UNHRC BMUN LXVII

As noted in the background guide, there are many factors that can cause people to become internally displaced. The cluster groups of NGOs and other aid organizations work together to provide the IDPs with their basic needs. The Water Project has been a part of these cluster groups to provide immediate assistance to clusters before. In addition, they also work to mitigate water scarcity driven displacement through the building of " wells, dams and other water catchment systems." While the current cluster approach helps IDPs access basic needs, it doesn't address the larger systemic failures of governments to provide for their people who are displaced nor function as a lasting fix to the systems that cause displacement (war, development, etc).  How can governments better provide for internally displaced people? What are the political implications of NGOs providing basic resources for IDPs instead of governments themselves? Does the current cluster approach effectively a

Boko Haram has notoriously grown into one of the most well-known fundamentalist groups active in the northeastern region of Nigeria. They have frequently taken hostages and responsibility for attacks on Nigerian cities, that involve terrorist tactics and force. While the group remains at large and is highly controversial, they have also been utilizing aid workers as part of their campaign against Westernization as the group's title suggests since it translates to "Western Education is Forbidden/Sinful." Keeping this context in mind, it is essential when discussing the topic of the protection of aid workers in conflict zones, to understand the cultural implications of humanitarian work that is often facilitated by Western-aid organizations or NGOs based in the US and Europe. While that's not to say that Boko Haram would not be opposed to aid, that did not arrive from a Western organization, it is an important claim to understand that aid from organizations that appear

Delegates, Our committee will be allowing the use of technology during, and only during , unmoderated caucus. This way resolution groups have the option to use Google Docs, while also ensuring that other delegates receive respect as they speak.  If running short on time to complete resolutions within unmoderated caucus, each resolution group will be allowed to send 1-2 delegates outside of the committee room to work on their resolutions.  Those 1-2 delegates will be the only people allowed to have technology out during standard debate. Other delegates caught using technology during speeches, moderated caucus, formal caucus, or voting bloc will lose diplomacy points!  Also, please note that resolutions are only to be worked on within committee. This means you should not have pre-written resolutions or be working on resolutions while committee is not in session. We will be checking the edit times on your Google Docs, so be sure to stick to these rules! If you have any other qu

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