Written by: Matt Meadows and Sidney Karnes
The James Monroe High School Model United Nations Team recently traveled to Atlanta to compete in the 2016 Georgia Tech Model United Nations Conference. The conference itself was held on Monday, October 10th, and Tuesday, October 11th. Twelve students from James Monroe represented the Republic of the Philippines in various committees dealing with a wide variety of international topics. The conference itself was organized into eleven committees, each with separate topics. Committee one, The International Maritime Council Crisis Committee debated on “Preventing International Piracy”. The World Health Organization committee's topics were “The Expansion of Fluoride in the Developing Worlds’ Water” and “The Prevention and Elimination of Mosquito-Borne Viruses”. The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space discussed “Water on Mars” and “Protecting the Infrastructure from Cosmic Phenomenon”. The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization Committee discussed and debated “Pollution of Water Resources of Historical and Cultural Significance” and “Expanding Education Access to Children in Refugee Population”. The UN Environmental Programme Committee's topics were “Effects of Rising Sea Levels on Island Nations” and “Improving International Warning Systems for Natural and Meteorological Disasters”. General Assembly Committee 1: Disarming and International Security debated on “Preventing Weapons Trade with Non-state Actors” and “Preventing Disputes over Fresh Water Resources”. General Assembly Committee2 : Economic and Financial debated and discussed “Limiting Corporate Exploitation of Water Resources” and “Current Financial Market Instability”. General Assembly Committee 3: Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural discussed “Expanding Sanitation Access In the Developing World” and “The Protection of Religious Minorities”. General Assembly Committee 4: Special Political and Decolonization discussed “Preventing the use of Civilian Travel Manipulation as a Political Tool” and “International Maritime Boundary Disputes”. General Assembly 6: Legal discussed “Guaranteeing Access to Major World Water Routes” and “Rights of Non-State Actors in International Law”. The final committee, General Assembly Plenary Committee, discussed “Cleaning Trash Islands in International Waters” and “Protecting National Utility Structures from External Threats”. Within the committee, students formed groups with their peers to develop clauses to form a working paper (the precursor to legislative actions, or “resolutions”). Eventually, resolutions would be formed from the working papers, presented, debated, and declared passed or failed from a majority vote from members in the committee. The James Monroe delegation was quite successful with several members becoming sponsors of resolutions that passed through their respective committee, sparking well-spoken debate. In their free time, the students visited various locations of interest, including the Atlanta History Museum, the Woodruff Alliance Theater, and famous local restaurants. The Atlanta Model United Nations trip has become a tradition for the James Monroe High School Model United Nations debate team and they hope to return to Atlanta next year. Comments are closed.
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