United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees
Topic Summary
Created in 2006 to replace the Commission on Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Council is the UN’s main body for promoting and protecting human rights worldwide. Its 47 member states review countries’ human rights records, investigate violations, and recommend action to the international community.
Delegates are tasked with creating resolutions to address the imprisonment of political dissidents, the treatment of terrorists, and extrajudicial killings. The delegates will wrestle with the central question: when does protecting human rights become an international responsibility rather than a sovereign matter?
Jia Michel is a first-year student from Brooklyn, New York, planning to concentrate in Physics and History.
Jia started Model U.N. in 6th grade and has seen the massive impact it makes on public speaking, research, and collaboration. She is excited to chair her 6th committee, the Human Rights Commission. This summer, Jia directed a World Health Organization Specialized Committee at Harvard Model UN China. Outside of Model U.N., Jia is a strategy associate for the Crimson Business Board, Community Director for the Harvard Computing Society, and stage manages multiple musicals. At home, Jia loves to throw potlucks, watch movies, and try new foods.
Jia is deeply invested in the intersection between technology and policy. The skills I gained from Model U.N. allowed her to implement real life legislation in New York State, and she encourages all delegates to take the work they do at this conference as seriously as they can because it will benefit them in the long run.
Jia is especially interested in the HRC because it creates focused, serious solutions to global rights issues that affect people around the world. She can’t wait to meet the delegates and see how they tackle such a pressing and relevant topic in todays world.
Jia Michel
Director, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
unhcr@harvardmun.org
Harvard Model United Nations 2027