No GA Committees, just General Assembly Plenary at SLMUN 2018!

Kaif Sally and Amana Iflal

With the global status quo constantly shifting for the better or worse, it was deemed essential that the General Assembly adopted a flexibility to come to resolutions without worrying too much about the procedural nitty-gritties. Plenary meetings of the General Assembly are essentially “emergency meetings” in the face of world crisis or urgent matters of importance. As a MUNer - you can think of it as a situation similar to the last minute conference call you have with fellow delegates as you struggle to piece together a Foreign Policy Statement an hour before your FPS deadline.

The reason the Executive Committee of Sri Lanka Model United Nations decided to stimulate the General Assembly Plenary (GAP) to cover a wider scope, to challenge delegates to be innovative and to encourage them to come with diverse solutions. It’s a refreshing change rather than having a normal General Assembly. The way the GAP mandate of SLMUN is a combination of the second, third, fourth and fifth General Assembly.

The products of the GAP are mainly limited to making recommendations and acting as a platform in making agreements of non- legally binding nature. Setting apart this body from the other wings of the UN is perhaps the ability to discuss and engage on any crisis or issue, granted that it is under the scope of the UN charter. Delegates of the 193 member states who sit at a Plenary General Assembly meeting may also make recommendations to other UN bodies and member states.

Historically speaking, the first session of the UN General Assembly was brought to order on the 10th of January 1946 in the Methodist Central Hall in London and saw the participation of 51 nations. Currently, the UNGA functions as one of the principal organs of the UN, the only one to represent all the member states equally. It functions as the main deliberative, policy-making and representative organ of the UN and has headquarters permanently situated in New York City.

Any unseasoned MUNer at this point would pose the question on how such a body operates with 193 member states especially under an emergency circumstance. The Assembly, in case of an emergency special session, convenes in plenary meeting only and proceed directly to consider the item proposed for consideration in the request for the holding of the session. Sounds interesting? Join us to get the real experience of this at SLMUN 2018. Delegates will be engaging in a fruitful discourse regarding needs of migrants and refugees in developing countries and at conference, delegates will be discussing the need for Riot Control in developing nations. This topic comes as very current due to the increasing riots in various developing countries in the past few years. For a peaceful co-existence, riot control has to be exercised and riots minimized.

Delegates willing to participate in the simulation of this committee should be a skilled negotiator, be diplomatic, able to do a wide range of keen research and have a thorough knowledge of world affairs. It is a good committee for all those of varying levels of experience of MUN.

For all intents and purposes of the potential Model United Nations Delegate (yourself) keep in mind the basic ethos of global collaboration in keeping our erratically changing world in check!

Register for SLMUN 2018 on www.slmun.org! Register fast!