This week a delegation of East students went to Canisius College for the first Model UN conference of the year, and two of our delegations, the United States (Sarina Divan and Sally Yi) and the United Kingdom (Joanna Chen, Melissa Li, David Fan) received awards during the event, with the US receiving Best Delegation in the Human Rights Committee and the UK receiving Honorable Mention in Security Council. During the event, members roleplayed as delegates from different nations and attended simulations of sessions of several United Nations committees. The number of countries in these committees ranges from five countries in one of multiple Security Council groups to 50 countries in the Islamic Council. During these sessions, East delegates participated in the following actions:
Caucused: An unmoderated caucus is when people can walk around and talk to fellow members of their council. In the caucus, they talk about resolutions or working papers, or negotiate new deals. On the other hand, moderated caucuses are when people sit down and raise their country placards in order to be called upon to speak about the issue or paper of question in a more formal setting, allowing for everyone to hear a speech.
Made a working paper: Working papers are the first step to making a resolution. They have the outlines for the resolution. They are basically laws that the UN can pass; for example, a working paper on the Syria issue could be about improving refugee camps. They are typically a page long, with a short preambulatory phrase outlining the problem (ex. Understanding that the Syrian government has thousands of detainees being tortured mentally and physically each day…) followed by a series of numbered action steps agreed upon by various members of the committee (ex. 1. Urges neighboring countries to put political pressure on Syria to release its detainees). All working papers must be co-sponsored by at least 2 other countries to make it “friendly.”
Voted: Voting is done on several occasions. Votes are conducted to start unmoderated caucuses, turn working papers into resolutions, pass resolutions, and adjourn the proceedings. Voting can be done clause-by-clause when each numbered action step is voted on by all countries by raising their placards, by the whole working paper by raising placards, or secretly on paper.
Joined the speakers list: The speakers list is the list of countries who are signed up talk about a designated issue. Motions involving the list include increasing the time allotted to speakers and the maximum amount of time for speaking.
Model UN is a fun and interesting club. If you are interested, please contact Dr. Redmond. The next conference is at UB in the spring, and this time there is no limit as to how many people can attend.
