Economic and Social Council 2008Committee GuideMost honourable delegates, Our names are Felix Bayer and Victor Boadum and we will be this year’s Presidents of the Economic and Social Council. It is our great honour and privilege to serve in these important positions and we are looking forward to the conference with much anticipation. As we believe that this year’s topic of the ECOSOC is the most important issue that mankind faces in today’s world we anticipate all delegates of the ECOSOC to be well prepared for a very controversial and vivid debate. To make BALMUN a long-lasting experience we want all delegates to contribute not only during debate, but also during lobbying. Therefore, we expect all delegates to come to the conference with a fully-written resolution, which will provide as a draft to merge with other delegates and to formulate resolutions for debate. Your resolutions should represent your countries ideas on the topic and should be genuine. Please bear in mind that plagiarism will not be tolerated by us! There will be further updates on the committee guide when we can provide more information about our guest-speaker so please stay tuned onto the BALMUN website. Establishing sustainable development under the guidance of the UN Millenium Development Goals In the capitalist world economic growth is the benchmark for success. Economic figures are affecting all areas of life, but especially the political sector. Thus governments throughout the world try to ensure maximum economic growth. However, the process of globalisation leads to an increased competition between countries trying to attract companies. Therefore, decision makers tend to favour companies. Negative effects of this strategy may be deteriorating labour conditions, wages under the minimum living wage and even child labour. But on the other hand the settling of a company in a developing country can boost its economy and lead to an increased living standard. Hence, one can see that economic growth does not always contribute to social development. The international community has diagnosed this problem in the past as well and consequently created the concept of sustainable development. Sustainable development labels a development concept which considers the environmental, economic and socio-political impact of economic growth. We will especially focus on the social aspect of sustainable development. There have been several summits by the United Nations on sustainable development, the first one 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, the second one leading to the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals in 2000 and the third conference in Johannesburg reaffirming the political concepts. Please take into account these conference results when researching the topic. The Millennium Development Goals outline 8 major objectives which are supposed to be achieved by 2015. In the document, issues such as HIV/Aids, extreme poverty, education, gender equality and sustainable development are addressed. The new approach of the Millenium Development Goals was to define poverty no longer only from a financial point of view but also as a lack of opportunities. Unfortunately, at the moment none of the 8 Goals looks like it could be met by 2015. It will be your task to come up with a strategic approach to promote sustainable development while especially considering the eight Millennium Development Goals. You will have to break the habit of compromising sustainable development for quick economic growth. This breakthrough can only be successful on a multilateral basis and you will have the chance to reach such a consensus during BALMUN 2008! Some links which may help you during you preparation:
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Introduction of the Chairs
Honorable future delegates of the Human Rights Committee!
I have the honour to be Chair of the Political Committee at this year’s first annual BALMUN Conference. I am 19 years old and have just written my final exams for the Abitur. After this year´s summer I will do an voluntary eological year at the NaJu International in Berlin. This will be my first MUN as Chair and my third at all (after the Youth Assembly at BerMUN 06 and the Politial Committee at OlMUN 07) so I`m not really experienced, though I hope we`ll have a great time together. I look forward to a great conference, enthusiastic debates and highly motivated delegates, Chair of the Human Rights Committee Introduction of the Chairs |
