THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL STUDENT MODEL UNITED NATIONS 2015

SATURDAY APRIL 17 2015 ISSUE #3 UNIVERSITY OF MACEDONIA

THESSISMUN DAILY NEWS

EDITORIAL

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THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF

Contact us! Press room, 4th floor, UoM thessisnews@gmail.com

Editor Effrosyni Drakopoulou

Co-Editor Theofani Lola

THESSISMUN DAILY NEWS STATUS UPDATE

Dear ThessISMUNers,

The second day of the debates is coming to an end, while I am writing these lines and it turned out to be a really tiring but also a very interesting one!!!

In many committees the discussions seem to be in a really good place and as we are being in-formed there is a great number of delegates wishing to take the floor and be heard!

Remember though among all these discussions and crisis and draft resolutions the main idea is to have fun while doing it. Nobody is forcing you to be here and thus, it is your choice and you should make the most of it.

Meet as many people as you can, be pleasant, be polite. If you want, approach the nearest staff member and ask to send a flower to whoever you might want to and write something smart and funny to make his or her day!

Remember that experiencing an MUN means creating memories for life. So make every mo-ment of it count until the end!

Theofani Lola,

Co-Editor of thessismun daily news 2015

Athena Danae Vardaka

Katerina Alexaki

Christina Georgakopoulou

Marianna Lazarou

Marianthi Panagiotou

Esra Tefik

Lambrini Bikou

Journalists Team

SECURITY COUNCIL: The Syrian Conflict

By Theofani Lola

There is only one word to describe the second day at the Security Council; CRISIS.

Well, expected or not, the crisis committee brought so many up-dates and incidents concerning terrorist attacks to be discussed and resolved in the Council that is was hard to keep up..!

The countries were passionate about their policies concerning ter-rorism- which is a heat-ed matter on its own- and the debate was controversial. Moderat-ed and unmoderated cauca took turns in or-der for the countries to reach an agreement that is viable upon the matter.

This proved to be hard-er that expected and at some point the UK, the USA, China, Russian Federation and France, permanent members of the Security Council, left the room after a heated disagreement with the non-permanent members concerning the deci-sion making process and Iran said that non- permanent members

should be respected more in the Council and during decision making processes their proposes need to be taken more into ac-count.

Alongside with the dealing of the crisis, the members of the Se-curity Council started formulating a working paper in order to con-tinue discussing topic area A, the one that was being discussed before the crisis.

That is all for now. Let’s see what will happen when the de-bate continues tomor-row!

COE:Against pharma-ceutical companies:

the battle of defeating Biopiracy.

By Lamprini Bikou

Day 2 and the mood for debate as well as the tension were on fireDuring today’s sessions, the Committee’s main concern was the Draft Resolution.

Among all the coun-tries, Spain was elect-ed for the sponsor-ship. Despite the fact that most delegates argued about making some amendments,

Spain did not accept them.

Furthermore, the dele-gates expressed their dissatisfaction with the intransigent and

undiplomatic attitude of United Kingdom and Ukraine.

Furthermore, the dele-gates expressed their dissatisfaction with the intransigent and after the voting of the reso-lution -almost all coun-tries the Council voted in favour- the commit-tee moved on with topic B: “Pharmaceutical and Healthcare: The phe-nomenon of Biopira-cy”. Various views were expressed on the matter and in many cases the delegates in-troduced motions for extension of the debate which were then voted by the majority First of all, definitions of the

term “Biopiracy” were provided in order to define the Secondly, some delegates argued and proposed to focus more on how to solve the problem of Biopira-cy in order toavoid re-peating the problem itself.

Several views were once again ex-pressed concerning the idea that pharmaceuti-cal companies make huge profits while at the same time people keep suffering

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1st COMMITTEE OF THE GA

“It is a hard day night: a bitter sweet ending”

By Athena Danae Vardaka This day started and the delegates were ready to negotiate. The committee dis-cussed about measures for the demilitarization of the Arctic and about whether the militariza-tion of the Arctic is a threat or not. The delegations decid-ed to create a united resolution adopted by everyone, since this

topic affected everyone especially considering environmental protec-tion, economic and so-cial development and protection of the indig-enous people. Furthermore, the coun-tries bordering the Arc-tic regions such as USA, the Russian Federation, Canada, Denmark, Ice-land, Norway Sweden and Finland decided to co-operate with the rest of the delegations.

More precisely, the del-egation of Sweden, be-lieved that a common draft resolution would be a great idea that would promote co-operation between member states in order to address the issue of militarization of the Arctic. Since all the Arctic countries and the rest of the member states agreed, Sweden was eager to support it, stat-ing that all countries are part of the UN and thus should stay unit-ed. Moreover, the delega-tion of Iceland wel-comed the idea for one

resolution as long as the rest of the countries support the demilitari-zation of the Arctic re-gion and respect the indigenous rights in the High North. This Committee thought that this reso-lution embodies all the ideals of the UN and shows that internation-al cooperation and peace are feasible. According to the dele-

gation of Russia, the Arctic states despite their differences and disputes, should re-main United and coop-erate effectively on such an issue. One should notify the words of USA who claimed that the United Nations is a family with long – term peace that is why only if the na-tions cooperate the dis-putes can be faced. The Islamic countries supported that Arctic issue is very delicate and important but peace, security and de-velopment should be accomplished for whole world. Unfortunately, in the evening, it seemed that the delegates did not achieve to merge their ideas in one working paper because the ideas did not agree with eve-ryone’s policy. It seemed that the dele-gates were optimistic at the beginning of the sessions but the differ-ences between them turned out to be a huge obstacle. The draft resolution was too general and abstract. After lots of moderated and un-modereted caucuses the delegates decided to retry to merge their ide-as to a one resolution. Amendments and strong efforts followed, leading to the vote and adoption of draft reso-lution sponsored by

Sweden. Finally yet importantly, the 1st committee seems to have had a lot of fans since the delegates ac-cepted large amount of flowers

2nd COMMITTEE OF THE GA

Delegates gonna vote vote vote

By Katerina Alexaki

“An eye for an eye only

ends up making the whole

world blind.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

Day 3 has arrived and it seems as if we’ve re-turned to the very first session of the 2nd GA Committee. Even though the dele-gates managed to agree on the first topic of their agenda, they did not make it to find com-mon ground on the sec-ond. The Committee that stood united up until this day started dividing into two groups once again; only this time things were quite different. Two alliances were formed: one consisted of the “Developed Countries of the west-ern world” while the second one consisted of the “Developing and LDCs in Asia, Africa and Latin America”. Things started getting bad when some EU Members decided to

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PAGE 5 UNIVERSITY OF MACEDONIA

support the second group, triggering UK and USA’s fury. The two delegates accused the forementioned countries of undiplo-matic behavior as well as violation of the EU Common Policy.

As the sessions went on, instead of compro-mising, the delegates stuck to their policy and kept arguing till two draft resolutions were formed. It was now the time for small-er countries to take the stand and speak up since the matter effect-ed them more directly than anyone. Thus, France sponsored the first resolution whereas Indonesia sponsored the second one. Dozens of amendments arrived to the members of the Board since some stated that the first resolution was too general while the second one favored only the smaller, less developed countries. Long and heated dis-cussions followed yet the delegates were not

willing to give up on their countries’ policies and beliefs, with Syria, France, the UK and USA taking the lead. In the end of the day, two resolutions were intro-duced and the voting procedure started. The second resolution passed (the one of the Developing and LDCs of Asia, Africa and Lat-in America) and so the committee started get-ting ready for the Gen-eral Assembly as well as the conference’s fun-ny awards.

Peace is not absence of conflict; it is the ability to handle conflict by

peaceful means.

3RD COMMITTEE OF THE GA

SOCHUM Humanists… with a

twist of manipulation

by Marianna Lazarou

The Social and Human-

itarian Committee is

writing history. Despite

the disagreements and

the disputes that oc-

curred, the delegates

managed to reach a

consensus and as a re-

sult, they passed a reso-

lution, which promoted

important measures to

tackle the discrimina-

tions, xenophobia and

the rise of neo- Nazism.

During the negotia-

tions, many delegates

expressed their annoy-

ance considering the

attitude of certain coun-

tries. Sudan, for in-

stance, admitted that

they had to put pres-

sure on the rest. At this

point, we should add

that the delegate of Su-

dan received the award

for “the future dicta-

tor”. As far as the reso-

lution is concerned,

mainly two issues

caused great controver-

sy. Firstly, Israel want-

ed everyone to recog-

nize the Holocaust. On

the contrary, some

states refused to sup-

port such a clause, as

they considered it a vi-

olation of the right of

expression. Secondly, a

conflict between

Ukraine and DPR Ko-

rea took place. The del-

egate of Ukraine insist-

ed on contemning Sta-

linism, because the

country suffered dread-

ful things during that

period. The response

from North Korea was

that the case of Stalin-

ism is irrelevant to the

topic they were discuss-

ing upon. Stalinism is

irrelevant, because it is

an ideology, which

does not inspire people

anymore, unlikely Na-

zism. We believe that

such references aim to

the creation of conspir-

acy theories in order to

undermine our socialist

system”, answers the

representative of DPR

Korea, when asked to

elaborate on her state-

ment.

To conclude, despite the significant amount of conflicts and scan-dals in our committee, it seems that it also has the dearest delegates in the whole conference. Wondering why? The Social and Humanitari-an Committee has re-ceived the largest num-ber of roses according to those in charge.

ECOSOC

The long road to eliminate energy

poverty

By Lamprini Bikou

Moving to the second day of the debate. Today’s first two ses-sions began with the amendments intro-duced by the dele-gates considering the Draft Resolution.

Then, they continued with the voting pro-cedure which result-

ed in 33 out of 37 countries voting in

favour, while 4 coun-tries decided to ab-stain. The heated de-bated continued with topic area B this time: “Towards a post-2015 Agenda: Further cre-ating a global part-nership for develop-ment”. The main dis-agreements of this debate had to do with the Official Develop-ment Assistance (ODA), Market Ac-cess (Trade), Debt Sustainability, access to affordable medi-cine and last but not least Access to new technology. Among all views expressed, the general feeling and the main points of the discussions fo-cused on the great importance of dia-logue and collabora-tion between govern-ments n order to pro-vide ways to improve

and promote devel-

opment -especially to countries with “special needs”. A few more of the subjects discussed today were based up-on the removal of barriers, free taxation, and new investments. New financial re-sources were suggest-ed as a good

and approachable so-lution.

Almost all delegates expressed the notion that countries should contribute to ODA according to their GDP (Gross Domestic Product), their coun-try’s wealth and their

potentials, except for the Democratic Re-public of Congo which stated that member states should contribute to ODA only after having se-cured that the aid provided will be ef-fective, so as to avoid “dead aid”.

In conclusion, all del-egates agreed that development is in the forefront of their agenda.

UNESCO

“You are always a stu-dent, never a master. You have to keep mov-ing forward”

By: Georgopoulou Christina

One of the main topics of the UNESCO agenda since its creation has been the amelioration of education systems worldwide, as well as to ensure easier access to it for all. In this topic, the committee pro-posed its ideas unani-mously. Once again, only one resolution was created and the whole committee voted upon it. The sponsor of this resolution turned out to be the delegate of Thai-land. This decision, however, came after long discussions on whether a developing country is competent to sponsor a document created for education or not, bearing in mind that they face several problems on this partic-ular area.

Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

By: Esra Tefic

The last day of the ne-gotiations in CRPD was full of productivity, hard-work and fun !!! To be more precise, the expertise worked hard in order to have the last form of draft ready within the framework of a limited time. In or-der for this to be achieved, they worked systematically by form-ing three

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groups to save time and be more practical. The groups worked upon crucial topics regarding the life of the persons with disabilities such as education, equality and non-discrimination, personal mobility and public awareness in general.

Furthermore, having prepared the working paper, they proceeded with providing some relevant and useful amendments. The most significant and extraor-dinary was the one re-garding the major issue of education. Many of the experts proposed the adoption of an in-clusive education sys-tem by public schools. On the other hand the countries in which spe-cial schools were wide-ly at the disposal of the students, addressed their hesitation or even disagreements. Howev-er, the rather influential team of experts was able to provide a solu-tion through which common ground was

achieved.

Moreover, after having finished the whole pro-cess for the draft communi-qué, the dele-gates discussed upon the final form of the res-olution before the voting pro-cedure started The results were rather pleasing since unanimi-ty was achieved (!)

By the end of the day,

he final yet most beau-

tiful moments of the

CRPD had arrived

since the winners of the

funny awards were an-

n o u n c e d .

The committee session

ended with the dele-

gates leaving the room

with wide smiles upon

their faces, full of pride

for the results while at

the same time they

thanked one another

for the fruitful debates

and the excellent col-

laboration.

ARE

Trouble in heaven

By: Georgopoulou

Christina

Day three. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the com-mittee session begins in the Assembly of Euro-pean Regions. The topic in discussion continues to be lifelong learning and tackle of early school leaving. How-ever, little would the AER’s delegates know that their well-functioning committee would be shadowed by

clouds. Miscommu-nication was the main issue, since many times during the day delegations were not sure about what has been sent to the board. Fur-thermore, com-plains for individu-alism and lack of proper cooperation were made.

A few hours and un-moderated caucuses later, consensus was finally reached. Never-theless, while debrief-ing, the delegates ad-mitted their discomfort and discontent with the situation, in an effort to make sure that every-one understands the mistakes made and cherish that knowledge for the debates that lie ahead. In other news, yesterday was the fun-ny awards day. It was undoubtedly a pleasant show to watch as an external observer. The board of the assembly turned out to be quite popular, considering that the President was awarded as the “Sexiest” and the “Best Butt”. ”. The spectacle of the evening, though, was the “Best Couple” tango dance choreogra-phy . It was so impres-sive that there was no reason to be jealous of the Moulin Rouge “Roxanne” choreogra-phy.

PAGE 7 UNIVERSITY OF MACEDONIA

International Court of Justice (ICJ) LAST-MINUTE SURPRISE FOR THE ICJ

by Marianthi Panag-iotou

Day 4. Fortunately or unfortunately, the last day of the Court took place. The emotions, as logical, are mixed. On the one hand, the time for the last crisis has arrived and we are all going to learn the Judge's decision. On the other hand, all the members of the ICJ will definitely miss each other as well as the whole procedure. So let us remember where we have stopped. Of course, Petoria and Krameria continue to be the "protagonists". Petoria and more precisely Pe-toriamax a company of drilling oil, that sup-plies oil to the whole state of Petoria , not just to the arm is the "victim" of a Kramerian bombardment. The is-sues that came up are as important as you can suppose. The attack at Petoriamax as a mili-tary object (or not), the importance of the prin-ciple of distinction and lastly the necessity and furthermore the princi-ple of proportionality are the basic themes on

which the International Humanitarian Law is based. Judges have been working dur-ing all the first session in smaller sub groups in order to be more ef-fective and have the best results concerning the different issues, for which each group has taken responsibility. Three sub groups were created for this purpose and the re-sults according to the Board were satisfying. While Judges were working, a "surprise" just arrived from the Secretariat; a rather new Case as well as new claims for the Judges to face. To be-come more precise 2 new states Zenonia ver-sus Fortland, as well as the Court were request-ed to first tackle the is-sue of the prima facie jurisdiction and if it de-cides that this condition is met, examine the rest of the prerequisites for the prescription of

provisional measures. It sounds difficult and it is actually a very pre-tentious issue given the fact that it was a last day's fatigue. Although the conditions were dif-ficult, thanks to the Board, the Judges man-aged to face the issue and have an interesting discussion. This issue consists a main and dif-ficult procedural theme but the Judges support-ed that the Court has not the jurisdiction so they did not move to the main part of the Case. So let us turn back to the main Case and we are all looking forward to Judge's deci-sion. And as it is the last article: Congratula-tions ICJ for the excel-lent work!! North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

North Atlantic Council reaching an end By Esra Tefik

The fruitful debates

taking place in the

North Atlantic Council

have finally reached an

end with all the partici-

pant delegates having

done their best to ad-

dress major global mili-

tary and political is-

sues.

The last day of the con-

ference was full of hard

work, a sufficient

amount of proposals,

systematic collabora-

tion, some disagree-

ments but most im-

portantly lots of fun!

The Council addressed

the major issues con-

cerning the African

peninsula such as pira-

cy , terrorism , religious

extremism , genocides ,

civil etc. while trying to

provide the African

people with an effective

programme of resolu-

tions.

In general, their work

was systematically or-

ganized. They looked

into the aforemen-

tioned problems above

in three scales: terror-

ism, piracy and the

right to protect (R2P).

Some of the measures

proposed and sent to

the Nigerian govern-

ment were: the inten-

tion of finding the ab-

ducted foreigners,

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preventions concerning the cyber orbit , mili-tary intervention while respecting the domestic policies and sovereign-ty of the African coun-tries etc. The delegates also stressed out the need and benefits of NATO’s collaboration with IMO (Integrated Maritime Organiza-tion), AU (African Un-ion), UNSC (United Nations Security Coun-cil), as well as the EU (European Union) and the non-member states.

Additionally, the reso-lutions concentrated mainly on preserving some conditions such as the protection of the international law and the human rights, safe-ty of the maritime routes and etc. , while the council achieved common ground after long hours of negotia-tions and disagree-ments. However, some countries like Canada were not pleased.

Within the highlights of the day was the strong disagreement of Spain with the last form of the resolutions, as –during the voting process- the

delegate voted against it. Finally, negotia-tions end-ed up with the whole council meeting

each others’ views half-way focusing on the common and crucial issues addressed, while the day closed with the funny awards being given in conjunction with the literally hilari-ous notes distributed along with some roses.

In conclusion, the gen-eral climate of the NAC conference was full of collaboration and every single delegate was full of pride and thankful for having the chance to participate in such an active committee.

International Law Commission (ILC)

LAST DAY'S CREA-TIVE MADNESS IN ILC by Marianthi Panag-iotou

What is going on today in International Law Com-mission? Experts continue occupying with the work-ing papers and at the same time, they remain separated in sub commit-tees. However, things be-came harder than we could suppose. There were some comprehen-sion difficulties additional to functional problems. To

become more precise in the beginning of the ses-sions the board had to do with very general descrip-tions of reality for exam-ple in first subcommittee whose experts paid too much attention at physic issues although the board asked them to occupy with the theme of sover-eignty at the outer space. Because of that, the Presi-dent gave them some guidelines because ILC needs to have certain legal proposals to regulate the possible militarization of space. In addition to these comprehension problems, a huge fight took place for a topic that only legal ex-perts could actually know. In particular, ex-perts disagreed about out-er space's borders and some of the experts adopted theories that could possibly create armed conflicts if adopted by states. More particular-ly by disagreeing on the borders on hyperactive layer of air, we could pos-sibly have an implemen-tation of both air and space law. This could lead to either starwars or to a serious ICJ's dispute. Moreover, the experts that the cyber attack is indeed an armed attack also clari-

fied it. In addition a clear evidence of creative mad-ness that exists in this Commission is the fact that everyone is using a laptop and is overall attached to it so that firm-ly denies to share it( in-cluding the Board as well). The procedure seems to arrive to the last part. What is next? The Board reads the working papers of each sub com-mittee in front of all ex-perts in order to discuss possible disagreements or questions that came out through the procedure of sub hearings. After that the final papers will be sent to the Secretariat in order to write the final draft report which the experts of the Commis-sion will vote hoping to succeed consensus. The results : good work, hard work, the precious help from the Board, the com-bination of all these can be " extraterrestrialy" ef-fective !!

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THE BACKSTAGE...

Delegates, this is not in order! Remove from the

bench!

-What I hear takes me out of my clothes

- Judge, stripping is not in order

Prota montelo,

Meta anthropos

Honourable honours,

Sunglasses are not in order!

Respect the dress code!