Ever wondered how the United Nations functions? Here’s a rare opportunity to find out how the organisation works globally facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace since 1945. The United Nations is coming down to the city, for the first time ever, in the form of a three day Model United Nations (MUN) being organised by the Odisha Debating Society (ODS) from April 13.Termed as MUNing, the event ODS-MUN is the dream child of a few experienced debaters who participated at the previous Model United Nations held across the country. One among them, Punyashlok Dwibedy, also the president of ODS and a debater most exposed to MUNing, decided to bring the concept to the state.Punyashlok has been MUNing since 2008 and Soumya Mohapatra, the general secretary of ODS has participated in seven MUNs so far. “The debating scenario is very limited in the state, with most of it being face-to-face and one-on-one debates. We wanted to change this and bring what we have experienced outside the state,” echoed both Punyashlok and Soumya about their MUNing experiences.The United Nations Information Centre of India is officially associated with the ODS-MUN and has provided the MUN with the UN Charter.The ODS-MUN will simulate three councils that are the UN General Assembly (UNGA), the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the European Council (EC). The agenda for every council has already been decided. The UNGA will be debating on ‘Establishing a nuclear weapon free world’ and ‘World post the Jasmine Revolution’.The UNHRC will be debating on ‘Censorship of the internet as form of expression’ and ‘Eradication of child labour’. And the EC will be debating on the ‘Sovereign debt crisis’. The highlight of any MUNs are the ‘crisis situations’ that are planted during council’s sessions. A high level executive body, comprising of experienced MUNers will be arriving for the MUN. They will be judging the complete event for the three days.The team comprises of debaters who have had debated in the MUNs in the country and abroad. There will also be an International Press that will report on the everyday working of the MUN and produce a bulletin every day.The participants will be assigned a country at the beginning of the MUN. “We have not set any criteria for participation. The concept being new to the state, the only consideration will be that the participants with a greater debating experience will be given the bigger countries like the United States of America (USA), France, China or India,” explained Punyashlok. “We had to precede everything with workshops to create an awareness about what MUNs were. Only then could we get participation,” said Soumya. There are many pulsation participants and the organisers are expecting a turnout of 300.The event will take place in the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER) and further details for the event are available in ODS’ Facebook page. A whole team of debaters and students are working day and night to make this event a success.
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