Craig Moss – Co-ordinator of Gifted & Talented 7-12

UN Youth Evatt Competition returns to Emanuel School

On Wednesday 2 June 2021, Emanuel School hosted a preliminary round to the New South Wales Evatt Competition. Four Emanuel students took part with 24 other students from a range of schools in an interesting and lively mock UN Security Council session. 

The New South Wales Evatt Competition is the NSW State round of the UN Youth Australia Evatt Competition, Australia’s premier debating and diplomacy competition. Evatt is a Model United Nations Security Council Diplomacy Competition for students in Years 9-12. It aims to educate young people about Australia’s place in the world and empower them as active citizens by developing public speaking, negotiation, teamwork, research, and diplomatic skills. 

The competition takes the form of a mock session of the UN Security Council. Teams of two students debate, amend, and vote on resolutions from the perspective of the country they are assigned. Teams were allocated one of the fifteen countries that are members of the United Nations Security Council in 2021. The students that are judged the most effective diplomats will proceed to the next round. This will be announced when all preliminary rounds have concluded towards the end of June. 

For this preliminary round Luca Calderon Havas and Ella Hart represented France while Benjamin Cohen and Aiden Merten represented Niger. The resolutions they had to debate were interesting and engaging but also very challenging. They were as follows:

• The Question of Social Media and Conflict
• The Question of the Flanders-Walloon Dispute
• The Question of the military coup in Myanmar 

Both teams performed extremely well, getting a number of amendments to resolutions passed by the council. This was very impressive considering it was the first time all Emanuel students involved had taken part in the Evatt Competition. The students enjoyed the format of the competition, especially the segments where they had the opportunity to negotiate and strike deals with other countries. Below are some student reflections on the competition. 

Student reflections

“It was extremely enjoyable, and I hope that we are chosen to go to the next round. When the competition happens again next year, I will definitely join again.”By Aiden Merten

“It was an amazing experience as I was able to improve my public speaking and problem-solving skills through discussion and debate with students from other schools. Representing France, we played a major role in the resolution regarding the dispute between Walloons and Flanders in Belgium as we used our diplomatic skills to pass amendments and resolve issues with other countries. In the end, it was a very fun experience, and it was awesome that Emanuel was able to host a round.” By Luca Calderon Havas