WMD ESSAY COMPETITION
A global on-line essay competition for students has been launched (2/8/06) to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the World Federation of the United Nations Associations (WFUNA). The essay competition, which is in honour of Dr Hans Blix, is open to students of all ages.
Students are asked to respond to the question: Which recommendations in the report of the Commission of Weapons of Mass Destruction are the most important for my country to support and why? How could my country promote support for these particular recommendations at the United Nations
The prize is an all-expenses paid trip to WFUNA’s 38th Plenary Assembly and International Symposium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in November. The five winners will participate in a public policy dialogue at the symposium, and their essays will be published.
The aim of the World Federation is to be a peoples’ movement in support of the UN and in line with this aim, the objective of the on-line global essay competition is to encourage students all over the world to speak up on issues of peace and disarmament, and for the full diversity of their hopes and fears, ideas and solutions to be heard.
The deadline for the submission of essays is October 1. A panel of international judges, chaired by a WFUNA president, will select the top ten essays from each region and interview the authors over the phone. The five winners will be announced on United Nations Day on October 24 and a special section of the WFUNA website will showcase the winning essays.
Essays should be a minimum of 1,500 to a maximum 3,000 words. Applications should include student information: name, age, gender, country, phone number, email address, school and major course of study.
The essay questions are based on the report, “Weapons of Terror – Freeing the World of Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons”, released in June. All essays should be emailed, in English, to the WFUNA at _essay@wfuna.org
For more information, wfunany@wfuna.org
the full WMDC report is at: http://www.wmdcommission.org/files/Weapons_of_Terror.pdf
