2013 EDITION - MARCH 9th
DIFFERENT PRIORITIES, ONE FINAL GOAL Rome, 08/03/2013 - Yesterday the first session of United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) took place in Sala delle Colonne of LUISS University in Rome. UNEP is a governing council and anchor institution for environmental programs founded in 1973 whose headquarters are in Nairobi. Delegates set the agenda of the two topics, which are both about the 7th Millennium Development Goal, “Ensuring environmental sustainability”. Therefore, they decided to discuss firstly about the principles of sustainable development into country policies and then to move to the problem of safe access to drinking water and basic sanitation. Twenty-five countries were present at the meeting. Italy, United States and China appeared to be very involved in the discussion, while France, Germany and Central African Republic had significant remarks.
“We would encourage education to arise awareness and create a self-sufficient society”, Italy pointed out. “We all have different priorities and use money in a different way” – claimed the United States – “and we should have a monetary fund in order to know where money goes.”
The Russian Federation argued that as long as water problems will not be solved, the in-
In their intervention, Italy and Albania highlighted the importance of control and respect
ternational community will not be able to reach a green economy and full sustainability. According to the Central African Republic, the goal has not yet been reached because of the huge division between northern and southern hemispheres. The Netherlands considers agriculture and farming as effective tools for sustainable development also in growing economies.
of international law. According to China, the control system is not effective. They proposed the creation of a national authority, which should work in cooperation with UNEP, whose aim is to report exactly how the money given by every single donor is spent. “We have the general feedback but not the financial one. We would like our money to be spent in the fight against scarcity of water, desertification and pollution”. During the first break, the Chair told the cameras that delegates still need to get some clarifications about rules and procedures, while the Director, at his third experience in that role and with various experiences as a delegate, said that the committee should be on time to cover the entire agenda. Sofia Franzoso, Céline Schoen, Melania Sebastiani (CNN International)
Poverty and Hunger: the importance of being collaborative Rome, 08/03/2013 - The UN General Assembly held its first session in the “Aula Magna” of Luiss Guido Carli University, based in Rome. The debate was focused on the first Millennium Development Goal: eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. The Chairman and the President opened the Assembly by welcoming delegates from all over the world. The first meaningful moment was when Venezuela asked for a minute of silence to commemorate the former President Hugo Chavez, who died after a long period of illness. Participation throughout the discussion was high and active. The general speeches were useful to understand the position of each country, while the raise of motions by which delegates asked to open the floor to discuss on specific issues concerning international cooperation were useful contributions towards resolutions. Notes were used to communicate and confront. The French motion on sustainable local development was welcomed with great interest. The idea is to raise local income in developing countries by creating local business enterprises and promoting local education. “We’re not interested in the holistic
approach” French delegation added. It is not only about providing food, but also about giving assistance to build stronger communities and make them grow independently. The Mali delegation seconded France’s point of view by stating that it is more useful “to teach to fish rather than providing fish itself”. The Republic of China intervened many times to call the attention of other member states. The very heart of its position is the commitment of international education organizations (UNESCO and other NGOs) and developed states, such as the US, in order to solve poverty. The US was present but did not take part in the discussion. Their point was that there cannot be any collaboration with China, for it is a non-democratic regime. The conclusive remark by the Chairman and the President was addressed to women delegates to thank them for their precious work as future diplomats, in the framework of the International Day of Women. Laura Lisanti, Ilaria Marino, Damiano Miraglia Raineri (France 24)
Security Council between children soldiers and self-determination Rome, 08/03/2013 - At 9:30 am, the Security Council started to speak about children and armed conflicts. Gianfranco Rotigliano, a notable member of UNICEF, deeply analysed this situation. The point of his speech was that there are many children involved in conflicts and they need a voice to
be reintegrated in society. According to UNICEF, reintegration is the main goal to achieve. They emphasized the role of communities because, as the speaker said: «we can not help the children in a personal way, it would be a dream». The role of SC is to make people realize that «it is a crime to employ children, and we have to work with other committees to emphasize this issue». Moreover, to calibrate the aid, UNICEF considers the development and the size of children of a country. «When you achieve a goal, that does not mean that we have solved the problem», even if there are some progresses, the difficulty is still alive and SC agrees to keep on working on this point. Then, at 11:00 am the SC focused on the right to self-determination attending a conference delivered by by Maria Dicosola, a law professor at Luiss University. In 1919, Wilson said in his famous speech that selfdetermination occurs when« every nation can determine his own constitution ». The professor, connecting to this sentence, underlined the link with international law, history and politics. Clearly, self-determi-
nation is difficult to achieve because every country has a different definition of people, minorities and nations, and that reflects in their political choices. Nervetheless, self-determination is the only way to guarantee peace. So, who has the right to establish the institution of a state? This is the crucial issue. In an interview with Mrs Dicosola, she stated that there is a transformation of the concept of the state, and those state constitutions are highly influenced by UN standards. This is a vital point to note as it influences state policy to a great extent. Such issues will naturally impact on the ability of the delegates to achieve a suitable resolution. The delegates of SC spent the rest of the day discussing about these two important issues. Also, the deputy chief of Azerbaijan intervened trying to clarify some differences about each country's point of view of self-determination. Giulia Cardamone , Diana Taysaco, Angelique de la Tullaye, Oceane Pelloille (Al Jazeera)
Education according to UNESCO Rome, 08/03/2013 - UNESCO opened its first session dealing with the issue of primary education around the world. This subject raises three priorities: to put every child into school, to improve the quality of teaching and to foster global citizenship. Delegates’ remarks showed how difficult it is to provide equal primary education for children everywhere. Nowadays countries have to face many difficulties less or more important, developing contries have bigger
concerns than Western countries which often have the support of their governments. All the countries do not see education as a main goal to achieve. For instance, thanks to an interview of a delegate of Sri Lanka, it has been shown that his country considers education as a fundamental right protected by the Constitution, but unfortunately, it is not enough because of the lack of resources and infrastructures. Furthermore, for developing countries education is hardly a prio-
rity, children have to work first, but we all know how essential education is to form human beings. Moreover, few countries see education in an utilitarist way such as Luxembourg which uses education as an instrument to build its elite. That is why this country considers this topic as the main goal of the world. Finally, without doubts every country in the world has to face their own local problems and their own vision. As a matter of fact they do not have the same method to educate people but they all strive to achieve the same goals. The final issue was discussed by Eugenio Lamesa, who is a prominent professor at ASVI school of management. He explained what social business is, and how it can solve specific problems such as the cure of the disease thalassemia. This concept has been developed by Profesor Muhammed Yumus in his book Bulding Social Business. He mentioned some points ruling this concept, a social business is a private organisation, financially sustainable, making no profits. Giulia Cardamone, Diana Taysaco, Angelique de la Tullaye, Oceane Pelloille (Al Jazeera)
World delegates united in the fight against HIV Rome, 08/03/2013 – The first and second Committee Sessions of the World Health Organization (WHO) took place at Centro Studi Americani in Rome, where delegates were involved in an interesting discussion about how to improve sanitation and information on HIV and other diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.
on how to best improve sanitation and information on HIV. For instance, the UK delegate stated: "There should be more informative campaigns, especially through social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, that reflect today's global issues."
During the meeting, Russia presented a motion to discuss the issue of HIV discrimination, proposing prosecution for people who discriminate against those affected by HIV: the motion surprisingly failed with disapproval from the majority of the delegates. A more pessimistic view was proposed by Kuwait, who stated that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be difficult to reach by 2015, due to the economic crisis and the reduction of funds from the international community. The conference therefore highlighted the contrasting views of developed countries and developing countries.
The conference however was mostly focused on the preventive measures adopted by developing nations. In this regard, even smaller countries have developed health programs to face such diseases. Among such nations, Burundi described its program based both on improvement of affected people's quality of life as well as prevention, particularly focusing on access to retroviral therapy. This represents the first step to help one of the most affected countries of the African Union. Despite these forms of control of HIV, Burundi is still one of the poorest countries in the Union and, as delegates stated, it needs more money to keep fighting the common problem of HIV in the continent.
Throughout today's first and second Committee Sessions, many delegates deliberated
From a more cultural perspective, the Pakistani delegate underlined several times the
real problem of her country: people are not used to using condoms or practising safesex. This is the reason why Pakistan's government has been promoting a program of advice and instruction about HIV since 1986, and guarantees free access to antiretroviral drugs: a program which led to a substantial decrease in the number of people living with AIDS. The testimony of the aforementioned countries thus demonstrates the willingness of both large superpowers and small developing countries to cooperate in a global arena in the fight against HIV. The participation of the delegates to today's conference will hopefully evolve in the next few days in order to reach an agreement, or a plan, for the achievement of the MDG to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases by 2015. Jessica di Paolo, Isotta Rodriguez Pereira, Chiara Ravazzotto, Chiara Zanchetta, Alessia Pascazio, Marta Lamalfa, Ernest Amankwah (BBC)
What women need Yesterday, 8 March 2013, the UNHRC Committee Session took place at the “Sala dei gruppi Parlamentari” in Rome. After the Roll Call, delegates voted and approved with 54 votes the motion proposed by India to discuss about the first topic 1: Gended equality and Women empowerment. All the speaking delegates highlighted the importance of giving women the same opportunities as men in society. The delegation of Azerbaijan, for instance, asserted their engagement in promoting women role trying to overcome the errors of the past. Kenya announced that in the next elections 47 women will be elected into the Parliament. During the meeting there were several unmoderated caucuses in which delegates could meet in private to discuss more about the issue and to think about a valid resolution. The delegation of Nigeria proposed to follow policy strategies in order to find funds for education by improving the private sector and reducing taxes for enterprises that hire more women. Education became the focus of the discussion: “Education is the first step but we need equal employment for men and women not only in governments but also in economy and society.” - stated the Italian delegate. The general idea which emerges from the discussions is that education is not enough, but a campaign of sensibilization about
gender equality is necessary. In many countries, despite many laws protecting gender equality and punishing its violation, people still behave according to discriminating social standards. This kind of habits could be changed also by media and technologies (like social networks), that need to be improved in developing countries. In the International Woman's Day, delegates appeared very interested and concerned about the topic. The Commitee hosted in
the afternoon a specif workshop on gender equality. Sharon Ketchum, US Embassy Public Affairs Officer, Eve Crowly, FAO Deputy Director for Gender, Equity and Rural Employment Division, and Clare Bishop Sambrook from IFAD, talked about agriculture, culture, land rights and human rights as key elements to end gender discrimination once and for all. Alessia Melchiorre and Carmelo Leo (Rainews24)
World Bank Committee starts with tough negotiations on multilateralism Rome, 08/03/2013 - Delegates gathered at the opening session of the World Bank Committee to discuss about two main topics: the possibility to further develop an open, rule-based, predictable, non discriminatory trading and financial system (Target 8.a) and how to deal with debt problems of developing countries (Target 8.d). RomeMUN delegates decided to focus on the first agenda topic. Among the many points for discussion, the basic need of establishing stable relations in the international community was well emphasized by the Russian Federation. As President Putin already underlined in the welcoming speech of the G20's presidency, the head leaders in the economy should be open to dialogue and constructive cooperation. Most of Russia’s partners, such as China and South Africa, have shown interest in the idea of creating a new kind of trade and financial system, with less barriers. Moreo-
ver, as stated by Russian Federation's representatives "The most important and effective instrument to let developing and LDCs (Least Developed Country) enter bigger markets is a non discriminatory trade." All countries stated their commitment to achieve the objective of a new, multilateral, rule-based trade system. However, there is a risk that the calls for multilateralism will never turn into reality. Internal sources told Russia Today that China will oppose a deal on a multilateral framework for trading raw materials proposed by SA (Saudi Arabia) to BRICS countries. SA offered the BRICS to reduce taxes on oil exports in return for alternative raw materials. China is told to prefer engaging in bilateral talks with Zimbabwe on the matter. This could be explained in light of Peking’s financial interests in the area. The debate on how to enhance the world trading and financial system was halted only
for the afternoon workshop, when IFAD Remittances Specialist Robert Meins addressed the delegates. Mr Meins clarified several points relating to formal and informal flows of money at global level. The activity of the WB Committee is still on. So far, no concrete agreement has been reached yet. Eleonora Amabili, Gianmarco Ventura (RussiaToday)