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ICU student wins prize at 2018 Model UN Human Rights Council UPR

Update: August 23, 2018

ICU students Bomi Kwon (4th year student), Yoon Joohee (2nd year student), Yusuke Nakano (2nd year student) and Miho Suzuki (1st year student) participated in the 2018 Model United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review (UPR) held at Korea University in Seoul, Republic of Korea, from July 31 to August 3, 2018 and Suzuki won the third place in essay presentation.

The event was held for the first time at Korea University with support from the UN Human Rights Council and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea. About 40 students gathered from universities such as ICU, City University of Hong Kong, Yonsei University, Korea University, Seoul National University and Ritsumeikan University and did a simulation of the UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review* regarding human rights issues in South Korea, North Korea, China and Japan and participated in an essay contest on human rights issues from individual perspectives.

*UPR (Universal Periodic Review): It is a system established along with the creation of the Human Rights Council to universally review human rights situations in all the 193 UN member countries.
Reference: https://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/jinken_r/upr_gai.html

Comment from Miho Suzuki:

First of all, I would like to thank those who organized the Model UN Human Rights Council UPR, those who supported me and everyone whom I met at the event. I was able to improve my critical thinking and English skills through a profound pursuit of the human rights issues in East Asia, which we tend to overlook, and through constructive discussions with other students regarding human rights issues in Japan. I was very happy to win the prize in the essay contest at the event. In my essay, I took up LGBT human rights in Japan and proposed that it was necessary to make same-sex marriage legal in Japan for same-sex couples to win legal rights and eliminate discrimination against LGBT.

Going forward, I would like to move on to a new stage by cultivating my constructive thinking, critical thinking and debating skills. And I would like to keep expanding my world.

Comment from Assistant Professor Hiromichi Matsuda (law):

The UN Human Rights Council UPR began in April 2008 and aims to gradually improve the human rights situation in member countries through constructive dialogue. This Model UN Human Rights Council UPR discusses complex and serious human rights issues in South and North Korea, China and Japan based on the format of the UN Human Rights Council after conducting extensive research of UN documents, governmental opinions and foreign affairs relationship between the countries. The ICU team was led primarily by students who took the International Mock Court course in the Spring Term. Through the four-day program including social programs and visit to human rights-related organizations, the students built relationships of trust going beyond their nationalities. The participants are expected to make significant contributions to improvement of actual human rights situation.