Day 11: Elyse got Arrested

Sort of.

Our morning started with the simulation of the International Criminal Court. As a witness for the defence, my job was to establish that Omar Al-Bashir did not order the crimes against humanity and was not responsible for them. That task was fairly easy for me - I was a General of the Sudanese Army and was able to testify that when we arrived to restore order we were attacked by civilians. The crimes that took place were as a result of self-defence (in my eyes) and I made the call to do what was done. Thanks to our efforts (and some great work by the barristers) the judges (other participants) decided in our favour not to indite Omar Al-Bashir. But they did decide that in light of my testimony, I should be indited for crimes against humanity.

So I was arrested.

Testifying

Our defence team

Being Arrested by the Judges

After lunch and me busting out, we started preparation for the highlight of the week, the simulation of the European Union Parliament. During this time I was pulled aside and asked if I would like to be President during the simulation - a role that had been decided for me due to my performances in previous simulations and the fact that I managed to wrangle the entire group of participants to perform a bush dance last night. As such, my role throughout the evening's proceedings was primarily observatory.

The topic for our simulation tomorrow is mandating a percentage representation of women on boards. Our party was one of the progressive parties, which meant we spent most of our time building a resolution to enforce a minimum percentage. Our next step was to lobby and negotiate with the other two parties (one very conservative, one as progressive as us) in order to secure the best possible resolution. I felt a bit sorry for the conservative party, they were outnumbered and didn't really have a chance here.

Finally, after dinner, we would have our committee hearings. Marc was supposed to be chairing these hearings, but unfortunately he came down quite sick. As such, I was also given the chair for these committee hearings. It was a lot of fun and hilarious - although again the conservative party was woefully outnumbered.

Tomorrow is the big day - Parliament time. And Madam President can't wait.