0:04 Okay, in this uh lesson, the final
0:06 lesson, how to learn from and write UN
0:08 resolutions, I just got off a board
0:11 meeting, and I was hoping that
0:13 Ambassador Peggy Mason would attend the
0:14 meeting. there was only six or seven of
0:17 us and that she would therefore consent
0:20 to do this lecture with me recalling
0:23 that I tried to get this lecture done uh
0:26 in my last class in 2135 and she
0:28 canceled on me no less than three times
0:30 including on family day when I sat here
0:32 in my office waiting for her to come and
0:34 she canled. So today she didn't come to
0:36 our board meeting. I have officially
0:38 given up and that's also an explanation
0:41 for why I am 24 hours late posting this
0:43 lecture because our board meeting was
0:47 today at 1:30 to 3:30 and uh anyway what
0:49 can we do? Earl Turkot was there but
0:52 he's talking to you about landmines next
0:55 week so I'm not using him. And then the
0:58 other UN ambassadors that I know uh Bob
1:02 Ray is retiring November the 17th. Okay.
1:04 So, let's move and learn ourselves uh
1:06 without the help of a guest speaker this week.
1:09 week.
1:11 Here's a picture of the back of the
1:13 United Nations garden where you're not
1:14 allowed to go in. The public's not
1:17 allowed to go in anywhere more. And I
1:19 took a lot of pictures when the public
1:21 was allowed to go in. So, I'm showing
1:23 you what the ambassadors and diplomats
1:27 see, but what you would not see anymore.
1:29 Uh here's the UN Rose Garden where a lot
1:31 of diplomats come out to look at the
1:33 Hudson River to have a cigarette and
1:35 actually to consult with each other
1:38 without being in the hallways. Uh so
1:41 they want to be outside here.
1:44 Uh here's the UN cafeteria which is for
1:45 uh there's many there's two or three
1:47 cafeterias in one restaurant but this is
1:50 the one more for the mixing of civil
1:53 society and diplomats where they could
1:55 have a coffee and they could discuss how
1:57 they would amend a resolution or even
2:00 suggest a resolution.
2:02 So you can see everyone is wearing very
2:04 formal uh what I call powers suits. They
2:08 have cell phones and uh people do not uh
2:12 dress shabily or they really try to to
2:14 dress professionally at the United Nations.
2:16 Nations.
2:19 Here are the UN procedures as we follow
2:22 them in my UN simulation which I used to
2:26 do in person uh in my classes and I had
2:28 240 students. So we had ambassadors,
2:30 deputy ambassadors and so on. But I'm no
2:32 longer teaching those courses in person.
2:34 and we're teaching these huge classes
2:37 online. So, what can I do here? What I
2:40 want to teach you is the basic rules of
2:42 any kind of a UN simulation. Anything
2:44 that you might be able to participate
2:46 in. I know there's a UN club at Western,
2:50 but many of you are overseas or abroad
2:52 or in a different time zone. Maybe you
2:55 can participate in a UN club there. So,
2:57 the first point is English is not the
2:59 speaking the language of the UN. There's
3:00 actually six languages. You've learned
3:04 that already. Um I always say
3:05 we have the participation of
3:08 non-members. So Palestine is officially
3:10 a non-member state. It has been
3:13 recognized by Canada and by um other
3:15 countries but that does not mean that
3:18 the UN General Assembly recognizes
3:22 Palestine as a member state. So the
3:25 observers have the same rights to uh
3:27 participate Israel and Palestine as the
3:30 full members do in all the debates
3:32 everything Israel is a member except
3:35 that the observer countries may not vote
3:38 on substantive issues.
3:41 Okay. So in any kind of a UN assembly
3:43 which is a simulation there will be a
3:45 sec secretary gen a sec secretary
3:48 general we always say segen and they
3:50 control the debate. they decide when to
3:54 proceed and so on. In most uh UN
3:56 simulations a majority simple majority
3:59 is 50% plus one of the members that are
4:03 there at the substantive vote. A quorum
4:04 the number of people the number of
4:06 member states that is there represented
4:09 by an ambassador for each country will
4:12 be assumed to be pres present unless
4:13 specifically challenged and shown to be
4:17 absent. This never happens. courtesy. Uh
4:19 the idea is that the members will show
4:22 courtesy and respect to the staff and to
4:23 other delegates, which is why President
4:26 Trump, who was just at the UN, had a
4:30 right to um argue that he was not uh he
4:32 was not shown respect.
4:35 So, you can watch uh President Trump's
4:38 address on September the 25th. When was
4:40 it September the 25th or was it the
4:44 20th? the 20 23rd.
4:46 23rd.
4:48 So that's not going to be on the that's
4:50 way too small a little fact, but you
4:53 know, he just spoke um at the UN. You
4:56 can watch the speech on UN Web TV. You
4:58 can watch every delegate their speeches
4:59 and it's always very interesting. You
5:02 learn a lot about global diplomacy and
5:04 global violence by watching how they
5:07 address each other.
5:10 So just go to the UNV and here's just an
5:12 excerpt. He announced many things. Uh he
5:15 spoke for a whole hour and uh I wanted
5:18 just to draw your your your attention to
5:21 the fact that he thinks empty words
5:24 don't solve war and uh the only thing
5:28 that solves war and wars is action. Uh
5:29 he also was very critical of the United Nations.
5:31 Nations.
5:34 Um and and I'm not going to go into all
5:36 of his debate about the teleprompter,
5:38 but he used the electronic device of a
5:42 teleprompter. In the uh UN um
5:45 simulations nowadays, you can use your
5:46 cell phone and you can Google
5:48 information. It used to be that you
5:49 weren't allowed to do that. It was like
5:52 the UN. Now you can use your your cell
5:55 phones. And the first order of debate is
5:57 always the agenda. Debating what will be
5:59 on the agenda. And this is important.
6:00 the Roberts rules of order for pretty
6:02 well every organization that you become
6:04 involved with on at the board level. I
6:06 just was in a two-hour board meeting and
6:08 the first thing we talked about was the
6:09 agenda. What are we going to talk about
6:11 today? And then we have, you know,
6:13 somebody motions that they agree to the
6:15 agenda that the chair has put forward
6:17 and somebody else seconds it and then we
6:19 vote unanimously in favor and then we go ahead.
6:21 ahead.
6:23 Rules governing debate. So the only
6:26 rules here that at my UN simulations
6:28 have to be presented in electronic form.
6:30 You can't just write out a resolution
6:33 and present it anymore in a handwritten
6:36 fashion to the SEC gen. In my UN
6:38 simulations, we debate the resolutions
6:41 that had the most number of signitories.
6:43 That was debated first on the agenda. So
6:46 often we would have 21 signitories, 25
6:48 signitories and then it would build up
6:50 at the UN cafeteria which I had outside
6:53 the classroom with uh UN cookies and UN
6:58 mugs and things and so then um the
7:01 speaker the segen constructs a for and
7:04 against speakers list. So this is easy
7:06 to do electronically now. It's very
7:09 different um in a UN simulation now than
7:12 it was let's say 10 years ago. What
7:15 about closing the debate? Um here when
7:17 you close debate often is felt by the
7:19 sectgen they can feel a consensus to
7:22 close debate. Uh so they may then close
7:24 debate or even table the resolution
7:26 which means there's not enough uh
7:28 there's not enough consensus there's not
7:29 enough discussion. So we're going to
7:33 table this for further discussion.
7:35 Once the agenda has been determined one
7:37 continuously open speakers list will be
7:39 established for the purpose of general
7:41 debate. This is what I do and it is what
7:43 the section does. This speaker's list
7:45 will be followed for all debate on the
7:48 topic area except when interrupted by
7:50 procedural motions or discussion of
7:53 amendments. This is really hard to teach
7:55 this way. You really learn it if you are
7:57 in a UN simulation. How people are very
8:00 good at using uh I have a point of uh
8:02 procedure. I have a point of information
8:05 um at stopping uh the debate and and
8:08 trying to delay it so that the sun goes
8:10 down and people get tired as well. Many
8:12 people are good at amending and
8:14 suggesting amendments to slow down the
8:17 debate. Um you can also close for
8:19 different reasons um substantive or
8:22 procedural matters and the section may
8:24 recognize that we should disclose the
8:25 debate and we should have a vote.
8:27 Closure of debate can require can
8:29 require that the support of twothirds of
8:31 the assembly if an s issue is contentious.
8:33 contentious.
8:34 So I'm showing you pictures in the
8:35 background of the UN and these are
8:37 important too like if I put that picture
8:38 there you would surely know that that's
8:40 the United Nations and not UN
8:43 headquarters. Uh okay
8:45 here these are just rules eight and nine
8:48 resumption of debate tableling
8:50 adjournment and so on. These were very
8:52 popular in UN simulations because they
8:54 were more divisive. It used to be if you
8:56 did this in high school or university,
8:58 the whole idea was to show that you were
8:59 debating each other and you could not
9:02 come to any agreement and it was sort of
9:05 fun. But now the UN has changed its way
9:08 of operating and there's much less um of
9:10 a focus on argument and more on trying
9:14 to get toward a consensus outcome.
9:16 Rule 10, speakers list. The committee
9:18 will have an open speakers list and so
9:21 on. And a country a country adds its
9:23 name to the speakers list by submitting
9:26 a request in writing to the day. The day
9:28 is where the section gen sits in the
9:30 front on their desk. A section may call
9:32 for members that wish to be added to the
9:34 speakers list trying to get more of a
9:36 debate. Speeches are supposed to be made
9:37 in the third person, but you'll see that
9:39 President Trump, you don't have to watch
9:42 it as part of the exam, but he he he he
9:43 definitely addresses certain countries
9:45 and ignores the rules about speaking in
9:48 the third person. If your absence from a
9:50 vote, let's say you're having a coffee
9:51 or something, then that means you your
9:53 country lost the vote. So, they're
9:55 always keeping an eye on everything. If
9:56 they go out, they they put someone else
9:59 in their chair uh to run out and get
10:02 them and so on. Right of reply. A right
10:04 of ply is when you feel that your
10:06 personal or national integrity has been
10:08 impuged. You've been insulted by another
10:10 delegate and you can ask for an
10:12 immediate right. I would I I demand a
10:16 right of reply. Uh the the delegate from
10:18 any country you want to say. Kazakhstan
10:22 has um has insulted the has insulted my
10:25 office by referring to the right to
10:27 nuclear power as something that we
10:29 should get rid of.
10:30 I just had a big debate with Ambassador
10:33 Mason about this because about article 4
10:36 and this was a big debate. Oh, we got
10:39 into such an argument it was not fun.
10:41 Uh and that's what happens in the
10:43 cafeteria. So here you can see some of
10:45 the Canadian uh representatives civil
10:50 society from reaching uh critical will
10:52 and you can also see in the background
10:55 some of the diplomats interacting
10:57 and that's the idea is that we're
10:59 supposed to interact politely
11:01 procedurally and we're supposed to if we
11:04 have points of personal privilege we
11:07 have to always um not interrupt. you
11:09 don't interrupt if another speaker is
11:11 speaking and that's very difficult for
11:13 many many people I know including many
11:15 ambassadors points of order uh you can
11:17 rise to a point of order I was just in a
11:18 board meeting where somebody corrected
11:21 the chair like five minutes ago or just
11:23 before I started this corrected the
11:25 chair because he had missed a point and
11:28 we had to go back to the agenda. So once
11:29 you know these rules, it really helps
11:31 you in life. If you can get any
11:33 opportunity to watch how these sort of
11:35 meetings uh work, then it will really
11:37 help you to understand when someone
11:39 rises to a point of parliamentary
11:43 inquiry or why they are um not supposed
11:46 to interrupt.
11:48 Rule 17, look at all these rules. Uh
11:50 signing a draft resolution need not
11:52 indicate support of the draft
11:54 resolution. What this means is let's say
11:57 Iran and Iraq or um Nigeria and South
12:00 Africa can sign a resolution because
12:02 they want it debated at the UN. It
12:04 doesn't mean that they're taking a side.
12:05 And that's really important to
12:08 understand. So in my UN simulation,
12:11 that's how we get 50 countries to sign a
12:13 resolution is because they want to
12:15 debate that resolution. Shows how
12:18 important that issue is like COVID or or
12:22 nuclear weapons or tariffs.
12:24 more rules and there are many. Uh so
12:26 here are some of the rules about draft
12:29 resolutions. Um when do we consider it?
12:31 Uh clarification on points. I usually
12:34 read the resolution out loud and kind of
12:36 massage it to make it more spelled
12:38 correctly and and clear. And then the
12:40 amendment has to have the approval of
12:42 the segen and be agreed to by at least
12:44 two of the original signatorries of the
12:46 motion. So amendments can really take up
12:48 your time. There can be many many
12:50 frivolous amendments that are just
12:52 designed to slow things down and there
12:54 can be substantive amendments that both
12:57 signitories have to agree to.
13:00 Rule 21, procedure voting. Now, um how
13:02 do you vote in the UN simulation? We
13:06 vote by putting up our our cards or our
13:09 flags. But at the UN, what they do is uh
13:12 they vote um by the secretary general
13:15 recognizing the each country by name.
13:17 It's a procedural call. It takes a long
13:20 time and sometimes just you sit there
13:22 for an hour while they go through the
13:25 votes. Um that's called rule call voting
13:27 and you can request that so that it is
13:30 definitely written down which countries
13:33 uh uh were in favor against or
13:35 abstained. Abstain means they have no
13:37 decision and they don't want to vote yes
13:41 or no. Okay. So you can vote yes, no or
13:43 abstain. But usually in UN simulations
13:46 and often at the UN the the section at
13:48 the day at the front there in the green
13:52 desk there he or she decides on the on
13:54 the consensus and and kind of senses
14:01 War rules governing voting. When the
14:04 United Nations was created in 1951 1945
14:07 there were only uh 51 member states.
14:09 It's it's quite interesting. And so it
14:12 it grew bigger and bigger over time.
14:14 It's kind of good news because it means
14:16 you could establish something like a UN
14:18 parliamentary assembly of great people
14:20 eminent persons and you could make it
14:21 very small at the beginning and maybe it
14:23 would grow over time. So I'm always
14:25 saying you know you can start these
14:27 organizations students you can and you
14:29 never know it might roll into something
14:32 really big. Right now there are 193
14:35 member states and roughly 80% of the
14:37 general assembly resolutions are adopted
14:40 by consensus that is without taking a
14:43 vote. So in that means you don't need to
14:45 get the 50% plus one. It means that
14:48 everyone has has kind of bypassed the
14:51 divisive approaches and tried to adopt a
14:53 resolution by consensus. And that means
14:55 they've already engaged in negotiations
14:58 that have resulted in compromises so
15:00 that different points of view are taken
15:02 into consideration. The process of
15:05 consensus is inclusive and and it you
15:07 can aim for it. Not in all things, but
15:10 it is good.
15:12 Given the dramatic increase in member
15:14 states over time, reaching a consensus,
15:15 the widest possible agreement is really
15:18 quite vital in order to make progress on
15:21 the issues that afflict us today. The UN
15:24 uh general assembly resolutions are not
15:26 they are not backed up by a police
15:28 force. They are recommendations. They're
15:30 usually not even financed. They're not
15:33 even legally binding on member states,
15:35 the United States and Russia, China.
15:40 They don't have to u have to do this.
15:42 So as a result, de delegates also have
15:44 to think about implementation. And
15:47 that's why consensus is a much more
15:49 popular way which is not reflected in
15:52 the model UN conferences. The model UN
15:54 conferences they tend to still uh focus
15:57 on conflict and on a majority a simple
15:59 majority vote. But if you value
16:01 consensus then that means that
16:03 simulations are not really teaching you
16:06 properly how to get a uh consensus. I've
16:08 had some students that were ambassadors
16:10 and they're very good at at at helping
16:12 everyone reach a consensus. One of them
16:16 is a medical doctor now um in residence
16:17 very good at I've never seen a student
16:20 that was so good at consensus.
16:22 Okay, here you do not need to know this
16:26 for the exam. Um and this is I I need to
16:28 emphasize that, but I need you to read
16:30 it. So what is what what are the
16:33 precedences here? Precedences. I'm not
16:35 going to ask you which one goes in which
16:37 order, but I want you to read it with
16:39 your eyes and say, "Okay, I see there's
16:42 certain things that come forward first."
16:44 And if you're a chair, you need to know this.
16:47 this.
16:49 Format your resolution. Now, I used to
16:51 make you write resolutions and ask
16:53 students to write resolutions, but now
16:55 chat is writing the resolutions for you,
16:57 and they it is writing beautiful
16:59 resolutions. So, I had the unfortunate
17:01 experience last year of asking students
17:03 to write resolutions and I received u
17:05 many resolutions that were beautiful.
17:07 I've never seen beautiful resolutions,
17:09 but all they've done is feed the
17:11 information into chat and chat created
17:14 the draft, the body, the resolution that
17:17 even put the letter head in there.
17:19 So, the how does the resolution begin?
17:21 You can look at the UN resolutions
17:22 online or you can just ask chat to write
17:25 you a UN resolution so you can learn.
17:27 But essentially there are parameulatory
17:30 phrases that say things about that
17:31 describe the problem being addressed
17:34 like recalling past actions explaining
17:36 the purpose of the resolution. And then
17:38 there's the operative clauses. What are
17:40 we going to do? They're numbered and
17:43 what's the action to be taken by the UN
17:46 or whatever body it is. These clauses
17:48 all begin with the present tense active
17:50 verbs. I I'm not going to emphasize any
17:52 longer how to do this so much because
17:56 chat has taken over and it it does the
17:57 resolution for you. So let's say you did
17:59 a UN resolution, you put it into
18:02 artificial intelligence, it will write
18:04 it um in the format that it needs to be done.
18:06 done.
18:09 So here the delegates at the UN, this is
18:12 when I was there in 2010 and I took some
18:15 internal pictures here uh which I I
18:17 realized later that I wasn't supposed to
18:19 take. So you're seeing the inside of the
18:22 UN here
18:25 and then um this is a sample resolution.
18:27 So so there you can see the
18:31 parameulatory clauses recalling concern
18:33 that and so on and the and what the
18:35 topic is
18:38 and then still more. So a lot of times
18:40 the parameulatory clauses go on for like
18:43 three pages recognizing noting and so
18:46 on. Then we're looking for the operative
18:48 clauses. By the way, that's a picture of
18:51 Guteras, the current seg of the United
18:56 Nations behind me, Antonio Guteras
18:57 here. Okay, so they're starting to talk
18:59 cuz they've just got the draft
19:01 resolution. Many of them are phoning
19:03 back to their capitals, which are
19:05 sometimes 12 hours time difference and
19:06 they don't have a lot of time to figure
19:10 out what they're going to agree to.
19:12 And then here more pictures. There's the
19:16 Russian Federation and Germany. Um, so
19:18 this is a sample resolution that had
19:21 only five sponsors in my class. So it
19:23 wasn't even considered. We didn't even
19:25 talk about it. Um, the sponsors Chile,
19:27 New Zealand, they had this resolution
19:29 here, but we didn't even talk about it.
19:31 And that's usually the case if you have
19:33 so few countries.
19:36 Note some people are phoning here. Um,
19:38 and note there it's always in
19:40 alphabetical order. So Cameroon and then
19:43 Cambodia. So where's Canada? You can
19:46 guess coming along. Um, so there they
19:50 are phoning their capitals
19:52 and there we are in the UN General
19:55 Assembly. Um, and here is another sample
19:58 resolution in my classroom. Be it
20:00 declared that the UN declare war on
20:01 Iran. See how I immediately go to the
20:03 operative clause just to check. Um, and
20:05 they they couldn't get two speakers for
20:07 against so was rejected on procedural grounds.
20:09 grounds.
20:11 Sample resolutions from my model UN's in
20:15 the past. this one um redirecting money
20:18 uh Kazakhstan and so on. This resolution
20:19 had seven sponsors, but actually we
20:21 ended up debating it because during the
20:24 two hours we were together. It's too bad
20:26 we can't do that anymore. Um we just
20:28 have too many students. They managed to
20:30 get more and more signitories. So only
20:32 the two co-signatorries at the beginning
20:34 must favor the resolution. Everyone else
20:36 could just want to debate it. I'm going
20:39 to a reception with Kazakhstan um on
20:42 October the 24th. They've invited me to
20:45 the um a reception there to celebrate
20:47 the founding of their country. It's in
20:50 Ottawa. It's kind of interesting.
20:53 Here you can see people phoning. It is
20:55 all very exciting. I pick up a stray
20:57 document which happens to be the draft
20:59 resolution. And so um you can see
21:02 there's Ethiopia, Estonia.
21:04 Can you use these parameulatory phrases?
21:08 So here I've put in u alphabetical order
21:10 many parameulatory phrases for you to
21:14 think about using and this is kind of
21:16 how you might have constructed your
21:17 resolution thinking about it in previous
21:19 years but of course now artificial
21:21 intelligence will help you to do find
21:25 those clauses phrases there's the day at
21:27 the front
21:29 and then the operative clauses these are
21:32 the steps at the UN and diplomats often
21:35 stand on the on this uh right here
21:37 waiting for people from civil society to
21:39 come and talk to them. It's kind of
21:41 interesting. So these are the operative
21:43 clauses what the what you're
21:46 recommending the body the agency maybe
21:50 the UN does.
21:52 Here's the UN General Assembly room. So
21:54 you can see here it's full with all the
21:57 delegates and there's civil society
21:59 representatives at the back and also
22:02 people from news agencies.
22:03 And these are the stairs at the UN. So
22:06 these are all kind of helpful uh for
22:08 meeting with people
22:11 and we're pretending that we are there
22:13 today uh
22:16 at the UN
22:19 and then more here on consensus. So when
22:22 I'm talking here about the consensus
22:24 adopting a draft without a vote is is
22:27 really what a consensus means. And so if
22:29 193 member states actually manage to
22:31 agree on the text and there's just one
22:33 country that disagrees, well then
22:36 consensus is not reached. So that means
22:38 that it's a lot harder to to get your
22:42 resolution to be um passed by consensus.
22:44 When a resolution is adopted by simple
22:47 majority, then that means those that
22:49 were not um part of the agreement are
22:52 likely less likely to implement the
22:55 agenda. So the the segen now tends to
22:59 look for a consensus.
23:02 Okay. So here's Randy Redell who who
23:04 write wrote the UN draft resolutions
23:06 that got the most consensus back in
23:08 2010. Excellent writer, the guy in the
23:10 middle smiling because that's the moment
23:14 where his resolution was 64 planks
23:16 reached consensus. I mean it was a great
23:17 triumph. It's probably the greatest
23:20 triumph of his of his entire career. Uh
23:21 so there he is. I took a picture of him smiling.
23:23 smiling.
23:26 He's retired now. Uh happy people. This
23:28 is back in 2010. So this is when the
23:30 moment where the consensus was reached.
23:34 This was a very pivotal moment. And um
23:36 you can see all the people I took
23:39 pictures of that are looking very happy.
23:41 I thought I would show that to you uh
23:44 also because um it just shows you that
23:46 it does take a lot of work. But if you
23:48 get a resolution adopted by consensus,
23:51 that's a pretty big deal.
23:53 Uh finally, let me mention that um
23:57 here's Bob Ray uh the um uh Art Canada's
24:00 UN ambassador and he will be replaced by
24:03 David Lametti on November 17th, but I
24:05 haven't put a picture of David because
24:08 that will happen after the midterm exam
24:10 and he's the former minister of justice.
24:12 So Bob Ree was the ambassador for five
24:15 long years for uh the United Nations and
24:17 we will just continue to conduct the
24:21 class as if he is the ambassador. Uh
24:23 even if you're taking the makeup exam in
24:26 let's say February next year by that
24:28 point it will be lamei. So I'll have to
24:31 change the answers to uh I'll have to
24:32 change the questions obviously but
24:34 anyway the whole point being here Bob
24:36 Ray the former premier of Ontario and
24:40 NDP Peter stepping away um and being
24:42 replaced under the Mark Carney
24:44 government. Okay, that's it for today.
24:46 Thank you very much and I hope that you
24:49 um are getting ready for the exam and
24:50 that you are doing the required
24:52 readings. I am happy to uh talk to any
24:54 of you during office hours which are on
