Children above political differences

Imagen | George Rengifo

If first day in UNICEF promised, the second couldn´t be less. With the ice broken, the meetings were full of discussions, agreements and decisions since the first hour of the morning. Eradication and prevention of school and domestic violence remains as the main topic of the debate.​

Same topic, but new faces from delegates who were absent on Tuesday. Maybe they didn´t arrive to the meeting because they didn´t remember to put the Spanish hour on their watch, or maybe they found some problems with the flights… The important point is that they are ready to improve the diversity of the comitee.

One of these new faces was Colombia´s delegate, who seems to play a key role this year, as she doesn´t stop receiving calls from other delegations. “Education is not preparation for life. Education is life on itself”, said the Colombian representor to start her first speech.

There were some tense moments, like when Brazil reminded the USA the problems created by their policies in matter of two very different topics: arms and abortion. The American delegate reminded that the USA is a very catholic country and, with Donald Trump as president, changing things is not that easy. Maybe he loses his job after these words…

However, there is a said that affirms that those who fight are wishing each other, and there was a great complicity between the delegations from Brazil and the United States, at least in political issues. On the other hand, the USA´s delegate had some disputes with their partners from Russia and Chile.

There were also some attacks to Egypt, but it seems like the Egyptian delegate did not even notice. Some people think he fell asleep, but actually he was too busy sending messages to other delegates.  

Another main character on Wednesday was France´s delegate, who showed a more diplomatic attitude and became the leader of the first work paper of this UNICEF´s edition, which counted with the collaboration of the UK and Norway. The project collects various ideas and strategies such as the use of shelters or after-school activities.

The other work paper of the day was elaborated by the delegates from Saudi Arabia and Colombia. It suggests using money from the World Bank for the implementation of schools or setting organisations under UNICEF to let complains in countries of low liberty.

The session was so productive that it seemed that some solutions could be found on the second day, but the Guiness World Records weren´t available to register this record. So, the chairs decided to stop there and organized a spontaneous ludic session which lasted enough to enjoy the French version of “La Macarena” and the gossip anonymous notes. Well, a half of them anonymous and the other half from Egypt.

A lot of progress, but also a lot of fun, on the second day at UNICEF. Tomorrow, more and better.