Keynote Address for the International Schools Partnership Virtual Model United Nations

H.E. Ms. Nazhat Shameem Khan, President of the Human Rights Council

21 May 2021

Good day and welcome to International Schools Partnership Virtual Model United Nations.

It is my great honour to address you all today.

By way of introduction, my name is Nazhat Shameem Khan and I am the Ambassador of the Republic of Fiji to the United Nations in Geneva. In addition, this year I have the great honour to serve as the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Let me first thank the International Schools Partnership for organizing this Virtual Model United Nations Conference. This event provides an invaluable opportunity for students from around the world to better their understanding of the United Nations and international affairs and to develop their skills in diplomacy, debating, teamwork and leadership.

Indeed, helping the next generation of leaders foster the skills necessary to tackle the world’s most complex and fraught challenges is particularly important in our increasingly globalised world.

I also  applaud the stars of this Conference - the students. Your commitment to learning more about the United Nations, international affairs and diplomacy is commendable and your motivation to obtain the skills that are necessary to solve global problems by working together with people from different places and with different perspectives, gives us all hope that you, our future leaders, will make the world a better place.  

I would like to take this opportunity to tell you a little about my work as President of the Human Rights Council, and to explain how essential the knowledge and skills you will gain during this Virtual Model United Nations Conference are to working at the United Nations and in international affairs.

The Human Rights Council is the main United Nations intergovernmental body dealing with human rights. It provides a forum for dialogue and cooperation, and contributes knowledge and resources to help improve the lives of persons from around the world.

And as President, I work hard to ensure that the Human Rights Council fulfils its responsibility to promote and protect the human rights of everyone around the world. My job is to make sure that the Council continues to work properly, despite the challenges we face. In order to do this, I must make sure that countries, NGOs and human rights experts from all around the world are able to come together to hold constructive and respectful discussions on important human rights challenges, and to make decisions aimed improving the human rights of everyone.

Let me give you a specific example, and it is one that is unfortunately familiar to us all: the COVID-19 pandemic. A big part of my job this year is ensuring that, despite the pandemic and all the related restrictions on travel and gathering in large groups, the Human Rights Council continues to do its job. And these days, the Council has a lot of very important work to do in encouraging countries from all around the world to work together to solve some very difficult human rights problems.

But different countries have different ideas about how the Human Rights Council should work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some countries prefer that the Human Rights Council meet in-person while following all health and safety protocols, other countries prefer that the Human Rights Council meet only virtually to protect everyone’s health, and still other countries prefer that the Human Rights Council meet only to discuss non contentious issues until the pandemic is over.

It is my job to listen to everyone, facilitate the discussion and see if we can find a compromise that everyone can support so that the Human Rights Council can continue to work. And to find a compromise, I rely on the very skills that you will be developing during this Virtual Model United Nations Conference.

I use my experience in diplomacy to communicate with different countries and I listen very carefully in order to understand why different countries have different opinions, all with the goal of identifying the opinions and positions that they all can agree on.

For example, I listened carefully as different countries explained why they preferred that the Human Rights Council meet in-person or why they preferred that the Human Rights Council meet virtually.

But, just as importantly, I listened to and worked to identify what all countries had in common: they all wanted the Human Rights Council to continue to help improve the lives of persons around the world.

In addition to using my experience in diplomacy to communicate with different countries and listen to the differences and similarities in their opinions, I used another skill that you will be developing today: teamwork.

I spoke with all countries and reminded them of what they had in common: they all want the Human Rights Council to continue to help improve the lives of persons around the world. They all have the same goal.

From there, I encouraged countries to negotiate and resolve their differences. Indeed, it became much easier for countries with different opinions to reach compromise when these countries realised that they all had the same goal.

I am happy to say that the countries did reach compromise and that the Human Rights Council continues to be a place where countries, NGOs and experts can meet to discuss human rights challenges and solutions to them. We successfully found solutions to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic through considering all of the different opinions to reach a compromise.

This is just one example of how everyday I use those skills that you will be developing at this Virtual Model United Nations Conference. 

If I may, I would like to conclude by emphasising one of the skills that I find extremely important in my work, and that you will find important too: understanding.

To find compromise on challenges that different countries have different opinions on, it is extremely important that we make an effort to understand one another. We all come from different regions and different cultures, and so it is to be expected that we have different opinions.

But what is really important is to try to understand each other’s opinions. Indeed, it is only when we understand one another, and our differences, that we can move forward together and find compromise.

So, as each of you participate in this Virtual Model United Nations Conference, I encourage you all to make an extra effort to understand one another, appreciate each other’s differences and use each other’s similarities as a building block to reach compromise. This recognition of diversity of opinion, of approach, of understanding, is the first significant step to a greater global understanding and to global action.

Thank you very much for your time and I wish you all the best for this Virtual Model United Nations Conference.