The MUNC TimesVol. 1, No. 1 Your #1 source of MUNC committee news. November 22nd, 2014

Good will present at PFII, but what about action?

MUNC 2014’s UnitedNations Permanent Forumon Indigenous Issues de-bated on the promotion ofthe rights and welfare ofindigenous people, giventhat they face both institu-tional and societal discri-mination, and thusencounter employmentand social barriers.All seemed to agree thatthere should be forums forfacilitating dialogue bet-ween government bodiesand indigenous peoples.Kenya summed up thereason clearly, stating thatthese bodies would in-crease communicationbetween NGO’s, indige-nous peoples, and govern-ment organizations.However, the best wayachieve this was quitecontentious. Kenya stated

that it should treat everyindigenous people as a co-hesive group irrespectiveof border, Cameroonhoped that conferenceswould be region-specific,and Bolivia emphasizedthe need to include all

players in these meetings.Two prominent pointswere whether the envisio-ned conferences would besolutions-oriented, andwhether the bodies wouldbe democratic, as propo-sed by Australia. Credit must be grantedto Burkina Faso for reco-gnizing that these forumswould naturally pit power-ful bureaucracies against

weak minorities. To pre-vent this, and make indi-genous peoples activepartners, Russia proposedthat indigenous represen-tatives be chosen based ondemonstrated merit as op-posed to political alle-

giance. Kenya asked thatconferences emphasizespeaking and listeningamong all members, whileIran demonstrated thehope that all points ofviews would be givenspace. Besides organizingconferences, countries ex-pressed the desire to actdirectly to further the inte-rests of the indigenous. Es-

tonia brought up aware-ness building among localpopulations to eradicateracist attitudes towardsthese, while the Americanshope to use education toboth make developingcountries more tolerantand to increase the jobmarketability of the indi-genous. To incentivize thecooperation of local go-vernments in these pro-jects, financialinducements for develop-ment were proposed. In an indication of thecomprehensiveness of thecommittee’s approach, thePhilippines discussedtransportation problemsfaced by the indigenous,while Cameroon spurredconversation about theneed to remove languagebarriers between differentactors. Now for action…

NachmanREICH

“All seemed to agree that there should beforums for facilitating dialogue between go-vernment bodies and indigenous peoples”

Today’sweather:Cloudy,

-1°

@theMUNCtimes:“Can I invite pi-rates? - Manuel Al-berti (Ad Hoc)#munc2014

@theMUNCtimes:"I'm impressed withthe amount ofconsensus." - JuliaPeterson, chair ofthe #GA #munc2014

Tomorrow’sweather:Cloudy,

2°

The MUNC Times Vol. 1, No. 1, November 22nd, 2014

General Assemblydelegates impress

Complete coursechange for Ad Hoc

But will they propose any actual changes? Delegates adapt to a whole new era.

The delegates ofMUNC’s General Assem-bly on Post-2015 Develop-ment Goals seem to haveimpressed their chairs du-ring their first two commit-tee sessions. “Theparticipants are very dedi-cated. Even though this isthe first conference formost of them, they are ad-dressing issues like expe-rienced delegates,” saidMaha Cherid, the com-mittee’s chair. The GA has a ratherunusual format, in whichdelegates do not only haveto produce resolutions onsocial inclusion and mino-rity involvement, but alsoconcretize their work in acase study on India. The delegates have star-

ted collaborating on thefirst component. Mostworking papers give edu-cation a central role in theinclusion of minorities.On one side, several SouthAmerican countries areworking on improving ac-cess to the educational sys-tem. On another side, Braziland a few other delega-tions, including Libya andColumbia, believe that“it’s not about access to

education but educatingthe majority to include theminorities.” Another notable point ofcontention was the inclu-sion of LGBTQ rights in aworking paper sponsoredby Germany and Russia,among others. “We wish toincorporate some newgoals, like the inclusion ofpreviously excluded mino-rities,” said the delegate re-presenting Germany. However, Russia hasbeen firmly opposing thisaspect. “We won’t acceptpolicy that constitutes pro-paganda for homosexua-lity,” affirmed Russia.“LGBTQ inclusion was anissue for most of our fellowsponsors as well, includingLibya, China, and others.”Despite attempts to com-promise, the LGBTQrights aspect was finally re-

moved from the said wor-king paper. The necessity to allottime for the case studymakes voting procedureimminent and one canwonder whether the Gene-ral Assembly delegates willhave succeeded to movebeyond current entrench-ments and put forward re-c o m m e n d a t i o n scontaining actual improve-ments for the UNDP’spost-2015 vision.

Margarita BOZHINOVA

Ad Hoc experienced asurprising twist this mor-ning, when the committeeunexpectedly jumped 207years into the future.The topic was revealedlast night as a meeting ofthe South American revo-lutionary leaders in theyear 1810. The delegateswere hard at work fightingagainst the Spanish re-gime, when the crisis direc-tors walked in to informthem they were being splitinto a joint crisis of Rus-sian Separatists Vs. Loya-lists in the year 2017. “AdHoc is all about adaptingto new situations, so wereally want to see how ea-sily they can adjust to thesenew characters,” explai-ned Kamil Chatila, AdHoc Co-Chair.The participants weresplit into two separaterooms and given new iden-tities, along with a briefbiography about their cha-racters. “I’m not surprisedthat they decided tochange things up,” exclai-

med Alana Elfassy repre-senting Ali Taziev.Just a couple of minutesafter the switch, the com-mittee was put into an im-mediate crisis situationwhen the freedom fighterstook a small elementaryschool in Volgograd hos-tage. “I’m happy about thechanges, it was getting alittle stale in there andnone of [the directives]were passing,” said ValerieKindarji representing Al-Shishsani.The Dais seemed excitedby the changes, and whatthey will entail for the de-legates. “It makes it morefun, and challenges the de-legates in a way that hasnever been seen before,”said Phil April, Vice-chairof the joint crisis. “It’s achance for the them to in-teract with different dele-gates in an interestingway,” When asked what theelegates should expect du-ring the upcoming ses-sions, Mr. Chatila said,“Always expect the unex-pected!”

“We wish to incorporate some new goals,like the inclusion of previously excluded mi-norities” - Germany, General Assembly

AdrianaTORO