ECOSOC

Day 1

After just a few delays with computer issues with the online delegates, the ECOSOC committee was ready to begin the discussions. Only eight delegates were present at school, but all turned on their personal cameras, so that the delegates online could interact better with everyone in the committee. The chair presented themselves and began an icebreaker activity, so everyone could meet properly. “If you were to meet a historical figure and take him/her to dinner, who would it be?” was the prompt suggested by the Laura. Albert Einstein, Napoleon Bonaparte, Plato, Steven Hawking, Marie Curie, Van Gogh and The Beatles were some of the personalities the delegates wish they could have met.

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The chair explained the basic procedures about how the debate would flow and answered a few questions. The delegation of the United Stated raised a motion to start the debate and the delegates began to mark their presence. The delegate from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela was the first one to present his opening speech, on which the delegation of India raised a point of information, already spicing up the debate that was yet to come. But India doesn’t stop there and also asks questions about the speeches of the delegates representing the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Plurinational State of Bolivia and Russia. Later, after the polemic opening speech from India, which expressed itself strongly against the use of private cryptocurrencies, three points of information were raised by the United States of America, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

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After lunch, the chairs started the session and the Russian Federation raised a motion to change the voting procedure to raising hands instead of rollcall. The motion passed and all delegates declared themselves present and voting except for the International Monetary Fund and Switzerland, that declared themselves as just present and Turkey, that was absent. The afternoon began with the opening speech from Switzerland, which enhanced the privacy and independency that cryptocurrencies bring to users. Again, India speaks up and questions Switzerland about presenting only good aspects of the cryptocurrencies and asks if the country is also taking into consideration the problems and risks that will be brought with the use of such new technologies.

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The next and last opening speeches were from the UK and the United States of America, on which India also asked a question about the regulation of cryptocurrencies in the North American country. Bolivia and the European Union were next, interrogating the United States about how are cryptocurrencies impacting on the citizens and their freedom. 

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Finally, with the closure of the opening speeches, the delegates decided to start an agenda. Brazil suggested that they started a semi-moderated caucus so the delegates could discuss more freely. India opened the document and the delegates proceeded with the creation of the agenda discussing the security problems that cryptocurrencies might bring. Later, the International Monetary Fund and India began a discussion about CBDCs (Central Banks for Digital Currencies.). IMF believes that this shouldn’t be discussed because the topic englobes various subtopics that the committee wouldn’t be able to discuss in such short notice. He also explained that with the use of cryptocurrencies, the bridge (regular banks) between the central banks and the users will no longer be needed, and that’s not what they should be discussing in the committee. India disagrees, and still wants the topic to be a part of the agenda discussion.

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Also, all delegates agreed that there were too many topics they selected to discuss in only three days, so all started to reformulate the clauses in a pacific way. It was decided that the best solution to make this list smaller was to vote clause by clause and decide which ones should stay and be discussed and which ones weren’t the priority and the moment. Some of the polemic suggestions for agenda clauses were made by the United States of America and Venezuela, who suggested a discussion about if it was fair to take away the right of people who live in countries where the currency is unstable to have financial autonomy through cryptocurrency. The Venezuelan delegate was asked to reformulate the propose and present it again later.

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After the coffee break all delegates were ready for the next session. All declared themselves present and voting, except for IMF, who declared just present. Venezuela asked for the word and presented the reformulated clause 3, the one that had caused some disparities in the previous session. Although the delegate changed his text, the clause only had four votes and will no longer be a part of the agenda.

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Later, India asks Brazil if the use of cryptocurrencies, since they are completely anonymous, won’t make the corruption in the country worse. Brazil answers that the whole point of the discussion is not the legalization, but the regulation of cryptocurrencies. Still, India insists that, because of Brazil’s lack of organization in its government, the “prohibition (of cryptocurrencies) would be a good alternative”.

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By the end of the session Russia raises the motion for unmoderated caucus and the delegates were authorized by the chair to stand up and form groups, always maintaining the social distance. The delegates created various breakout rooms and each one joined according to the interests of its country.

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The ECOSOC council concludes the day with two topics in the agenda, concerning especially governmental control and economic impacts of the cryptocurrencies. Also, it is already possible to perceive that two strong poles with different opinions were formed during the unmoderated caucus, which could lead to a more polarized discussion tomorrow.

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Day 2 – Elon Musk crisis creates conflicts among countries 

 

The ECOSOC committee started the day already wishing to interact and discuss. The delegate representing the United States of America raised a motion for unmoderated caucus for 20 minutes to discuss the working paper. They created two breakout rooms: one with the United States, European Union, China, Japan, India and Russia and another one with the International Monetary Fund, Swiss Confederation, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Federative Republic of Brazil, South Africa, Venezuela and Korea. The twenty minutes weren’t enough, so Venezuela raised a motion to extend the discussion for another 20 minutes, and the motion successfully passes. The delegates finished their first working papers and decided to vote clause by clause, so all could agree on the content of the documents.

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The first block (India, Russia, China, Japan, European Union and the United States of America) begins to present their working paper, which includes topics such as the elaboration of universal legislations aiming the creation of a stable digital environment, eradicating actions such as cyber-attacks, hacking and money laundering. The IMF had strong critics against some of the clauses purposed by India, so some adjustments were made by the delegate. Later, the document was opened for all delegates, and Russia, IMF and Korea were making the main changes and improvements. 

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After the coffee break the delegate representing Russia raised a motion to start an unmoderated caucus while the chairs reviewed their first working paper for ten minutes. After clarifying some of their questions about the document, it was successfully approved. The first working paper of the ECOSOC committee is finally concluded. The second block (composed by IMF, Swiss Confederation, UK, Brazil, South Africa, Venezuela and Korea) presented their working paper, which included topics such as the oversight over the creation of new cryptocurrency wallets and application of restrictions on crypto transactions. Some critics were pointed by India and Russia and the delegates began to vote clause by clause of working paper 2. Clause number 1 passes, while clause number 2 didn’t have enough votes and was erased from the working paper. 

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Since the first working papers are done, the delegate representing Venezuela raised a motion to start the discussion about topic 1b of the agenda, that concerns governmental control regarding taxes. After a short discussion, the Russian Federation raises a motion for unmoderated caucus for 20 minutes, so that the delegates could begin to work on their working papers about the topic. Together, all delegates created their third working paper about the taxes, which included two clauses total. It was decided that each country should have the power over how much the investors will be charged and how each government will charge the population. With the voting and approval of the chairs, the new document is finally finished, and the ECOSOC committee already accounts three working papers. 

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After the lunch break the delegates kept discussing some topics of the last session, but when they were least expecting it, the announcement of a crisis created an uproar in the room. The cryptocurrency backed by Elon Musk was uncovered as Ponzi scheme and the British Prime Minister, Turkish Minister of Economy and Korean Prince lost millions of dollars. The scheme made the politicians believe that the virtual currency was, always, backed up with 1USD per 1USTD, but that wasn’t the case. India wants to investigate trying to back trace the transactions made to steal the money and sue Elon Musk and other personalities involved in the scheme. Russia invites the countries that have been harmed by the scheme to comment on the case and state a position, so the delegation of the Republic of Korea says he’s shocked, however the delegation thinks that the unstable behavior of the currency is completely responsible for the money loss, and that it was already a common sense that this type of currencie is a big risk. Venezuela disagrees with Korea and states that the cryptocurrency itself and its volatility is not the problem, but the specific case of Elon Musk. After discussing, the delegates began to write a working paper to solve the problem.

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The delegate of Korea thinks that, since Venezuela stated that its government was responsible for the popularity of cryptocurrencies, the politician Nicolás Maduro should be investigated. The statement was followed by laughs from the other nations and a quick response from the Venezuelan delegate, who said that the country is indeed connected with the cryptocurrency popularity, but is not responsible for every transaction made in the world and doesn’t see any sense in the accusations.

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As if the crisis alone was not enough, there was a development of the problem, announced by the press team: Vladimir Putin also lost money and is suspicious for being responsible for Elon Musk’s disappearance. This was enough to create a little chaos in the committee, who was even more lost because of the absence of the delegation of the United States of America.

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Once USA was back, the delegates could get some answers, but also more instability. The country states that it’ll take extreme measures in relation to Elon Musk and will pay the money back to the countries that were harmed. Also, the delegate wanted to investigate Russia for the possible kidnap of the millionaire, but Russia is totally against the measure. The delegate says that the USA hasn’t any proof that the Russian government has anything to do with such crime. The North American country replies, saying that Russia has the largest number of hackers and digital criminals in the world, who also have been involved in the election of Donald Trump a few years ago. Still, Russia responds that maybe Elon Musk ran away to avoid punishment or the American government itself hided him to incriminate Russia.

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Despite those discussions, all eight clauses from the working paper passed, so the ECOSOC committee successfully resolved the crisis. Tomorrow, the delegates expect to give a closure to the topics discussed until now in a draft resolution and conclude Posmun with a great document which will help all countries to deal better with the surge of cryptocurrencies.

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Day 3

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The third day at ECOSOC committee began in a hurry. The delegates had only two sessions to complete both their last working paper discussing the last topic of the agenda (Interferences of cryptocurrencies in monetary policies) and the draft resolution. The delegates representing Venezuela, Russia, India and the International Monetary Fund were the ones discussing the economic impacts and regulations that should be taken into consideration when writing the working paper.

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The new working paper includes clauses such as the limitation of transactions and ownership using cryptocurrencies, taxation of miners and regulation of public speeches with the purpose of manipulating the cryptocurrencies market. The chair began to read clause by clause, so the delegates could vote for their approval. After the coffee break some more adjustments were made, and the working paper was successfully approved by the chairs and all delegates present. Together, they began to revise the draft resolution, to avoid amendments later. Before voting the document as a whole and concluding de committee discussions, the delegates talked for another five minutes about who should be the main and co-submitters of the draft resolution.

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Later, with 13 votes in favor and no votes against it, the draft resolution successfully passes. The end of the session was commemorated with claps from the delegates, the chair, the usher and the press. 

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The deleawards also caused a commotion in the room. The winner delegates were: IMF as Deleostra, Delegato, Most likely to Become the next Elon Musk and Delenglish; Vice chair as Delegata and Delefofa; India as Delechata, Delecaçamenção and Delefofa; Korea as Deleteiminhapolíticaexterna and Deleeminen; Turkey as Deleghost and Delelost; Usher as Delefofo and Most likely to work at McDonalds; USA as Delecringe and Deleemocionado; Press as Delefofa; Switzerland as Delefashion and Usher and Russia as Delecouple.

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After the voting, the press came to take more pictures and the delegates finally left for lunch, officially putting an end to the discussions at the ECOSOC committee in POSMUN 2021.