The delegates for the World Health Organisation met for their first session today. The opening meeting saw the introduction of delegates in a naturally slow fashion. The discussion of mental health and the impact of Covid-19 saw much agreement amongst all the delegates with vague mentions to gender and ethnicity thrown into the discussion. There was little substance to these contributions with the consensus being that these two dimensions are important to the discussion but not much more was developed from this. The debate was anything but fierce, with delegates seemingly getting to grips with the online format, demonstrated by some technical difficulties in times of a general caucus. Notable contributions came from the Polish delegate that pushed, with other delegates, the likelihood of mental health issues amongst women. The delegate for Poland referred to the mental health action plan when discussing this. Most nations agreed with the importance of gender and ethnicity with the only minor difference coming from the delegate of the Russian Federation that agreed that women are more likely to have mental illness, but men are more likely to commit suicide. Perhaps more “fruitful” discussion will happen as the sessions continue.
This report was brought to you by Ben O'Verbich, EuroMUN 2021 Special Correspondent for the World Health Organisation.
