The second session of the Regional Academy on the United Nations was held in Bratislava, Slovakia. Just like in the case of the previous session in Prague, the six-member Hungarian team travelled to the Slovakian capital in order to take advantage of the outstanding and unmatched opportunities that the Academy offers for its students. The three-day conference gave much more than just presentations from distinguished lecturers: the students also had to meet with their first major challenge during the session.
Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia was chosen as the location of the second session of the Regional Academy on the United Nations 2016/2017. After we all has started to work on our research papers during the summer, the Academy’s students from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria came together again between 12-14 September.
During the Bratislava-session, the complete Hungarian team represented itself by Blanka Bartos, Gergely Szőri, Melinda Marosi-Kiss and Zita Bódi from the University of Szeged, Lúcia Hörömpöli from the Corvinus University of Budapest and Lilla Nóra Kiss from the University of Miskolc.
The second conference put major emphasis on the interactive cooperation between the students, including a three-hour long workshop about policy and research paper drafting which was really useful for the research groups. In addition to the valuable practical knowledge provided, the research teams had many chances to discuss their projects throughout the session as well. On the second day of the session in Bratislava, the teams had to face the challenging task of presenting the work they had done so far on their research projects. This task is extremely important for the research groups, since it enables them to practice for the final presentation of their research, during the upcoming Vienna Session in January 2017.
Furthermore, interesting lectures were given about the work of Habitat for Humanity International, about the Human Rights Challenges and the SDGs, about working for UN and other international organisations, as well as Refugees, human rights and migration challenges. Also, an amusing team-building activity was incorporated into the programme, which made a little sight-seeing possible for the participants.
Regarding to the Hungarian team’s participation, special thanks goes to Dr. Anikó Szalai, the Hungarian coordinator of the RAUN; as well as to the assistant coordinator, Dr. Orsolya Johanna Sziebig, without whom our involvement would not have been possible. Besides, we would also like to thank the generous support of the International and Regional Studies Institute and to the Dean’s Office of the Faculty of Law.
We are looking forward to the next session in Vienna!
The Session Report was written by Zita Bódi
