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2Inaugration Inaugration

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Inauguration ceremonyBy Punya Mahajan

As a part of celebrating their bi-decennial year, M.O.P Vaish-nav College for Women came up with their second edition of MOPMUN-Model United Nations Conference. Having collabo-rated their endeavor with the United Nations Information Center for India and Bhutan, the college welcomed the Chief guest, Shri N.L.Raja, Advocate Madras High Court, with vigor. Dr. Lalitha Balakrishnan, the Vice-Principal of the M.O.P Vaishnav College, Ms. Sub-hashini, Minister of the Intellec-tual Affairs, and Ms. Prerna Jain, Deputy Minister of Intel-lectual Affairs were present at this occasion.Ms. Dhwani Sabesh, the Secre-tary General of MOPMUN 2013, dug into the kernel of what

MOPMUN is all about, elaborat-ing on how MUNs can act as an activity defining how students think about pressing world issues, by simulating `committees of the United Nations and by debating as representatives of various coun-tries.Shri N.L.Raja, spoke on an array of themes, stressing repeatedly on the theme of world peace- an endeavor cradled by the United Nations since its inception. Citing many interesting facts

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One criminal dead:One criminal less?

and figures, making the partici-pants revise in their minds some fruitful lessons from history, and also talking on current affairs, the esteemed guest spoke about the need to learn from brutali-ties of war and hatred, and march towards a flourishing peace. The beginning of an intellectu-ally stimulating Conference just began. Fold in to view more….

Foreign Direct In-vestment – Investing for the future!

-Khushboo Doshi, Reuters

By Aditi & Hemangi V

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The Economic and Social Coun-cil (ECOSOC) of the United Nations is the forum that wholly encompasses the eco-nomic, social, and cultural and health matters in perfect amal-gamation with human rights of countries.Day one, of MOPMUN 2013 saw the ECOSOC , starting off at the high note, with delegates unanimously voting to pass the agenda in order of “Foreign Direct Investment in Develop-ing Countries followed by External Debt sustainability and its effect on development”The session commenced, with the Delegate of France, bring-ing to light the indispensable facet of FDI, being improve-ment in Research and Develop-ment Sector and the impacts Human Capital formation would have for the same. This shaped up the crux of the session, with the delegate of Iraq emphasising on the need for creating new ways to pro-

mote FDI.Germany , by its own example, suggested that having a substan-tial number of specialists when compared to large scale producers could be one of the measures which attract FDI in host coun-tries, a topic aptly contributed by Ukraine , for discussion during the Moderated Caucus .Another inter-esting topic raised by the repre-sentative of Germany , was the importance of safeguarding local producers, when promoting FDI.There was a productive exchange of ideas , on how tax incentives could possibly affect the FDI inflow , when perfectly synchro-nised with clear communication between the host company and investors. Unconventional but noteworthy points were brought forward by China on creation of the worldwide MNC network and database, to facilitate a demand-supply requirement.Political stability is vital in the host country , and the delegate of Iraq assured the other council members ,

There was a productive exchange of ideas , on how tax incentives could possibly affect the FDI inflow , when perfectly synchro-nised with clear communication between the host company and investors. Unconventional but noteworthy points were brought forward by China on creation of the worldwide MNC network and database, to facilitate a demand-supply requirement.

Political stability is vital in the host country , and the delegate of Iraq assured the other council members , that the country was striving its best to wipe clean its “label of terrorism” and it sup-ported peaceful existence with all.

The session brought forward a powerful array of issues concern-ing , social acceptability of foreigners into the host nations and whetherforeign players destroying the livelihoods of millions of small store owners.

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Wars regarding Wars

-Parvathya, Reuters

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The direction of the general assembly took a new turn with the primary focus being mili-tary operations, through the agenda “Moving beyond non-conventional sources of weap-onry” and the “ill effects of land mines and drones”. The agenda is largely in regard with the development in technology, the use and progress into the field of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) drones. The session began with the discussion of the ill effects of land mines and drones where in a moderated caucus was initiated by the Delegate of Pakistan. Pakistan gave a powerful head start into the discussion by questioning the actions of the United States of America in regard to its drone attacks on Pakistan and Afghanistan. It strongly sug-gested a ban on this technol-ogy due to the ill effects of this attack ranging from out right loss of lives of 13000 civilians and loss soil fertility.Paraguay supported the agenda stating how drones and other forms of auto mated weaponry are more accurate in nature and will help in targeted situations.

Russia and Kuwait having under-stood the implications of the large use of such weaponry, similarly suggested barring the use of UAV drones.The USA treats the loss of civilian lives as collateral damage and believes that UAV drones are the most accurate form of weaponry in targeted killings as they are only carried out after extensive research and detailed intelligence reports. Germany supported USA’s stand on the same. “The technology that is used by the drones is highly precise and all their attacks were only in high profile terrorist areas”, stated the delegate of The United States of America.

Russia countered the statement with the fact that drones are used in armed wars and huge rebellions, if used in a placed filled with civilians loss of life is very easy. Many countries such as South Korea and Lebanon believe that this technology is vital and can be used for explo-ration and this technology can be improvised upon and made more exact. The argument of whether UAV drones need to be used for exploration or for combat and its violation of International Bound-aries as mentioned in the UN charter is still an issue that is widely debated.

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One criminal dead: One criminal less?

-Vahini , Reuters

By Aditi & Hemangi V

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This heated discussion paved way for a moderate caucus on the topic: “Violation of Human Rights by Death Penalty”. The delegate of Canada commenced the moderate caucus, by quoting Article 3 of the Universal declaration of Human Rights. This was vehemently opposed by delegates of other countries who quoted the Article 5 of the Universal declaration of Human Rights. The Delegate of Chile , empha-sised on the need to discuss “Utopia” and expressed his opin-ion with indiscriminate devotion uopn this unconventional topic..

Post lunch the session continued with deliberations on the given issue, after which the conference proceeded with the speeches of the rest of the speakers on the General Speakers List. Recom-mencing the motion, the Delegate of Malaysia articulated that, “the prime reason behind inhumanity is irrationality” and that irrational-ity has to be reconstructed.The issue of “Administration of Death Penalty for Juvenile Delin-quents” was one among the numerous other topics dealt with that gave birth to the powerful brain storming session.

The prime objective of the Human Resource Council of the United Nations is to address issues concerning the interests of Mankind, and thereby to arrive at amicable solutions to rectify the given scenario. Bearing this noble notion in mind, The Model United Nations organized by the MOP Vaishnav College for Women has also come up with 2 pressing disputes, which are detrimental to the very concept of Human Rights:

a) Universal Abolition of death Penaltyb) Preserving the Rights of LGBT

On the first day of MOP MUN, the Human Resource Council extensively debated the topic: “Universal Abolition of Death penalty”. The delegate of Spain, commenced the General Speech List, with an array of Statistical data, pertaining to the topic. Followed by Spain; the delegates of Japan, USA and Chile enunciated their respective points of view , bringing to light the facets , corresponding to their nations.

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Of Climate Changes, Artificial Islands and more

-Lakshmi V.P, Reuters

By Aditi & Hemangi V

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Delegate of India argued that “Environmental refugees” would be an apt term, as it wouldbe wide enough to include the fact that the relocation was not caused due to political reasons, but due to natural ones. Emphasizing that humanitarian aspect is not a negligible one, the Delegate of Argentina held that “the refugees cannot be herded along like hordes of cattle, thereby shred-ding their social dignity”Citizenship, law, jurisdiction, employment opportunities and statehood of relocated people would all remain looming ques-tions. Since moving people to another country could result in ethnic clashes and put an eco-nomic strain on the receiving country, the Delegate of Japan put forth a radical suggestion that the island under question could pur-chase land unused land to set up a territory for themselves under their own jurisdiction. This was countered as an ambigu

ous idea as the islanders mightnot have the financial resourcesnecessary to buy and set up a whole new territory.Another possible choice could be reclamation of land from the border areas, but the feasibility was uncertain and contingent. The discussion took on a belliger-ent tone, when Germany men-tioned that Taiwan was an unrec-ognized region that was facing a lot of concerns. This was vehe-mently denied by China that Taiwan was indeed an integral part of People’s Republic of China.The Security Council formed a Continuous Crisis Committee, to address the issue of India having accepted an invite by the U.S.A to take control of a docking facility for two of its Anti Piracy frigate in U.S Naval Facility in Diego Garcia. China, had concerns about the legality of this naval base, as Diego Garcia was supposed to be returned to the native inhabitants in 2016.

“Climate change and its effect on statehood” was the agenda of the Security Council. As part of the General Speaker’s List (GSL), the delegate of Germany commenced with the facts on Germany’s role in reduction of power consumption and con-tinual R&D in embracing wind energy and new cutting edge technology. Delegates of China, Japan and Argentina also extolled the various steps taken by their country to reduce climatic changes. Germany suggested promotion of artificial islands as the best possible option for the refugees from submerging islands. When introspected, on the proposition of the Delegate of India, the viability of these islands were doubtful in eco-nomical and geographical terms as it conveyed logical inconsis-tency to save people from one island by relocation to another.The other option that was widely discussed was relocating the refugees to another coun-try.

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Emission Trading Scheme – Need of the Hour?

-Vidya V , Reuters

By Aditi & Hemangi V

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The Delegate of Germany em-phasized on the faults in the existing system, for which the delegate of India retaliated asking why a major player in EUETS was bringing to light the same.This was followed by a moderated caucus on the requirement of EUETS during which the Delegate of Brazil said that EUETS might set off a trade war among various countries.. Imposing taxes might not be the solution for reducing carbon emission stated the del-egate of Australia. Delegate of Switzerland sug-gested a global ETS, to avoid disparities among systems followed by different countries

and expressed the need of a monitory body to regulate trans-fers in ETSThe delegate of Germany rein-stated his point of the system having flaws and the need for having a more transparent system in ETS. Another common point expressed by many coun-tries was the need to take into consideration other sectors apart from aviation. The delegate of India strongly felt that ETS was established to reduce carbon emission but has become more of money oriented trade and that it should be tack-led with, which was supported by Korea and China

“The United Nations Environ-ment Programme (UNEP) is an international institution (a programme, rather than an agency of the UN) that coordi-nates United Nations environ-mental activities, assisting developing countries in imple-menting environmentally sound policies and practices.The agendas discussed , in the following order , were ‘Estab-lishing a globally accepted system for carbon trading with reference to the ongoing EUETS (European Union Emission Trading Scheme)’ and ‘The feasibility of using nuclear and solar energy as possible sus-tainable energy technologies in civil and aviation field.’The Delegate of India started by explaining carbon trading followed by the delegate of China who stated that there has been heavy levying of taxes on the aviation sector of the European Union. The Ban-gladesh delegate claimed that his country raised finance through the various other projects given to them by the European Union.

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The two faces of FDI

-Aditya Baskaran, Fars

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to enable FDI in specific key factors. The discussion gathered intensity as the role of political stability was debated by the coun-sel, as delegates spoke about how socio-political and religious issues within their countries led to decline in foreign investment. An array of diplomatic factors- such as loyalty to the investing coun-tries, need for clarity on investment/ competition policies and approaching countries that show a trade surplus were con-ceived as result of the caucus. The discussion gathered intensity as the role of political stability was debated by the counsel, as del-egates spoke about how socio-political and religious issues within their countries led to decline in foreign investment. An array of diplomatic factors- such as loyalty to the investing countries, need for clarity on investment/ compe-tition policies and approaching countries that show a trade sur-plus were conceived as result of the caucus. The second moder-ated caucus discussed about ways to combat the ill-effects of FDI, especially the safety of local producers. There occurred a dramatic moment, where Cuba suggested a cautious approach towards resource-seeking FDI, to avoid exploitation, and environ-mental degradation, to which the delegate of China interjected, asking whether the citizens of Cuba would prefer “clean air to breathe, or two square meals a day?” Countries like the Nether-lands, Brazil, Cuba, Bangladesh and USA had a positive approach towards FDI’s effects on local producers, suggesting that it created a healthy competition,

The agenda for Day 1 was Foreign Direct Investment, and its effect on developed and developing countries. While countries such as France, China, and the Russian Federa-tion sang the accolades of FDI, and its success stories in their regions, Iraq and Cuba spoke about the lack of proper invest-ment in their country, and their position on welcoming foreign nations to invest in them.The committee first discussed measures to attract FDI, where the reduction of labor costs and development of human resources acted as popular thoughts, along with the requirement of more incentives apart from the usual tax discounts. Ukraine suggested an innovative idea of assigning a governmental body to look into market demand to reduce inflation. China stated that the development of literacy would lead to an increase in FDI, which was supported by Iraq. The delegate of Iraq, made a rather controversial statement that Iraq had been “labeled a terrorist country” by certain fellow countries, which brought varied reactions from the mem-bers of the committee. Both USA and the Russian Federation spoke about specified growth –

improved the country’s facilities and also enabled “local players to learn from the international players”. India vehemently opposed USA’s claim that “it was a myth that local players van-ished due to FDI”. Transparency between the government and the companies, regional integration within the country, maintenance of balance between MNCs and local producers, and its imple-mentation through providing subsidies to locals against the technologically advanced MNCs, were some measures brought forth during the caucus, and were well-received by the members of the counsel. Day 1 saw a debate of the two faces of Foreign Direct Invest-ments, (which though thorough, was snail-paced,) out of which several reasonable, and innova-tive ideas where put together to support and solve its issues.

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Death Penalty—the fire extinguisher?

-Arvind Badri, Fars

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There are merits and demerits to death penalty—but nothing can come close to Japan’s justifi-cation: “because, of course, killing off accused people will obviously reduce the cost of maintaining prisons.”As noble as the intentions of the countries proposing death penalty for “only extreme cases” are, the real question is where to draw the line. It would be absolutely impossible not to appease the countries which are dead-on in favour of death penalty since that it seems that the modern world cannot do without it: so even a temporary moratorium seems out of the question. As a delegate points out in a chit to another, if a majority of the country’s citizens want a crime to be punished by death, even though it is a decision driven by emotion, the country, being a democracy, has to satisfy the wishes of its citizens. And hence the UNHRC is looking at damage control; trying to control death penalty for juve-niles, trying to improve the meth-ods in which capital punishment is administered, and decreasing the number of cases of wrongfully executed people to zero.And it is while discussing this issue of wrongfully executed people, that the blame-game that the United Nations is so fond of started coming to the fore. Accu-sations ran rampant, with men-tions from the Czech delegate, of Amnesty International reports stating that to date, 130 prisoners in the United States were wrongly placed in Death Row before their sentence was revoked because

It is not rare to find a council in which the United States of America goes largely unques-tioned about the nature of its policies, and countries nod their heads to everything the US says, and the United Nations Human Rights Council on day 1 was unanimous on one thing: complete abolition of the death penalty is utopia.Various things were debated upon in the moderated cau-cuses that arose, with countries undecided upon whether a hundred violations of the Human Rights Charter justifies just one more violation and whether life imprisonment should be considered as torture the way it is specified in article 5. In the end, the countries realized that paying too much attention to whether human rights will be violated is no way to resolve this dispute of whether or not death penalty should be awarded, for the most feasible alternative, life imprisonment, could also be argued as a violation.Yet, debate on day 1 came down to a basic question: an eye for an eye is not justified; but is an eye for a hundred eyes justified?

they were proven innocent, and the chair had to actually remind the delegate that they were supposed to be discussing wrong-ful executions.At the end of the day, no one has any idea where this council is going, except for Canada, which is trying hard to bring the demer-its of death penalty in front of the council, and US, being able to ward these off without breaking a sweat.There stood the UNHRC on day 1 of council: “if mass murder is fire (fair enough comparison), we shall not fight fire with fire (this is the part where it goes fuzzy for me) but we shall extinguish the fire—by executing the murderer.”

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Artificial Islands—the right way to go?

-Shreevarshini, Fars

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do they have the rights dictated by the one that they have moved into due to the course of nature.There was an outrageous allega-tion from the delegate of Ger-many, stating that Taiwan, being an unrecognized island state, would be left helpless in case of a submersion, to which the delegate of China immediately took offence, saying that Taiwan was an integral part of China. Japan was part of the group of nations moving for territory being assigned to displaced groups of people.There were also suggestions about how the island states could buy pieces of land in other coun-tries and establish jurisdiction there, which received opposition by nations pointing out the reces-sion that the world is facing, but it was felt that this fact was the very point of discussing this in the United Nations.As heated arguments do the rounds, the Chair insists on an unmoderated caucus, proposing to take the council forward by making it a Continual Crisis Com-mittee. The second session began with the first update of the crisis: India had accepted to take control of a docking facility for two of its anti-piracy frigate in US naval support facility by Diego Garcia and China had raised concerns about the legality of the entire naval base; and delegates were expected to come up with a solu-tion to the crisis—and this seems a tough job having seen the diver-sity of viewpoints even for the simplest of matters.

The security council of MOP MUN 2013 began its day with a set agenda of “climate change and its effect on statehood.”The delegate of India proposed the first Moderated caucus on the topic, “effects of climate change” with special focus on statehood. The main concern was the sub-mersion of islands due to rising water levels and the economical and humanitarian concern of the countries involved, directly or indirectly, in the issue. Argentina proposed setting aside a portion of land for the environmental refugees, so that they don’t encroach on the citizens’ space. This was later followed up by the Delegate of China, who sug-gested that a consensus could be reached among the neighbouring countries and the land on the borders could be reclaimed at the sign of a crisis. Most delegates were united in calling for the setting up of artificial islands.India gave voice to what was on most minds by stating that creat-ing artificial islands was economi-cally taxing and geographically harmful to the climate, and also that there were many humanitar-ian concerns regarding the envi-ronmental refugees. The environ-mental refugees do not have the rights of a normal refugee: nei-ther do they have the rights of the country they belong to, nor

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Weapons of warfare - Conventional and non – Conventional

-Shruti Sivakumar

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While putting an end to terrorism is an important issue and should not be taken lightly, it cannot be at the cost of innocent people. And so keeping that in mind, the Delegate of Bosnia suggested that the target of the drones be made more precise and accurate to avoid casualties. The solution provided by the delegate was sensible, but it needs to be kept in mind the amount of time it will take to conduct the research and investment that needs to be put into it.The issue of bombing Pakistan wasn’t even resolved when the delegate of USA admitted to having spies in Pakistan and other countries to get gather informa-tion on terrorist organizations. Germany, supported the USA stating that Osama Bin Laden was found only because of the spies while the Pakistan government could not locate him even though he resided there, and declared, that the Pakistan Government was incapable of helping in eradicating terrorism.

It is here that there comes to light an issue: USA clearly had the information on Osama Bin Laden’s location. When there is a univer-sal forum, namely the United Nations, to discuss the issue, to pass on the information to, the fact that the US took matters into their own hands is not technically a violation—but it can explain why US didn’t have too many fans in today’s council.Also, the executive board was in favour of a discussion on the Law of Proportionality for day 2.

Day one of UNGA-DISEC was a clash between the two major factions that had developed: one headed by US and the other headed by Pakistan and Russia, and in other words… Nothing new.

From the beginning of the ses-sion, it was clear that USA and Germany strongly supported each other, while Pakistan and Russia together opposed them. Session 1 of MOPMUN ’13 started with delegates discussing the definition of conventional and non conventional weapons. While the delegate of USA, Germany, Russia and Pakistan actively participated in the discussion, the delegates of Kuwait, Bosnia, UK and Canada thought of different ways to look at the prescribed agenda. The most discussed and argued topic was of USA bombing Paki-stan in an attempt to put an end to terrorism. The delegate of USA justified its action and stated that the civilian lives lost were collat-eral damage. While Russia strongly condemned the use of drones, the delegate of Germany bought to the notice of the coun-cil that only recently Russia had purchased drones and asked what they were for. During this discussion, the delegate of Kuwait stated that drones need not be used only for warfare and that, it could be useful during a natural disaster to reach people.

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Making the right noises

-Punya Mahajan

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While there is a need for public transparency, media leaking out confidential information is really not what is wanted.”The delegate of USA, confirming the country’s ever-so-prevalent stance on freedom of press, said, “If ever the right to freedom of press and right to freedom of speech and expression come in conflict, US would support the former. Howsoever true this is with the print media, it’s not the same for social or new media as the USA has laws against misuse of freedom by these forums.”The chairperson of twitter said, “The fulfillment of the right to freedom of speech and expression has increased in dimension due to advances in technology.”Raising a motion for discussion on social media and its privacy policy, Jack Dorsey said, “A few missteps will be there as social media is an emerging industry but twitter stresses on protection of its users.”A hot topic under debate emerged to be the passing of information by social networking websites to ad agencies, thus harming user security. What emerged after the first session of the council was a caucus supported by most of the countries to have a proper coded definition of what is infringement of privacy, with the motion being passed in the council for the latter.

Day 1, and the UNGA’s SOCHUM, Summit on Media and Press, discussing its agenda, “Infringement of Privacy by Media and press”, saw myriad views floating in the council, each harboring a sentiment stressing on the vitality of media, be it print, electronic or new media, keep-ing in sight media’s economic, social, cultural and humanitar-ian importance, but also stating clear that a line needs to be drawn which must not be crossed by various forms of media, keeping in mind the utter regard for human dignity and for up-keeping peace and security of nations.The delegate of China leading the General Speakers’ List, justified his country’s position on censorship of media and how China attaches the value of sensationalism to modern media, saying, “we don’t want turmoil in our country, hence the censorship.”The delegate of Russia com-mending China’s national social networking websites and almost bashing WikiLeaks, said, “Russia believes in media regu-lation rather than media cen-sorship.

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By Aditi & Hemangi V

India, Korea and Canada join hands against the EU ETS

-Aishwarya Kumar

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It also stated that though the EU ETS is not perfect, this major step will definitely help in the long run. Yet, India was unconvinced about the proposed eventuality that trading would help reduce Carbon Dioxide emission.The committee then moved into moderated caucus with the topic of discussion “understanding carbon trading through EU ETS” wherein the countries discussed the basic concept of carbon trad-ing and capping system followed by the EU ETS. Switzerland raised a major topic of discussion when it brought the aviation industry into the discussion. Here again, the EU ETS was criticized heavily, with Brazil displeased about the increased air fares that have resulted because airplanes have to pay tax when over Europe, and the UK was strong once again in its defense of the system, stating that it was the EU ETS which has placed pressure on the aviation industry to check on the emission of carbon dioxide without which there will be no system to act as a check.There was a moderated caucus raised by the United Kingdom which discussed the topic “Re-quirements of the EU ETS scheme” through which UK helped the other nations understand the nature of EU ETS and the need for Carbon Trading, and as was the general trend of the day, this proposal was vehemently opposed by the developing nations with India in the lead. When asked for alternatives, Canada proposed national climatic laws to combat carbon emission.

In an attempt to thwart the seven year old EU ETS, the Emission Trading System, developed by the European Union, India came out strongly in pointing out the major flaws of the carbon trading system during the first session of the United Nation Environment Program (UNEP). The vigorous defense of the United Kingdom, pointing out that the EU ETS is heading in the right direction this formed the core of the debate on day 1 of the UNEP.

Session one saw the beginning of a motion to discuss on “es-tablishing a globally accepted system for carbon trading with reference to the on going IATA/ICAO-EU etc.” India started off the General Speak-ers List (GSL) by stating the need to understand the concept of Carbon trading for the ses-sion to be effective. It also stated that the current EU ETS system was flawed and there is a need to replace the existing system with a new system with new ideas. UK came out with strong state-ments talking about the impor-tance of reducing carbon emis-sion to help save the atmo-sphere.

This, along with India’s proposal of reducing emission against trading was widely accepted by the developing nations while the developed nations like the United Kingdom and Germany still felt the need for perfecting the EU ETS system and going forward with it.The day ended with the formation of a strong alliance between India, Korea and Canada who wanted reduction in carbon emis-sion while United Kingdom, Ger-many and Switzerland wanted to move in the same course of improving the already existing system of carbon trading.

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Editor-in-chief( Press Head)Punya Mahajan

EditorsKhusboo Doshi (Reuters)

Arvind Badri (Fars)

Reporters (Reuters)Vidhya V

Lakshmi P V Parvathya SripadhanVahini Mahalingham

Reporters(Fars)Aditya BaskaranShree Varshini

Aishwarya KumarShruti Sivakumar

International Press

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