THE UNITED NATIONS YOUTH

Evatt Competition

SOUTH AUSTRALIA SEPTEMBER 2013

Official Report

overview

Evatt SA is the state’s round of

Australia’s largest schools diplomacy competition.

Evatt places young Australians in the shoes of UN Security Council representatives, giving them a deeper understanding of global

issues and training them in the skills they need for active citizenship.

Students in Years 9-12 compete in Evatt in

76 teams of two. The competition takes the form STUDENTS of a mock session of the UN Security Council, where teams debate, amend, and SIGNED UP vote on a resolution prepared by our FROM facilitators from the perspective of one of the Security Council’s member nations.

THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL

19 Evatt is a simulation of the UN Security Council, one

SCHOOLS of the principal organs of the United Nations and the

body charged with the maintenance of international Blackfriars Priory School Christian Brothers College peace and security. Cornerstone College Endeavour College Its powers, exercised through UN Security Council

Glenunga International High School resolutions, include the establishment of

Golden Grove High School peacekeeping operations, the imposition of

Henley High School international sanctions, and the authorization of Immanuel College military action. Mitcham Girls High School Norwood Morialta High School

Pedare Christian College The aim of a team in an Evatt competition is simple:

Pembroke School achieve your nation’s goals through diplomacy.

Prince Alfred College Teams must use all the tools of the Security Council

Scotch College to mould the debate to advance their assigned

Seymour College country’s interests: formal speeches, amendments, University Senior College parliamentary procedure, and, of course, lots of back-room wheeling and dealing. Urrbrae Agricultural High School Westminster School

Preliminary rounds

7 th – 9th September 2013

Fullarton Park Centre Supported by the City of Unley

Over three days, 76 students participated in the Evatt SA Preliminary Rounds. Each team debated solutions to three of the world’s most pressing international issues:

AFRICA

Students debated a comprehensive solution to issues facing the African continent, including health, education and infrastructure. Condemning the human rights abuses, genocide, war crimes, high-level corruption, civil wars and high debt levels common across Africa, the Councils debated the possibility of a more centralised approach to combating these issues.

PEOPLE SMUGGLING Debate centred around the formulation of an efficient and effective method of processing asylum seekers involving, where possible, the identification and tracking of people smugglers.

CRISIS: NORTH KOREA Teams were faced with a hypothetical crisis: an attack on US soil by North Korean militants. How can international peace and security be maintained in the face of terrorism? How can the Western world ensure this confrontation doesn’t escalate into all-out warfare? Students grappled with these questions and more in what was a highlight of the Evatt Competition.

Grand Final

18th September 2013

Adelaide City Council Chambers Supported by the City Council

The most outstanding fifteen teams from the Preliminary Rounds were invited to compete in the Evatt SA Grand Final, which saw teams debate some of the most challenging issues facing the international community, including:

DISASTER RELIEF This resolution saw students grapple with the question of how the international community can most effectively and efficiently respond to natural disasters. How can we ensure we are prepared for such emergencies? How can we best protect citizens displaced by disaster? What is the role of international bodies such as the UN in these situations?

SOVEREIGNTY By what process do we recognise a state’s sovereign rights, and are there any circumstances – such as state-sponsored mass atrocity crime – in which these rights can be taken away? Students explored the definition and nature of sovereignty, a concept that has yielded significant debate in the modern age of the nation-state.

Where to from here?

After four days of gruelling, insightful and passionate debate over the world’s deepest crises, UN Youth SA is pleased to announce the three winning teams of Evatt SA 2013:

• 1st place: Henry Blacketer and Hannah Short (Scotch College) • 2nd place: Britt Mashado and Alex Lowe ()

• 3rd place: Tim Hobbs and Andy Nguyen ()

These three teams have been selected to attend the prestigious week-long Evatt National Finals, to be held in in early December, where they will represent their schools and against some of the country’s finest student debaters. Themed around ‘The Asian Century’, the students will debate and discuss the profound implications of the Asia-Pacific region’s growing global importance, all while hearing from world-class keynote speakers and engaging with the future leaders of Australia.

We wish them the very best of luck!

Our supporters

We wish to thank our generous sponsors who made the South Australian rounds of the Evatt Competition possible. As a non-profit organisation run entirely by volunteers under the age of 25, we deeply appreciate the support of the South Australian community in the provision of debate venues.