1. “Alltheinternational
newsthat’sfittoprint”
VOL. I...No. 2 Copyright © 2016 The LIMUN Eye SATURDAY, 27 FEBRUARY 2016 @LondonMUN#LIMUN2016
‘Peace is much more precious than a piece of
land.’
- Delegate of Djibouti
The year is 1993 and the situation in the former Yugoslavia
has worsened. The Security Council is busy debating the strat-
egies that would be useful in dealing with the war in Bosnia.
During a moderated caucus, the delegate of China was
strongly suggesting and emphasizing the idea of creating Safe
ZonesorGreenlinestohelpstabilisetheareawhereasthemain
focus of the debate remained on the possibility of Ceasefire,
Ceasefire and Ceasefire! The delegate of New Zealand present-
ed a particularly zealous argument in favour of a ceasefire to
encourage discussion amongst the parties on the ground and
create stability so that all ethnic minorities can live peacefully
in the future. Here is a remarkable quote from the delegate of
the United States of America, the ‘the US would prefer a dip-
lomatic solution, but the only way to get the parties involved
and sit together for peace talks is a ceasefire…it’s very hard to
talk about peace when people are still shooting at you.’ Another
set of delegates were expressing their interest in increasing the
number of ground troops which brought us back to the man-
date of the UNPROFOR to use force to protect the safe zones.
The session also included the Chairs’ frustration as the dele-
gates did not read up on the UN Charter Chapter 7!
‘What has been largely discussed and what will be a large
part of the resolution is the adjustment of the UNPROFOR
mandate which needs to be expanded as well as the forces on
the ground. The second part will deal with a long term resolu-
tion of the conflict…will prove to be harder with the different
parties involved. Finally humanitarian aid will be a large part
of the resolution as well,’ said the Chair of the Security Council.
• P U B L I S H E D B Y T H E L I M U N E Y E
‘Human rights are women’s rights and women’s
rights are human rights once and for all,’ said the
delegate from America, quoting Hilary Clinton
from 1995.
The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality
and the Empowerment of Women kicked off their
committee session with enthusiastic delegates ea-
ger to be put on the General Speakers’ list.
Over the course of two days, the committee
made tremendous progress. After the motion to
discuss Topic B before Topic A miserably failed,
the committee was back to discussing the topic on
Addressing the issue of violence against women
and girls.
It was refreshing to see the enthusiasm of the
delegates to speak for the rights of women and
agree that an action needs to be taken by their
committee to improve the statistics regarding re-
ports of domestic violence.
The first to speak on the Speakers’ list was the
delegate for the USA who famously quotes Hila-
ry Clinton from her 1995 address to the UN 4th
World Conference on Women Plenary Session. It
was extraordinary to see that on the second day
of the sessions, the committee is well on its way to
discussing draft resolutions.
What is all the more surprising is that the del-
egates all seem to be on the same page and there
haven’t been many disagreements.
The press team had the opportunity to inter-
view some of the delegates and this is what the del-
egate of France has to say about the discussions in
the committee, ‘It’s been good…everyone is pretty
much on the same page, we are moving towards a
common resolution… there have been some argu-
ments but so far so good. The sessions have been
very productive.’
When asked about the delegate’s expectations
from the committee the delegate answered, ‘as
France, I would really like to bring attention to
current affairs…with the refugee crisis there is
definitely a need to address gender based violence
because they lack state protection.’
Going back to how there is cohesion in the
committee, one of the draft resolutions being dis-
cussed is co-sponsored by France, South Korea
and Kazakhstan, there is a country with a Mus-
lim majority which emphasises cultural specificity
and space for cooperation between the traditional
and modern education system.
As a committee they are also working towards
the establishment of a UN Women’s Fund, so de-
veloped states can contribute to developing states
establishmentofhelpandprotectionprogrammes.
‘Half the world’s population is female and we
still have global issues of gender discrimination,’
explained Maria-Eugenia Borneto the delegate for
Andorra.
‘Andorra is a developed country and we focus
on domestic violence legislation. What we have
done in the past is the development of programs to
prevent domestic violence before it happens,’ she
said.
The delegate from Algeria, Anna-May Jacob
said ‘We’ve been discussing issues of domestic vio-
lence, rape, and human trafficking.’
‘We’ve talked about solutions to these issues
through education, legislation and public aware-
ness campaigns,’ she said.
‘Algeria is a highly Muslim populated country.
We have implemented legislation to reduce mari-
tal harassment and rape.
‘These behaviours have been criminalised and
we expect to see a reduction in these rates because
of criminalisation,’ she said.
The UN Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women discussed issues and solutions re-
lated to domestic violence and ongoing issues affecting women and girls.
Historic Security Council members prior to discussions.
Ananswertogenderbasedviolence?
UNPROFOR
revisted in historic
committee
RUCHIKA NONGRUM
LONDON, UK
RUCHIKA NONGRUM
LONDON, UK
THE LIMUN TIMES

2. In the spirit of the internationalism LIM-
UN is hosting committees working in other
languages than English.
Indeed, alongside French and Spanish
speaking committees, LIMUN has intro-
duced for the first time an Arabic-speaking
committee: the League of Arab states.
I went to have a look at them despite the
fact I have any basic knowledge of Arab.
Surprisingly the delegates were talking
in English because, the director explained to
me, they are allowed to use English during
informal session in order to facilitate the ne-
gotiations. Indeed, although the delegates
were native speakers, they spoke different
dialects and found difficult to use the offi-
cial Arab.
‘It’s challenging but we’re getting better
bit by bit and everyone is trying very hard to
make a good job,’ a second year law student
representing Sudan told me.
The Assistant Director and Director con-
firmed that at the start there were several
difficulties, but now ‘they are doing pretty
well.’
Acknowledging the different levels of
language, the chairs maintained Arab as
their first language in the formal procedural
parts of negotiations, but they don’t penalise
the delegates who slips into English during
their talks.
As scheduled, the European Council
started its negotiations on the response to
the refugee crisis entirely in French.
Entering the room, the delegates looked
at me as if I was an alien: the feeling was
soon mutual.
Overall, they spoke a fluent French,
which was quite easy to follow in the formal
procedures, but much harder in the content
of the discussion over the refugee’s crisis.
On the opposite direction, the Communi-
ty of Latin American and Caribbean States
(CELAC) proposed to shift from Spanish,
the planned language, to English, but the
motionwasrejected.Yet,thedelegatesdidn’t
seem dramatically uncomfortable with the
language: apart from some uncertainties,
they spoke Spanish very well, which is re-
markable considering that for some of them
Spanish might be even their third language.
During the discussion, a delegate com-
plained that the use of word ‘super’ is not
Spanish, the chair answered that it’s inter-
nationally acceptable but reminded the del-
egates to maintain a diplomatic tone in the
talking.
‘It’s extremely interesting experience. I
chose LIMUN because I heard they would
have an Arab-speaking committees. I’m
delegate of Algeria: before the conference, I
didn’t know that much of knowledge on this
country. It was challenging but rewarding,’
said the delegate from Algeria.
Both EC and the CELAC showed a differ-
ent side of the LIMUN: young, polyglot and
grasping on the key issues of global politics.
A2 • INTERNATIONAL NEWS THE LIMUN TIMES • 27 FEBRUARY 2016
NON-ENGLISH SPEAKERS LOLLYWOOD
Simulating in other languages
One journalist’s experiences listening to foreign words
VALERIA VIGILANTE
THE NEW YORK TIMES (NEW YORK, USA)
Model Cosplay?
Delegates role-playing historical drama
KEVIN ROCHE
LONDON, UK
Tweed jackets, tobacco pipes and top hats may no longer be in vogue
but for members of the historical crisis committee these items are quint-
essential to the era they are portraying.
‘We want to change history. We can bribe politicians, we can assassi-
nate each other, we can conduct corporate espionage, and we can work
together… if we want to,’ explains Imad Rizkallah.
Speaking with Imad Rizkallah, a law student from Queen Mary, Uni-
versity of London, he is portraying John Harjes, an American banker
living in France, explained the process of his committee and their focus.
‘The competition is between JP Morgan, Rockefeller, Carnegie and
the American judiciary,’ he said. The historical crisis committee is por-
traying events of the late 19th century.
Sultan Kazi, another member of the crisis committee, talked about
the unfortunate dilemma facing his character, Horace Bartine. ‘I was
impeached after being offered a bribe. I tried to argue my case in front
of the judiciary but they rejected my appeal. Currently I’m in limbo. If I
am impeached then I can no longer continue as my character. I applied
for a job with JP Morgan and Rockefeller. If I don’t receive a new job
then I may have to respawn as a new character.’
Montana Hunter, who is participating in the crisis backroom says,
‘This type of simulation is fantastic. It is similar to military or corporate
simulations that are developed to train people about world relations,
and allows people to practice their negotiation skills. Usually at these
sorts of crises involve military scenarios and this is exciting since it is
non-military crisis and an area not often talked about.
At the time of press, Horace Baltine was since been killed off and has
returned with a new identity as the first worker on the Carnegie board
of directors in history.
• P U B L I S H E D B Y T H E L I M O N E Y E
Valeria Vigilante goes undercover as an investigative jouralist to uncover all the secret
news taking place within the committees that don’t speak English.