Model United Nations makes Middle East debut

[Dry Ice]

MP Mukhaiber delivers keynote speech, praises Lebanese understanding of UN’s role

By May Jeong
Special to The Daily Star
Tuesday, July 28, 2009



BEIRUT: The Lebanon International Model United Nations (LEBIMUN) Conference opened for the first time in the Middle East on Monday. Model United Nations (MUNs) are simulations of the UN system with the aim of educating the participants on UN structure, multilateralism, and foreign affairs. Many of the UN bodies are represented at MUNs, with the Security Council, the Human Rights Council, and the Economic and Social Council, being the most common.

MUNs are often sensitive to the political conditions of the hosting country. As such, this year’s executive committee decided to include the Disarmament and International Security Committee, along with the Middle East Peace Summit as part of its conference schedule. Delegates represent a country other than their own in one of the aforementioned committees. The logic is that this format en*courages participants to understand differing points of views.

Organized by the Initiative for Cooperative Action and Dialogue (ICAD), a non-governmental organization dedicated to intercultural exchange, LEBIMUN is the result of a two-year project by 15 organizers and 10 international chairs from all around the world.

During the opening ceremony on Monday, Lebanese MP Ghassan Mukhaiber delivered the keynote speech, which touched on the importance of promoting knowledge and offered a forum for debate. Mukhaiber appealed to the Lebanese identity as being at the crossroads of civilization – Canaanites, Crusaders, Romans, and the Ottomans.

Playfully teasing that the Lebanese know their UN resolutions better than they know their members of Parliament, Mu*khaiber stressed the importance of understanding the role of the UN in Lebanese society. He mentioned the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) troops in the south of the country, and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon which will be opening this fall. He further pointed out that Lebanon has ratified most UN-sponsored human-rights standards unlike many of its Arab neighbors.

Marcel Van Der Stroom, secretary general of LEBIMUN, spoke on the conference motto “be inspired, become inspiration,” urging the delegates to take on responsibility as citizens of the world. Van Der Stroom argued that the UN need not be a unit of enforcing rules, but a platform of dialogue. “Conflict can be an opportunity for a peace treaty, just as poverty can be a chance at development,” he said.

Rami Rasamny, director of ICAD and president of LEBI*MUN, hopes that through this intellectual exchange, LEBI*MUN will be able to promote the purpose and value of dialogue. “The culture here [in Le*banon and the Middle East] is that discussing will not lead to anything,” he says, voicing hope that LEBIMUN will take part in debunking this myth.

Rasamny trusts that the delegates engaged in dialogue will set a model for encouraging a spirit of engagement in Leba*non. “Our 130 delegates stretch from Sao Paolo to Seoul. Over 35 nationalities are represented here,” Rasamny added.

When asked of other projects that ICAD is involved in, Rasamny mentioned possibility of a conference in Jordan in the near future.

The Middle East Peace Summit, one of the five simulation sessions, requires participants to draft up a treaty instead of a resolution. Depending on the outcome of the mock summit, Rasamny hoped to carry the debate started in Lebanon to Jordan. He plans to construct the conference so that the two parties – Israelis and Palestinians – will be representing the other. “This way, we can get to understand where the other comes from, and why they de*mand the things they demand,” he remarked.

Iva Sulentic, editor in chief of the LEBIMUN newspaper, ad*ded: “The very fact that [LEBI*MUN] is being held in Beirut is significant. It is a city that knew war only three years ago.”