Second-year law student Justine Wiltshire has received a Most Eloquent Speaker Award for her participation in the Model United Nations (MUN) conferences held recently in New York.
Wiltshire, who also represents UBC at international debate competitions, was part of a 15-member delegation from UBC attending the conferences, which provide students with an opportunity to simulate UN activities.
Delegations of students from across North America and around the world learn the procedural and personal skills required for the effective promotion and negotiation of the domestic and foreign policy of a country assigned to them for representation. UBC represented Bulgaria at this year's event. Team members sit on various UN bodies such as the Security Council and General Assembly.
"It was invaluable experience, having to draft resolutions, negotiate foreign policy and international law provisions," said Wiltshire about her first involvement with the MUN conferences.
"The experience crystallized for me the whole process of how many perspectives need to be reconciled to reach consensus, and how compromise is an essential element of UN activities and successes."
Wiltshire is currently assisting adjunct law professor Marcia Kran in the preparation of an educational manual commissioned by the United Nations Centre for Human Rights.
She recently received sponsorship from the Office of the Vice-President, Academic and Provost to accompany Kran to Geneva in May, for the review of the manual with eminent academics, judges and lawyers.