1997 School Magazine

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UNAA Conference - Coolutn

F rom the fourth to the seventh of March, during term one holidays, Kate Farmer, Lucinda Petroeschevsky-Mayer and I attended the Queensland United Nations Aus- tralian Association Conference at Coolum. We were each designated as representatives ofa countty for whom we would act as delegates at the conference . After we had settled in we heard from guest speakers on topics rang- ing from Australian volunteers abroad to the women's rights conference in Beijing to what Australia's role in the UN should be. Beyond this we learned a great deal about the inner workings of the UN and what roles the UN plays in aiding developing nations through programs such as UNICEF. The UN is also involved in peace- keeping missions such as the current one in the former Yugoslavia, and previous missions in developing na- tions in Africa. We were privileged to hear from a couple who had spent two years in Fiji as volunteer workers. Their speech

Thus armedwe were split into groups and set to work on creating our resolutions. Certain groups, with an eye towards making the General As- sembly interesting came upwith reso- lutions demanding that Israel return captured land to Jordan and be ex- cluded from the UN, and other groups demanded recognition of elections in Myanmar, and yet other groups pushed for the end of China's One Child Policy, termed in their resolu- tions "draconic and inhumane" . The General Assembly began on our last day, and it was very interest- ing to see how the UN ran, on a somewhat smaller scale of course. There was back-alley dealing, brib- ery, threats, vote-hunting, and some good old common sense, which re- sulted in the passing of a resolution demanding the reduction of green- house gas emissions . The resolution that Kate, Lucinda and I presented later to Brisbane Girls Grammar School on assembly involved out- lawing child labour and the intro- duction of mandatory and free edu-

Lucinda Petroescbevsky - Maye,; "representative" from the Ukraine .

cation for all children to the age of fourteen . A sample of this resolution includes: We demand forthwith : 1. That no child under 14 be allowed to work over 20 hours per week. 2. That education be made mandato1y and free to every child up until the age of 14. 3. That those countries after a period of seven years not in compliance with the above mentioned should suffer inter- national trade sanctions. 4. That the sanctions imposed should relate only to those products or trades produced through the use of child labour. Attending the UN Conference was a worthwhile and educa- tional experience and it reminded us of the very large role the UN plays in ensuring international peace. In the modern day, as globalism becomes more important to the countries of the world than nationalism, the UN will play an increasingly important role as the international mediator and peace-keeper. We would like to thank Brisbane Girls Grammar School and Ms Hennessey in particular for making it possible for us to attend this conference . ALEXI DRENNAN

not only gave us a greater understanding of the role foreign aid plays in the international community, but it also made us realise just how important foreign aid is to developing nations . We then heard from Natalie Toohey, a member of Foreign Affairs who played a large role in Australia 's bid to gain a seat on the UN Security Council. She told us a great deal about Australia 's position in the UN, and the current debate over whether Australia should leave its current group, with the Western European countries, to be part of a group comprising our geographic neighbours, the South-East Asian nations. The division, she said, was not to be made lightly, and needed to be based on the principle of increased representation within the UN. After all, if Australia cannot win a seat on the Security Council when running for one seat against two other nations, how will it fare when running for one seat against forty-nine nations. Another point mentioned was the inequity of the UN representation system. For example, the Asian group, with forty-nine nations is allotted only one seat on the Security Council, whereas the Western Europe group, with twenty nations is allotted five seats . We were then informed of the rules and regulations regard- ing creating resolutions to be debated by a General Assembly and the rules of behaviour associated with the actual Assembly.

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