Tashkent, Uzbekistan: On September 26, 2018, Ms. Ashita Mittal, UNODC Regional Representative for Central Asia, and Dr. Komiljon Karimov, Principal of the Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT), opened the first guest lecture promoting the Tashkent International Model United Nations (TIMUN) conference, which will take place in March 2019 in the capital of Uzbekistan.
More than 120 eager and diverse guests attended the lecture, which was hosted at Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT). Among them were interested students from five different universities in Tashkent, as well as Heads of Model UN Societies of Uzbekistan, UN officials, Executive Board Members of WIUT and Heads of WIUT Students' Union.
In his welcome speech, Dr. Karimov expressed his gratitude to UNODC for supporting the students to put their ideas into practice and mentoring them during their preparations for the upcoming 2019 TIMUN conference. Ms. Mittal then provided a background and overview of UNODC's mandates related to crime, justice and the rule of law and its work on these issues in Central Asia. She also highlighted activities carried out under #Education4Justice, a UNODC initiative under the @DohaDeclaration Global Programme to promote the rule of law through education. Since the beginning of 2018, UNODC ROCA conducted pilot testing of E4J products for primary educational level, such as Online Zoo Book to address cybercrime and The Zorbs Movie aiming to promote values such as integrity and honesty, to strength ability to take decisions and act responsibly. Successful pilots based foundation to introduce E4J tools to the secondary and tertiary educational levels.
The presentation was followed by a lively
discussion around UNODC's mandates related to Sustainable Development Goal 16, which addresses global challenges such as corruption, organized crime and terrorism. In her closing remarks, Ms. Mittal emphasized: "I am very glad that students can openly discuss issues of crime prevention and criminal justice. Our goal is to support students build their knowledge of international law, UN conventions and treaties through Model UN, which will help them using their international experience to build more stable and peaceful communities in the future."
In addition, Mr. Gilberto Duarte from the Education for Justice (E4J) initiative joined the lecture via Skype from the UNODC Headquarters in Vienna. Addressing the students, Mr. Duarte explained: "At E4J, we believe that young people have the right to know about the rule of law. Model United Nations offers an ideal platform for students to learn about how these issues affect them." For this reason, E4J developed a MUN Resource Guide to help conference organizers integrate crime prevention and criminal justice issues into their UN simulations.
Finally, the President of the Students' Union, Mr. Tolibjon Mustafoev, announced more details about the upcoming TIMUN conference. With an expected about 500 participants from around the world, TIMUN will be one of the largest Model UN events in the Central Asia region to date. Based on E4J's MUN guide, students will simulate UNODC bodies and discuss the most pressing and relevant global rule of law challenges. To support the preparations for the conference, further guest lectures, as well as round tables with students are planned to broaden their expertise on the subject matters, choose the topics to be discussed, and draft procedures of the UN bodies to be simulated.
The UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia is open to collaborate with universities, schools and educators, that support young people to discuss, debate and find solutions to the most pressing rule of law challenges young people face in their communities. Model UN conferences provide a safe space for youth around the world to do so. For more information, please contact unodc-e4jmun(at)un.org.
All activities were carried out thanks to the financial resources kindly provided by the State of Qatar, within the framework of the - Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration.
For more information:
Education for Justice (E4J) initiative
UNODC in Central Asia on Facebook
