UNHRC BMUN LXVII

Delegates, For our committee we will be following the BMUN Position Position Paper Guide which can be found here . You are also welcome to make a copy of this google doc   and use it a template for your position paper to ensure you have the correct format. Please read the Position Paper Guide very carefully . It includes everything we are looking for in a paper and a thorough rubric. Missing a section will be very detrimental to your paper's scoring and there are some sections unique to BMUN (i.e. Questions to Consider). The format is very different from last year, so even if you are returning to BMUN be sure to check it out! As far as advice goes for papers, the more original your paper is the better. That means for the Past and Current International Action section, find information other than what's in the topic synopsis. For the Solutions section, find ideas aligning with your country's policy that have not already been implemented by the international community.

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are not only one of the most marginalized groups, but also one of the most under-researched groups according to a study conducted by the University of Zurich (link to the full article is attached below). The psychological impacts of trauma witnessed, displacement, and detachment from home and familiarity all render high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety cases in populations of internally displaced persons. However, one of the most significant challenges to assessing the psychological situation of this population, is the restricted access to transparent information about these persons. The lack of transparency is in part caused by a lack of focus on internally displaced persons, as studies often emphasize refugees and post traumatic stress disorder over IDPS and mental health complications such as anxiety and depression. Another major cause of the lack of data on the psychological conditions of the internally di

Hello delegates! My name is Patty and I am incredibly excited to be one of your vice chairs for UNHRC !  I have been involved in MUN since high school and was head chair of UN-Habitat last year.  This year your head chair,  Annalise, has chosen some wonderfully pertinent topics and I’m excited to see how all of you will tackle them.   Currently, I’m a senior Individual Major: Space & Character at Cal, this means that I have created my own major, which focuses on design based research studying the relationship between spaces and the people who use them.  I am also earning minors in Theater, Architecture and Sustainable Design & Urbanism in Developing Countries.   I am originally from Haiti, but have also lived in Florida, Texas and now California!  However, Haiti will always remain my first home. I have seen in person the problems that can plague a country when it comes to issues affecting aid workers and refugees and look forward to hearing well thought out and researched sol

Delegates, I know most conferences do not have blogs so I just wanted to give you all some information about what you can expect from us and what we expect from you on the blog!  As far as what you can expect from us, there will be one post on each topic every week. These posts will include important and interesting articles. They are great to read to prepare you for conference as well as provide you with important additional research! These are hand selected by our Dias and will steer you in the right direction as far as what we expect to discuss in committee.   In addition to posts on the topic, I will be giving you logistical information for the conference (technology policy, position paper information) as well as advice as on how to best be prepared for conference. These posts will help you understand  how we expect committee to run and  what we are looking for in a delegate.  As far as what we expect from you, we hope the blog will be a valuable resource to prepare for com

Preventing Pandemics Topic B: Protection of Humanitarian Workers in Conflict Zones In recent months, attacks and clashes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have inhibited the work of healthcare providers thus risking the containment of deadly diseases such as Ebola. The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) are a rebel group present in the DRC known to attack civilians and health workers. In October of 2018, two Red Cross volunteers were severally injured and two medical agents were killed. Medical workers in the DRC's conflict zones are often accompanied by UN Peacekeepers or the Congolese army for security however these attacks have halted the workers who were treating a deadly outbreak of Ebola. This is troubling as the further spread of Ebola could take place due to the lack of health workers to treat the infected and provide vaccinations to those who are most at risk. Thus the failure to protect humanitarian workers can spell disaster for the containment of deadly

Hey y'all! My name is Saran and I am so stoked to be one of your UNHRC (aka the best committee) Vice Chairs. As a first year student at the College of Letters and Sciences planning to major in Political Science and History, the issues relating to global human rights are particularly close to my interests and my personal story as well.  I am a proud child of Sri Lankan immigrants that fled a bloody civil war in which my family back home was displaced. Seeing the conditions of the internally displaced in my mother country even a decade after, really made me passionate about addressing the multifaceted struggle faced by internally displaced peoples. I am looking for thorough solutions that address both the long term and short term implications of displacement. The rights of aid workers is another prominent topic that I am very much looking forward to hearing about, specifically in regards to circumventing questions of negotiating with terrorists and breaching national sovereignty. 

My name is Sarah Xu and I am so honored to be your UNHRC Vice Chair this year. I am a sophomore at UC Berkeley majoring in Environmental Economics and Policy and minoring in Global Poverty and Practice. In addition to Model United Nations, I am currently the Theme Program Assistant in the Global Environment Theme House, a contributor to the Leaflet, and an associate in the ASUC Senate office of Anna Whitney. Aside from academics, I love getting lost on public transportation around the Bay Area and drinking copious amounts of coffee. I am so excited for BMUN LXVII and I hope that you all enjoy and learn a lot from our committee. I will sadly not be able to interact with you, the delegates, during committee as I will be running the Office of Public Information (OPI) during the conference. However, do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions on UNHRC at sxu@bmun.org Best Wishes, Sarah Xu

Hi Delegates! My name is Annalise Fox and I will be your head chair for UNHRC this year! I am currently sophomore at UC Berkeley majoring in Global studies, with an emphasis on peace and conflict in the Middle East, and Child Development. I have been doing MUN now for 6 years and have loved every minute! I hope to give you guys as a great of an experience as I had as a delegate when I went to BMUN. On campus, aside from BMUN, I work with Americorps as a teacher at a Headstart preschool for children under the poverty line in Oakland. I also serve as a Site Leader for The Berkeley Project, helping to organize community service events at local non-profits.  Outside of school I love baking, birdwatching, going to the movies, and watching hockey. I hope to soon visit all the national parks (I only have 10 left woo!) and I have watched the original Star Wars trilogy at least 100 times. I have a pet dog named Daisy and a pet snake named Nixle, both of which I love with all my heart.

Delegates, Welcome to UNHRC! I can't wait for you all to have a great BMUN 67. Our UNHRC dias has been working tirelessly to make this conference as educational and fun as possible, regardless of your prior MUN experience. The topics for this committee are Protection of Humanitarian Workers in Conflict Zones and Rights of Internally Displaced Persons . We have all become super passionate about the topics and have put in lots of work researching them. Hopefully by conference, you will have done the same! For access to the Executive Summaries, Position Paper Format, and Topic Synopsis, you can go to our committee page on the website by clicking this link . With such broad topics, it is crucial that you look the topic synopsis over! In it we have included the large ideas we would like committee to discuss, which will help give you direction when formulating solutions and conducting research. Also, be sure to check out the brand new position paper format. It has changed a l