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News & Events
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2004 Model UN Conference:
Reaching Towards United Nations' Millennium Development Goals
 2004 Model United Nations Conference: Reaching Towards United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. On April 15-17, 2004 American Councils for International Education in collaboration with Peace Corps - Moldova hosted the 4th annual Model UN in Chisinau. Moldova co-sponsored by United Nations in Moldova and American Councils for International Education ACTR/ACCELS. The Model UN for 2004 was focused on furthering youth's knowledge of the United Nations' structure, increasing comprehension of national interests, geography, other cultures and values, and international legal and financial systems through debate on many of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The conference structure attempted to mirror the United Nations. Twenty-nine country teams comprised of approximately 90 youth that came together to debate and resolve 6 different issues that are currently debated in the United Nations agenda. The majority of students came from small towns and villages of Moldova and represented various ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
 RESULTS: Some of the Millennium Development Goals, that have been discussed in subcommittee meetings were: combating HIV/AIDS, environmental sustainability, children in armed conflicts, eradication of global poverty, in addition to highly relevant regional issues such as terrorism, and illegal workers/trafficking. Students debated the Millennium Development Goals and other current issues and created resolutions to help solve these very important issues facing today's world. Debating these issues from the perspective of different countries assisted in improving participants' research skills, develop critical thinking abilities, and increased comprehension of social change through democratic institutions to become conscientious citizens.
 During the first day, partipants attended a general assembly. The general assembly, gave leaders from the U.S Peace Corps, American Councils, & UN Moldova a chance to speak to the participants. The representatives of these organizations spoke about what the participant's role is in Moldova and the world. The first day also included a "country fair." The country fair let the partipants of the representing countries, express their country's unique cultural and ethnic heritage. Each country displayed their national flag, and presented things such as: traditional costumes, music, dance, and food. The participants learned a great deal about other representing country's and how diverse the world really is. On the first day, the participants met in their appropriate subcommittees and learned how they would address their countries issues and create a resolution for the remaining of the conference. The end of the first day was concluded with a showing of the movie "Lilia 4 Ever" and a discussion about the movie.
 On the second day, participants reported to their subcommittees and began the long and difficult task of debating. Each, subcommittee tackled the issue's such as: global poverty, HIV/AIDS, children in armed conflicts, environmental & industrial pollution, terrorism, and human trafficking. In each subcommittee, a specially trained judge and facilitator were present. The judge and facilitator helped to monitor speaking orders of countries, provide translation, and encouraged active participation and development from ail representing countries. At times, these debates provided heated discussion and required the representing countries to look at the "big picture" which created cooperation and flexibility. After much debating and discussion, the day concluded with subcommittee's thinking of the resolutions to be made the following day. The night of the second day, concluded with a party to let participants relax and have fun.
 The third day had the participants start by meeting in their subcommittees to draft resolutions. The final draft was finally put to a vote and resolutions were then put in writing. Resolutions were written in both the Moldovan and Russian languages on flip chart paper to be displayed at the conclusion of the conference. The final event of the conference was an awards ceremony. During the awards ceremony, representatives from each subcommittee proudly presented the resolutions that were agreed upon. All the participants witnessed what each subcommittee worked very hard on and applauded this work. The grand finale was a presenting of the awards. Awards were given for individual participants in subcommittees, country representation in the country fair and a special judges/facilitator awards for countries in every subcommittee. The participants were thanked for their participation and returned to their homes. Students that participated have sent countless praises and congratuiatories of how wonderful the conference meant to them. All participants involved expressed a strong interest that Model United Nations will continue to be a conference for future years.
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