ABOUT JPHMUN

Information on Registering for JPHMUN

Final Registration Deadline is Friday, March 4th, 2011.

Students are organized into individual countries and committees. Every country in the world has representation in the General Assembly and on the Economic and Social Council. Five countries have permanent membership on the Security Council while ten other countries are elected for two year terms. At any time then, the Security Council has 15 members.

What is JPHMUN?

From May 6th to May 8th, 2011, St. Thomas University will be hosting their 12th annual John Peters Humphrey Model United Nations. JPHMUN is a simulation that attracts around 200 grade 11 and 12 participants from approximately 40 schools across Atlantic Canada. Typically, delegates come from the Maritimes (Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island) but in the past we have had high schools participate from the United States, China and Europe as well.

Our goal is to create a Model United Nations simulation that will open and stimulate the minds of the delegates participating. This opportunity allows students to get to know other students from across the Maritimes and world while challenging their abilities to act as a Country Ambassador.

The Life of John Peters Humphrey

Dr. John Peters Humphrey was a prominent Canadian in the field of human rights. He was a member of the UN Secretariat who wrote the first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that has since been described by the late Pope John Paul II as “the conscience of mankind.” Born in 1905 in Hampton, New Brunswick, he attended Rothesay College and then Mount Allison University; at the latter he obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree and then went on to receive a law degree.

In 1946, he became Director of the Human Rights Division in the UN Secretariat and it was during his tenure as director that he drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Humphrey remained with the UN for 20 years, assisting in the implementation of over 67 international covenants and the constitutions of dozens of countries. After retiring from the UN, he returned to the academic setting at McGill University.

He founded the Canadian Federation for Human Rights and the Canadian Society of Amnesty International. He also worked as a director for the International League for the Rights of Man and served as a member of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women.

John Peters Humphrey will long be respected and remembered as a Canadian who made many contributions to the field of human rights. Today, his Universal Declaration of Human Rights remains a core element in the fight to ensure equal human rights for all of humankind.

Statement of JPHMUN’s Educational Objectives

1. To provide students with a basic understanding of the structure of the United Nations and of how the General Assembly and Security Council work.
2. To encourage students to expand their way of thinking on a global scale. This includes building an awareness of some of the most serious current problems facing the international community, ass well as helping to demonstrate how these issues affect the world’s nation-states and individuals.
3. To assist students in achieving a basic understanding of the nature of the global inter-state system. In particular, students should learn that cooperation and competition are both central features of this system. This involves recognizing that while cooperation among nation-states to achieve common goals does exist, these states also seek to promote their own national interests. Students also learn that dialogue and negotiation, as facilitated by an international organization as the United Nations, can help to overcome barriers to international cooperation caused by competition of resources.
4. To promote the development of a students' political judgment through their experience of engaging in negotiations and decision making in a political simulation.