Students of the United Nations International School will hold their forty-seventh annual UNIS-UN conference in the General Assembly Hall at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 14 and 15 March.
Education is one of the fundamental human rights, and the lack of education for 72 million children worldwide has a huge global impact on our growing population. An inadequate education can be linked to poverty, cultural relativism, war and more.
Without advances in a sustainable education, these inequalities will only increase. The 2023 conference, entitled “Turning the Page: A New Chapter in Education” will address today’s education landscape through meaningful discussions and debates that develop solutions to education's leading issues.
The UNIS-UN Student Conference Organizing Committee was founded during the 1976-77 school year and quickly grew from a group of about 20 to one of the largest student groups at the school. Every year, organizers select a contemporary global issue to focus on, free of any national agendas and obligations, while sensitive to the value of understanding different perceptions and perspectives.
The conference will feature captivating presenters who will speak on the future of education addressing such topics as tackling the intricacies of mental health and special education, the role of opinion in the classroom, the rights of educators and the development of education in various countries. Furthermore, students will investigate how climate change, the migration crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have indefinitely impacted education and the possible approaches towards a more equitable and accessible education in the future.
Approximately 250 visiting school students from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bermuda, Chile, Germany, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States and Viet Nam will join eleventh and twelfth-grade students from the United Nations International School. Altogether, over 60 countries will be represented among the 500 attendees.
The event’s speakers include: Christopher de Bono, Deputy Director of Communications, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); Sheikh Manssour bin Mussallam, Secretary-General, Organization of Educational Cooperation; Lauren Rumble, Associate Director Gender Equality, UNICEF; Roser Salavert, Director of Professional Development Resource Center for Religious and Independent Schools, Fordham University Graduate School of Education; Robert Rae, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations; Juan Ramón de la Fuente Ramírez, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations; Ana Paula Zacarias, Ambassador and Permanent Representative Portugal to the United Nations; and Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif al-Thani, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations.
Soraya Fouladi, United Nations International School alumna (2012) and Founder and CEO of the non-profit and social enterprise Jara, will close the conference. Ms. Fouladi was inspired during her experience as a student at the school to make a difference and embarked on a mission to ensure the 800 million children in high-poverty and low-connectivity communities globally can access quality education — anywhere, anytime, through the Jara Unit, their renewable energy e-learning device. She hopes to inspire the next generation of change-makers.
For more information, please contact Daniella Musmani Brenes at email: dmusmani@unis.org, or tel.: +1 609 622 9739.
Source: EMM/ United Nations