UNHRC Interview

Interviewed by: Navya Apparao (Del of RT Russia Today)

Interviewees: Anarv Gupta, Chair of TRICOM UNHRSC and Ishaan Talati, Assistant Director of TRICOM UNHRC

Q:What’s your favorite part of chairing?

Anarv: My favorite part of chairing is telling the delegates what to do.

Ishaan: My favorite part is also telling delegates what to do but also getting to see command how the committee flows and to see how everything shapes up at the end. 

Q:Why do you think UNHRC is special? 

Anarv: UNHRC is special because of its mandate, the UNHRC is empowered to take action, to recommend things to the nations of the world. To take actions against humanitarian rights and things like that. It's special in its mandate and also in its agenda. In a world of instability UNHRC can sometimes be the light at the end of the tunnel. We can look to it for guidance. 

Ishaan: For me UNHRC is special because there’s so much you can do in the committee. It’s such a broad committee, it's also sort of versatile. And at the end of the day, everything is about humans, and their rights and this is a human rights committee. 

Q:Personally, how do you think the flow of the committee is going?

Anarv: I think the flow of the committee is going well. We have gotten feedback from our delegates as well. At first we got the feedback that they wanted more crisis earlier so we gave them that, and now they say the flow is perfect. I hope that’s true. We try to make the floor with preference to the delegate's opinions. 

Ishaan: I think it’s going well to an extent. I think while we’ve done well with the crisis, we still need to do solid debate. For instance, we should have at least three moderated caucuses, we’ve only had one so far. I think our GSLs also took up a lot of time. It took us over one committee session to finish the GSLs. 

Anarv: I don’t think the GSL’s weren’t something to finish, we just didn’t know; because we were in the process of forming the crisis and things like that, I think we let the GSLs extend because it's what most delegates come prepared with in their hands. I think it’s important to show their research and preparation. 

Q: What do you think your favorite crisis that you introduced was?

Anarv: Mine was The Gutierrez murder. We believe that we presented it very theatrically to our delegates. So our delegates enjoyed it. It was my favorite crisis. The narrative was really good. 

Ishaan: It would be the terrace murder for me too because I am a big Game of Thrones fan. There were some Game of Thrones references, one of the most traumatic episodes in cinema history. 

Q: This question is slightly off-topic, but if you were a food, what would you be? & why? 

Anarv: I would be a coconut, because they are hard from the outside and soft on the inside. 

Ishaan: I’d be a chicken sandwich, because while I look plain on the outside, there’s a lot of emotion on the inside. 

Q:What is your least favorite part of chairing?

Anarv: My least favorite part of chairing is that I cannot speak with  substance, I cannot debate, and I cannot be a delegate. My least favorite part of chairing is that I cannot be a delegate. 

Ishaan: My least favorite part of chairing is when your delegates are unenthusiastic or unprepared,  then helping them deal with their crisis impromptu. Or helping them get their enthusiasm back, which we’ve had to deal with twice already. 

Q:This MUN is very different to the MUNS we have had previously, since it's the first of its kind. So what do you think you would do differently or improve? 

Anarv: One thing I would do is check with other schools regarding the MUN date. We had problems with other schools attending this month as the date was inconvenient for them.The other thing I would do better is the USP for this MUN is the TRICOM format. It’s made by BIS students and developed over six months. I believe it’s the future of BISMUN. I would like it to play a bigger role in the future. 

Ishaan: I would say the same about the TRICOM format but also there were certain crises that we could have planned for better.