The United Nations Association of the Dominican Republic will organize Model OAS

President Leonel Fernandez and OAS Secretary General, Jose Miguel Insulza, signed an agreement of cooperation to conduct the XXIII model of the OAS General Assembly with universities and colleges.

The agreement of cooperation was also signed by Natasha Despotovic as Executive Director of Global Foundation for
Democracy and Development (GFDD) and Pilar Sandoval, Executive Director of the United Nations Association of the Dominican Republic, which will be responsible for the organization of the event, in association with the State Secretary for Higher Education, Science and Technology, SEESCyT for its acronym in Spanish, and Fundacion Global Democracia y Desarrollo, FUNGLODE, and GFDD. The process will be closely coordinated by the OAS country office.

This agreement will facilitate the creation of the Model XXIII Assembly General of the Organization of American States for the first time in the Dominican Republic . It will take place March 5-10, 2006 and will simulate the operation, discussion, negotiations and process of the OAS’ General Assembly. It will involve several thousand university and college students from Latin America, the U.S. , Canada , and the Dominican Republic . The students will get acquainted and
develop a good degree of proficiency with the OAS role in the international arena, its institutional mandate, rules and regulations, and its member countries position on contemporary international issues. They will be exposed to the process of proposing resolutions, addressing regional conflicts, peacekeeping, human rights, women and children, economic and social development, the environment.

The different governing bodies of the OAS will be represented at this Model OAS, as well as its five commissions in the fields of General and Plenary Commission, Legal Department, Economic and Social Issues, Education, Science and Culture, and Budget and Administrative Commission.

With this new initiative, the UN Association of the Dominican Republic will replicate and
expand its previous successful experience as facilitators of the Model UN, which has contributed to a better understanding by Dominican students of international issues, conflict negotiation and procedures and the use of existing mechanisms to achieve consensus and resolution while protecting national interests.