Opening Speeches by Delegates

The Press Team was on hand for the delegates’ opening speeches and took a close look at each one of the committees in action today. This year there are five committees: Security Council, Human Rights, Peace Building, ECOSOC, and Environment.

In Human Rights the two issues of food access and capital punishment were discussed with much confidence in opening speeches. The delegates talked about the problems related to these two issues and the possible solutions. Meyer Mishkin commented that the Human Rights committee this year was “arrechisimo.”

 ECOSOC debated ways to reach the U.N. Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and debt cancellation for counties with high debts. The delegates discussed these topics in detail and are now ready to look for solutions. Ashley Rodriguez, an ECOSOC delegate said: “The ECOSOC committee did much better this year because of the delegates; we got along much better than last year.”

The Environment committee has given serious attention to the issues of natural disaster prevention, aid relief, and sustainable development. Felipe Demassi commented on his committee saying: “I believe the committee and the issues discussed were interesting.”

The Peace Building committee, a new committee this year, was one of the most convincing in its discussions. The delegates debated problems and solutions for Haiti’s security and Somalia’s development. Showing profound knowledge of the issues, the committee also discussed Iran’s nuclear program and ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The speeches were well-prepared and presented; however, many delegates focused too much on the conflicts and not on ways to solve them. All the JMUN committees have begun on the right foot. The delegates have spoken clearly, confidently, and convincingly.

The 15th annual JMUN is well on the way to being a great success!

--Nicoletta Assimakopoulos