MUNRFE!

San Francisco Team, participated in 60th Session of MUN Far West had finally returned back home! Great respect to these brilliant people, who managed to make a real difference in MUNFW Conferences! This year SF Team moves to introduce a new concept of team's report - news feed, where all these people will tell MUNRFE about their work, rest, feelings and everything connected to their trip.

But before we start this feed, I would like to state some dry facts about this team and this MUNFW Session:

1. 60th MUNFW Session became a joint anniversary for MUNFW Inc. and MUNRFE, as it is our 10th time we participate in MUNFW Sessions,

2. For the first time in the history of MUNFW a brand new legal issues committee was introduced and successfully performed by Olga Kostina and 12 briliant judges with the help of California State University Long Beach Advisor - Mr. Larry Martinez,

3. 60th MUNFW Session became the largest session of MUNFW ever conducted, as it has gathered 614 delegates from USA, Russia, Austria, Belgium, Phillipines, Ukraine and other states,

4. For the firsts time in the gistory of MUNFW Sessions ALL the committees had chosen rapportoires,

5. This SF Session is the first time, when MUNRFE technically represented 3 countries simultaneously - Mexico, Chile, Slovakia,

6. Mr. Sergey Gubchenko became the rapportoire to the GA from the International Court of Justice during the closing plenary,

7. MUNRFE Advisor, Igor Novikov, together with Olga Kostina, convinced MUNFW Board of Directors to repeat ICJ Simulation on the next MUNFW Session with MUNRFE representative as a Chair,

8. This session was the last time MUNRFE chaired the UN Security Council (by Vladislav Sklyanov), though thanks to Igor Novikov, MUNRFE was granted to run two committees during the 62nd Session of MUNFW,

9. Finally, MUNRFE SF'10 Team became the first team, who spent their rest in Los Angeles!

And here come our Team's feelings and news:

"American author, Herbert Frank, said one day: «Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps».The 2010 trip to the United States of America awoke something inside me. I realized that my understanding of American people, life and their way of thinking were absolutely wrong before the trip. The people I met in the United States were friendly, sincere and open-hearted. It was my pleasure to debate with them during the Conference and work together on the implementation of social projects in Modesto and Los-Angeles. The students of Whittier College and their respective families invited us to stay at their homes during our trip and therefore we had an opportunity to see their life as it is. They treated me as one of their family members and always told: «My home is your home». Therefore I did not feel myself as a guest in the United States.

I am proud of being a person who participated in the 60^th session of the MUNFW on behalf of a judge of the International Court of Justice simulated for the first time in the history of the Conference. We tried to behave as the real judges and agents of the supreme juridical organ of the United Nations and encouraged all UN countries to be law abiding. From my prospective this Committee was successfully introduced by the Model United Nations of the Russian Far East and adds something very special and unique to the MUNFW Conference. Moreover the participation in the moot Court competition gives delegates an understanding that all international problems should be solved on the principles of cooperation of sovereign States supported by persuasion and negotiation. In this case the major role belongs to International law regulating the activities of States on International arena.

There is a belief that «travel is more than the seeing of sights, it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living». However the sights of San-Francisco and Los-Angeles impressed me a lot. I admire the Golden Gate Bridge which was crossed by our team members on foot and the elegance of Queen Mary the trip to which was truly unforgettable experience for me.

But the greatest value I found during the US trip is my team members whom I consider to be my close friends and miss a lot staying in the home town. I wish one day we will be able to gather all together somewhere in San Francisco to recollect our memories about the 2010 travel!"

Sergey Gubchenko

"The work of the UNEP was conducted in the order of agenda items as it was stated by the secretariat. 78 delegates on the floor were really passionate about the environmental issues and were struggling to find the compromise. Regional meetings during the caucuses were the main tool for elaboration of the common vision and approach, negotiations between the representatives of European Union, African Union, Oceania, Asian and Latin Countries with the purpose of merging all the resolutions took most of the time during the Conference. During the work of the committee personal approach of the delegates sometimes dominated the official policy of their countries, however at the end of exhausting work hours the committee formed one common vision that was reflected in 7 resolutions covering all the aspects of the stated agenda items.

Before the trip I tried not to concentrate on my emotions about the trip but to take it as it was. I even succeeded first several days. The trip to Modesto broke my firm attitude, the town itself and host families that welcomed us to their homes charmed me and I could not resist any longer. I enjoyed every second of the trip since that very moment – I enjoyed the rain, the wind, warm and cozy cafes, big malls, of course. My host, Janlane Matt, made me feel different, being a guest in her house for 2 days changed me significantly, though it is hard to believe. In LA Universal Studio I was back to my childhood, running across all the park amusements, laughing and enjoying such a sunny day with my lovely team. The walk to the Queen Mary was a crazy time full of joy, sun and excitement. The sun and the wind in my hair and smiles of my friend made this day unforgettable. The last day in LA we were walking along the Santa Monica, I tried to catch and to feel every minute and everything that was going on around me. Now the more time I spend without my team the harder it is for me to feel comfortable. There were people who made this trip decisive for me."

Sofia Korchagina

Security Council, being the most surprising committee, a priory, started its work with the stating of agenda to discuss and ordering of agenda items.

Diversity of opinions of the delegates appeared in comprehensive, but not well-ordered Agenda. Having 13 agenda items, SC stated their debates with the negotiations over the Iranian nuclear programme, issue, proposed by the delegation of the United States of America and its close Allies. First day was spent in hot negotiations, but the committee was too far from the consensus and possible solution. On the second day SC agreed on two directions of work and started to work separately, orienting on comprehensive approach towards the problem. Third day and 11 hours of the debates became the most effective part of the conference and Security Council, facing 3 agenda items and resolving appeared crisis, adopted three resolutions. On forth day, being deeply alarmed with the escalation of the crisis, Security Council met reluctance of the US delegation to come to an agreement. Furthermore US, being non-compliant with its foreign policy, proposed measures violating international law and UN Charter, changing its position occasionally it banned draft of the proposed resolution, which was agreed by the rest of the committee. Such a behavior didn’t leave the Security Council another choice, but to impose harsh measures urging United States to act adequate. The delegation of the United Mexican States in present conditions, underlining a great danger caused by reluctance of the USA, decided to cut off all the diplomatic relations with the state, while permanent member of the SC and one of the guarantors of the peace and security in the world act in violation of the UN Charter. This measure influenced all the committee and the US delegation. Security Council members condemned actions of the USA and called upon the state to be more open to the opinions of the committee. Finally, SC came to the consensus and unanimously adopted a comprehensive resolution towards the crisis. These 4 days of the MUNFW conference became a priceless experience which taught me how to think different and deal with people whose mentality is far from ours.

My opinion about the United States and its people was predominantly based on suspicious and assumptions, and didn’t expect something different, but… I discovered United States different from those things that I heard previously, cause life in the US, to my opinion, not better and not worse than in our country. First thing that surprised me is attitude. We were late to our flight from LA to SF and we had no idea what to do, but the personnel of the Los Angeles Airport gave us tickets to the next flight without any extra payments. And all the rest of the trip attendants were surprising me with their patience and kindness. At the same time they are too compliant with all the rules, and for us, having another mentality to live in frames of such a society is rather difficult. Sometimes it annoyed me a lot. :) Despite of all the misunderstandings, San Francisco is warm city with different people more or less cared about others.

Next, travelled to Modesto, I’d say that this friendly city is the most wonderful in California. People are so bright and so open; they are very good company and it was interesting to talk to them.  But, unfortunately, we got to go to the Los Angeles in 2 days. Using train for trip to LA I discovered that California is not only Skyscrapers and beautiful alleys, but also it is dirty villages and car dumps similar to those that we considered to be the shame of Russia. And feeling this transition we saw Los Angeles completely different from SF and even Modesto.  Plethora of immigrants, not so clean streets, not convenient means of transport. But Santa-Monica, Long Beach, Hollywood and Universal Studious were wonderful places to visit.

Summarizing all I’d like to say that for me this trip was interesting and unforgettable, it broke my assumptions and formed a unique opinion about the US and its citizens."

Semyon Korotich

"Although it was the first time for MUNFW to hold the simulation of the supreme judicial body of the United Nations – the International Court of Justice, the participants made a great success in one the most challenging committees of UN. During the 60^th MUNFW session the Court entertained two contentious cases and one advisory opinion, and as a result of its deliberations it rendered three judgments on the following cases:

1. Ecuador vs. Colombia: Aerial herbicide spraying

2. Peru vs. Chile: Maritime Delimitation

3. Advisory Opinion: Legality of the use of force in South Ossetia and Abkhazia

Delegates had to make a hard work before going to this committee. Being a judge, advocate or expert is not as easy as it might seem to be. The Court is a competition of minds and in order to show the best performance, one should make a lot. It is all about the law matters, as well as about factual base of your case. If your case is about military operations you pretend to be a military expert, who knows the maps of the region where the conflict took place as well as technical characteristics of the weapons used during the military operations by all sides of that conflict. It could take too much time, but what I can say for sure is that that time was not wasted. The work you have made is worth much. If your case is about interpretation of the treaty law another type of work is to take place for you. You are addressing your time to digging deep into law and previous decisions of the Court. That is an analysis of hundreds of pages just for making one conclusion described in one sentence. And that is for 5 minute speech, 30 minutes of questions and one judgment that is hopefully in your favor…

“Honorable judges and advocates, please, stand up for announcement of the judgment.” – the Registrar of the Court says and then makes a little pause that makes advocates to get nervous. With the bated breath the advocates are listening to the judgment. They still do not know the decision, but they know for sure that this trial is not over the country they advocated, this trial is over the work they made before and during debates.

The trip is gone, but I can’t forget it. Mentally I am still there and the memories about our little travel do not abandon me at all. It seems to me that I am still walking with my teammates along sunny streets of San-Francisco or the Golden Gate Bridge. I remember the strange quotation of US Federal Law warning us not to drop objects and weapon from Golden Gate as well as from other bridges. :) I remember the sound of my chair’s mini-hammer that announces one more judgment to be adopted. And of course, I remember the expression of other delegates’ faces after saying that you came from Russia. It was an unforgettable trip that changed us a lot. For me it was the touch of history! We visited the place where the delegates of San-Francisco Conference voted for United Nations Charter. That was an old-fashioned building with the picture in lobby of Harry Truman, signing the Charter. If one walks along United Nations Civic Plaza, he could see the Preamble of the Charter inscribed at slabs of the street. Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said “The structure of the world peace can not be the work of one man, or one party, or one nation… It must be a peace, which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world.” It is all about UN, about the history that affected the entire world.

Another unforgettable part of was Modesto! Thanks to Bob and Dee Gotelli that trip obtained additional meaning! It was a significant intercultural experience!!! All day and night long we were talking about our countries, our histories and customs. I learned a lot about their country and told a lot about my own. We discussed political systems, President Elections as if debates in SF were not over. :) I really miss that city and compare it with my native Komsomolsk-on-Amure. And finally I’d like to say several words about Los Angeles. Our visit to Universal Studio was a perfect point in our trip. Ride on roller coaster added some adrenaline and strengthened emotions and feelings about our trip! If one asks me to describe this trip in three adjectives, I’d say that it was unbelievable, amazing and unforgettable!"

Tatyana Fomina

"I represented the delegation of the United Mexican States in the 5^th Committee of the General Assembly. We had 4 agenda items:

1. Increasing the financial sustainability of the UN

2. Improving the administrative efficiency of the UN

3. Addressing the allocation of funding towards UN peacekeeping operations

4. Budgetary process

As it is seen from the titles of agenda, the 5^th Committee primarily deals with financial and administrative issues within the UN. At the very beginning of committee’s session, there were proposals from the delegates to reorder agenda items, thus we had to vote whether to pass those proposals or not. Finally, none of them was approved and the Committee started their deliberations on the topics in order established by the Secretariat. The whole 1^st day we were discussing the 1^st agenda item and on the 2^nd day 3 comprehensive resolutions appeared on the table of DIAS. However, only 2 of them passed successfully, since the 3^rd one didn’t get enough supporters among the international community. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to discuss all

the topics and the 2^nd agenda item was left unresolved due to the lack of time. For me personally (as well as for many other delegates), the most innovative and uncommon agenda item was the “Budgetary process”, as far as within MUNRFE we have never had such kind of activity. For the purpose of its clarifying, the USG visited our committee and explained the content of the issue. We were given the list of already passed UN resolutions with the proposed sums of money to finance those resolutions. The problem was that we were given only 225 million USD, but the preliminary proposed financial recourses exceeded that amount of money, and the task of the delegates was to analyze the importance of each resolution and to allocate their funding in a more reasonable way. Finally, some of them were overfunded, fully funded, underfunded or not funded at all. It was rather difficult to debate on that agenda item as far as only 1 resolution could have been passed and no alternatives were applicable there. But as it always happens after a great number of caucuses the Committee’s views were divided and presented in 2 resolutions. At the voting block the 1^st one was approved by the majority of votes, which excluded the 2^nd one automatically.  As for the 3^rd topic, the Committee wrote 5 draft resolutions after a lot of discussions within geographical blocks, and all of them were successfully adopted. Certainly, it was a very pleasant moment before closure of the Committee’s session. Therefore, all the delegates left the Committee with smiles on their faces"

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all”. I’ve realized it during our incredible trip to the sunny California. It is very hard to describe all my emotions that were left inside my mind after that trip. But certainly all the hardships that we had during numerous negotiations with the deans, rectors, and many other officials in order to come there were worth it. I have never been abroad before the USA, thus for me it was such an unbelievable moment of my life, that I will never forget it. I personally greatly enjoyed speaking English with Americans, with native speakers. It helped me to overcome my language barrier and to feel calm during talking to the Americans. I’ve got acquainted with a lot of funny and crazy students at the Conference who were very pleased to know me as well. I fall in love with the tiny but so cozy Modesto city. The person who hosted me was Marie Silveira, a very wonderful and extremely kind person. We had a lot of fun together while riding across the city, shopping, and just talking on different life topics. She was very kind to me and for both us it was such a petty that we could stay together only for 2 days. The Rotary Club members were all very open-hearted people and we had a wonderful dinner where each member of the team was given a chance to share his own vision of MUN. Our adventures in Los Angeles were one of the most memorable. I met Jeffrey Lindstrom for the 1^st tome there; I had a wonderful hosting family with Russian roots, who were also very kind to me. I felt like a child in the Universal Studios with its crazy roller coasters and cartoon and movies heroes, scaring or embracing you. The Golden Gate bridge, the Lombard Street, the Union Square, the Long Beach, Hollywood, the Queen Mary ship, cable cars…when I recall all that places in my mind I feel butterflies in the stomach and even now I can’t fully believe that I was there and I saw all that. But certainly nothing would be so wonderful if I hadn’t had such a good Team. I appreciate a lot that I’ve been a part of that Team, that I had such an understanding advisor, who taught us a lot. Trip to California is all about great team work, great amount of life experience, and just a lot of fun, happiness and adventures….and memory that will always remain in your heart and mind."

Ulyana Kan

MUNRFE! More words from SF2010 Team are coming! Keep updated!