New York: Part Dva

Well the last two days have been jam packed with committee and exploring New York City. Wednesday, a group of us decided to venture out in Times Square looking for some decent food. We ran into a Chinese buffet for like $8.00 a lb. which was pretty expensive but started a general craving for Chinese food. Thanks to our handy-dandy iPhone, we managed to find an incredible Chinese restaurant about six block away with huge lunch plates for about $7.00. Definitely worth it!

Once the Security Council reconvened, all attention was on the topic at hand: the Responsibility to Protect. Initially, our delegation split up so as to sponsor two separate working papers. The number of papers a delegation sponsors is one of the criteria used to judge their performance at NMUN. The working paper I was associated with emerged out of a group composed of Uganda, Japan, Austria and Mexico. Our main focus was creating an early warning system within the structure of the UN Security Council to monitor possible breaches of the responsibility to protect by coordinating information sharing efforts with regional organizations around the world. The rest of the day was spent addressing concerns from other member states about the exact implementation of the early warning system and hammering out a compromise between the different positions.

This effort was continued bright an early on Thursday as our committee convened at 8:30 AM. By this point, the sponsors of our working paper knew that we would eventually have to merge it with the other three working papers proposed in the Security Council to create a coherent document. Our efforts to facilitate this integration were often frustrating because it felt like some delegations really weren’t interested in understanding our position. After nearly twelve hours of constant discussions between our delegation and other members of the council, an acceptable compromise was reached which maintained the original intent of the working paper while actually highlighting its importance by placing it in an annex to the final resolution itself.

The final vote provided a bit of humor as there was a disagreement on whether the resolution should be adopted by acclimation (a verbal declaration by the group) or a roll call vote in which each country must vote yea, nay, or abstain. It was our delegation’s position that adoption by acclimation would present the most united front by eliminating officially registered abstentions. The Brazilian delegation objected on the grounds that any abstentions were unacceptable and called for a roll call vote. Unfortunately for them, the delegate from China unintentionally abstained and the Russian delegation followed suit. All that could have been avoided with an acclimation vote, but sometimes people just have to live and learn.

Looking forward to another early morning tomorrow; we’re not sure whether we will be discussing the Security Council’s second topic – the situation in Afghanistan – or deal with a crisis simulation, but either way the session is sure to be spirited. Stay tuned for further updates…

- Isaac