Statement from the CMUNCE Secretariat Re: Guest Speaker Boycott

December 12, 2023

The Secretariat of the 23rd Annual Columbia Model United Nations Conference and Exposition (CMUNCE) has chosen to join the Guest Speaker Boycott advocated by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) to take a stand against anti-Palestinian censorship. As such, we will not host guest speakers at CMUNCE XXIII in January 2024.

As a Model United Nations conference, mirroring the ethos of the United Nations, we are committed to upholding the right to free speech. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights explicitly states, "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." 

Student groups on Columbia University’s campus have been actively raising awareness about human rights violations against Palestinians. Israel has been targeting hospitals, schools, and homes in Gaza, while also deliberately obstructing the supply of essential resources to more than two million Palestinians, over half of them being children. On December 6th, 2023, António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter for the first time in his six-year tenure, writing in part, “Nowhere is safe in Gaza. Amid constant bombardment by the Israel Defense Forces, and without shelter or the essentials to survive, I expect public order to completely break down soon due to the desperate conditions, rendering even limited humanitarian assistance impossible.” To call attention to this humanitarian crisis, Columbia student groups Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organized a series of protests and educational speaker events.

Columbia University and Barnard College have taken measures to suppress these actions, including the unwarranted suspension of SJP and JVP as well as the shutdown of events related to Palestine. Such restrictions on dialogue and academic discourse threaten the foundational principles of free expression and intellectual diversity at Columbia. We strongly condemn the suppressive actions taken by the University and in joining this boycott stand in solidarity with our peers in their right to be heard.

For the past two decades, the CMUNCE Secretariat has been committed to ensuring constructive academic discourse at our conference. We remain dedicated to creating spaces that encourage informed and respectful dialogue among delegates.

Signed, 

The Secretariat of the 23rd Annual Columbia Model United Nations Conference and Exposition

*The CMUNCE Secretariat is a branch of the Columbia International Relations Council and Association (CIRCA). The CMUNCE Secretariat’s participation in CUAD’s Guest Speaker Boycott is independent of CIRCA and is not reflective of any current stance of CIRCA as a whole.