Democracy and Leadership in action

New International Model United Nations

BDS will be participating in the second Latin American THIMUN (The Hague International Model United Nations) Conference to take place in the British Schools in Montevideo, Uruguay, from September 9^th  to September 12^th.

This is an authentic simulation of the UN General Assembly and other multilateral bodies and the debates are all in English. A Model United Nations promotes student and teacher interest in international relations and related subjects, increases the capacity for students to engage in problem solving, teaches aspects of conflict resolution, research skills and communication skills and creates the opportunity to meet people and make new friends.

This year the delegation of our school has been assigned two countries: New Zealand and the Republic of Turkey. New Zealand is a non permanent member of the Security Council.

The following students will be participating: Valentina Cappa and Lucas Reynoso from S5H, Mercedes Mariño from S5L, Ana Paula Velástegui  from S5S, Pilar Di Salvo,Milagros Huang and Julieta Perelman from S4A, Camila Quintana from S4B and Andrea Erbetti, Daniela Riggio and Federico Rojas from S4C.

The topics to be debated are the following:

Political 1
– The question of government’s right to limit civil liberties in times of conflict
– The question of the Mexican war of drugs
– The question of the restoration of Cuban-American relations

Political 2
– Measures to combat corruption in Latin American economies
– Affordable and non-discriminatory financial services as a tool for human development and economic growth
– Developing sustainable agricultural technology

Health & Youth
– Measures to improve access to maternal care facilities for both mothers and new born children
– improving sanitation in terms of clean water and sewage disposal in LEDCs
– The question of childhood obesity

Legal
– The question of cyber surveillance on civilians
– Criminal accountability of UN officials on mission
– Enhancing international cooperation regarding extradition

Human Rights
– Achieving full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people
– The question of the discrepancy between literary rates for men and women
– The questions of international recruitment of young persons by terrorist groups

Security Council
– The question of the Islamic State
– The question of the territorial integrity of the Ukraine
– The question of terrorism in Sub Saharan African Countries (Chad, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria)

The students have been working very hard preparing their policy statements and resolutions. We were able to schedule a meeting at the embassy of New Zealand for Thursday August 20^th and our delegates will be able to interview Mr. Hayden Montgomery, ambassador since March 2013. They will ask him questions related to their topics and discuss New Zealand`s foreign policy. This will no doubt be a very enriching experience.

Human Rights, Peace Education and a special guest

Last Thursday, Monica Shah, a Washington DC teacher visited our school. She is a teacher at Brightwood Education Campus, where she has taught U.S. History & Geography, and now also teaches Human Rights and “Peace classes”, at different school grades. She also runs the Student Government and Model UN clubs. Before coming to Argentina, she was in India for three weeks to participate in a Peace Education and Nonviolence Immersion program. She is working with Freedom Beat to promote nonviolence, social change through music, and conflict solving.

We invited her to attend one of Fabiana Burgos’ classes in S5H (Formación Ética y Ciudanana, FEyC and Derecho/ Law), as Human Rights is part of her syllabus. Monica spoke to the students about her work to promote non violence and invited the class to participate in an exercise she puts into practice with her students. She asked them to place five chairs at the front of the classroom and then asked for volunteers to move them around into a position to show power.  The students participated in the activity very enthusiastically and then they had to explain what power meant to them and justify the way they had placed the chairs to reflect this.

This led to a fruitful debate on the meaning of the word power. The students enjoyed Monica`s visit and continued debating on the topic even after she had left. We thank Monica for her interesting input and wish her all the best in her pursuit to make the world a better place.

Monica Bruck – Head of Humanities, Middle & Senior