Welcome to Bentley Model UN!
The Bentley Model United Nations Program is a group of students interested in international affairs who research topics concerning the UN and then put this knowledge to use by hosting two conferences for High School and Middle School students.
Every January, the secretariat of our conference spends one week at the United Nations in New York. During this week, our members are briefed by members of the UN secretariat, permanent representatives to the United Nations, as well as by other groups who figure prominently into the affairs of the United Nations.
Written by admin on 09 August 2010
A recent research paper from the Council on Foreign Relations might be the latest to suggest the messy Copenhagen climate talks last year were a wake-up call showing that progress on greenhouse gas emissions signifies seeking outside the United Nations’ mega-summit model.
CFR’s Joshua Busby writes that whilst the U.N. will stay essential, an alphabet soup of other global institutions will have key roles to play inside the aftermath with the U.N.’s Copenhagen talks last December, which produced a weak and nonbinding accord.
Copenhagen “showed that global conferences (with hundreds of governments and thousands of observers) focused on elaborating global treaties aren’t conducive to substantive breakthroughs,” writes Busby, an assistant professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs on the University of Texas at Austin.
“Moving forward, countries have to diversify the organizations and instruments they use to pursue useful climate governance. In short, environment alter requires complementary action in smaller negotiating venues; parallel domestic efforts; plus a wider range of formal and informal, bilateral and multilateral, institutions,” he writes.
Among the places where the action will likely be: the Main Economies Forum (which links up big emitters which include the U.S. and China), the G20, the World Trade Organization and others.
“The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Adjust will remain a essential policy hub, but from the coming months and years, other establishments and processes will also have an opportunity to show their worth. The Significant Economies Forum may well helpfully lead on methods for sectoral emissions reductions, the G20 on the removal of energy subsidies, the G2 on U.S.-China technology agreements, the WTO or the OECD on trade adjustment, and new issue-specific organizations on forests and other topics,” he writes.
“While this new landscape might look additional confusing at 1st, the vigorous competition of many organizations for progress on climate adjust offers a productive way forward over the debilitating stalemate of recent many years,” he adds.
Various other experts — such as Robert Stavins of Harvard and Sarah Ladislaw with the Center for Strategic and Worldwide Studies — have also looked in the role of international bodies outside the U.N. in climate negotiations.
Source: The Hill
Written by admin on 08 August 2010
The United Nations has decided to recognise the Mahatma Gandhi Tanta Mukti Gaon Mohim (Dispute-free Village Program) of the Maharashtra federal government. The plan was released as a way to get rid of modest disputes inside village and thus bring about harmony. It was also seen becoming a measure to reduce the work stress on policemen.
Pune Rural SP Pratap Dighavkar will present the design for the U.N. at their New York headquarters on August 11.
Speaking to journalists here, he says that he was really happy to become representing India at the global amount. “The credit goes for the local police officers and constables. I am just representing them,” he mentioned. The presentation are going being given towards the officials in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the U.N. General Assembly and also the Security Council.
The Maharashtra product is likely being replicated in other developing countries, where logistics and infrastructure from the judicial machinery were weak, Mr. Dighavkar says. He will also invest time with social scientists, reformers and peace makers in several universities and share the product and his experiences with them.
Speaking on the achievements in the program, he cited figures in Pune district exactly where 790 out of 1,134 villages have become ‘dispute-free’ within the last two and a half many years and hence the district received Rs. 19,31,000,00 ($4.4 million), as the prize cash from the State govt. Since October 2009, 36,294 conflicts in the village-level have been resolved and now, 28,084 instances have been awaiting resolution, he mentioned.
Mr. Dighavkar says the program helped the government save Rs. 20 crore and also 15 tonnes of paper. The federal government did not must commit a single rupee for the implementation in the system.
In April 2010, Khairlanji was recognised by the scheme like a dispute-free village. The award as well as the money came towards the village 3 many years soon after four from a loved ones of Dalits were brutally massacred there. The case will now be heard inside the Supreme Court after the death sentence of six of the accused was commuted to life term. Calling Khairlanji dispute-free, some would argue, was an irony. The committee members of the village defended themselves saying that murder, like a cognizable offence, was out in the ambit of the plan and therefore, the committee could not do anything about it.
Mr. Dighavkar refused to comment on Khairlanji and explained he would do exactly the same if the question came up inside the U.N. presentation.
“I can’t say anything about a matter that is certainly within the courts. But I agree, at times political and communal biases may well play a role on the village degree.”
Khairlanji was not the only village facing such difficulties over the plan being implemented from the State since 2007, when Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Household Minster R.R. Patil released it.
Gender difficulties surrounding the structure came to light when Kiran Moghe, State president of the All India Women’s Democratic Association (AIDWA) studied its implementation in Pune district in association with the Department of Women’s Studies, University of Pune.
“In Pune, you can find not several sharp distinctions in caste. But you will discover critical gender complications. In a society that is mostly male-dominated, it can be currently challenging for ladies, specifically in the rural areas, to express themselves. To add to it, the committee members are in most circumstances, men. This puts additional stress on the ladies and cases of domestic violence are covered up,” she said.
