FRIDAY, JANUARY 16
In Today’s UNiversal:
Time is Running
The last day in session in the
Security Council was a busy
one
page 3
-----------------------------------------
Population Growth
Can China’s highly criticized
family planning policy be
taken as an example? page 4
The Second Committee applaudes as the resolution ‘Cuba Libre’ is passed
Partners in crime are good partners nonetheless
By Vincent Harmsen
disappointed.
The first resolution that was
A wave of relief and excitement adopted proclaims the imwent through the room of the
portance of arms registration
UNISCA’s first Committee when and calls for a central place to
they applauded themselves on a store the data. The second one
job well done at the Oudeman- discusses the importance to
huispoort yesterday.
implement the UN Program of
The delegates managed to
Action and calls for all memadopt, not one, but two resolu- bers to cooperate in achieving
tions relating to the issue of
disarmament. This last point
small arms and development.
was brought in by Iran, in what it
But to achieve this, the goals set self called a “friendly unfriendly
could not contain, to the frustra- amendment”.
tion of some, very concrete and
None of the countries’ ambibinding provisions. ”We had
tions that were articulated are
to keep it vague, in order for
enforced by any kind of sancthe resolutions to work”, the
tions and it is only tomorrow, in
delegate of Belarus explained
the General Assembly, that it will
become clear if the resolutions
will pass.
But the resolutions have
shown that there is a general
commitment to the topic and
a willingness to work together.
The working part was even
more so a challenge since an
“artwork” showing scarcely
dressed Brazilian dancers
formed a constant distraction
to delegates. This picture was a
gift from the delegate of SouthKorea, who admitted that “I…I
mean we stole it”. By accepting
the gift the delegates showed
not only a willingness to be
negotiating partners, but also
to be partners in crime.
A constellation
of stars!
Dear all,
By the time you read this the
conference is already in its final
day. Just a few days ago you
were an inexperienced delegate,
journalist or even chair. As chairs
we have made the journey with
you these past few days through
good laughs and fun moments
but also frustration, deprivation
of sleep and tough times.
Those sitting next to you on
Monday morning being the
delegate of an unknown country may have become strangely
familiar by now. You might
wonder what the value of this
UNISCA experience is? Is it just
those ten credits, or is it perhaps
a different perspective on an issue, new interesting people who
have entered your life or the true
experience of imagination?
By Hermann Vivier
central point of the last session
reproductive health, especially
Whatever it is might become
of the WHO, but much discusconcerning: A: Family Planning,
clear
when you wake up tomorSecretary General Ban ‘Kido’
sion went into the importance of B: Access to Contraceptives, C:
row
morning,
when you get back
spoke out against relativism in
acknowledging cultural differWomen Empowerment.’ The proto
´normal
life´
or at some point
the face of possible cultural ofences.
posed amendment to it removed
during
the
many
years you still
fensive solutions to world probThe delegate from Sudan em- points B and C, thus leaving the
have
ahead
of
you.
One thing,
lems at the opening of UNISCA
phasised that contraceptives and improvement of education and
however,
is
certain;
this experi2008/2009. During the final
other birth control methods may access to reproductive health
ence depends on the unique
session of the WHO these words not be an appropriate solution
focused only on Family Planning.
constellation of people making
came back to haunt the forum
for a country with entrenched
Thus the amendment emphaup UNISCA. So use the final party
in a delicate debate regarding
fundamentalist religious instisised that culturally unaccepttonight once more to cherish this
this sensitive issue.
tutions, and possibly hostile
able methods should not in any
and enjoy!
How far should one go in
attitudes towards the issue
way be forced onto a possibly
enforcing upon people of other
of contraception and female
hostile population.
The Chairs of UNISCA 2008/2009
nations the means and ways one empowerment. Discussion
When the debate was finally
has come to accept as acceptfocused on the following clause, closed, the amendment was
able, and indeed necessary, to
which originally read: ‘Requests passed. Shortly afterwards the
The WHO passed more resolusolve the problems of the world? all member states to improve
tions than any other forum at
WHO issued its last UNISCA
This may not have been the
education on and the access to
UNISCA 2008/2009.
resolution.
The Lowest Common Denominator
2
Third Committee
buries itself
FRIDAY, JANUARY 16
Italy only country voting against Third Committee’s
resolution on water and sanitation
By Liza Jansen
By Stijn Roelofs
Yesterday the Third Committee
addressed the issue of environmental refugees, a topic of high
priority to all states concerned
about the indirect consequences
of climate change. But discussions dragged on.
While Italy was the only country to vote against the resolution
on Water and Sanitation, it found
itself less isolated on this topic
than in earlier session. (For a
full report on his stance, see the
interview with him elsewhere in
this paper.)
The United States showed to
be a natural leader when coming to the first draft resolution.
Being a native English speaker
with substantial know-how, this
delegate got the majority of the
countries to stand around her
and raise their hands if they had
any questions during of the committee’s unmoderated caucases.
However, when the attention of
the Committee turned to Global
Warming and the Kyoto Protocol,
Sweden took over and convinced
the majority of delegates of the
country’s points of view.
“The United States showed
to be a natural leader
when coming to the first
draft resolution”
The last session was in danger
of reaching a disappointing end
with two failed motions for closure and a load of amendments
that still had to be voted on. It
appeared the Third Committee
had buried itself under their
own well-intended speeches
and amendments. The United
States stated to be disappointed
by the speed, but insisted that
it wanted every country to be
heard, prior to voting.
When this paper when to
press, there was still no consensus on the topic of Environmental Refugees.
to vote against. The recognition
of water as a basic human right,
is an issue of key importance for
Italy. In 2007 the Italian parliament adopted a resolution
urging all its diplomatic services
to promote the explicit acknowledgement of water as a human
right, specifically mentioning the
United Nations as the forum in
which to do so. But we cannot
accept the fact that water is already considered a human right,
since Italy is campaigning for the
explicit acknowledgment of this
right.”
At noon, all but one of the
delegates of the Third Committee voted in favour of adopting
a resolution about water and
sanitation.
The resolution stressed the
importance of water and sanitation as basic human needs and
proclaimed that international
cooperation on assistance and
exchanging knowledge to realise
these matters was needed.
Except for China which abstained
from voting, Italy was the only
country voting against the
resolution. The Italian delegate
explained: “Although Italy supported the majority of the operative clauses, the preambulatory
clause implicating that water
had already been recognised as
The Italian delegate (left) talking to another Committe delegate
a basic human right, forced us
“Unisca has been a positive experience”
Looking back on the week with the Thai delegation
By Kirsten Ripken
On the fourth and final day of
sessions the UNiversal spoke
to Benita Knox, delegate for
Thailand in the ECOSOC. She
is an exchange student from
Australia, studying political
science at the University of Amsterdam. During the sessions,
she appeared to be one of the
delegates with a constructive input to the discussions, trying to
produce a resolution on which
all nations could agree. The
Universal asked her to look back
on the past conference week.
Ecosoc
“Ecosoc has had its frustrating moments, but the crisis
in Zimbabwe brought a great
improvement in learning to work
together. This was a very positive
experience and after it we were
more productive.”
Delegates
“Working together with the
other delegates was nice. Of
course every country has its
own interests, so sometimes it
is difficult to convert them. But
everyone is very friendly.”
Thailand
“The most important topic for
Thailand this week was sustainable tourism. The tourism
industry is the largest industry
and Thailand is a very welcoming, but still developing nation.
The resolution on this topic
contains positive elements, but
still it could have been more progressive about aid to developing
nations.”
Model United Nations
“This is my first Model United
Nations, but I would consider
participating in a second one. It
is a great experience, especially
because you are able to learn
about the bureaucratic part of
the United Nations. The atmosphere is also really nice and
it is great to be meeting new
people.”
Unisca
“Overall Unisca has been a positive experience for me.”
Thailands main issue this week was to defend sustainable tourism
3
FRIDAY, JANUARY 16
Time is running
By Anton Fischer
Afghanistan, the delegation continued the session negotiating
The last day in session was
about the issue of sexual abuse
a busy one. The delegations con- by UN Peacekeepers. Although
tinued working on a resolution delegates, among which the
dealing with the situation of Af- delegate of Turkey, considered it
ghanistan. While broad consent as a topic which would not take
on developing strategies was
too long, an agreement resulting
found quickly, specific points
in a resolution was not achieved
such as the Pakistan border situ- at the time this article went to
ation caused disagreement.
press.
A draft resolution, sponsored
While all delegations exby the delegations of the US,
pressed their deep concern
Germany, France and Turkey led regarding the importance of
to a number of amendments
this issue and their willingwhich were discussed carefully.
ness to find a proper solution,
But relaxation was noticeable
the question of prosecution of
and Libya’s “dream about the
perpetrators was tempestuously
future of Afghanistan” became
discussed. While Afghanistan fareality when a resolution was
vored the establishment of a supassed.
pernational court and procecuMotivated by the success
tor, Lybia, Turkey, Russia, the
achieved concerning the topic of US and China prefered trial and
One way to get around
state sovereignty
Chris Heijdenrijk, delegate of
Turkey to the Security Council:
Can you explain Turkey`s position concerning the topic of UN
peacekeepers?
“We are deeply concerned about
the reported misconduct and
very interested in a quick reaction. Adequate training would
be essential to prepare troops
to act decently. Moreover, an
appropriate investigation system
needs to be installed.”
procecution by domestic courts.
Furthermore, negotiations about
the implementation of a “zero
tolerance policy” stirred up the
diplomats.
Mixed feelings of UNICEF delegate about the resolution
on Universal Primary Education
By Clarisse Durand-Mulin
On Thursday afternoon, the
delegates of the Second Committee unanimously adopted a
resolution for their second topic
of discussion: the United Nations Millennium Development
Goal number two, “Achieving
Universal Primary Education ”.
The main propositions of
this resolution are to increase
financial and non-financial help
to developing countries and to
create centralized institutions to
coordinate aid distribution and
develop national regulations.
The presence of UNICEF in the
committee was very important
for this topic. The delegate representing the organization came
to the Universal to react after
the vote and stated: “Generally, we are very satisfied. As we
stated in our opening speech on
Monday, what was important to
us was the inclusion of teachers’
training, teaching methods, and
school curriculum in the resolution. And the one adopted mentions the importance of these
points. ”
UNICEF delegate: “Generally, we are very satisfied”.
But the organisation was a little bit disappointed about a few
particular points. “The resolution is encouraging the creation
of monitoring bodies to work in
cooperation with the national
governments of aid recipient
countries which is a good thing.
“However, it only emphasizes
the fact that these bodies
should track the development
of enrolment, ” the delegate
said. “We would have wanted
these bodies to also keep
track of literacy rates and
school completion. But other
countries just refused to add
it. It was very frustrating.”
By Laura Klompenhouwer
A Security Council resolution
passed on Thursday addresses
the importance of investigation
mechanisms during and after
UN peacekeeping missions.
It fails, however, to put more
pressure on troop contributing
countries (TCCs) to prosecute
those found guilty of abuses
during their mission.
The articulation of national
responsibility for peacekeeping personnel was opposed by
many countries on the grounds
that any strong language would
conflict with the sovereignty of
states.
As, in this case, a non binding
resolution would not increase
the pressure on countries to assume responsibility, the international community should look
for other options to hold TCCs
accountable and look for casespecific ways to get around the
argument of state sovereignty.
The Security Council resolution luckily does refer to the role
of NGOs and the media to bring
abuses to light but does not
specify how. One way to couple
the resolution’s words to actual
action is to create an alliance
between the press in TCCs and
the investigative bodies of the
UN and NGOs. In this manner,
pressure could be guaranteed
from within the TCCs to prosecute whomever is proven guilty
through investigation, without
there being any infringements of
state sovereignty.
The argument of state sovereignty all too often surfaces in
matters that are only distantly
related to it and this situation is
point in case. Executing bodies
influenced by Security Council
decisions should find practical
ways to keep pressure on sovereign states that are involved in
human rights abuses.
4
FRIDAY, JANUARY 16
China as example for controlling future population growth
By Anna Bressers
The rapid increase of the world
population is accompanied by
problems of severe environmental degradation and the increasing prevalence of diseases. To
prevent the worsening of this
situation, measures for checking
population growth are necessary. Can China’s highly criticized
family planning policy be taken
as an example for accurately addressing these problems in the
future?
Since its implementation,
China’s one-child policy has been
universally criticized for being coercive and autocratic. However,
since the world is facing mounting demographic pressures, such
policies may be the only way to
accurately address the increas-
ing problems of environmental
degradation and increasing
diseases.
Population growth is
negatively linked to sustainable development. Increasing
population numbers check or
even nullify efforts being made
on poverty, hunger, agricultural
productivity and health. Measures directed at reproductive
health, as implemented by the
UN, are successful in decreasing birth rates but are coming
short since the world population is still increasing with
200.000 people a day.
The stabilization of population will prevent poverty,
hunger, the prevalence of
diseases and environmental
degradation from worsening.
By implementing its one-child
policy, China’s population growth
rate has stabilized. It may be
considered unethical and a little
too simplistic to force people to
stop having children and most
countries will therefore oppose
policies as adopted by China.
However, the abovementioned
problems will become more
intense in the future since more
people will become in need
for supplies of food, medicines
and so on. The quality of life for
future generations who will be
affected by these problems are
more important than their right
to be allowed to give birth to as
many children as they like. Looking at the numbers, in the future,
we may not have a choice but to
adopt such radical policies.
Stay Awake!
By Kirsten Ripken
Coffee has been a popular drink
this week. Delegates were
hurrying in late, hair in a ‘justout-of-bed-style’ and slightly
dark circles beneath their eyes.
People yawned, while rubbing
the sleep out of their eyes.
On the last UNISCA days, all
the early mornings and long
sessions seemed to take their
toll. Carious complaints about
fatigue were made. And well,
who could blame you?
One would presume that stu-advertisement-
dents are used to partying for
nights in a row, having only a
few hours of sleep a night and
being able to combine this with
studying and jobs. However
classes usually only require a
few hours a week and generally
do not start in the morning.
Furthermore, most students
are able to catch some sleep,
quietly in the back of a class, if
needed. So most students are
not used to such an intensive
week as the UNISCA conference week, where constant
attention, participation and
motivation are needed.
Even though most participants
seemed to be tired, smiles were
all around. Probably because the
week has been much fun and all
participants were nice, friendly
and open. Besides, delegates
realized it is good to practice for
how life could be after graduation when they all have ‘real’
jobs, maybe even at the United
Nations.
So hang on tight everyone, we
have just this day to go. Keep
the coffee coming and try to stay
awake! Or at least pretend to be…
Colophon
The UNiversal: The official UNISCA
2009 Newspaper
Press Department: Rogier Nouwen,
Veerle de Vlas, Koen Wortmann
Editor in Chief: Linde Wolters
Design: Jaap van Nes
Journalists: Kirsten Ripken, Shari Nijman, Stijn Roelofs,
Anton Fischer, Laura Klompenhouwer, Vincent Harmsen,
Anna Bressers, Clarisse Durand-Mulin, Liza Jansen, Hermann Vivier
pr@unisca.org
Big issues, little
time
By Shari Nijman
With only hours to go to the
deadline, the UN showed yesterday how effective it can be by
adopting not one but two resolutions about trade embargoes.
On the longest of all UNISCA
days, for most committees the
extra hours in the evening had
to be used to discuss the final
issues on their agenda.
For the second committee this
meant that the issue of trade
embargoes was to be debated
between dinner on Thursday and
the closing ceremony on Friday.
With little more than three hours
to discuss such a major issue,
nobody knew whether it would
come to a resolution at all.
However, the discussion
started off with several states
condemning trade embargoes
and progressed faster than anyone expected. Less than an hour
later two working papers were
about to be submitted. It wasn’t
just time pressure which caused
the discussion to evolve this fast.
“The United States wants
to slip Fidel Castro some
potion”
USA Delegate in a note to chair
As the representative of India
rightfully remarked: It’s amazing
what the UN can do when the
United States are not present!”
Indeed the absence of one of the
major players in this discussion
raised hope that a resolution
could be adopted well before
the end of UNISCA. The, for most
countries convenient, absence
ended when the representative
of the United States re-entered
the debate and was clearly
ready to rumble! Although the
US rumbled away it had clearly
lost its momentum and a small
hour later two resolutions titled
‘Cuba Libre’ regarding the trade
embargoes were passed with an
overwhelming majority.