This speech was delivered at the opening ceremony of the 25th Bath International Schools' Model United Nations Conference that took place at Kingswood School on the weekend of 6 – 8 March 2015.
Introduction
Thank you, Madam Secretary-General, for your challenging opening remarks. Ambassadors and High Commissioners, it’s a pleasure to be with you to mark the opening session of this meeting of the United Nations.
Honourable Delegates, in this pre-session address, I would like to take 10 minutes to do three things: Explore the world today and the role of the UN; discuss the urgent need for truly global citizens and finally, offer some advice on your meeting this weekend.
The world today
To begin, then, on the wider context. Ambassadors I humbly suggest to you that the problems the world faces today are problems without passports: rising sea levels do not wait in line at immigration; Ebola does not respect checkpoints and terrorists are not scared of flying.
But as well as sharing problems, we also share in the world’s prosperity: when we trade with other countries, we create jobs and livelihoods, lifting people out of poverty; when we share our knowledge we find cures for diseases, saving millions of lives and when we work together, we build machines that could take us to Mars.
A better world benefits us all. Not only the refugee, desperately in need of food and shelter, but, actually, the employee of a Bristol factory that needs other countries to buy its aeroplanes. Or the homeowner on the Somerset levels where climate change increases flooding.
Our response then, is as obvious as it is simple. We must strive towards a safer, fairer and more sustainable world
together.
But what does this look like in practice? Well… the United Nations. 193 countries meeting as one, aspiring to put aside narrow national self-interest for long-term interests of the whole globe...
- In a world where individual countries are mistrusted because of historic or political tensions, no other global organisation carries more legitimacy to intervene.
- In a world where charities and NGOs lobby on single causes, no other global organisation deals with more issues, using joined-up solutions for joined-up problems.
- In a world where country coalitions can be exclusive clubs, only one global organisation has more members… FIFA.
Of course, Ambassadors, you’re not naive enough to just swallow that whole. You will know from your preparation that when 193 countries meet with 193 different agendas, things can get messy. The UN is most definitely not perfect but do consider for a moment what it has achieved. It has:
- Halved the number of people living in extreme poverty
- Protected the ozone layer
- Wiped out polio and smallpox
- Cleared landmines
- Provided safe drinking water for over a billion people
- Prosecuted war criminals
It’s not just about the headline-grabbing stuff. Every day, the UN ensures that:
- Our international postal system works; a letter sent from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe will reach its destination (Universal Postal Union)
- Historic and significant monuments across the world are protected (UNESCO)
- Aeroplanes, ships and even satellites don’t bump into each other (IMO and International Civil Aviation Organisation)
Need for global citizens
Your Excellencies, we are all living in extraordinary times. If I wasn’t speaking to diplomats right now, if I was speaking to young people growing up in the UK, what would I say?
Firstly, I’d warn them of a deep shift happening here, in our own domestic politics. It’s a shift that that says that, as a country, it’s better to go it alone, and not work with others. It's a shift that says it's to better have a foreign policy that asks what we can get from the world, instead of how we can contribute. It's a shift that says it’s better to be a nationalist rather than an internationalist
If you have experienced this in your own countries then you will know that these ideas shouldn’t be dismissed as simply silly because in actual fact, they’re seductive and dangerous; they appeal to our most powerful basic instincts of tribal identity.
My role at UNA-UK is to connect this country’s citizens with the work and values of the UN. We think it’s important that people, young and old, understand how its work benefits us all, overseas and at home. It’s why I’m here this evening and it’s why I will take such an interest in the motions you produce this weekend.
We engage young people in two ways: by equipping their teachers with resources and opportunities to meet each other to discuss the best ways to teach global issues.
and by involving them directly through projects like our 1 for 7 Billion campaign to reform the way the next Secretary-General is selected - 1 job appointment that will affect 7 billion lives.
No one person gets to decide Britain’s character on the world stage, but we want to give everyone the chance to help. So, on global issues, challenge your leaders! Make your views known and hold them to account!
Advice for this MUN
So then, what kind of United Nations will you create at Kingswood School this weekend?
Ambassadors, the topics that you will discuss are breathtakingly ambitious and breathtakingly diverse. Ukraine; nuclear weapons; the Arms Trade Treaty; international debt… These are no different to the issues discussed at the UN in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi.
I don’t doubt you will have prepared well by, swotting up on your country’s own politics and its foreign relations, working out what you wish to take back to your government from this meeting and what you’re willing to compromise on.
Any advice I give now will be icing on the cake. But I will suggest the following: a good model UN, indeed a good UN, is about a fine balance. A fine balance of idealism, seriousness and ...niceness.
So… Be idealistic, but not too idealistic
Your decisions this weekend will, sadly, be decisions of life and death for many around the globe. It will be tempting to double your aid budgets, ban the arms trade outright and make medicine freely available to all.
But remember, you will have to explain these decisions to your home government. The same governments that may have tight spending limits that affect your aid budget and whose populations depend on the manufacture of arms and pharmaceuticals for jobs.
So… be serious, but not too serious
Just because you have to answer to your own government doesn’t mean you have to get stubborn and stuck in a rut.
It’s for you as ambassadors to carefully consider where your national interest coincides with the interests of a safe, fair and sustainable world. Be creative, think about your bargaining chips, look around for other countries that share your goals.
Finally... be nice!
People like making deals with people that they like. Whether you’re the behemoth that is the USA or the tiny Federated States of Micronesia, you’ll soon find yourself pivotal to discussions if people think you’re the kind of person that they can do business with.
Honourable delegates, I wish you the very best of luck as you tackle some of the most complex challenges the world faces. Thank you for taking the time to listen to me. I look forward to reading the outcomes of your of your discussions.
