Virtual WorldMUN 2022
Published:
Commission on the Status of Women (Mexico)
From the 14th to 17th of March, a delegation of three students (Alyanna Ginder, Joshua Mock and Antonia Rausch) from the Friedrich Schiller University Jena represented Mexico in the WorldMUN Commission on the Status of Women. After a short repetition of the Rules of Procedure and an introduction to the digital working methods during Virtual Harvard WorldMUN 2022 on Sunday, the Committee discussed the topic “Building Global Gender-Sensitive Infrastructure for Water and Sanitation.”
The task of the 30 Committee Members was to address the issues and impacts of sanitation, the factors that lead to a lack of water and the way girls and women are burdened by this. To improve the well-being of women, efficient and gender-sensitive approaches have been analyzed empirically, and new innovations have been introduced during the Committee sessions and captured in a final resolution. The UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), an integral part of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), was created with the purpose of “making women’s and men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies” and the main goal to achieve gender equality while primarily focusing on the issues that affect women and girls all around the world.
Led by the highly qualified and motivated Chair Tarina Ahuja, the CSW's work was characterized by a cautious approach to position statements and initial assessments during the first Committee session on Monday. Because of the medium size of the CSW, the moderated caucus was the most plausible way to point out ideas and give statements. With an extraordinary fair and inclusive work environment during the moderated and unmoderated sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, three developed working papers were merged into one during well-structured unmoderated caucuses. Finally, on Wednesday afternoon, one 17-page long Draft Resolution was handed in and adopted nearly unanimously. With valuable ideas and innovative approaches, the delegates managed to integrate social and cultural, economic, technical and security aspects of the topic into the final Resolution. The Mexican delegation was highly pleased by all solutions captured in the Resolution, as well as the respectful and considerate cooperation between all members of the Commission at any time during sessions. The diplomatic success of the conference week was celebrated on the final day with a group karaoke interpreting Taylor Swift.
Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee (Mexico)
At “Harvard World Model United Nations 2022”, two students – Yelyzaveta Shcherbakova and Maximilian Vogt – represented the United Mexican States at the Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee (SOCHUM). The issue of interest was the preservation of indigenous knowledge and culture. As delegates of Mexico, they were, on the one hand, focused on representing the rich Mexican cultural heritage and, on the other hand, were aimed at achieving a commitment of the international community to ensure the preservation of indigenous knowledge and culture by establishing general guidelines supporting the inclusion of indigenous people in their respective countries socially and politically and by creating educational initiatives and exchange programs to improve the reciprocal understanding. After four days of ambitious, intense discussions and negotiations, the building of alliances and the writing, presenting and defending of proposals, the students representing SOCHUM were able to pass a resolution to preserve indigenous knowledge and culture sustainably.
Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee (Republic of China)
Inside the third committee of the United Nations General Assembly, Justus Bartlewski and Raphael Piero took it seriously, not just to represent their country but also to act as Chinese diplomats would. So they had to keep a distant and professional atmosphere in speeches, negotiations and even informal talks. While fun, this commitment was unnecessary since few of the other delegations even tried to mimic a diplomat’s behavior. A further difficulty was the position of their country on the topic at hand: Preserving Indigenous Knowledge and Culture. China carefully avoids even admitting they have native people. So, Justus and Raphael had little to work with in terms of a Chinese position. Again they learned in action that it didn’t seem to matter what the actual countries position on the topic is since people started inventing their own narratives and measures, so both tried to adapt and came up with a position. They called for first, a sustainable implementation of a resolution, secondly, a bottom-up approach with the inclusion of native voices and thirdly, Justus and Raphael demanded local solutions for local problems reiterating territorial integrity.
Special Summit on Technology (Afghanistan)
After many hours of hard but interesting preparation, WorldMUN 2022 finally started with the opening ceremony and the first committee session on Monday the 14th of March. Another committee of the delegation from Jena, the United Nations Special Summit on Technology (UNSST), discussed privacy and security in the Age of Surveillance with a heavy focus on video surveillance technology, corresponding security systems, and underlying ethical questions. Because they were representing the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, due to the Taliban takeover without a government to back them, the students knew that they were not able to be the ones to Penhold draft resolutions. Therefore, the group decided to be the conscience of the committee and held emotional speeches so that the community could learn from the mistakes made and the suffering happening because of improper handling of surveillance technology in Afghanistan. They focused on a few points that were very important for their position. The first and most important issue for them was the support for building up a surveillance infrastructure and for the implementation of regulations on the usage of said infrastructure for developing countries. This should grant developing countries the ability to provide their people security but also protect their privacy. It was also very important for them to stop the supplementation of illegitimate actors, like the Taliban regime, with surveillance technology, so that said technology would not be misused to harm the people it is intended to protect. Other points of interest were the digitalization of data and the usage of only the most modern technology in surveillance. Through negotiations and a moderated caucus initiated by the delegation, the latter started off with a passionate speech. They were able to include the point of support for developing countries in all the draft resolutions. The students from Jena were happy to see that after days of long and hard work, their work paid off, and most of their points were included in the final resolution. This final resolution passed with just the necessary number of votes in favor. After the last session of the committee, the delegation members were satisfied with their resolute but, at the same time, very exhausted.