GA3: A Committee to Remember

By Katerina Christodoulidou, Vasso Kourtoglou and Katerina Tsortanidou

Welcome to the Social and Humanitarian committee, a committee in which topics of Human Rights are discussed. The topic that was discussed refers to Child Sex Tourism which is a very crucial issue. The committee was very active and there was a long list of speakers. Especially the delegates of Libya and China made lots of points of information which helped the debate to gain interest and become fruitful.

Almost all of the countries suggested that measures should be taken such as increasing public awareness and asking for financial aid and NGOs to cooperate with each country’s governments. We have noticed there are some developed countries that haven’t suffered at all from Child Sex Tourism and others that have already taken some measures such as China but they weren’t sufficient enough.

The committee entertained a lot of time for unmoderated caucus and during this time the delegates made three alliances. The first one consisted of only developing countries whereas the two others consisted of developed countries.



We would also like to mention that DPRK made a very emotional and poetic speech. To make a long story short we find the social and humanitarian committee one of the most interesting ones and we are looking forward to finding out which the final resolutions will be.

Tension, determination! This is the Security Council

By Filippos Gortzis and Konstantinos Zarzavatsakis

First day in the Security Council and the standards are already high. The delegates strongly support their opinion with powerful speeches. We should mention the most distinguished ones, the delegate of Greenpeace, the delegate of France and the delegate of Togo. The delegates were so eager to start that they immediately asked to move to informal debate (lobbying).

The topic they decided to debate dealt with preserving the natural resources of Antarctica, and ensuring that the region would be used only for scientific research but certainly not for military purposes. After 50 minutes of lobbying, which included an extension of time as well, it ended up with the delegates forming strong and powerful alliances, such as China along with Togo and Pakistan.

Tention captured at the Security Council

Some very interesting clauses were introduced turning the debate into a heated discussion. Portugal, as the main submitter, suggested a clause which condemned the use of the Antarctic region for military purposes and weaponry tests. The clause represented most of the countries’ positions so the case ended with 9 votes in favor, 3 against and 1 abstain. Moving on to the second clause, the tensions got higher leading to a veto made by the U.S.A. Simultaneously, the delegate of Greenpeace, totally opposing the topic, influenced the other delegations against voting in favor of the clause. The clause was rejected. Last but not least, Portugal submitted another clause, supporting the eco-friendly exploitation of the natural resources of the continent. This case found France totally against it, while China and its allies voted for it. The voting procedure ended up with the clause being turned down. We are looking forward to tomorrow’s committee session, which is expected to be far more interesting.

EU Council of Ministers

By Maria Psichoula

When the committee session started, the chairs introduced themselves to all the delegates of the committee. Then, they informed the delegates about the basic rules of the MUN conference and in some way they analyzed the topics and rules of the committee. After that there was a challenging debate on the first topic of EU Council of Ministers committee.

There were speeches made by Austria, Denmark, Spain, Poland, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxemburg, United Kingdom, France, Greece and Estonia. All these delegates mentioned some and although it was the first day of the ACMUN conference, the delegates didn’t seem to be anxious at all. Most delegates made speeches, points of information, interesting questions and statements. Some delegates invited other countries to join their country’s position on the subject. Generally, there was a nice atmosphere.

The delegates were not nervous and felt free to express their delegation position and opinion on the topic that the debated on. Then, it was time for the delegates to prepare resolutions for the topic that they were discussing. The truth is that most of the delegates of the committee were active. Everyone was prepared and ready for the topic that the delegations were arguing and debating on. Of course, when you see self-confident delegates who are willing to participate in their committee debate, you are sure that the EU Council of Ministers committee will be a success this year.

Let's Shape Europe!

By Marianna Papadimitriou and Christina Pasvanti-Gkioka

Imagine that you are in 1814, in Vienna’s Congress and you are supposed to determine your country’s borders. What would you do? Regarding the diplomats of the Historical Committee, they did everything they could in order to serve their state’s interests. After a brief summary of the topic by the president and the secretary of the Congress, each one of the representatives was called to introduce himself/herself. The main issue that was raised concerned the question of nationalism and whether a nation’s national identity should identify with its borders or not. However, various diplomats preferred to make other statements. Initially, Russia collided with UK and Papal States about the matter of the independence of Poland, whereas Spain and Sweden argued about the establishment of a type of monarchy combined with elements of democracy. Furthermore, there was a dispute regarding France’s penalties among France, Austria and Prussia.

As the session approached its end, an intense crisis on the Dutch invasion in Belgium took place. Even though it seemed that the majority of the diplomats would support Netherlands’ position, in the end, the house was divided.




In general, most of the representatives expressed a deep desire for stability and balance in the European continent. All of them have an aspiration of sustaining their grounds, they are ready to defend their territories and they definitely have the power to succeed in this. Now, the only thing that remains is to see them achieve this goal.

Tough decisions at the Legal Committee

By Anastasia Tsilia



Delegates at the Legal Committee (GA6)

At the suggestion of DR Congo, it was decided that the topic A, regarding the degree of Internet copyrights and censorship, would be given priority. After a lot of fruitful debate and discussion, two alliances were formed. The first one, which held the majority of delegations, was of the opinion that there should be censorship, mainly in order to cope with the problems of child pornography and other illegal actions, like piracy, which is a common concern on the Internet.

Very important delegations, such as France, Germany and the USA, supported this alliance.  Syria, who also supported this alliance, was attacked by many countries because it wanted to use censorship as a governmental weapon. Syria claimed they would use censorship to control political unrest in times of war.

Meanwhile, in the opposing alliance, countries like India stated that they wanted to recognize the basic right of the freedom of expression of ideas and opinions and as a result they could only support very mild censorship.

A lot of controversial opinions where heard about this topic and as a result this caused a fruitful debate which everyone wanted to extend. After a really long unmoderated caucus, two resolutions were finally given to the chair. The whole atmosphere was very positive and friendships seemed to be developing between delegates. Furthermore, everybody was really interested in the topic discussed and delegates participated as much as possible. Can’t wait to attend the discussion again!

 

Deforestation Debate: Prosperous and Fruitful

By George Foundos

 

It has only been one day since the ACMUN has started and the delegates in the Economic and Social committees are doing pretty well. All the delegates agreed to start with the second topic about deforestation and illegal logging. The delegate of Greenpeace started first with a dynamic speech presenting the benefits of using renewable sources or gathering nuts fruits and vegetables which are the real wealth of the rain forests. These suggestions would replace the harmful consequences of deforestation according to Greenpeace and would give the same profit to the companies. Then after two short but interesting speeches given by the delegates of Australia and France, Nicaragua gave a speech which brought interest in the audience saying that there should be environmental soldiers protecting the tropical forests.

Many delegates adopted this idea, including those from France, Greenpeace, and the Russian Federation, although the latter had some doubts about the chances of the plan’s success. The delegate of Libya was next and toned that countries like theirs need forest products but believe that there are other things too that rain forests can provide them with. Then Japan continued repeating that we can create the same goods that come from trees through other resources. The debate continued with France giving another speech and the Russian Federation asking a clever question: “There are older laws regarding illegal deforestation. Do you think we should make new laws or make the older ones more severe?”

“I believe that we should reform the already existing laws making them more strict and severe,” Answered the delegation of France.

After fruitful debate the delegation of the Russian Federation stated deforestation can’t be avoided completely but can be slowly decreased.

Concluding, the first day for ECOSOC was prosperous with a warming atmosphere and with France, Nicaragua, Russian Federation and Greenpeace being the most energetic and I believe that the best is yet to come! 

Interview of the Acting President of Anatolia Dr. Panos Vlachos

By Vasso Kourtoglou

What do you think about the Anatolia College Model United Nations?

I think that the Anatolia College Model United Nations is one of the most important and exciting opportunities our school offers to students. As I mentioned in my speech, earlier this morning, it is actually a program that looks at a student in a holistic way.  The students are engaged, inspired, and develop a number of skills like team work, persuasive writing and many other important things. Moreover, the students improve significantly their communication skills and become exposed to people from other countries which is one of the greatest initiatives. Also, Anatolia organizes it in a massive way. It allows a great number of people to participate when in other schools try to limit it and to excel it and they prepare it like a competition. These are great things about Anatolia and I am glad to see that students are responsive and faculty are really committed.

 

Do you believe that MUNs give students more skills to communicate better?

I think that this is one of the main features of this idea of the MUN, especially nowadays where in our society communication plays a very important role and now it is becoming more complicated because you need to have special skills to communicate with people, to be able to communicate at various different levels. It is by far a great tool to improve communication skills of students.

 

What do you think about the fact that more and more students join Model United Nations conferences every year?

I think that young people are looking at their lives and at their education in a different way, from a different point of view. Students often feel that this traditional setting of education may be boring to them. So, what they really want is to become engaged and that is why we see over all, especially in Anatolia College for example, the MUN and the ACSTAC conference, that students are attracted to these programs. They see these as an opportunity to do things that they really value and like. I believe this is true all over the world and education needs to adjust to this new way of how students are approaching learning, see you all run with it, and each year I see more and more student involvement and engagement to the MUN and that is for me what it is all about.

 

Before today, had you ever been involved in any other Model United Nations conference?

When I was a student, Model United Nations was not an option in Greece, so I was never involved as a student but I have known this conference for many years and especially the one we organize. Although, I have never participated in such a conference, I am quite aware of what the aim is and what we will accomplish through this conference.

Discussion Heats Up on GA2

By Joanna Denis, Athina Kalaitzi

The conference started with the chairs’ presentations. They welcomed the delegates and presented the rules. They spoke about formal and informal debate, points, motion and yields. Nicaragua motioned and recommended the first topic: Privatization. After the agreement from the other delegates, the conference started. Germany spoke first and talked about monopolies and big markets. Then the French delegate made clear that France is in favor of actions that will be good for the public.

According to France, privatization will help the public because it will improve the quality of the services, unemployment, health service and transportation service. Iran said yes to privatization but with measures and Nicaragua spoke from experience and explained that the United Nations should privatize nothing because many countries are in economic crisis and they cannot afford more mistakes.

After a great debate they voted. 26 countries voted for privatization and 20 opposed. Then privatization was discussed for 35 minutes with all the nations. At the same time the chairs announced the time remaining. As time ran out, the delegates tried to find a resolution. It was not so easy. Delegates discussed with each other to make a conclusion. Delegates of Chad, Portugal, United Kingdom, Australia and China, and the United States of America talked about the effectiveness of privatization in today's economy and under which circumstances the privatization would have negative effects.

Meanwhile, 4 delegates, two for each block position, went to the prep room to prepare the resolutions that they strongly supported. Continuing, some more delegations wanted to take the floor in order to express their motions and of course answer every point of information. These delegations were Nigeria, Togo, Portugal, Austria, Libya and Senegal. Finally for the last 10 minutes Director Narin Ismail, asked that those who had not spoken so far to talk about the policy of each country. These delegations included Egypt and Finland, but also some others who had not participated so far.

8th ACMUN Conference Begins on a High Note

By Kelly Diolatzis, Angela Karathanasi, Domna Syropoulou

Vangelis Halatsis, the President of the General Assembly, announced the beginning of the 8th ACMUN conference, the first time Anatolia College has hosted a Model United Nations Conference affiliated with THIMUN.  Before the speeches of the special guests there was a role-call of the nations which are participating. After this procedure there was a magnificent performance of Anatolia’s Acapella choir. It was a really warm welcome for every participant. Afterwards, several people took the floor, including Deputy Secretary General Argyris Doumas, Mrs. Irina Taka Michaelides and Mr. Vasilis Stravaridis . After the inspiring lectures, the President yielded the floor to the Secretary General, Natalia Chantzi. Being a senior this year she began her speech by talking about her way through MUN and how this experience changed her life for the better. Immediately after the welcome speeches of the guests and the Secretariat, there was a short video about the committee’s topics of the 8th ACMUN conference. The opening ceremony ended with the hitting of the judge’s hammer by Vangelis Halatsis, which marked the beginning of this year’s conference.