UNEP: Unanimously Naive Electric Penguins

Hello Delegates!

So we've got the introductions aside - always the hardest part. I'd like to take this post to just go over some basics. For those of you who are HSMUN veterans, this should all be old stuff. For the rest of you, this might help you avoid complete and total confusion. So here goes:

For the duration of HSMUN, you shall be representing a country in the United Nations. This means that you do your best to put personal views aside and represent your country's prespectives and interests. There are two topics the UNEP committee will be discussing: 1) The Question of Environemtnal Accountability for Resource Extraction; and 2) The Question of Standardization of the 'Organic' food label.

Your goal between now and conference time is to research the topics and find our your country's perspective. We will be helping you guys out by posting on the blog and putting up background papers, which should have much of the information you're looking for.

Let me give you a quick example (a fairly obious one). Pretend you are the delegate representing Saudi Arabia, and we are discussing the first topic. It would be your job to stand up for the interests of oil extraction. Although Saudi Arabia does recognize the need for controlling environmental damage during the extraction process, this is not something they'd like the UN to meddle in. As far as you are concerned, Saudi Arabia will figure out its own policies.

Honestly, when it comes down to it, HSMUN is about having fun. So don't worry about doing loads and loads of research, and if you're having trouble, feel free to email us at hsmun.unep@gmail.com. Cheers for now!

Alan