Historical twist to Christchurch high school debate

A debate with an intellectual twist for high school students in Christchurch has earned support from Mayor Bob Parker.

Year 10 to 13 students at the Model United Nations will re-enact some of the earliest plenary meetings of the United Nations General Assembly that followed the end of the Second World War, bringing in modern ideals and manners of thinking into issues that featured prominently 50 years ago.

“It is very encouraging to see young people planning for the future, developing their skills as leaders and at the same time learning about the wider concerns of the world,” says Mr Parker. “The event provides young Cantabrians with an important opportunity to explore and discuss issues and to see world history in a different, almost personal, context.”

The Canterbury Regional Council of the United Nations Youth Association of New Zealand (UNYANZ), will be holding the historical Model UN session at Our City O Tautahi on 3 October. The historical debate enactment is a build-up to the annual regional Model UN, ‘Canterbury MUN’, which the Council will host again in March next year

Mr Parker says it was heartening to see youth active in positive and perception-changing discussions in a time when there was a lot of media focus on ‘negative’ youth issues. “This sends out an inspiring message of the level of responsibility - at the regional, national and international levels - that our young Cantabrians are capable of.”

Canterbury UNYANZ Regional President Anton Smith says the delegates will be debating shortened versions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Rights and Duties of States, and the Essentials of Peace, applying their own reasoning and modern points of view

Each delegate will be assigned a United Nations member state that existed in 1949 and will approach the three resolutions with all the accoutrements required to effectively represent that country in a United Nations General Assembly.

“This is a new initiative is designed to place the 21st century New Zealander in a historical setting, using present-day thought and to re-evaluate, in this case, the foundations laid down by the United Nations to help prevent future global conflict,” says Mr Smith, a University of Canterbury student.

The historical MUN is coordinated by Alexander Baird whose studies in History at the University have provided the academic nous for the intellectually stimulating conference, he says.

“Each student would have to approach the debate without the benefit of foresight, only using modern-day tools and processes of analysis, persuasion and compromise.”

“This involves a lot of hard work and objectivity, especially in amassing information relevant to the time and to the prevailing issues,” he says.

For a registration form, please contact:

Anton Smith
canterbury@unyanz.co.nz

UNYANZ website – www.unyanz.co.nz