MUNITY East 2019 Pre-Conference Issue: Two Sides of The Same Coin

Farewell Mr. Stern,
Say Hello to
Dr. Soublet!
Written by: Hyoree Kim
Edited by: Priyanka Krishna
Layout by: Jessie Liao
Photograph by: Sourced by Reporter
Welcome to this year’s THIMUN conference! One
significant change that the conference has made is the
replacement of the International Court of Justice (ICJ)
with the International Criminal Court (ICC). Typically, the
ICJ would delve into issues of legal disputes between
member nations. The ICJ’s role is to settle, in accordance
with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by
states and to give advisory opinions on legal questions
referred to it by authorized United Nations organs
and specialized agencies. Instead of focusing on the
settlement of legal disputes submitted by states and the
provision of advisory opinions on legal questions, the
ICC will generally examine cases involving international
crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war
crimes, and crimes of aggression. The case of THIMUN
Singapore’s ICC concerns war crimes committed by
jihadist Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, most notably the
deliberate destruction of religious and historical sites
in west Africa. While the actual case has been closed in
2016— Al Mahdi pleaded guilty and was sentenced to
nine years of imprisonment— THIMUN Singapore has
reopened the case to put participants’ argumentative
skills and legal knowledge to the test.
conversations. Last year, discussions were led by Robert
Stern, MUN director from The American International
School in England (TASIS). He will be missed by the
students because of his crucial role as a supervisor
and expert. Dr. Soublet has expressed her wish that
“the students who participate in the Model ICC at
THIMUN Singapore find the experience engaging
and educational.” Additionally, she hopes that“the
participants will think about and discuss the importance
of protecting cultural sites” seeing as the cases that
they will be presenting involve the issues of destruction
of religious/cultural sites. She is excited to see “the
students interact with each other as they try something
new.”MUNITY EAST welcomes all new members of the
THIMUN conference and hopes to have yet another
successful year.
THIMUN also welcomes Dr. Erika Soublet, an MUN
director from the Taipei American School (TAS), to
take over the role of the director of the ICC. Prior to
becoming a teacher, she was a prosecutor in both
Oregon and Washington until 2013. She “handled every
aspect of criminal prosecution, for everything from
simple shoplifting cases to aggravated murder cases, at
the trial court level from charging to sentencing.”
Her experience will give delegates the opportunity
to dive deeper into more realistic debates and
Dr. Soublet
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