Violence against women, extremism and climate change are among topics being debated during the Bahrain Universities Model United Nations (BUMUN), which started yesterday (November 27).

Supreme Council for Youth and Sports chairman Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa opened the 10th annual event at the Sheraton Hotel, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

He spoke about solidarity with Palestine and the importance of improving the standard of debates.

"The distinctive interaction of youth and their determination to put forward their proposals and views freely with a sense of high responsibility in diagnosing challenges and brainstorming solutions has achieved the success of BUMUN," Shaikh Nasser said.

"The Supreme Council for Youth and Sports has always been keen on developing the knowledge of Bahraini youth, upgrading their various skills and involving them in the presentations of the views and ideas on the various issues, experienced by our local community and the global community.

"This is the most important objective that we seek to translate on the ground when organising and holding youth meeting and seminars, considering that youth represent a large part of the solution of these issues, as well as shouldering the maintenance of the vocabulary of development and growth for all countries in the world."

BUMUN founder and programme director Doris Martin told the GDN that students would assume the roles of four bodies - the UN General Assembly (GA), Economic and Social Council, the Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - to discuss six topics.

"This year, the participants seem much more prepared, which is great," Ms Martin said.

"They're eager to provide solutions to the global issues they've been presented with.

"We're touching on extremism and how youth deal with it because they're vulnerable.

Vulnerable

"The emergency crisis will be presented tomorrow.

"Today we'll discuss health topics, such as the Ebola crisis, climate change, nuclear hazards and the treatment of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

"I chose the topics and put them before the executive committee, as well as representatives from the UN, Goys and Foreign Affairs Ministry.

"I look at the current situation in the region and try to put together topics on that basis.

"We're also talking about how to deal with violence against women, and we have a guest speaker from the Supreme Council for Women, public and foreign relations director Shaikha Deena bint Rashid Al Khalifa.

"We also have UNIC director Nejib Friji to talk about terrorism."

BUMUN secretary-general Mohammed Alam said the programme had grown in the past few years.

"I've been a part of BUMUN for the past four years, and it has grown so much," he said.

"Earlier, we barely had delegations from different universities or different countries, but now we have a number from Oman, Saudi, Qatar and the UAE. The standard has improved significantly.

"Earlier, they were struggling to compete and speak openly, which made it difficult to give diplomacy and honourable mentions because only a few stood out.

"Now it's become a very difficult process to award because there are so many amazing candidates."

He also emphasised the importance of the violence against women topic at the event, which ends today.

"Violence against women is one of the most important topics in the whole conference," he said.

"Women play an important role in Bahrain society and the world and are routinely subject to violence - verbal, physical or psychological. "Having this topic incorporated is really going to stimulate the mind for critical thinking for tackling real world issues. "We have a duty to improve upon our society, how things happen, how things work." - TradeArabia News Service