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Birger Hornbostel

Committee Sessions at UNESCO

Updated: Jun 17, 2023


Heated speeches and accusations arose from today's session at UNESCO dealing with equal education. During Thursday's sessions two resolutions were addressed and discussed in order to aim for equal access to quality education. Trying to talk about the particularly recent problem in this matter, a decrease in school years due to Covid, one of the biggest concerns was what to prioritize when funding education. Alongside but not limited to a support for low-income classes and the providing of basic needs like water, very soon the demand for a free distribution of woman hygiene products and sex aid was made. The delegate of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan criticized the reasoning of this point, the protection of women against abuse, as being pointless. According to the delegate, the safest place for women and children would be at home. This led to the second concern, the coexisting of liberal values and strong religious ones in a school system. Immediately, responding to the first resolution sent by the delegation Chad, the delegate of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan argued that it would be a breach of religious values to send girls to school as well which therefore would be a violation of religious rights. The delegations of the United States, holding a speech in favor of that same resolution, opposed this by characterizing religion as "interpretation of an old book" that changes overtime. That statement again was being viewed as "discriminatory against many religions" by the delegate of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.


Another stirring exchange was the speech of the Ukrainian delegation against a resolution handed in by the delegate of Chad strongly arguing that even though they support education for all, they don't see it as appropriate and right to support a resolution supported by countries who don't seem to share the same values and the concern of human rights. The delegation of Chad accused the Ukrainian delegate of being driven by corruption. When the delegate of the Ukraine accused the delegation of Chad of working with Russia, the Russian delegate declined.


After also talking about the importance of addressing child labor and the possible outcomes of such a political statement, this session came to an end. A couple of times after the gossip box was being read out, the delegate of the United States was punished for having too much referred to himself as "I" with a count of over hundred. The penalty was to hold an improvised presentation about a randomly generated topic by using randomly generated pictures. With a good laugh, this very productive committee session came to an end.




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