposure for our university and it proved that we are a force to be reckoned with.
On a personal level we would like to thank Malmö university, especially the international office for this incredible opportunity and encourage other students to try and engage in such activities. This has been an amazing educational experience that has motivated us in pursuing our international careers, it has been an experience we will never forget.
//Sherizan Leah
Back to nukes and other arms )
The GA1 underwent quite a change… I think I posted earlier that Belarus is taking a regional stance towards eradicting the flow of small arms. However, a similar working paper was submitted, basically suggesting the same on an international level. We were recommended to merge, and soon nearly all sponsors decided to do so. I was in a somewhat tricky position there since I am convinced that the international approach suggested by the other working paper would threaten Belarus’ sovereignty, and would also be a lot less successful in outcome.
In the end, we adopted a regional approach and I decided to stay as a sponsor of this resolution. It later passed as resolution 1.2.
In the last 36 hours, I also had a lot of discussions with countries like Iran about the second topic that would be addressed: Nuclear Weapons and Non-state Actors. Since we often had to wait for the revision of our working paper, and since in the end, when 2 papers merged together, there were simply too many people and those with the loudest voice had the power, we decided to exchange some ideas before starting the second topic. In the final session of our committee we could finally address them. Together with Iran, Cuba, Lebanon and numerous developing and middle-income countries, we designed a working paper mainly focusing on the following two ideas:
- the destruction of all nuclear weapons and sites that allow to build them (this is the only definite way to secure that non-state actors will not get hold of nukes)
- securing the right to peaceful use of nuclear material, with special regards to the strong influence of some states (and groups of states) on this issue. Belarus regards many sanctions that are imposed on sovereign countries as illegal; this is also the reason why we did not wish to partner with any Western nation here.
In the end – surprise – our draft resolution actually passed as resolution 2.5.
So how did I decide who to partner with? It was actually wuite easy: although I tried to approach the EU countries at the very beginning of this conference, I found myself and my views rather correlating with other nations in the Middle East, Africa and South America. Also, I often had the feeling that some EU countries just didn’t care about me at all (I got asked several times whether I am in the EU or not).
After all, I think I fairly well pushed through Belarus’ interestes (although without some show like Israel, Iran and Pakistan, addressing each others as terrorists and Zionist Regime).
So, time to leave. We loved it – but only getting 4 hours of sleep each night is slightly exhausting… If you have any questions – please feel free to comment on our posts!
//Lena
Yesterday the delegates mostly worked on different workingpapers concerning the first topic set on the agenda, which was Violence against Women and Girls.
Delegates from different nations got together and worked on a paper on how to end violence against women and girls from their countries’ perspective. The Republic of Belarus worked together with Russia, Armenia,Colombia, Malaysia, Swaziland and Sweden on the issue of human trafficking andhow to assist the victims. The day was about negotiation, writing and speeches.Our draft working paper was the first to be a draft resolution and after that we did our best to promote it to other countries. We signed some of the otherworking papers, and some we objected to since they contradicted Belarus standing on certain issues. Today, the delegates continued their work on the papers andthe negotiation with other delegates to gain support. It took quite long timeand in the end we only had about 15 minutes for voting, but our resolutionpassed with only one objection!!!
We went straight to the closing ceremony and said goodbye toall delegates that we have worked with for the past days. Now we are back to the hostel and exhausted after long days and lack of sleep and we’re gonnasleep for a couple of hours before we go out and celebrate! To sum up, ithas been a really nice experience and I think we are all happy about the outcome!
//Annie and Jasser
On the first day of the conference.
We rehearsed and joined the opening ceremony and listened to interesting
opening speeches concerning our different committees and topics. We were all
very excited and happy to be here! We were divided into different committees
but realized soon that we were the only University who hade only one delegate
in each committee. We were told that we would have a greater chance and
opportunity in the committees if we merged. The Commission on the Status of
Women and the topics chosen are important for the Republic of Belarus and
therefore Jasser joined Annie in that committee. Merging into one committee was
a good decision to be able to take part of all the discussions going on during the
informal caucuses and resolution writings. We were among the first to initiate
a co-operation between the states when it comes to ending violence against
women and human trafficking in women and children.
On another note, the 2nd day if the conference was 13 hours long and yet we
were not tired as in the first day, that may have to do with that we made much
progress during this day, the efficiency we had achieved yesterday made it more
exciting and less exhausting.
After the conference was done at 10 o’clock, the group went out to relax
and enjoy the rest of the night, it took us a while to find a place that accepts
underage people (Jasser and Lena) to enter. However we found an amazing
place in Chinatown, where Jasser had Nachos for starters which he shared and
yet he couldn’t finish it, that’s how big it was, this has been one of the many
amusing things we did on the 2nd day. In conclusion this day has proven to be an
enormous success.
//Annie and Jasser
Here is a little update from the delegates of Belarus in General Assembly Third Committee. We began yesterday morning with an exciting welcoming ceremony and started our first session. The first step was to set the agenda and we were pushing for topic 2 which is the protection of human rights while countering terrorism as this was the theme most relevant to belarusian policy.
To our surprise we were out voted and the topic given was abolishing intolerance towards religion. While Belarus respects efforts made to eliminate discrimination towards religion or belief, this issue is not of utmost importance to Belarus as a state as it is and remains a tolerant state. We found ourselves a bit alienated in the first session as the Belarusian political stance on the matter did not give way for much negotiations for cooperating with member states on functional policy making level.
We ended a long day of debates at 10pm and came back to the hostel to reform our entire approach to suit this nee topic in the second session.
In todays second session we decided to put forward the respect of national sovereignty as our main clause and through this we were able to form a collaboration with China, Korea, Romania and later on with the entire Arab block. This made the entire committee more vibrant and gave Belarus a strong stance.
Although we got off to a rough and unexpected start, we feel our hard work most definitely paid off as we are now working on a resolution that is very likely to receive majority votes.
The strong stance we received today has been very motivational and we will continue to try and collaborate with other members in order to pass our paper.
Now it’s time to go back to the assembly we plan on making a speech soon.
Wish us luck:-)
// your distinguished delegates of Belarus in the general assembly’s 3rd committee -
Sherizan and Sven
Suspension of the meeting for the purpose of dinner – and Pakistan, Iceland and Niger voted against…
Anyways, the resolution that is sponsored by Belarus in the first committee is kind of finished… We’ll vote on it soon!- most of the delegates here don’t even know that it is in this Committee because they are so quiet. Turns out: it is their opinion on the topic (the flow of small arms). They don’t have this problem, they don’t wanna interfere with anyone, they don’t wanna regulate anything internationally. So – logically – they are sitting in the back of the room watching the others…
Back to work 
//Lena
In the meantime I had the chance to talk to North Korea
