BHS MUN Conference 2022

The BHSMUN Simulations which took place on BHS premises on the 28^th and 29^th of May, turned out to be a great success! With the participation of students from 10 different schools in Lebanon and our own students, BHS’s Campus turned into a diplomatic debate area where delegates of many countries around the world worked on conflict resolution and peace maintenance and safeguarding.

The BHSMUN experience is one of a kind. It offers you the opportunity to act as leader/representative of a country and allows you to tackle global issues from a diplomatic and professional perspective. It is also an enjoyable and fun activity where people from different backgrounds and cultures get to know each other and work closely together.

Above all, this year’s BHSMUN made a remarkable comeback, with its inspiring theme “Resilient Regardless”. It was a sign of hope and a message of resilience to the youth who feel that they are chained or incapable in front of present day challenges.

Speech of the Keynote Speaker

By Prof. Dr. Antonios ABOU KASM

Dear Mr. David Gray, the BHS Principal,
Dear Ms. Joey Kdeissy, the Student Leadership Director,
Dear Ms. Stéphanie Zoghbi, the BHS Model United Nations Secretary-General,
Dear teachers, dear students, dear BHS family.
It is a great honor and pleasure to participate with you today at the Brummana High School Model United Nations Conference.
As a new generation, your role is crucial in the promotion of the United values, in order to restore peace in a secure and democratic society, based on the establishment of the rule of law and the respect of Human Rights.
To fulfill your role as an active UN values’ actor, you must believe first in the United Nations purposes and principles, and then to work on their implementation as mandatory rules of International Law.
After the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Lebanon, where 82 percent of the Lebanese live below the poverty line according to the UN (ESCWA), where 220 people were killed and 7,000 injured as result of the Beirut Port Blast of 4 August 2020 and the victims remain without justice and the truth isn’t revealed yet, where the number of refugees in Lebanon is exceeding 2 million people, where the Human rights are violated on daily basis including the rights of women, where the crime rate in Lebanon still increasing.
You as youth you cannot be indifferent or tolerant towards such societal situation.
Your inactivity is conceived as a crime of omission.
You have a moral obligation as a Lebanese citizen believing in the UN purposes and principles.
You must be resilient, an actor of peace and an actor of justice.
The United Nations’ model is offering a full system of peace building and Human Rights protection.
Even that the effectiveness of the UN system is relative because of the voluntarism of the big powers, the UN Charter and the UN instruments still obligatory and binding.

How, as a Lebanese youth, can you participate in the implementation of the UN purposes and principles?
You must ensure first the respect of Human Rights in your school, in your society, in your club and in your country, and even when you are abroad.
Your Book and your Constitution should be the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a conventional instrument ratified also by Lebanon.
As well, in the heart of the current Lebanese Tragedy, you may add a second book: The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). You cannot ensure a Democratic society without implementing these two instruments and promoting their principles.
As individuals, you may ensure the implementation of the fundamental Human Rights at the international level, specifically at the UN level, through the Human Rights Council. Individuals, the victims of any Human right’s violation can report the latter to the UNHCR through the UN Human Rights mechanisms even online through the submission of claims on the UN website. There’s a special procedure for individuals of a group of people.
And to prevent war, the easiest thing to do is to refrain from using hate speech, and to confront it. You must accept the other despite the differences and to respect him as a Human being. Hate speech incites violence and undermines social cohesion and tolerance. Knowing that its impact is nowadays amplified by new technologies of communication, to the point that hate speech – including online – has become one of the most frequent methods for spreading divisive rhetoric and ideologies on a global scale and threatening peace.
Words can be weapons. Hate speech can lead to cruelty and violence in real life. We can all take action to protect our common humanity and say no to hate.
According to the ICCPR, any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.
18 June is the International Day for Countering Hate Speech, which will be marked for the first time this year in 2022. I am inviting you to take the initiative and to declare this day from your School under the BHSUN Model.
You have the obligation to disseminate the human rights, peace culture and equality. It is time to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which has brought untold sorrow to Lebanese and to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women.
Also, you must believe that Justice is the proper peaceful gate of long-lasting Peace, and to believe also that the prosecution of “Crimes against Peace” should be a priority for International Justice in order to maintain International Peace and Security.
Finally, I just want to congratulate the famous and the esteemed BHS for its educational mission.
Education enables all persons to participate effectively in a free society,
Education promotes understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations and all racial, ethnic or religious groups, and further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
Don’t lose your hope, you must remain the generation of hope!

God bless Lebanon,
God bless Brummana High School,
Thank you.