Koyo Model United Nations 2007
Well, the Koyo Model UN Conference 2007 has been and gone over the past couple of days, and as in previous years it has been a big success. First and foremost, thanks to 7 of the students from Naha Kokusai Senior High School, as well as Julie Chang & Matt Dowsett for coming to observe and support the students taking part. It meant a lot for our International Club to have another school actively involved.
The agenda item for this year’s conference was Global Warming, and after a lot of preparation and researching, students from 2nd year and 3rd year took on the roles of delegates from 30 countries to present, debate and argue over this topic. After much to-ing and fro-ing, 2 draft resolutions were put forward, one of them finally being adopted by the General Assembly. Below is the draft resolution put forward by students (spelling and slight wording mistakes included for completeness):
Agenda Item: Global Warming
Sponsors: UK, France, Austria
Signatories: Japan, Switzerland, Germany, Turkey, Spain
The General Assembly,
Whereas: Many developing countries in various stages of industrialization produce large amounts of Greenhouse gases and;
Whereas: Many of these developing countries have no way to have the means to produce clean energy and;
Whereas: Many countries have found conflict with the Kyoto Protocol and;
Whereas; Rising temperatures increase insect activity which will spread and increase various diseases, such as malaria and;
Whereas Global warming will cause the increase of plants and livestock-related diseases which will, in turn, cause drought and famine,
1. Therefore, we will draw attention to the Global Warming problem through various means,
2. Therefore, a fund will be created and run by the UN: this fund will be collected from each country (depending on the amount determined by a later meeting) and then distribute this money to various developing countries so that they can use it to invest to develop clean energy,
3. Therefore, countries may abandon the Kyoto Protocol and take part instead in this resolution,
4. Therefore, the fund will also supply malaria and other prevalent disease vaccines to countries where global warming has caused an increase in the respective disease,
5. Therefore, the fund will also supply relief food and water to countries hit hardest by famine & droughts caused by global warming,
6. Decides to remain seized of this matter.
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The students have done well here, I’m sure you’ll agree. If you’re interested in learning more about teaching Model UN at your school, then please let me know. Naha Kokusai in Okinawa is going to start teaching this subject in the Autumn and it would be great to have other schools get involved all over Japan in the future. This is an awesome subject and really gets the students thinking out of their little Japanese bubble. I’d be happy to pass on information and give you some help in starting the classes.
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