Debate for Peace hosted the first Model UN conference in Jaffa this week. JaffaMUN was held on Monday, April 28, with students from Atid Lod, Mar Elias high school, Gernata high school, Studio Ankori, and a range of other schools in Akko, Jerusalem, Haifa, Herzliya, Modi’in, Tel Aviv and additional cities and regions. 

The theme of the conference was “Human Rights”, with a Human Rights committee dealing with freedom of speech, an ECOSOC committee tackling equality for marginalized communities globally, and a US Senate committee addressing school shootings in the United States.

After opening speeches and several hours of lively debates and intense negotiations, all three committees managed to pass resolutions on their respective topics. The Human Rights Council decided to create a global working group on social media safety, urged UN member states to adopt “comprehensive frameworks” to protect the privacy rights of social media users, as well as calling on social media company responsibility, advocating for greater digital literacy, and parental oversight and protection of children’s usage of social media. In ECOSOC, the committee called for developing safety nets for vulnerable populations through government support, advancing inclusive and equitable education, creating National Equality Councils, and Enforcement Organizations for Equality (EOE) to prevent discrimination. The US Senate agreed to improve school safety through updated safety protocols, state adoption of “Extreme Risk Protection Order Laws” (ERPO Laws)”, expanded mental health services, pilot programs to limit weapons access, and modernized responses to active shooter incidents.

During the closing ceremony, several students were recognized for their achievements by advancing collaborative solutions within their respective committees. These included: India (Maya Beres, Yachad High School), Morocco (Alin Gavrizavee, Atid Lod), and the United Kingdom (Malak Abu Hjool, Mar Elias school) in the HRC committee, Sweden (Yehonatan Navon, Ironi Yud Dalet), Philippines (Lamar Shker, Mar Elias) and China (Nada Namouz, Mar Elias) in ECOSOC, and Corey Booker (Vera Nosovitskaya, Younited), Chuck Schumer (Jordyn Cline, Yachad High School), and Elizabeth Warren (Yonatan Zelenko, Atid Raziel) in the US Senate.

Debate for Peace thanks Maya Ilany and Abigail Noa Buganim for writing the study guides for the conference, and the chairs and Secretariat team: Abigail Noa Buganim, Naomi Gildor, Shaked Shimony, Josh Kugelman, Carmel Hillmann, Yousef Abdlghny, Dafna Beres, Yael Yakobovich and Gai Regev.