Mónica Bruck, Social Studies Dept. Coordinator (M&S), reports on the forthcoming edition of the Model UN, organized by ESSARP.

"Belgrano Day School has been participating in Models UN since 2004. The program participants are assigned a country that they will represent in simulated UN sessions. This year we will participate with two teams, one representing the UK and the other one, the Islamic Republic of Iran. Just like last year, the Model UN is organized by ESSARP and, as all the participating schools are bilingual, the debates will be carried out in English. It will take place on August 10^th and 11^th at St. George´s, Quilmes.

The UN has played an important role in a number of international crises by arranging cease-fires and negotiations, and by providing peacekeeping forces. In addition, success in non-political work has been enormous. However, at times the UN has been unable to solve some of the many problems concerning international relations, and due to this fact it has undergone lots of criticism. The member states are working on its reform and the world certainly needs an international forum where to debate world problems, to find peaceful solutions to various conflicts. Students who participate in the program become increasingly aware of this... In the long run, they will be the ones who will try to make a difference in the world and, who knows? They may turn out to be great political leaders or law, business, education or science experts!

Our students have been attending a workshop at the UCEMA which prepares them for the Model. This workshop has been organized by Dr. Sybil Rhodes, a professor of International Relations and Phd. of Stanford University. She discussed the topic “Existing institutions of global governance are inadequate to meet the world´s existing challenges” and our students will have to debate this topic on June 26^th.

Eleven S4 and S5 students will participate in the Model UN this year:  Natalia Marino and Lucas Gold will represent the UK in the Security Council and discuss the situations in Syria and Iran; Magdalena Galarraga will also represent the UK but in the ECOSOC, Gonzalo Balassanian, Candela Kaladjian, Manuel Alcalá in the General Assemby and Leila Simonián in the Environment Commission. On the other hand, Matías Martino, Belén Mourad, Alex Mysler and Valentina Safarian will be representing the Islamic Republic of Irán in the General Assembly and the Environment Commission. Some of the topics to be discussed are related to climate change, disarmament, human rights, natural disaster response, Egypt´s struggle towards reform and the question of Chechnya.

Three S5 and S6 students will be acting as student officers and chair the different commissions: Eduardo Ameghino, Antonella Gazzani and Thomas Page, and there will also be a press officer, Victoria Fregeiro, who -with a few other students from other schools- will be running the Model UN newspaper."

Good luck to all!