NEIMUN 2017 Conference kicks off with eye on ‘youth, peace & security’
Morung Express News
Dimapur | December 16
Artificial intelligence, cloning, Fitbit. If you are a young person, these words make sense to you, but your parents, or even the cart puller on the street, may not get it. How do we bridge the growing generational and class gap? Young leaders can play a more dialogic role to act as the bridges required to respond to the questions of our times. Dr. Fr. CP Anto, Director of Peace Channel and Principal of NEISSR, highlighted this while speaking at the Opening Ceremony of the fifth session of the North East India International Model United Nations (NEIMUN) Annual Conference at Don Bosco Institute here today.
Being held under the theme ‘UNSCR 2250 - Youth, Peace & Security,’ the NEIMUN will see delegates from the North East take part in ‘General Assembly’ meetings in order to form model resolutions on various agendas, much like at the United Nations. Young people will acquire skills of consensus building through this process. This year’s agenda include Ensuring Access to Clean Water and Sanitation, Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Empowerment of Rural Women and Rights and Protections for Refugees Fleeing Conflict.
It may be noted that United Nations Security Council Resolution 2250 was passed in December 2015, recognizing the importance of the youth in maintaining peace and security.
Maintaining that young people can bring great change, Fr. Anto encouraged the young MLAs of Nagaland State to stand together and choose to make a difference.
He acknowledged how conferences like NEIMUN can help young people study the “thesis and anti thesis” of a situation, “promote dialogue” to understand and analyze it before emerging with a “synthesis”—a solution—to settle disputes.
As peace is a pre requisite for development and security, Fr. Anto called for a Ministry of Peace in the Government of Nagaland in order to promote peace education.
This need seemed evident as NEIMUN Secretary General, Dennis Lallienzuol, noted in his welcome speech that while the youth are the most important stakeholders in society today, without empowering them, change will not translate into action.
NEIMUN is a platform, he said, for the youth of the region to “bond beyond borders” but also to enable the transition out of living in constant fear by developing holistic skills to bring the change young people dream of.
In the next 5 years thus, informed Limabenla Jamir, founder of NEIMUN, the focus of the institution will be to look at issues related to the theme ‘youth, peace and security.’ The exercise, she hoped, will also help the government make deliberate policies in this regard.
This was acknowledged by keynote speaker, Merentoshi R Jamir, Parliamentary Secretary for Social Welfare, Government of Nagaland. Observing that there are six young legislators in the Nagaland Legislative Assembly today, he hoped that more young leaders will emerge in the next election to happen in the State “in the next 1-2 months.”
Asking the youth to give constructive criticism to the government instead of “criticizing the government without any suggestions,” Jamir emphasized that the youth must bring forward ideas by keeping dialogue as the core value towards formulating solutions.
He encouraged the participants of NEIMUN to come up with action oriented plans to work towards change. “Let us stop being silent and raise our voice,” he said, also urging young people to start talking about violence against women and children, much of which has come to his notice while working with the Social Welfare department.
Jamir also stressed that “young people must demand final settlement of the Naga issue.”
In order to chisel the skills of young people to speak and dialogue on these issues, NEIMUN participants this year will be trained by Gadi Dreyfuss, a student of Geography and Urban Planning at the University of Florida, and Under Secretary-General, World Federation of United Nations Association MUN.
While speaking at the Opening Ceremony today, Dreyfuss stated that the consensus building and decision making skills acquired by the participants at NEIMUN will provide a framework for finding solutions in varied ways through which the participants may choose to work with their communities in the future.
The 5th NEIMUN Annual Conference is being held in Dimapur from December 15 to 18.
.JPG)
