Letters

Letter fro m the Board of Dais

Indah Pratiwi Eri Putri (Head Chair of UNESCO)

Greetings Delegates!
It is my privilege to welcome you to Asia Youth International Model United Nations
Bali 2022! My name is Indah Pratiwi, and it is my honor to serve as your head chair
on the UNESCO committee. I am an international relations graduate from
Universitas Padjadjaran, with concentrations in Gender Studies, Human Rights, and
Security. I consider myself to be a person with a wide range of interests, but at the
moment, I'm particularly interested in learning new recipes.
A little bit of side note from me, I believe the topic of this council is very
beginner-friendly. With a dash of creativity and a desire to dig deeper than this study
guide, which has been meticulously researched and composed by your chairs, I
believe you can come up with a variety of solutions that not only answer the
QARMAs, but also open up new horizons for today's youth as future leaders and
decision-makers.
As someone who only recently began participating in Model United Nations in
university, it is very important to me that new delegates feel welcomed into the MUN
community. I'm hoping that this committee will allow both new and experienced
delegates to benefit from each other's experiences. Therefore, I hope this committee
will be a constructive, positive, and enjoyable experience for every delegate. This
means that I will have absolutely no tolerance for underhanded tactics, prewriting,
plagiarism, sexism, racism, or really anything that makes the committee a toxic
environment. If you have any questions regarding the topic, please do not hesitate to
reach out to me through my email: [email protected]
Good luck! I’ll see you on the Island of the Gods, Bali!

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Abraham Hino Samuel Jose (Co-Chair of UNESCO)
Hailing from Jakarta, Jose is a Bachelor of International Relations Candidate from
UPN Veteran Jakarta, he is currently doing his internship mostly on government/
policy-related institutions for the past 2 years since 2021. He has been MUN-ing
since 2018 and is looking forward to retiring from the MUN circuit. Jose is looking
forward to meeting all the delegates in Bali, Indonesia! For sure this will be his last
flight before coming to retirement. I am looking forward to the good debates,
negotiation, and diplomacy in the land of Gods! Jose and Indah favor upon the
delegates who has been actively participating in the Committee with substances and
amazing ideas, worry not if you are a first timer or not fluent enough in English,
because Indah and Jose will always encourage you and what we want to hear is
your solutions and policies – not your grammar. Thank you !

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Introduction
Introduction to The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO)
The United Nations for Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) was founded in 1945 after the adoption of the UNESCO’s constitution in
London, the constitution entered into force in 1946. UNESCO has the mandate and
objectives to promote quality education, mobilizing scientific breakthroughs and
knowledge, addressing social and cultural issues, fostering diversity and intercultural
dialogue, promoting inclusive knowledge while maintaining peace (UN Envoy on
Youth, 2013). Historically, UNESCO was established to promote a culture of peace
within the global society, however as the era develops, the vision has now expanded.
UNESCO is currently prioritizing actions on the following aspects: (1) education; (2)
natural sciences; (3) social and human scientific knowledge; (4) culture; and (5)
communication and information (Briney, 2019). UNESCO right now works with the
goal to achieve SDGs, developing resource management, disaster preparedness,
promoting science and engineering, while also supporting the vision to protect and
maintain the world's heritage.
As of 2021, UNESCO currently has been establishing around 2747 projects in
177 member states with a funding of 905,26 million USD donated by 201 entities
operating in all 23 sectors with a total of 2022 budget around USD 1,34 billion
USD.Currently UNESCO is operating with 195 member states and has several key
priorities for its program as outlined in the UNESCO Programme and Budget 2022-
2025 document. First, African priority sector empowerment and UNESCO's external
relation became the main program objectives. Second, strategic planning,
communication, coordination, and support management. Third, UNESCO also
outlined their priorities and medium term strategic action plan that was adopted in
UNESCO’s Medium Term Strategy 2022-2029. Current UNESCO’s mission
statement covers: the facilitation of international cooperation and collaboration while
harnessing UNESCO’s structure to eradicate poverty, sustaining culture of peace,
SDGs, intercultural dialogue through the efforts of science, communication,
education, and information. UNESCO also has the role to conduct data collection
and analysis pertaining to its related SDGs (SDG 4, 6, 9, 11, 14, and 16).

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Introduction to the Agenda

Promoting peace and cultural diversity has always been the prime holistic vision of
UNESCO, it can be seen from its continuous effort as what we’ve seen from its
UNESCO’s Programme of Action document that was adopted in 2013. It is important
to understand that through this topic, a sense of peace and cultural diversity can only
be realized through soft-power engagement and concrete initiatives that should be
complied by the member states. Previous UNESCO’s Plan of Action highlighted
several strategic horizons to be understood as the key verticals to develop our
approach in formulating further actions and solutive ideas. UNESCO laid out the
principles that cultural diversity can be the needed driving force to advance peace
only if there is a positive relationship between cultural diversity and intercultural
dialogue. In realizing that positive relationship, a cultural diversity must be able to
show: internal reflexivity on its gaps and deficits; able to strengthen its capacity to
co-exist with others; and willing to have their own transformative change as to learn
new ways to coexist with others (UNESCO, 2013). From these narratives, we can
conclude that cultural diversity can only be a great driving force of peace if one’s
community/ culture can co-exist and respect others through tolerance, supportive
actions, and respect.
In a more international/ globalized perspective, cultural diversity and its
relation to global peace is shaped as something that is centric to transnational,
historical, and structural issues. Cultural diversity continues to become more
important day by day as the international order and its communities are getting
diverse and heterogeneous in its context, hence the key is how we can govern that
diversity while developing institutional norms and practices that could allow peace to
sustain (Reus-Smit, 2017). A previous research has concluded several factors
contributing to the relation of cultural diversity, coexistence, and peace in a
multicultural society: the presence of a community-based leadership; reconciliation of
justice process; collaborative learning process; community rules/ norms; role of
institutions in the community; local customs and culture; natural resource;
environment; and the collective action based on trust and mutual assistance
(Sanmee, Pharchauren, Uthaphan, Phutchu, & Thongputtamon, 2021). From these

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factors, in relation to the topic, we can conclude several linkages to the role of youth
and how we can address this issue.
First, youth is the most capable stakeholder in creating and sustaining the
operation of their own community-based platforms, this is because they have the
needed capacity and sense of ownership in being a changemaker in their society.
Second, youth is actually the key driver of grassroot initiatives, this is because many
of the adults tend to focus only on their career without putting much more dedication
and commitment to their own personal advocacy. Third, youth is able to become the
driver and changemaker in ensuring that their own local institutions wherever they
are in, are able to deliver the best practices. Youth tend to do this by their agility,
mobility, and critical thinking. This proposition was further supported by the study
conducted by Visser and Tersteeg (2019) where he outlined the basis for this: Young
people is more receptive to a more intercultural and diverse context on their
communities, which means that youth nowadays tend to be more competent and
better in coexisting themselves in a diverse environment.
Therefore UNESCO through its role can eventually advance the role of youth
and formulate solutions on how this young changemaker can promote peace through
unity in diversity. UNESCO has been emphasizing this as the key initiative in
ensuring that stakeholders like the youth are involved and their advocacy can be
advanced to promote innovation, creativity, and effectivity of cultural practices in
general within their communities.

Body
Key Problems

“Tolerance, inter-cultural dialogue, and respect for diversity are more essential than
ever in a world where peoples are becoming more and more closely interconnected”
– Kofi Annan

Peace is more than just the absence of war — it is also a state of mind and a
frame of consciousness. In order to end bigger issues such as poverty, we must
develop justice and respect for human rights, in order to build a true culture of peace.

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It is obvious that today's youth will be tomorrow's leaders. And, in order to prepare
the youth to be great world leaders, the government must lead by example and take
concrete steps to foster a culture of peace, one of which is encouraging intercultural
dialogue among society and youth empowerment. The main reason why intercultural
dialogue is regarded as one of the most important means of promoting peace and
cultural diversity stems from an understanding of human nature; we tend to be
emotionally fragile and uncomfortable when we notice differences between ourselves
and others. We may feel so nervous at times that we isolate ourselves from those
who do not appear to be the same as us. We may even become violent as a result of
these differences in some cases. Lack of familiarity breeds superficial and harmful
behaviors. The approach to this is by getting to know people with a different culture,
way of life, or appearance than what we have. When our workplace and connections
welcome such diversity, any disparities we notice in others become familiar. They
become less strange as a result. Then we find we're the same type of different after
all. In actuality, we're all fairly similar. We can be at peace with one another.
This view is backed up by a well-known Thai historian, Charnvit Kasetsiri, who
claims that a lack of historical knowledge might damage current interactions between
Southeast Asian countries: "Terrible history, bad education, bad neighbor relations"
(UNESCO, 2013). He believed that If we want to change the way our future
generations perceive each other and erase the prejudice that has happened to have
existed in the society between each other nations, we need to first make changes in
the way South-East Asian history is taught at the national level. Creating shared
materials for South-East Asian history education would be a tangible response to
some of the issues raised by South-East Asian historians (UNESCO, 2013). The
long love-hate relationship between Indonesia and Malaysia is a real-life example of
this. It all started with the "Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation," better known as
Indonesia's first president's iconic statement, 'Ganyang Malaysia.' Even after
decades of conflict, tensions between both citizens remain. The sentiment of
Ganyang Malaysia can still be heard, especially when new topics emerge as the
main issues. Surprisingly, this sentiment is shared by current generations who were
not even born when the conflict between these two erupted. This example
demonstrated how education and tolerance can play a critical role in promoting
mutual understanding and peace among future generations while not resurrecting
sentiments from previous generations.

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 Another thing that we need to bear in mind, is currently there is a lot of
research on the involvement of youth in conflict settings, especially when it comes to
violence propagation (The Role of Youth in Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution,
2021). The majority of the media portrays young people as naturally violent rather
than as products of their societies. Sadly to say, many recognized youth as conflict
agents rather than peace agents (The Role of Youth in Peacebuilding and Conflict
Resolution, 2021).

Given that four out of ten individuals, or 42 percent of the global population,
are under the age of 25, and that number is growing, it is becoming increasingly
critical to empower these youth so that they recognize and utilize their potential as
change agents. Rather than being agents of conflict and destruction, they can be
agents of change by engaging in good activities such as holding intercultural and
interreligious discussions or advocating for social cohesiveness in their communities.

Past Actions

● Security Council Resolutions 2250 (UNSCR 2250)

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed a historic resolution in
2015, which is known as Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace, and Security
(CSPPS, 2017). UNSCR 2250 recognizes that youth play an important role in
conflict prevention and resolution, as well as in the sustainable development,

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 inclusion, diversity, and success of peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts –
which makes it to be the first-ever resolution to ever do that. UNSCR 2250
established a framework based on five pillars: participation, protection,
prevention, partnerships, and disengagement and reintegration, emphasizing
the importance of young women and men in promoting international peace
and security. Furthermore, Security Council adopted resolution 2250
mandated the first independent study on youth's beneficial contributions to
peace efforts and dispute resolution, titled "The Missing Peace: Independent
Progress Study on Youth, Peace, and Security" (CSPPS, 2017).

● United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara

(MINURSO) x UNHCR Confidence Building Measures (CBM)

MINURSO is a supporter of the UNHCR's Confidence Building Measures

(CBM) initiative, in which the UNHCR Western Sahara Operation has been
helping the Sahrawi youth to build their culture and identity capacities directly
and through NGO partners (Peacekeeping, n.d.). Projects are currently
undertaken to engage Sahrawi refugee youth in developing their ability and
self-esteem by acknowledging their strengths and talents. Through support to
a network of institutions in the Tindouf refugee camps, such as the Sahrawi
cultural museum, art schools (music, film, and fine arts), and youth centers,
this method aims to develop leadership abilities and strengthen cultural
heritage (Peacekeeping, n.d.). Artist skill development training, assistance for
various cultural festivals and events, university scholarships, and artist
collaborations and shows are among the activities.

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 ● Youth Champions for Peace and Environment Program

UNFICYP launched Youth Champions for Peace and the Environment in May
2020. 24 young people, ages 18 to 29, were chosen from throughout the
island to participate in a tough training program, with the mission of supporting
their own environmental campaigns on the island (Peacekeeping, n.d.). Given
the universality of the environmental difficulties faced not just on the island but
also throughout the continent, the program's purpose was youth
empowerment and peacebuilding. The initiative allowed participants to meet
and get to know their counterparts on the other side of the border, promoting
cooperation and understanding (Peacekeeping, n.d.).

Study Cases

● Malala Yousafzai
When we are talking about youth in action to promote peace, Malala
Yousafzai will be a perfect choice. When the Taliban took control of her
hometown in Swat Valley in 2008, they prohibited many things, including
owning a television and playing music — and those who disobeyed their
orders faced harsh punishment (Malala's Story, n.d.). Furthermore, the
extremists imposed a rule that prohibits girls from attending school.
Malala Yousafzai was only 11 years old when she began blogging for
the BBC under a pen name about the growing military presence in her
hometown and her concerns that her school would be gunned down (Malala
Yousafzai, 2019). She continued to advocate for girls' education after her
identity was revealed, prompting the Taliban to issue a death threat against
her. On October 9, 2012, she was walking home from school when she was
shot in the left side of her head by a gunman.
Thankfully, she survived, and the Taliban's attack on Malala was widely
condemned around the world. Over 2 million people signed a right to
education petition in Pakistan, and the National Assembly ratified the
country's first Right to Free and Compulsory Education Bill. Malala Yousafzai
was the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, receiving it in 2014
(Malala Yousafzai, 2019).

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Possible Solutions
1. Promoting the agenda of Youth, Peace, and Security (YPS) in UNESCO
The agenda of YPS has been adopted formally as one of the UN key
initiatives through the UN Security Council resolution 2250 in 2015. The YPS
agenda highlights five main pillars for the action of youth's contribution in the
maintenance of international peace and security. Those pillars are:
participation, partnership, prevention, protection, and disengagement plus the
reintegration. These pillars are the key to understanding and directing youth’s
role in peace and conflict resolution. This YPS initiative can be a good
consideration for the delegates, by looking at its unique character and how
further UNESCO-led mechanisms can be advanced by referring to YPS or
how new mechanisms can be created in UNESCO’s workstream by taking
this YPS mechanism into account.

2. Collaboration between institutions and cooperation among youth

networks.
Collaboration is indeed important as this is the key in moving forward impacts
and results concretely in the community. Collaboration among youth
stakeholders must be done in order to promote equality, advocacy,
community programs, intergenerational continuity and sustainability of peace
amid the new IR 4.0 disruptions that has been impacting the existence of
cultural diversity in many countries. This is important to further advance

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 youth’s engagement while creating an action plan to promote UNESCO’s
workstream integration into youth agenda in social diversity and peace.

Tackling the Issue

Questions A Resolution Must Answer (QARMAs)
1. What are the solutions and new frameworks that can be created to allow
UNESCO advance youth participation and engagement to be recommended
for the member states? (Please take into the consideration that this must be
youth-centric and comprehensive in nature).
2. What are the mechanisms to address funding issues, project management
problems, and youth-led initiatives that are not continuous and stuck in the
progress?
3. How UNESCO can synergize their work with the other UN entities and how
countries can comply with these policy recommendations brought up to
advance youth’s role in advancing peace amid cultural diversity?

Bibliography

Briney, A. (2019, April 10). An Overview and History of UNESCO. Retrieved from Thought
Co: https://www.thoughtco.com/unesco-history-and-overview-1435440

CSPPS. (2017, January 24). A Role for Youth in Promoting Peaceful, Just and
Inclusive Societies. Retrieved from CSPPS: https://www.cspps.org/news/role-
youth-promoting-peaceful-just-and-inclusive-societies

Malala Yousafzai. (2019, May 29). Retrieved from Biography:

https://www.biography.com/activist/malala-yousafzai

Malala's Story. (n.d.). Retrieved from Malala Fund: https://malala.org/malalas-story/

UN Peacekeeping. (n.d.). Promoting Youth, Peace, and Security. Retrieved from

Peacekeeping UN: https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/promoting-youth-peace-
and-security

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Reus-Smit, C. (2017). Cultural Diversity and International Order. International Organization,
71(4), 851-885.

Sanmee, W., Pharchauren, W., Uthaphan, P., Phutchu, S., & Thongputtamon, N. (2021).
Coexistence and Peace Based on Diversity in a Multicultural Society: Case Study of
Ban Rai Community, Soppong Sub-District, Pang Mapha District Mae Hong Son
province. Linguistics and Culture Review, 5(3), 1020-1031.

The Role of Youth in Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution. (2021, October 5).
Retrieved from The Youth Cafe:
https://www.theyouthcafe.com/perspectives/the-role-of-youth-in-
peacebuilding-and-conflict-resolution

UN Envoy on Youth. (2013, August). UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization. Retrieved from UN Office of Secretary General's Envoy on
Youth: https://www.un.org/youthenvoy/2013/08/unesco-united-nations-educational-
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organization/#:~:text=UNESCO's%20mission%20is%20to%20contribute,%2C%20cul
ture%2C%20communication%20and%20information.

UNESCO. (2013, November 25). Promoting Intercultural Dialogue and a Culture of

Peace in South-East Asia through Shared Histories. Retrieved from UNESCO
Bangkok: https://bangkok.unesco.org/content/promoting-intercultural-
dialogue-and-culture-peace-south-east-asia-through-shared-histories

UNESCO. (2013). Culture of Peace and Non-Violence: A Vision in Action. Paris: UNESCO.

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