ThessISMUN Daily News Issue 1

GENERAL ASSEMBLY!

The day continued with the official opening of ThessIS-MUN 2012! The first speech was given by the Secretary General, Mr. Giorgos Go-niadis. Mr. Goniadis re-minded us of the unique role the United Nations has to play in today’s fragile world.

Cont. page 6

The opening speech of 11th ThessISMUN 2012 was given by the heart and soul of ThessISMUN Professor Paroula Naskou – Perraki. Dr. Naskou – Perraki, after the necessary salutations to the honourable guests of this years’ MUN, among them the Consul General of Cy-prus, the Consuls of United States of America and Russia

Cont. page 3

Since he discovered ThessIS-MUN he is always on our site! : these where the words Professor Naskou - Perraki used to introduce to the audi-ence Mr.Dimitrios Fatouros, the Information Officer for Greece and Cyprus at the United Nations Regional In-formation Centre (UNRIC). Mr. Fatouros has been a close associate of ThessISMUN…

Cont. page 4

THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL STUDENT MODEL UNITED NATIONS 2012

THURSDAY, APRIL 19TH 2012—11TH YEAR—#1 UNIVERSITY OF MACEDONIA

THESSISMUN DAILY NEWS

OPENING REMARKS MR. FATOUROS SPEECH

those who have partici-pated before –and they t h i n k they know- ThessIS is here to surprise you again! Indulge yourself in halllara: the essence of Thessaloniki, its core value and philosophy, impossible to translate it in English (ask a Greek friend to ex-plain); sit back, relax and enjoy life. Yes, you’re a true Thessalo-nian, A TRUE ThessIS-MUNER!!! Dear friends, have fun! Love, Vangelis

Honourable MUNers, welcome! In the 11th year of ThessISMUN, the Daily News is here to cover the party! New friends, social events, heated debates are all here, promising sleep-less nights and unfor-gettable moments… For those who join the party for the first time, cheers buddies!! As long as you’re able to stand on your feet in the daily roll-call, no worries… Don’t forget to speak up, it’s time for you -yes, YOU!- to take the floor and make your voice heard! For

EDITORIAL

PAGE 2 THESSISMUN DAILY NEWS

THE OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF

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Editor Vangelis Oikonomidis

Co-Editor Olga Siokou-Siova

Journalists

THESSISMUN DAILY NEWS

UN NEWS • Ban voices concern over arrests of

public officials in Mali

• UN food agency warns of looming health threats in Europe and Central Asia

• Assembly chief urges scientific ap-proaches to sustainable development

• Human rights must be integrated into sustainable development, UN official stresses

• UN envoy condemns eviction of Pal-estinian families from East Jerusalem homes

• Head of UN peacekeeping discusses cooperation with senior official of West African bloc

• UN disaster reduction office launches initiative to help cities manage risk

STATUS UPDATE

Christos Droutsas Eirini Eminidou Nazli Gurkas “Stanca Morta” Thomas Karagiozopoulos “Licht, mehr Licht!” Crysanthos Koseloglou “ I feel like a mute” Varvara Mesoropian Ivi Psalti “You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have!” Vasileios Sazaklidis Eleni Trikergioti “Let the games begin!”

Photographers Irene-Margarita Tzemopoulou “Ti voglio bene assai!” Fotis Telloglou “You pose, I’ll shoot...”

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.com/thessismun2012

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The opening speech of 11th ThessISMUN 2012 was given by the heart and soul of ThessIS-M U N P r o f e s s o r Paroula Naskou – Per-raki. Dr. Naskou – Per-raki, after the necessary salutations to the hon-ourable guests of this years’ MUN, among them the Consul Gen-eral of Cyprus, the Consuls of United States of America and Russia and the Counsel of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she welcomed the delegates and ex-pressed her excitement on the fact that every year the number of participants is growing along with the number of foreign students

from Universit ies around the world join-ing the ThessISMUN family. This year we have students from Serbia, Italy, Germany, Turkey, United King-dom, Romania, Bul-garia and Egypt! Dr. Perrak i spec ia l ly thanked our Rector, Prof. Chatzidimitriou for his support and she also expressed her deep gratitude to all the members of the staff and the members of the Board for all the time and hard work they put into this years’ organization and she mentioned that “without them there would be no ThessIS-MUN”. Dr. Perraki

concluded her speech by reminding to the delegates the goals of ThessISMUN and she instructed them to act like diplomats, reach to solutions, don’t forget to be in conformity with the policy of their appointed country and last but not least to FLIRT & FALL IN LOVE during the social events! ;)

Dr. Chatzidimitriou, Professor, Rector of the University of Mace-donia, also welcomed this year’s delegates by expressing his great satisfaction for the fact that every year, more and more undergradu-ate and graduate stu-dents, not only from Greek Universities but especially from Uni-versities around the world, are participat-ing in ThessISMUN. He also expressed his

gratitude to Professor Naskou – Perraki form being the “soul of this successful organiza-tion since 2002”. Pro-fessor Chatzidimitriou mentioned that partici-pating in institutions like ThessISMUN isn’t just a unique experi-ence that contributes to the understanding of the way interna-tional organizations function and act; it is also a great opportu-nity to bring together

students from all over the world and get them to talk about im-portant contemporary issues concerning In-ternational Affairs. Dr. Chatzidimitriou ended his speech by remind-ing the delegates that they should seize this opportunity to get to know Thessaloniki, socialize and have fun and he invited all of us to be back next year!

OPENING REMARKS

DR. YANNIS CHATZIDIMITRIOU, PROFESSOR, RECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MACEDONIA

PROFESSOR PAROULA NASKOU – PERRAKI WHOLEHEARTEDLY EXPRESSED HER PROFOUND APPRECIATION TO THE

MARTINOS’ FAMILY FOR THEIR INVALUABLE AND CONSTANT SUPPORT TO THESSISMUN

ALL THESE YEARS.

PAGE 3 UNIVERSITY OF MACEDONIA

DR. PAROULA NASKOU PERRAKI, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MACEDONIA, CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICER FOR THESSISMUN

“Since he discovered ThessISMUN he is al-ways on our site!” these where the words Pro-fessor Naskou - Perraki used to introduce to the audience Mr.Dimitrios Fatouros, the Informa-tion Officer for Greece and Cyprus at the United Nations Re-gional Information Cen-tre (UNRIC). Mr. Fa-touros has been a close associate of ThessIS-MUN, a “veteran par-ticipant” as he de-scribed himself. During his speech he expressed his gratitude to the delegates who partici-pate at the ThessIS-MUN, and he high-lighted that despite all

the financial difficul-ties, the anger and the disappointment that lies on their hearts, young people haven’t lost their faith to the United Nations and that the United Nations will stand by them through these difficult times. As an optimistic message to the dele-gates he expressed his hope and faith that the current crisis will bring a new beginning and will open the road for the creation of a more stable and united inter-national community. He also referred to the purpose of the founda-tion of the United Na-tions in 1945 and the

fact that the creation of the organization was a result of the need of an institution to protect and help peoples in need during a major crisis. Mr. Fatouros re-minded us that ThessISMUN is not a game (!) and all of us should see it as a very professional exercise for our future careers! He ended his speech by mentioning that one of the five main priorities of the UN is the coop-eration with and for the young people “United Nations counts on you and you should count on the UN!”

After the welcoming remarks by Professor Rector Dr. Chatzidimit-riou, Dr. Naskou – Per-raki invited to the floor Dr. Kostas Chatzikon-stantinou, Professor of Law at the Aristotle University of Thessalo-niki and President of the Hellenic Society of International Law and International Relations. Dr. Chatzikonstantinou introduced Dr. Kalliopi Koufa, Emeritus Pro-fessor of the Aristotle University of Thessalo-

niki and also the per-son of honour of ThessISMUN 2012. In his address he referred to Dr. Koufa’s remark-able academic and pro-fessional career in the field of International Public Law and Hu-man Rights as well as her significant contri-bution to the field.

MR. DIMITRIOS FATOUROS, INFORMATION OFFICER FOR GREECE AND CYPRUS, UNITED NATIONS REGIONAL INFORMATION CENTRE, BRUSSELS

DR. KOSTAS CHATZIKONSTANTINOU, PROFESSOR, ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI, PRESIDENT OF THE HELLENIC SOCIETY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

“UNITED NATIONS

COUNTS ON YOU AND YOU

SHOULD COUNT ON THE UNITRD

NATIONS!”

MR. FATOUROS


Dr. Kostas Chatzikonstantinou addressing the General Assembly

After a very warm in-troduction from Profes-sor Chatzikonstantinou and Professor Naskou – Perraki and a fervent applause from the au-dience, Dr. Kalliopi Koufa, the person of honor of the 11th ThessISMUN took the floor. Dr. Koufa took her turn to thank and congratulate Professor Perraki for being “the driven force behind every ThessISMUN for the past eleven years and for having the strength and the cour-age to make every or-

ganization a success even during these years.” Dr. Koufa dedi-cated her main address to the objectives and accomplishments of the United Nations and she highlighted that “there is no organiza-tion in the world that embodies and delivers so many different ideas and promotes love and friendship between peoples other than the United Nations”. She also mentioned that UN can never be a global government and that its actions may be

incomplete and imper-manent but it is a very important instrument of global governance. Furthermore, Dr . Koufa, gave a detailed description of the role

of the Security Council throughout its years of existence by narrating important events that contributed to the shaping of its nature.

PERSON OF HONOR—11TH THESSISMUN

Dr. Kalliopi K. Koufa, to whom ThessISMUN 2012 is dedicated to, is Emerita Professor of Law of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Born in our city, she pursued her education in London and Geneva. Her immense career in the field of law combines theoretical and academic work with practice in Greece and in international organizations. She was elected in 1994 as an independent expert by the UN Commission of Human Rights, to the former UN Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, which later took the name of UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. She served in this UN Sub-Commission until 2006, in various capacities, including as the Special Rapporteur on the most intricate issue of “Terrorism and Human Rights”. Moreover, Professor Koufa participated in the direction of two important educational institutions of Greece, namely the Institute for Balkan Studies and the Institute of International Public Law and International Relations of Thessaloniki. Currently, she is

a member of the Council of Europe’s “European Commission for Democracy through Law” (also known as “The Venice Commission”, in which she is representing Greece), President of the Hellenic Inter-ministerial Committee for the Implementation and Dissemination of International Humanitarian Law, and a titular member for life of the Bar Association of Thessaloniki.


DR. KALLIOPI KOUFA, EMERITA PROFESSOR, ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI

The day continued with the official opening of ThessISMUN 2012! The first speech was given by the Secretary Gen-eral, Mr. Giorgos Go-niadis. Mr. Goniadis reminded us of the unique role the United Nations has to play in today’s fragile world. He emphasized that despite the diverse ori-gins of the assembly members, “in this hall we are all equal”. He concluded by asking the participants to co-operate in delibera-tions, to find answers to the issues at stake, bringing their thesis to the world!

After a small break, it

was the turn of the President of the Gen-eral Assembly, Mr. Stavros Michalopoulos, to greet this year’s par-ticipants. Having intro-ducing the Deputy Sec-retaries General, Mr. Arzinos and Mr. Pep-pas, and the Special Advisor to the Secre-tary General, Ms. Nomikou, he finally gave the speech to the Ambassadors. Time for the General Assembly to express the nations’ voices!

The session contained remarks to the current global issues, with the Europeans paying at-tention to the economic crisis, while African

nations stressed out poverty, war and hu-man rights. Major clashes erupted as re-gards major interna-tional disputes, with a hurricane of rights of reply among great con-testers. Excerpts:

Pakistan vs. USA & Syria: no to imperial-

ism, no to dictatorship!

UK vs. Syria: foreign affairs, or family af-fairs?

Syria vs. USA: “There will be blood”

Pakistan vs. Canada: comparing nuclear am-bitions with CO2 emis-sions

During the Opening Assem-bly, a major event was an-nounced: Greek university students cooperating with one another! Secretaries General of ThessISMUN, Rhodes Model Regional Co-operation, European Parlia-ment Simulation and Cor-inth Model of Arab League signed an agreement of mu-tual support and assistance, while respecting the distinct character of each Model. Hooray for the initiative!!

OPENING CEREMONY: THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

COOPERATION BETWEEN GREEK UNIVERSITIES! !!AN EXAMPLE FOR EVERYONE!!


“There will be blood...”

It was a dynamic first day, yesterday, for the 1st Committee of the GA, with the chair urg-ing the delegates to be “active listeners” while they listen to Miltiadis Sarigiannidis, a lecturer in International Public Law at the Law Depart-ment of the Aristotle University of Thessalo-niki. Mr. Sarigiannidis, briefly introduced the delegates to the Com-mittee’s two topic ar-eas, “Disarmament, De-m o b i l i z a t i o n a n d Demining: Prerequi-sites for Peace and De-velopment in Africa” and “Nuclear Arms

race in the Middle East and South Asia”. In re-lation to the first topic, he highlighted the in-terconnection between peace, development, social justice and hu-man security, pointing out the problems of minefields and unem-ployment for Africa, among others. In the second part of his speech, Mr. Sarigianni-dis engaged extensively with the delegates (Iran and Israel, Iraq and U.S.A., Lebanon and D.P.R.K.) and finally wished to everybody to “enjoy the game!”.

they are different, they are necessarily comple-mentary. On the other hand World Bank is more related to the de-velopment.” She also suggested that a close cooperation between the UN and the GA is very important. More-over, concentrating on the EU, she highlighted that “EU is an impor-tant strengthening, fi-nancial system and it is a very important power globally.” Finally she referred to the peace-keeping budget. Ac-cording to her speech, this year it represents a large part of the UN budget and it is fi-

Tonia Zervaki from Pe-leponnese University gave an introductory speech in the conference room of the 2nd Com-mittee GA, yesterday afternoon. Ms Zervaki claimed that the UN bodies present an op-portunity in the envi-ronment of global crisis. In her speech she mainly mentioned the following themes: low employment rates, emergency action plans and social security. She criticized IMF because of its undemocratic way of working and she added: “International Monetary Fund and World Bank, although

nanced by all UN mem-ber states. Member states pay more for fi-nancing and the biggest part of the budget is provided by the devel-oped states, especially in Europe.

1ST COMMITTEE OF THE G.A.

2ND COMMITTEE OF THE G.A.

“ENJOY THE GAME!”


Mr. Sarigiannidis during his speech , 1st Committee

On yesterday’s session of the Security Council, the professor in charge, Dr. Ilias Kouskouvelis, had a brief talk with all delegates. Delegates shortly introduced themselves, while Mr. Kouskouvelis pointed out that the major issue that has to be dealt with is preservation of peace and security. All parts agreed that this has to be achieved and all countries should commit themselves to-wards this goal, the five great ones in par-ticular. The right of veto was also dis-

cussed, as well as arti-cles of the UN Charter that invest the Council with specific powers. The formal part was completed with the rules of procedure. Then, it was time for delegates to present their talents: musicians and Tichu addicts de-tected!

North Atlantic Council was gathered yesterday to settle down the main topics that are going to be discussed during the following sessions. NATO this year is go-ing to face two very important and crucial topics in its agenda. The first agenda topic refers to NATO, civil protection and the fu-ture perspectives and the second one refers to the evolving relation-ship between NATO and Asia.

This year, NAC hosted Dr. Sotiris Ser-bos, lecturer at De-

mocritus University of Thrace, who mainly focused on the second agenda topic. He un-derlined the fact that the new powers of eco-nomics affect the poli-tics and that interna-tional institutions rep-resent the new world. He also stated that the Americans are not ca-pable to act on their own, which leads us to the conclusion of his speech: “there is a great deal of need for global governance”. The com-mittee session ended with the rules of proce-dure given by the Board.

SECURITY COUNCIL

NORTH ATLANTIC COUNCIL

DR. ILIAS KOUSKOUVELIS HAD A BRIEF TALK WITH ALL DELEGATES.


In the 3rd committee, the Emirata Professor of Law in the Aristotle University of Thessalo-niki, Zoe Papassiopi- Passia, gave an intro-ductory speech on the topic of refugees and their rights. Mention-ing the need for distinc-tion between refugees, stateless people and i m m i g r a n t s , s h e pointed out that only the two first categories are protected by the UN Refugee Agency. Concerning the case of unaccompanied chil-dren crossing interna-tional borderlines, she

underscored that the aforementioned should be treated firstly and fore-mostly as children. The need to broaden the Geneva Conven-tion, dating back to 1951, in order to in-clude to the definition of the term "refugee", categories such as envi-ronmental refugees and women whose basic rights are violated on their home countries, was one of the most interesting parts of Dr. Passia's speech.

web related activities”. Afterwards the Chairs (Ayman Koseoglu, Vicky Panagiotopoulou and An-dreas Papazoglou) intro-duced themselves reveal-ing not only their names, age and occupation, but also whether they are sin-gle or not! After the roll call (in which three coun-tries were absent), the delegates introduced themselves as well, and in the end Ayman briefly explained the rules of pro-cedure to the delegates.

The committee of the Council of Europe gath-ered early yesterday after-noon for their initial Ses-sion. Right after the very warm greeting of the delegates by the Commit-tee’s Board, Mrs Kalliopi Kainoglou, Professor at Panteion University, who was also present, deliv-ered a very enlightening speech concerning the t w o t o p i c a r e a s : “strengthening the rule of law as far as children and the internet are con-cerned”, and “the protec-tion of personal data in

3RD COMMITTEE OF THE G.A.

COUNCIL OF EUROPE

FIND ALL PHOTOS ON WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/THESSISMUNDAILYNEW

S2012


Λεζάντα που περιγράφει την εικόνα ή το γραφικό.

The first day for Hu-man Rights Council has come to an end and everything went smoothly. Dr. Nikos Zaikos, assis-tant professor in In-ternational Law in the University of Western Macedonia, introduced in a great way the two themes that are going to be discussed in the next days. He explained that with the term “human rights” we mean all kinds of re-lationships between the Individual and the State, in order to

avoid confusion. Fur-thermore, he empha-sized that each coun-try has a double goal,

firstly, to protect the notion of the state’s interest and secondly, to participate in an

international forum in order to solve par-ticular problems. However responsibil-

ity, good faith and cooperation are needed in order to make recommenda-

tions and adopt deci-sions and resolutions, seeing that arrogance would simply dete-riorate any situation.

After Dr. Nikos Zai-kos’ informative speech, Chairs ex-plained the whole process, clarified the rules and the proce-dures of the sessions. In the end, the dele-gates introduced themselves and the countries they repre-sent.

Le Comité pour l’élimi-nation de la discrimina-tion a l’égard des Fem-mes, s’est reuni en cette première journée en ayant pour objectif de répondre à toutes les questions procédurales et en général préparer le mieux possible le dé-bat formel, qui va s’i-naugurer jeudi dans la matinée. Monsieur Goussios, professeur au Département des Étu-des Internationales et Européennes à l’Uni-versité du Pirée, a pris la parole et après avoir souhaité la bienvenue à tous les experts et au

bureau du comité, il a fait un tour d’horizon relatif à ce qui passe à Malte et en Ouganda, deux pays avec des particularités très inté-ressantes en ce qui concerne la place des femmes dans leur so-ciété.

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

LE COMITÉ POUR L’ÉLIMINATION DE LA DISCRIMINATION A L’ÉGARD DES FEMMES


NOS AMIS FRANCOPHONES!

During the first com-mittee gathering Chairs and delegates presented themselves and talked about their studies and interests. The Chairs of the His-torical Security Coun-cil Mister George Xenokratis and Miss Maria Karali intro-duced the Council Mr. George Kyriakopou-los, who is a lecturer in Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Mr Kyriakopoulos talked about his MUN e x p e r i e n c e a n d thanked the staff for

its excellent work, c o n s i d e r i n g t h e preparation of study guide. To begin with,

he claimed that in the Historical Security Council delegates will discuss about what happened in 25th of

June,1950 an what would have been if alternative solutions have been taken about

Korea issue. Mr. Kyri-akopoylos mentioned “what is really interest-ing with the Historical Security Council session

is the opportunity to create alternative forma-tions of the regime, de-spite the strict historical content with its specific state interests and alli-ances. It will be really interesting to see how the delegations will re-act facing a crisis that does not exist in real-ity.” After mention-ing the main purposes of the historical coun-cil, Mr. Kyriakopoylos and Mr. Xenokratis continued with ex-plaining some impor-tant points of the United Nations proce-dure.

ate professor of Ionian University, pleased as he was to share his knowledge on Eco-nomic and Social Sci-ence, stressed out the urgent importance of dealing the money laundering issue, draw-ing also to the dele-gates the path that hav-ing the bank secrecy system under consid-eration and through international unity, a solution may be found.

The First day of the 11th ThessISMUN found ECOSOC more than ready to deal with this year’s agenda. Tackling money laundering via regulating financial ser-vices of tax havens (topic B) and the risks posed by the nuclear energy in the sustain-able development of the environment topic A), are the two issues that are going to be dis-c u s s e d . ECOSOC was deeply honoured to host Mr. Stavros Katsios, once again, as the opening speaker. The associ-

HISTORICAL SECURITY COUNCIL

ECOSOC “IT WILL BE REALLY

INTERESTING TO SEE HOW THE DELEGATIONS

WILL REACT FACING A CRISIS THAT DOES NOT

EXIST IN REALITY.”



Ti voglioooo beeene

assaaaaaaiiiii!!!!!

ThessISMUN Daily News Issue 1

Documents

year of thessismun

official opening of

daily roll

close associate of thessismun

fatouros speech

opening speech

united nations regional

official stresses