“The UN is an Opportunity to Serve the General Public” States the Director of the UN Alliance of Civilizations During the Closing Ceremony of NYDRMUN 2016

The Dominican Republic Model United Nations Conference Closes at the United Nations General Assembly Hall before 400 delegates

The Dominican Republic Model United Nations Conference (NYDRMUN) 2016, a conference organized by the United Nations Association of the Dominican Republic (UNA-DR) with support from Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) and Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) came to a close today
on Wednesday March 30. The Closing Ceremony took place, before more than 400 model UN delegates from middle schools across the Dominican Republic, in the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations (UN).

The four-day conference, which started on Sunday March 27, provided the participating youth with an opportunity to take part in simulations of the work of the United Nations and to discuss diverse and pressing international issues. The sessions enabled the participants to
research, negotiate and vote on draft project resolutions on behalf of the official representatives of the 193 Member States of the United Nations. In parallel to this, GFDD/Funglode hosted a program for the 50 Dominicans teachers accompanying the young students during the conference. Topics included the use of technology in the classroom, debating as an educational tool and the impact of neuroscience research on the way we learnwere addressed during the sessions.

The ceremony was presided over by a table of honor made up of Emil Chireno, Executive Director of the UN Association of the Dominican Republic (ANU-RD by its Spanish acronym), Claudia Taboada, General Projects Manager of ANU-RD, Emmanuel Goico, Secretary General of NYDRMUN 2016 and Jose Torres, Under Secretary General of Conference Management for ANU-RD.

Mario Baez, Chief of Policy and Oversight Coordination Service at United Nations Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC) gave the opening remarks at the ceremony. Mr. Baez focused his remarks on the importance of the new economy and the need to focus on education in order to answer the need for innovation in the 21st century and transition to a more sustainable world.

Matthew Hodes, UN Alliance of Civilizations. He gave a statement about the importance of the work of the UN and the future of the young delegates. He explained that the
young delegates had a responsibility to shape their future by applying themselves to the work they had done within the UN. He saw this work as an opportunity to decide which career path to take, be it within government or civil society and to serve the greater good. Reflecting on his own career path, working for the UN and the sacrifices required of UN staff, Hodes invited the young delegates to consider the opportunity and challenges of taking on a profession within the UN and wished them
luck in their future careers.

Ambassador José Blanco of the Permanent Mission of the Dominican Republic to the UN reflected on some key issues encountered in multilateral and bilateral diplomacy work of the 21st century. He listed issues such as climate change, the need for sustainable development and the value of science as key agenda items of this work. In doing so, Ambassador Blanco emphasized the important role of education in achieving these objectives.

Following these introductory statements and before a quorum of delegations of UN Member States, the delegates voted on the key resolutions of the General Assembly. The resolutions, which focused on a wide variety of topics such as education and human rights in the Post 2015 Agenda, were adopted by a large majority of votes from delegates.

Emil Chireno of ANU-RD, joined by Paul Goris, in charge of education and technology in education at Funglode, and Marc
Jourdan, GFDD’s UN Programs & Outreach Manager, next distributed a prize to Luz Andujar and Ambassador José Blanco of the Permanent Mission of the Dominican Republic to the UN, to thank them for their assistance in helping to coordinate the conference.

A series of prizes were also distributed to the leading delegates from each commission of the conference, who were recognized for their oratory skills and for assisting each commission of work in reaching
their policy objectives. In turn, the schools participating in NYDRMUN 2015 were also recognized for their contributions to the conference.

Emil Chireno finally took to the podium to impart some concluding words stressing that the delegates were the key components of the conference, driving the policy discussions. Thanking the supporting organizations that made the conference possible, Chireno made a point of thanking the volunteers who oversaw the negotiations and
ensured a successful completion of the agenda before handing over the floor to Emmanuel Goico who confirmed the closure of NYDRMUN 2016 in his capacity as Secretary General.

For more information about NYDRMUN 2016, please click here.

Related links:
www.globalfoundationdd.org
www.unadr.org.do