UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
Grace Qi, Director
Dear Delegates,
Welcome to the HMUN 2012 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)! My name is Grace Yu Qi and I’m extremely excited for this year’s conference. I was born in Fuzhou, China and moved to California when I was 5. Growing up, I was an avid NBA follower and played all kinds of sports. I dabbled in basketball, martial arts, and even marksmanship. In high school, I was actively involved with many engineering projects and science teams. My passion for international relations and government wasn’t fully realized until I came to Harvard and joined Model United Nations. I am currently a member of the Harvard Class of 2014, planning to concentrate in either Applied Mathematics or Statistics with a possible secondary in Computer Science. While I’m not involved with HMUN, I can be found working at Harvard Student Agencies and dancing with the Asian American Dance Troupe.
I want to thank you for your interest in UNESCO! We have an exciting year ahead of us and I can’t wait to work with everyone to tackle some of the most challenging issues to date. The two topics that we will be focusing on this year in UNESCO will be: euthanasia laws and the relationship between media development and censorship. As you may note, medical ethics has never been an area that the United Nations explored thoroughly. But, as medical research progresses, euthanasia has become more and more of an urgent issue. I hope to introduce this fresh topic to committee and hope that delegates can tackle this century-old problem that the UN has avoided. Another equally urgent issue is media development and censorship. The UN has recently funded many media development projects in relatively “closed” countries in order to increase education and technology integration. But this has resulted in backlash and many countries increased censorship in order to keep foreigners out. While the UN is working hard to address this issue, there is still much that needs to be done.
Before the conference, I encourage you to familiarize themselves with the policies of the country you are representing. What are the current policies your countries have on both topics? What is the UN’s current stance on both topics? The study guide that will be released is meant to serve as a springboard to your own research. While the study guide contains substantial information about the topics, please do not feel limited by the content of the guides. The direction of debate is always unpredictable so it’s never a bad idea to have extra information about your countries and the topics.
In the meantime, don’t hesitate to email me with any questions or concerns that you may have. I would love to hear from you before the conference officially begins in January 2012. I hope you’re excited for Harvard Model United Nations 2012 because I definitely am! I can’t wait to meet all of you in session!
Best regards,
Grace Yu Qi
About Me
Class Year: 2014
Concentration: Applied Math Economics/Statistics
Hometown: Walnut, California
Favorite Place: The Mediterranean Region
Favorite Food: Green Tea Ice Cream
Favorite MUN Moment: During opening and closing ceremony when all delegates scream in excitement!
Why did you choose these topics? UNESCO has traditionally been a specialized agency of the UN that addressed social and cultural issues around the world. This year, I want to introduce two very different topics that redefine the role of UNESCO. The first topic, euthanasia, is a highly controversial subject that the UN has failed to address comprehensively. This year, I hope to bring euthanasia and medical ethics to the forefront of discussion and challenge delegates to think beyond the ethics and into the social and political implications of globalized euthanasia laws. The second topic, media development and censorship, builds off the recent UN-funded social media initiatives. While media continues to play a large role of uniting the world, it does walk a fine line in countries that try to keep foreigners out. In this committee, I also hope to investigate the relationship between censorship and UN-sponsored media development.
Some advice for new delegates: Come ready to have a great time!
HMUN is the best because…of all you guys!!
Topics
Topic A: Euthanasia Laws
In November 1999, Dr. Jack Kevorkian appears on 60 Minutes and shows the controversial videotape of him administering lethal injection to Thomas Youk, a man suffering from Lou Gehrig’s diseases. A few weeks later, Michigan court convicts Jack Kevorkian of murder and sentences him to 10-25 years of prison. While euthanasia practices have been dated as far back as 5th century B.C., no clear resolution has been passed on this topic. Opinions are divided on this issue and governments hesitate to discuss this issue as any movement to pass a law on euthanasia will cause outrage from either extreme of the issue.
While the UN does not directly involve itself with euthanasia laws, it has intervened euthanasia policy-making. In August 2001, the Human Rights Committee expressed grave concerns in Netherlands increasingly relaxed euthanasia laws involving minors. The UN committee sent in investigation teams to research the sudden spike in physician-assisted deaths and urged the government to reevaluate their euthanasia policies.
Currently, the United Nations has not passed any explicit regulation on euthanasia. According to Article 55 of the UN Charter, the United Nations is committed to “promot[ing] respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.” While human rights can have a variety of meanings, the UN adopted the definition to be: “the right to life, liberty and the security of person.” While anti-euthanasia groups argue that the legalization of euthanasia is a direct violation of the “right to life”, pro-euthanasia groups counter that taking away an individual’s right to die is a direct breach of “the right to liberty”. While the UN does not criticize euthanasia practices, it has a difficult time differentiating between legal and illegal forms of euthanasia. How clearly does patient have to make their voluntary will to die? What forms of euthanasia should be legalized? In the case that the patient is in a vegetative state, should the family be allowed to decide whether euthanasia should be used? There are an infinite number of circumstances to take into account and the United Nations has not been able to formulate a general resolution that will address each case.
In this committee, delegates are challenged to do something the UN has yet to do: come up with a resolution regarding euthanasia laws. Delegates should look at the moral and social impacts of euthanasia and utilize old cases as a springboard to debate.
Topic B: Media Development and Censorship
On 10 December 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to serve as a guideline to all future policies. In the preamble, the document states that the United Nations will dedicate itself to creating a “world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom and speech and belief and freedom from fear.” In Article 19, the document clearly addresses its views on censorship by stating that “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
Fast forward more than half a century later, UNESCO continues to give high priority to expanding communication institutions and increasing awareness of the freedom of speech. In April 2011, the UN allocated over $2 million for 84 media development projects. Progressively, the UN is paying more attention to encouraging female journalists, training media specialists, improving efficiency of news transmission, and improving the quality of news. Most importantly, UNESCO promotes media independent of government and other decision-making institutions in order to establish democracy. These recent developments provide the groundwork for an in-depth examination of censorship movements present in many “closed” countries that reject the U.N.’s goals of expanding media.
While the United Nation clearly supports the freedom of expression, it has had an interesting relationship with censorship in the past. In January 2009, the United Nations tried to outlaw the criticism of Islam. This is mainly spurred by offensive Danish cartoons in 2005 which defamed the religion. Despite the opposition from the U.S., most European nations, Japan, India, and many other nations, the UN adopted this resolution. Such actions directly violate the United Nations’ objective of maintaining a freedom of expression across the world. This brings us to the question: Are there UN-acceptable forms of censorship? If so, what are the criteria to these acceptable forms of censorship?
In committee, delegates should examine the current censorship laws in their respective countries and its relationship to the UN’s future media development projects. Delegates reexamine past UN resolutions passed on censorship and question the discrepancy in policies between the different resolutions.