Dear Delegates,

Welcome to ILMUNC XXVI and to the Legal Committee of the General Assembly! My name is Tiffany Chin and I will be your chair for this session. Along with Jay Raghavan, the Moderator, we will be guiding and chairing the discussion and debate of this sixth committee of the General Assembly.

This year, we have decided on two very pressing topics that have significant relevance to the issues occurring around the world: the definition and rights of Prisoners of War, and the issue of the structure of the Security Council (Security Council reforms). With the multiple civil and international conflicts, the prisoner of war has become a primary source of leverage, and the Legal Committee has the power to discuss and possibly modify the definition of the status of Prisoners of War so as to comply with the Geneva Convention. The Security Council has also been disputed to have an unfair and biased organization, and though there has been much discussion to reform the organ, there has yet to be substantial change.

I have been involved in Model United Nations for seven years, starting with my freshman year in high school. In addition to chairing ILMUNC, I have chaired at several international conferences including THIMUN and BEIMUN, and was the Under-Secretary-General for the General Assembly at UPMUNC, our university level conference. ILMUNC is one of the conferences that I look forward to the most throughout the year, and I cannot wait to hear your ideas and chair the productive debate of the Legal committee. Please feel free to come up to me in committee with any questions you may have regarding our topics, the ILMUNC conference, the University of Pennsylvania, or the beautiful city of Philadelphia. I look forward to seeing you all at the conference!

Cheers,

Tiffany Chin

Chair, Legal
Ivy League Model United Nations Conference XXVI

Dear Delegates,

Welcome to ILMUNC and welcome to the Legal Committee, one of the most important General Assembly Committees of the United Nations! My name is Jay Raghavan, and I am extremely excited to be serving as your Moderator!

A little bit about myself - I’ve been doing Model UN for quite a while. After doing it in high school, Model UN has basically consumed my life while at Penn as I’ve traveled to a number of conferences around the country and staffed ILMUNC and our college conference, UPMUNC. Last year, I had the pleasure of chairing the Millennium Development Goals committee, and I was fortunate enough to serve as Secretary-General of UPMUNC in 2008. I now serve as the President of the International Affairs Association, the umbrella organization to all the Model UN activities at Penn.

I hope to moderate debate in an efficient and productive manner. I encourage you to try to get familiar with parliamentary procedure prior to coming to the conference, but I promise that I will answer any and all questions that you have. Model UN can be difficult to get into at first, but it can also be a lot of fun, so I hope to create an environment where you can relax, focus, think critically about the issues, and above all, have a good time in committee. ILMUNC is one of the premier Model UN conferences in the world, and my goal is to ensure that the Legal committee is moderated at that high standard.

I hope you find the Background Guide helpful in preparation. We’re here to make sure that your committee experience in Legal is the best that you’ve had. We hope that the issues give you much to think about, and I look forward to some great debate in January!

See you soon,

Jay Raghavan

Moderator, Legal
Ivy League Model United Nations Conference XXVI