Hello Delegates!
Hey everyone,
Welcome to the official blog for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization! To make things easier for everyone involved, we will refer to the committee simply as UNESCO.
This post will be the first in a long line of posts that will hopefully prepare not just you, but also your advisors and ourselves as well for the committee, and for the 56th Annual Session. This post will serve simply as an Introduction to this blog, and to its organization.
Each week leading up to the conference, there will be one main post covering a major section of the broad field of bioethics and how science and society intermingle with the international community. Hopefully, these posts will help each of you gain a better understanding of what issues are involved, and prepare you for a dynamic debate.
The schedule for the main posts are as follows
Week of 12/31: Introduction
Week of 1/7: Morality, Ethics, and Culture
Week of 1/14: Science and Ethics
Week of 1/21: International Law
Weeks of 1/28 to 2/25: Bioethics Case Studies
Week of 3/3: Major Questions
Week of 3/10: Answers to Questions, Lead-up to the Conference
In addition, there will be other posts that will talk about major news events and topic updates. These posts can be found in the pages to the right. Also on the right, you can find several links that will be of great assistance to your research and just general academic curiosity. Most of these sources are not absolutely essential, except for the Topic Synopsis, which will serve as merely the initial backbone of debate.
I’ve also attached Guidelines for your position papers. More information on our expectations for your papers can be found inside. What we are looking for is quality, not how many pages you can write. However, we don’t want a paper so short that is excludes important information either.
And for the last of the serious stuff, the topics will deal with issues that are complex and don’t readily appear as if they have a solution. We won’t expect you to be able to grasp each issue completely; we just want an intermediate level of understanding. To accomplish this, think about these essential questions. For the first topic (Genetics and Cultural Identity), how can the international system balance the protection of the identity of minorities threatened by genetic diversity research and the freedom of that research? Which priority is more important for your nation, considering ethnic and cultural issues in your nation? For the second topic (Medical Research and Health Standards), how should the international system regulate medical trials and pharmceutical companies that operate internationally? Should each case be dealt with by review boards in each nation, or should an international oversight organization handle these issues?
These are simplistic questions, but starting to think about these questions early will help you grasp these difficult concepts before we get more specific. Read the topic synopsis to increase your early understanding, and don’t be afraid to ask for clarifications.
Lastly, time to introduce your chairs! Patrick Ho is a first year at both Cal and in BMUN, and has yet to decide on a major. He is interested in music, tennis, eating, and meeting new people. Margarita is a fourth year at both Cal and in BMUN, and is a Molecular and Cell Biology major. She loves guinea pigs, math, and Oski (obviously a big Cal fan). As for me, I am, along with Margarita, a fourth year at Cal and in BMUN (go seniors!), and am also a Molecular and Cell Biology major, doubling with Legal Studies. I’m interested in running and other athletic activities (go Lakers, Dodgers, and the Golden Bears), House M.D. and The Office, and of course snowboarding.
If you want to contact us for ANY reason (questions about the committee, conference, or MUN in general; or anything else!) don’t be shy and feel free to do so. Our emails are as follows.
Bryan: bryanjsu AT gmail.com
Margarita: mivanova86 AT berkeley.edu
Patrick: patrickho AT berkeley.edu
We hope that UNESCO is ultimately a exciting and rewarding experience, and we hope to hear from you all soon!
- Bryan