UNHRC - a difficult resolution

Rome, 11/03/13 - The UNHRC Committee Session of 9 March 2013 was held in Luiss Guido Carli University. It began at 9.30 with the usual Roll – Call.

Since in the previous Session they were not able to vote on a final resolution, the debate was still focused on the first topic: gender equality.

Italy soon promoted a motion to discuss for 20 minutes about the working papers of each country. “Without any funds from Europe and USA, it can’t be possible to make a program of economic recovery for the rest of the world. But we need the help of every country” - stated the Italian delegate.
“Every country is talking about abstract theories to improve the condition of women, but nobody is highlighting the importance of family in the education of the person.” - said the delegation of Denmark – “to have a mother and a father is extremely important for the growth and the development of a child's ideals.”

During one of the many moderated caucuses, delegates became impatient since everyone was asking for a practical resolution (through the discussion of the working papers) but no one was able to make it real.

The USA delegate declared that the countries of UN should work together as a single entity. Nigeria openly objected that UN countries cannot follow USA policy and they should work singularly on programs created according to the geographical areas.

Basically, it seemed like there was no possible positive conclusion to this committee session (still dealing with topic A) and the Thailand delegation explained why: “ We saw competition, not cooperation.” The only step forward was the reduction of the number of working papers (from 5 to 3). The delegates themselves appeared very pessimistic regarding the conclusion of yesterday’s debate and they admitted the complexity of this mission.

Finally on Sunday 10 March 2013, UNHRC came to a conclusion and voted the resolution promoted and sponsored by Italy, France, USA and other countries. Some delegates showed their strong disappointment about the procedure of voting. “It’s very unfair: we voted twice for the same resolution (Togo’s one, ed.). The first time it passed with simple majority, but for a mistake, we voted again and it failed. Our vote wasn’t respected.”
 
In the end, delegates started to face the topic of LGBT’s rights.

Alessia Melchiorre

Carmelo Leo

RaiNews24

International Women's Day at the RomeMUN

As you already know, dear delegates, and as you must know, those of you who didn't join us this year,  RomeMUN celebrated the International Women's Day with a workshop on women's rights, chaired by Sharon Ketchum- Public Affairs officer of the Embassy of the United States of America; Eve Crowley- Deputy Director of the Gender Division , Equity and Rural Employment of FAO and Clare Bishop-Sambrook, IFAD- consultant on gender issues.

The meeting focused on the discrimination that women face in terms of access, ownership and management land rights, detailed the third Millennium Development Goal which targets gender equality and women's empowerment.

Eve Crowley told the delegates from the UNHRC committee  "giving women access to land is an investment in humanity and dignity  dignity" and  "access to land is at the very root of their histories. It is critical resource for humanity" 

The workshop was also an extremely good opportunity for showing an interesting video produced by USAID:

Women's Land Rights: A Ripple Effect

We were happy to read on the Twitter account of the U.S. Mission to the UN Agencies for Food & Agriculture (USUN Rome)  how pleased were the speakers to hear the delegates' reaction:

The workshop was part of the second day of the Rome Model United Nations conference.

Follow us on Twitter to get faster all the updates on RomeMUN2013!