this was my introduction letter for my bruinmun committee
Esteemed advisors and delegates,
I would like to welcome to you to BruinMUN 2013. My name is Adrienne, and I will be your committee chair. I am incredibly honored to serve you in this capacity, and I am sure that all of you are just as excited as I am for this conference. To introduce myself briefly: I am currently a second year majoring in Political Science with a minor in Classical Civilization. I was born in the small island of Taiwan before moving to cloudy San Francisco at a very young age. I thoroughly enjoyed MUN during my latter two years of high school, so much that I was resolved to join MUN@UCLA my first year at university. This will be my fourth year of MUN. I serve MUN@UCLA as the Social Media Manager as well as a member of our Training Staff. As our Social Media Manager, I highly encourage all of you to follow our club accounts on Facebook (facebook.com/bruinmun), Twitter (twitter.com/munatucla), and Tumblr (munatucla.tumblr.com).
At the end of my first year, former Secretary-General Kofi Annan delivered a lecture at Royce Hall. One of his main points was on global progress: “You cannot have peace, security, and development without human rights.” Some consider human rights to simply be words on a paper, ratified by the vast majority of the world’s nations. How else are we to consider a world in which gross human rights violations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights coexist? However, others believe they are the ideas of humanity about basic dignity that transcend pieces of paper. Ensuring that states honor those fundamentals is the work of the United Nations Human Rights Council (henceforth abbreviated as HRC). I hope this weekend you take Secretary-General Annan’s words to heart as you do your research and debate on topics of vital importance for both the present and posterity.
Lastly, I want to reassure you that no matter how daunting research and public speaking may seem, it really is meant to be fun. It is also about learning to be a good global citizen, not to say that they are mutually exclusive. We learn about the challenges others face in their rights to live peaceably, speak freely, and love openly. We come up with solutions that balance these rights with cultural sensitivity and national sovereignty, because a nation’s peoples also have the right to determine what laws will apply to them. It is by no means easy, but it is the right thing to do. To quote Headmaster Albus Dumbledore: “We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.” It may seem odd to quote a childhood story in the face of an extremely complicated problem. However, I believe that we read books like Harry Potter while we are young because they are simple words that stay with us as we age. When we are older, for all of the complications that reality offers, we know not to shy away from challenges just because they are difficult. This weekend will be a learning experience, both for all of you as well as my dais and me. It will also be challenging, and you will learn diplomacy and compromise alongside parliamentary procedure. I welcome you to the Novice UNHRC committee.
Best regards,
Adrienne Novice UNHRC, Chair
