By Jenny Chao

(Ed's note: Jenny Chao from Westdale Secondary School, Hamilton, was a delegate in the large UNCHR at Bath, England. Jenny will be attending Georgetown University in Washington, DC next year, majoring in political science.)

Team Niagara at Kingswood

I liked the international aspect of competing in England, meeting so many students from around the world. It was a great experience.

I enjoyed the generous reception of foreign students and the excellent city tour of Bath

I appreciated the guest speakers with their input prior to debate.

There were several items that could be changed:

First, the size of the councils. There was little opportunity for effective debate, and there were frustrations about not being able to speak.

The written resolutions before the conference. I feel that the resolutions should be written through cooperation and involvement of several countries, not by one country with perhaps a narrow point of view and a topic should first be debated, then lobbied and resolved through a resolution.

The number of topics. This was too ambitious, and debate on seven topics in limited time meant that none of them could be debated to the delegates' satisfaction, resulting in the passing of inadequate resolutions. On year-end should work on passing two or three excellent resolutions instead.

The amendments. There was also insufficient time to debate these.

To summarize, smaller committees, less topics, more time and open-ended opportunities to develop resolutions throughout the conference rather than passing them along an assembly line.

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