BMUN LXIX UNHRC

  Does the legal framework for refugees need to be updated? Hi dels! This blog post will be the last in the series on the 1951 Refugee Convention. Today’s blog post will discuss the future of the Convention and new factors driving displacement.  Since World War II, the number of “persons of concern,” which includes refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons (IDPs), has exponentially increased. At the end of 2019, 79.5 million people were forcibly displaced, with 26 million of them classified as refugees (UNHCR Global Trends 2019). Refugee returns are also decreasing, meaning that refugees are returning to their originating countries less than before. Accordingly, not only are there a higher number of refugees than before, but a larger percentage of these refugees require permanent resettlement options, rather than repatriation. This has not only put a strain on existing refugee and asylum processes ill-equipped to handle such numbers, but it has also exposed th...

 Hello, Delegates!  Hope that all has been going well! Can you believe there are only 3 days left until BMUN LXIX? Time flies so quickly! We have finished grading all of your position papers and first of all, we would like to thank you all for the immense time and effort you put into creating such well-written papers. They left us thoroughly impressed! We are so excited to see you all bring these papers to life at conference and engage with one another over the creative and strategic solutions proposed.  As you get into your final preparations for this weekend, we would like to provide you all with some pointers and pieces of advice to consider for your proposed solutions. These were compiled based on the most common mistakes and weaknesses in your solutions. Feel free to make edits to your papers within the next few days or apply these tips during moderated caucuses as your write resolutions with your fellow delegates.  Make sure solutions are reflective of you...

Hello, Delegates!  Hoping everyone's long weekend went well!  This blog post is dedicated to helping further our understanding of "Laïcité". This key term was mentioned in Case Study II for Topic B: Bill No. 21 in Quebec. A key principle in Bill No. 21, laïcité was referenced to justify the ban on the wearing of religious symbols in the public-sector workforce. As mentioned in the topic synopsis, this principle, laïcité, was born out of the French Revolution and originally intended to overthrow the control and influence of the Catholic Church in France. While it has evolved through the test of various litigations, laïcité, evidently, is still an eminent force guiding French and French colonial countries' policies regarding religion.  To recap, Quebec's Bill No. 21 bans the wearing of anything that could be described by the text below:  "A religious symbol, within the meaning of this section, is any object, including clothing, a symbol, jewelry, an adornment, ...

     Helloooo delegates! This blog post, the second in the series on the 1951 Refugee Convention, will explore Articles 5, 6, and 7 of the Convention. Articles 5, 6, and 7 outline requirements for implementation and ensure that the Convention cannot be weaponized against refugees. Article 5 stipulates that refugees cannot be denied protections solely on the basis that they are not explicitly listed within the Convention. This is a fairly common practice in international treaties to account for future political, social, and economic changes that might affect the application of the treaty. In other words, under Article 5, “refugees may by virtue of the Convention get a more favourable position than they otherwise would have had, while on the other hand the Convention shall not be able to serve as an excuse for reducing or taking away rights and benefits which otherwise are granted to refugees by certain States" (1).      Article 6 defines the term “in the sam...

     Hi delegates! As you prepare for the conference, you may have noticed that the 1951 Refugee Convention, also known as the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, is referenced frequently throughout the discourse on the right to asylum and refugee status. The 1951 Refugee Convention, hereafter referred to as the Convention, is the bedrock on which the entirety of the legal framework for asylum seekers, refugees, and displaced peoples was built. As outlined in the committee topic synopsis, the Convention defines the qualifications for the term “refugee,” outlines the rights and responsibilities of both the refugee and the host state, and stipulates the conditions under which the Convention applies. This blog post will be the first in a three-part series examining the 1951 Convention in greater detail. International treaties can be complicated and confusing, and we hope these posts will help you identify some of the key takeaways from this important agreement. In...

NGOs are a powerful tool of the international development complex they also pose many ethical and political problems. In Model United Nations, delegates might find themselves supporting specific NGOs as they work on the committee's topics. However, in choosing to work with NGOs, delegates should consider the following issues: The majority of NGOs tend to be small and region or issue-specific. Therefore, most national NGOs struggle to scale up to address situations on an international level. While the United Nations has historically worked with some more reputable NGOs, this scalability and applicability of NGOs must be considered.  The implementation of NGOs chips away at the sovereignty and autonomy of nations over once public resources. While many NGOs do provide resources to a while public, surrendering resources to NGOs runs the risk of essentially "privatizing" the resources. NGOs are band-aid solutions that reduce the pressure of governments to make a real instituti...

Hi everyone! My name is Amanda Ostrom, and I am so excited to be one of your Vice Chairs for the UNHRC committee this year! I’m in my third and final year at Berkeley studying Political Science, with a specialization in international relations. After graduation, I will be taking a gap year to work before attending law school. I have been involved with Model United Nations for four years; two years as a delegate in high school and three years as a member of BMUN. I was on the ICJ committee for the past two years, so I’m looking forward to my first human rights committee!  In my spare time, I love getting coffee with my friends, going to the beach, and traveling. I also have two elderly Labrador Retrievers that I absolutely adore (one just turned 11 today!). I was born and raised in California, and I’m a ride or die San Francisco Giants fan. I’m excited to get to know you all as we ramp up to conference weekend. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about the commit...