Humans of HamMUN2017! Interview with the Delegate of the USA, UNDP.

On Friday, we spoke with Dimitra, 22, who is currently studying a masters in Law in Cardiff, UK. This is already her 16th MUN, but first one in Hamburg. She decided to take part in HamMUN because she heard it’s a very good conference, so our reputation gave us away 😉

You are representing the USA in the United Nations Development Program. What position on global healthcare does your country hold?

Basically, the US believes that sexual health is a global issue, as it affects everyone, so the US supports the establishment of a global framework. Projects could be run by NGOs in collaboration with national governments and institutional organizations such as the UNDP, but also other partners, such as corporate actors, could contribute to a global health cluster.

 How could funding of programs aimed to improve sexual health look like?

Projects could be financed by a joint fund, where governments contribute in a similar manner as in the UN Global Fund. In our committee’s case so far, the main contributors are three countries: the US, Japan and the UK. But we cannot fund all on our own, so we hope that to some extend we can include NGOs in the funding process and convince them to contribute, financially, and especially in terms of action. We will call upon national governments to contribute voluntarily, but we would prefer to have everyone helping with funding.

After today’s debate, which focused a lot on HIV, and how to prevent infections, would you say this is an issue in the US and which specific measures could be taken to tackle this problem?

In the US, we still have a high number of people infected with HIV, however, in the last years, we see a decline. New HIV diagnoses fell 19% from 2005 to 2014. We have reached this by for instance distributing free condoms, promote information events at schools, starting media campaigns on posters and TV, distribute flyer, and other actions, to raise more awareness for this issue. We also see a connection between drug abuse and HIV infections and try to find solutions that don’t see these as isolated problems.

How do you generally like the UNDP committee, what is your take on the situation so far after the first two sessions?

Overall, we had a very fruitful discussion with everyone. We believe that there are still many other things we can address in the context of sexual health, apart from the topic of HIV that was the focus of debate today. For instance, we should speak about family planning, teenage pregnancies and forced marriage, which are significant issues not only in developing countries. Basically, we need to make child marriage illegal for all countries, to improve the situation.

Which direction would you like the next sessions to go?

We hope to expand to other subtopics beside HIV, for instance talk more about abortion and family planning and other interrelated issues and how to deal with them.

Thank you very much for the interview!

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Love and War in the JCC.

Yesterday in the JCC is already on fire. First Mahinddin Pashal was declared a traitor by Jabal Shammar, who also asked to all the governments to deny him shelter. Nejd declared they executed Pashal in the city of Riyadh, but that was just fake news. That’s why Jabal declared war on Nejd and move troops to their territory. Nejd try to make an alliance with Hejaz but that was just not possible. The ones who they agreed on having alliance with were the British, together the move on Damascus the operation city center of the Ottomans in Syria. France added also to this operation and the three of them took Damascus. Nevertheless, the French declared the town hall their territory, which produced tension with the Nejd and British. But not everything is winning, Nejd lost a part of their territory to Jabal Shammar. Another unfortunate event for the Nejd. The Prince Turki passed away, he chocked while eating. He will be missed. His second son Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has been announced as the new Crown Prince. Talking about announcements, Sheikh Habibi Aditi Al-Idrisi is the new Emir of Yemen, which receive the best wishes from the Saudi Government.

 

Today Nejd was witness of the union of Faisal Al-Dumaish and a beautiful woman from the Jabal Shammar. Plot twist, there was a mass suicide from Nejd in Jabal Shammar. How is going to turn out, you must read mornings article and find out. There will be a unification? They will continue in war? Another death or wedding? Who is going to have the power? No one knows how is this Crisis is going to continue, will see tomorrow how to the delegates imagination.

A Tale of Treason and Binding Ties.

At first glance, one might think that the historical committee is only about prostitutes. This might be confirmed by second and third glance and by reading most of the gossip, however after a while you understand the intrigues and conspiracies of all the assembled merchants. Every one of them has their own goals and is dedicated to reaching them- be it at any cost. Already in the morning, multiple trials have been held, merchants were accused of treason and backstabbing, the evidence was dense. The war between Denmark and Sweden needs to be avoided, however, the committee is rather focused on killing each other. The honourable merchant Gottfried Travelmann of Lübeck died already in the morning, but another merchant joined the session: Albrecht von Pecatel of Stockholm.

Whilst some marriages were being forged, Hinrich von Westhoff of Lübeck, admiral of the Hanseatic League, was accusing Sven Sture of Visby of preparing a plot not only directed against him, but also against the whole Hanse. He had a piece of evidence in form of a letter sent by Sture (photo of letter above), which Sture eventually admitted to having written. After calling up on witnesses and very fiery closing statements (“can we believe a man changing his loyalties according to his personal interests?”), an anonymous vote decided in favor of ‘guilty’. The punishment was set to be a reparation payment of 50 % of his whole income over the course of the upcoming year to von Westhoff. The latter was not too happy about the punishment which he believed to be too soft, however when he asked upon the high chair whether he may react to the decision, he was shut down with the words “this is not a YouTube channel, you may not react”. The whole room was confused over those words, investigations as to what futuristic invention “YouTube” may be, but soon the talks shifted back to weddings and trials.

Another highlight of the session was the search for love of some merchants. An ambassador entered the room searching for a heart lady for Herman Rolberg, who wishes to find some warmth in the coldness of Hamburg. Eventually, every pot finds a lid and so he found Johan Hoyeri’s widowed mother. The happy couple wishes to get married immediately, and will be one of the 6 couples that are getting married by the end of the session.

Stay updated!

 

 

 

 

 

Is there an Oasis in the Dessert?

The Oasis hallucination

The Africa Union, a beacon of progressive unity has passed a resolution on providing water security for the whole continent of Africa. Their approach to this is through Negotiation, Reparations and Collaboration. Just minutes after the resolution passed negotiations with western developed nations established an agreement for these countries to take on the burden of pollution and climate change for the next 30 years. This is a massive win for Africa who can now sow without fear of drought and/or drowning rainfall. Reparations were also discussed, and African nations are to receive a completely paid for by the west project investigating and implementing how to best develop an efficient and contextual way to bring fresh clean water to even those in the remote areas of the continent. Lastly, collaboration between the African nations will in the short run establish a transnational audit of water, which countries in need can use to appeal for water from countries in surplus. This will solve the immediate issues until infrastructure and better environmental conditions have been established. The African Union has worked earnestly and diplomatically to use the power they rightfully have as nations to enact change on their continent. For this, the people of Africa are proud and applause.

The Dessert reality

The African Union is moving along s l o w l y. Not much has picked up since yesterday. Everyone still agrees that water is important but they are divided on how to secure this for citizens, as such, not even a working paper has been submitted. The delegate of Sudan acclaims that we cannot underestimate the power of unity, and wants nations to join and build an infrastructure that distributes clean water throughout the continent. In a brief interview with Sudan’s bloc they exclaimed that they would tax western businesses to raise the money to build this. Sadly, I just don’t think the African Union has that kind of power. An alternative Bloc see this as a waste of money, they believe that the people of each nation knows best and want clean water distribution to be at a local level, working with the infrastructures and resources already in place such as NGO’s. Someone tried to mention education, but the delegate of Chad quickly drained that idea, acclaiming that “Education is good, but being alive is better!”

The Final Verdict is Announced!

During this morning´s session the judges in the ICJ had to come to their final judgement on the case concerning Uganda´s activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There were rumours suggesting that the judges had some difficult consultations about some details in their judgement, but in the end they came to an unanimous verdict. The judges could not find any proof for violation of Congo´s sovereignty, since the applicants did not present any  evidence directly related to the Ugandan military. Furthermore the source of a news report which was presented as evidence was classified as unreliable by the judges. Additionally in the eyes of the judges the witness could not present any definitive evidence for human rights violations by Uganda, also the witness had been unable to give insight in the conflict, due to a lack of knowledge. As a conclusion Congo´s right of self-defence was regarded as unnecessary by the judges. So the Democratic Republic of Congo was accused of Human Rights violations. Furthermore the judges stated that the applicants did not provide any empirical evidence from their point of view. Last but not least the Vienna convention was mentioned in the verdict. This lead to a direct reaction by the crestfallen applicants advocate( Democratic Republic of Congo), requesting the chairs to open the study guide and afterwards stating this convention had not been part of the case and trying to interact directly with Judge Mohamed, which was stopped by the chairs. But finally the verdict was not changed.

Progress in the UNHRC.

After multiple unmoderated caucuses, the majority of the Human Rights Council might have finally reached a resolution. The fellow delegates of Nigeria, China, UAE and USA stood to read aloud their draft of the resolution.

They stated that they encourage the establishment of a fund directed to the work of NGOs and the establishment of a form of communication between the HRC and NGOs. They find it also important to form a committee of observers to monitor the work of the NGOs. But the NGOs are pretty much qualified. The rest of the points were about investigating the human rights and sexual violations and to bring awareness to them. The other delegates got the opportunity to ask questions and Iraq took the chance and made it clear and reminded the Council that “The resolution must be extended to the neighbouring countries and not just Syria, because the war isn’t only happening there.”

That excited the delegates and knocks on tables were heard. But Nigeria answered to that and said in order to expand the peace and stability, it has to start somewhere, and we are preparing for the aftermath of the Syrian Civil War. Latvia is astonished that “The countries Nigeria, UAE and China want to start a political process to what seems like a democracy…” China responded right way they don’t talk about democracy. They are more focused on the humanitarian issues and the civilians.

To Attack or to Defend? That is the question!

Extensive discussions regarding the working paper, sponsored by Poland, France, and  the United States of America and already signed by the United Kingdom. The current working paper has been criticised due to its vagueness and unspecified measures, which are deemed to be insufficient to effectively tackle the issues that are at stake.

The main criticism, particularly, was raised by many countries on the topic of measures to counter cybersecurity attacks pursued by Russia in the Baltic countries, which are not properly addressed in the working paper. Estonia deems provisions to counter Russia’s cybersecurity attacks are necessary and its voice has been echoed, since cyberwarfare is constantly engaged by Russia. Moreover, the costs of allocation of resources remains an issue that needs to be further considered. The risk that Russia could potentially close the gap between the troops stationed in Kaliningrad and its borders particularly concerns Poland, Estonia and Latvia, two countries that are particularly involved in the region. Moreover, what seems to be missing from the working paper is a naval operation basis, promoted by countries such as Finland and Denmark and backed by the Baltic countries. The concern raised by Hungary on the possibility of enlarging NATO to include Georgia and Ukraine, which are domestically unstable, cannot be taken into consideration, as it was assured by the United States of America. The latter stressed the urgency to protect Lithuania and highlighted the pivotal role played by Sweden and Finland that are to be protected due to the risk of aggressive behaviour conducted by Russia in the seas.

The direct linkage between the GDP and the military expenditure to tackle the of the burden has been criticised by Germany, Turkey, Greece due to internal issues that affect these countries’ economies, namely migration and terrorism. This opposition has been echoed by France, which emphasises that individual countries concerns are to be taken into account. Estonia voiced that the 2% GDP to increase military capability should represent the benchmark of the cooperation. Indeed, the United States and Poland argue that this would not impose an excessive burden on the Baltic countries, that are not indeed supposed to bear the military costs by themselves.