United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF)
Director: OMAR e. DARWISH
Topic: Addressing the Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers in Armed Conflicts
UNICEF was founded in 1946 to provide emergency food and healthcare to children and mothers in countries that had been devastated by World War II. Now, it serves as the primary UN body responsible for the protection of children's rights, improving children’s living conditions to help meet their basic needs and expanding their opportunities to reach their full potential. In this committee, delegates will address the recruitment of children in armed conflicts and potential solutions to reduce the number of children on battlefields around the world. To accomplish this task, delegates will tackle the complex causes of child recruitment, such as poverty, social instability, and illicit drugs, while coming to diplomatic solutions with other delegates to ensure all perspectives of this conflict are addressed. Furthermore, delegates are encouraged to innovate new solutions for providing children with a stable and successful life far away from the dangers of armed conflicts.
Omar E. Darwish
Omar is a junior at Harvard College studying Economics and Government with a secondary in Statistics. Omar was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt before moving to the United States for middle school. He has been involved in Model United Nations since his time attending the Bronx High School of Science in New York City. At Harvard, Omar serves as a head delegate on Harvard's competitive travel team, ICMUN, while also serving as the Under Secretary General of Crisis Committees for HNMUN Boston. He has competed at dozens of conferences throughout his Model UN career, now competing in primarily crisis committees on the collegiate circuit. He staffed both HMUN and HNMUN Boston as an assistant director before directing the ADHOC himself at HNMUN 2024. Outside of MUN, Omar enjoys playing soccer and catching up on the latest fixtures of Premier League games. He also enjoys binge-watching Netflix and playing chess with his friends.