What is the eligibility level for participants in this debate competition?

The competition is open to college-level students.

Concurso de Debates Universitarios en Responsabilidad Social Universitaria 2026

Q: Where is the Concurso de Debates Universitarios en Responsabilidad Social Universitaria held?

The competition takes place in Trujillo, PER.

Q: What is the primary focus of the debates?

The debates center on university social responsibility, specifically addressing sustainable and healthy environments.

Jun 1, 2026Trujillo, PeruIn-person

The Concurso de Debates Universitarios en Responsabilidad Social Universitaria is an academic competition held in Trujillo, Peru. This event brings together college-level students to engage in structured debates focusing on the critical theme of university social responsibility, specifically addressing sustainable and healthy environments. Participants hone their public speaking, critical thinking, and argumentation skills while exploring practical applications of social responsibility within an academic context.

Committees & topics

Topics
The Crisis in Haiti · Governance of Artificial Intelligence · International Peace and Security · Children's Rights · Global Literacy and the Right to Education · The Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment · Digital Technologies and Human Rights · Open Source Technologies for Sustainable Development

Why it matters

This debate competition serves as a vital platform for cultivating future leaders who are not only academically proficient but also deeply conscious of their societal roles. By focusing on university social responsibility, particularly in the context of sustainable and healthy environments, the event encourages students to consider the broader impact of their institutions and their own actions. This emphasis is crucial for fostering a generation capable of addressing complex global challenges, ranging from environmental degradation to social inequality. The skills developed through rigorous debate, such as logical reasoning, persuasive communication, and the ability to articulate nuanced arguments, are indispensable for effective diplomacy and policy-making.

Furthermore, the event's focus on practical applications of social responsibility helps bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world impact. It challenges students to move beyond abstract concepts and consider how universities can actively contribute to community well-being and environmental stewardship. This approach is particularly relevant in a world grappling with urgent sustainability issues, where academic institutions have a significant role to play in research, innovation, and community engagement. The competition therefore not only educates but also empowers students to become proactive agents of positive change within their communities and beyond.

How to prepare

Participants should undertake thorough research into various facets of university social responsibility, with a particular emphasis on sustainable and healthy environments. This includes understanding different models of university engagement, relevant policy frameworks, and successful case studies from around the world. A comprehensive understanding of the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability will be crucial for constructing robust arguments.

Developing strong argumentation and rebuttal skills is paramount. Students should practice constructing clear, concise, and persuasive arguments, anticipating counter-arguments, and formulating effective rebuttals. Familiarity with debate formats and strategies will also be beneficial. Engaging in mock debates and receiving feedback can significantly enhance performance. Additionally, understanding the nuances of different stakeholder perspectives, as outlined in lessons such as "hidden-stakeholders" and "what-is-stakeholder-mapping," will enable debaters to present more comprehensive and empathetic arguments, enhancing their overall persuasive power.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 3 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Peru

As the host nation, PER has a vested interest in promoting university social responsibility, particularly concerning local environmental and public health issues.

Role in topic

PER, as the host country, provides the geographical and cultural context for the debates. Universities in PER are increasingly focusing on their role in local community development and environmental sustainability, making this competition highly relevant to national educational and social objectives. The event in Trujillo highlights regional efforts to integrate social responsibility into higher education curricula and practices.

Brazil

BRA, with its vast biodiversity and significant environmental challenges, views university social responsibility as critical for sustainable development and environmental protection.

Role in topic

BRA's universities are often at the forefront of research into Amazonian biodiversity and sustainable resource management. Their perspective on university social responsibility would likely emphasize ecological conservation, indigenous rights, and the role of academic institutions in addressing climate change and deforestation, offering valuable insights into environmental aspects of the debate.

Germany

DEU emphasizes the role of universities in fostering innovation for sustainability and contributing to global environmental governance.

Role in topic

DEU's higher education system is known for its strong focus on research and innovation, particularly in renewable energy and sustainable technologies. A German perspective might highlight the importance of interdisciplinary research, technology transfer, and international collaborations in achieving sustainable and healthy environments, reflecting a more technologically driven approach to social responsibility.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

The Crisis in Haiti

Haiti's current crisis is the latest chapter in a long history of political instability, foreign intervention, and economic fragility. Independent since 1804 as the first Black republic, Haiti has endured the Duvalier dictatorships (1957-1986), repeated coups, the devastating 2010 earthquake, a cholera outbreak introduced by UN peacekeepers, and the 2016-2017 withdrawal of the MINUSTAH mission. The July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse left a vacuum of constitutional authority that has never been filled, with no sitting president, an expired parliament, and a judiciary unable to function normally. Since 2022, armed gangs — most prominently the G9 and G-Pèp coalitions, and the Viv Ansanm alliance led by figures such as Jimmy 'Barbecue' Chérizier — have taken control of an estimated 80-90% of Port-au-Prince, attacking police stations, prisons, and the main airport. Acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigned in April 2024 under gang pressure while stranded abroad, and a Transitional Presidential Council was installed to organize elections. In October 2023 the UN Security Council authorized a Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission led by Kenya under Resolution 2699, which began deploying in mid-2024 but has faced funding shortfalls, limited troop numbers, and questions about its mandate. Today Haiti faces overlapping emergencies: more than half the population is acutely food insecure, over one million people are internally displaced, and cholera has resurged. Debate centers on whether to convert the MSS into a full UN peacekeeping operation, how to enforce the arms embargo (Resolution 2653) against gangs whose weapons largely originate in the United States, and how to support a credible Haitian-led political transition without repeating the failures of past interventions.

Key players

Governance of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence has moved from a niche research field to a general-purpose technology shaping economies, militaries, and public discourse. The release of large language models such as ChatGPT in late 2022 catalyzed a global regulatory response: the EU adopted the AI Act in 2024, the United States issued Executive Order 14110 (later partially rescinded in 2025), China implemented its generative AI measures, and the UK convened the Bletchley and Seoul AI Safety Summits in 2023-2024. At the multilateral level, UNESCO's 2021 Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, the 2024 UN General Assembly resolution on 'safe, secure and trustworthy AI' (A/RES/78/265), and the Global Digital Compact adopted at the 2024 Summit of the Future established the first universal political commitments. The core disputes concern who sets the rules and who bears the costs. Developing states argue that AI capacity, data, talent, and compute are concentrated in a handful of firms in the United States and China, replicating historical patterns of technological dependency. Civil society and OHCHR have documented harms from algorithmic discrimination, surveillance, deepfakes, and labor displacement, while militaries are integrating AI into targeting and decision-support systems. A UN Scientific Panel on AI and a Global Dialogue on AI Governance were established under the Global Digital Compact, but their mandates remain thin. Current debates focus on whether AI requires an IAEA-style international body, how to ensure compute and data access for the Global South, how to regulate frontier models with potential catastrophic risks, and how existing human rights instruments apply to algorithmic systems. The tension between innovation, national security, and rights protection defines the agenda.

Key players

International Peace and Security

The post-Cold War assumption of a stable liberal order has eroded sharply since the mid-2010s. Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine — the largest interstate war in Europe since 1945 — followed its 2014 annexation of Crimea and shattered taken-for-granted norms on territorial integrity. The October 2023 Hamas attack and the ensuing war in Gaza have produced one of the deadliest humanitarian catastrophes of the century, while conflicts in Sudan, Myanmar, the Sahel, the eastern DRC, and Yemen have driven global forced displacement past 120 million. The Security Council has been paralyzed by repeated vetoes from its permanent members, and the 'Uniting for Peace' procedure has been invoked with mixed results. Simultaneously, the character of conflict is changing. Cyber operations against critical infrastructure, the use of armed drones by states and non-state actors, private military companies such as the former Wagner Group, the weaponization of grain and energy supplies, and contested norms in outer space all complicate traditional collective security frameworks. The Secretary-General's 'New Agenda for Peace' (2023) called for renewed investment in prevention, disarmament, and reformed multilateralism, but follow-through has been limited. Key contemporary questions include Security Council reform (membership and veto restraint), the financing and mandates of UN peace operations after MINUSMA's withdrawal, the regulation of autonomous weapons and military AI, and the role of regional organizations such as the AU and ASEAN in managing local conflicts. The committee must weigh whether existing Charter mechanisms can be revitalized or whether parallel arrangements will increasingly take their place.

Key players

Children's Rights

The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history, with the United States the only UN member state that has not ratified it. Its four guiding principles — non-discrimination, best interests of the child, right to life and development, and right to be heard — frame a global system that includes the Committee on the Rights of the Child, three Optional Protocols (on armed conflict, sale of children, and a communications procedure), and dedicated UN bodies such as UNICEF and the Special Representative on Violence against Children. Despite this architecture, implementation gaps are severe. UNICEF estimates that over 400 million children live in or are fleeing conflict zones; recruitment of child soldiers persists in the Sahel, Myanmar, DRC, and elsewhere; roughly one in five girls globally is married before age 18; and learning poverty has worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic. New threats have emerged around children's digital lives — online sexual exploitation, addictive design, and the use of children's data — addressed in part by the CRC Committee's General Comment No. 25 (2021) on the digital environment. Current debates concern accountability for grave violations against children in armed conflict (the Secretary-General's annual 'list of shame'), strengthening birth registration and legal identity, ending corporal punishment, child-sensitive climate policy following General Comment No. 26 (2023), and harmonizing the minimum age of criminal responsibility. The question of whether and how to bring children's online safety under a binding international instrument is increasingly prominent.

Key players

Global Literacy and the Right to Education

Literacy has been treated as a foundational human right since UNESCO's founding in 1945 and was codified in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 13 of the ICESCR. The Education for All movement (1990-2015) and Sustainable Development Goal 4 (2015-2030) set ambitious targets for universal literacy, numeracy, and quality education. UNESCO estimates that roughly 765 million adults still lack basic literacy skills, two-thirds of them women, with the highest concentrations in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The COVID-19 pandemic produced the worst disruption to education in modern history, with school closures affecting more than 1.6 billion learners. The World Bank's concept of 'learning poverty' — the share of 10-year-olds unable to read a simple text — rose from 57% to an estimated 70% in low- and middle-income countries. Conflict, climate-related displacement, gender discrimination, and underfunding of public education systems have compounded the setback. The 2022 Transforming Education Summit produced commitments on financing and digital learning that remain only partially implemented. Contemporary debates focus on how to define and measure literacy in the digital age (including media and information literacy), how to finance education when many low-income countries spend more on debt service than on schools, how to protect girls' education in contexts such as Afghanistan, and how to integrate refugees and internally displaced children into national systems. The role of large-scale assessments, mother-tongue instruction, and the use of AI tutoring tools are also increasingly contested.

Key players

The Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment

The recognition of a right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment culminated in two landmark instruments: UN Human Rights Council Resolution 48/13 in October 2021 and General Assembly Resolution 76/300 in July 2022, the latter adopted with 161 votes in favor and eight abstentions. These resolutions built on decades of incremental development — from the 1972 Stockholm Declaration, through the Rio Declaration (1992), the Aarhus Convention (1998), and the Latin American Escazú Agreement (2018) — and on regional jurisprudence, particularly from the African and Inter-American human rights systems. Operationalizing the right remains contested. The 2022 resolution is non-binding and leaves open how the right interacts with existing instruments such as the ICESCR, the Paris Agreement, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the forthcoming plastics treaty. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment has documented the disproportionate impact of pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change on Indigenous peoples, children, and environmental human rights defenders, hundreds of whom are killed each year according to Global Witness data. Current debates center on the implications of the 2024 ITLOS advisory opinion and the pending ICJ advisory opinion on states' climate obligations, the protection of environmental defenders, access to information and justice in environmental matters, the just transition for fossil-fuel-dependent economies, and how to integrate the right into national constitutions and corporate due-diligence regimes such as the EU's CSDDD.

Key players

Digital Technologies and Human Rights

The application of human rights online has been formally affirmed since HRC Resolution 20/8 (2012), which established that the same rights people have offline must also be protected online. Since then, the digital ecosystem has expanded to include pervasive platform power, state surveillance programs revealed by the 2013 Snowden disclosures, commercial spyware such as Pegasus, internet shutdowns documented annually by Access Now's #KeepItOn coalition, and the generative AI systems that emerged in 2022-2023. OHCHR has produced a series of reports on privacy in the digital age, on the impact of new technologies on the promotion of human rights in protests, and on the right to privacy. The normative framework is fragmented. The Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, the UN Cybercrime Convention adopted in 2024, the GDPR and analogous data-protection laws, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the Global Digital Compact (2024) all touch on overlapping issues without forming a coherent regime. Civil society warns that some instruments — particularly broadly drafted cybercrime laws — can themselves be used to criminalize journalism and dissent. Key contemporary debates include the regulation of commercial spyware, the human rights implications of platform content moderation and algorithmic amplification, biometric mass surveillance, network shutdowns during elections and protests, the digital divide and meaningful connectivity, and the protection of children online. The committee will need to balance security, innovation, sovereignty claims over data, and the universality of rights.

Key players

Open Source Technologies for Sustainable Development

Open source software, hardware, and data have become central to development policy under the umbrella of Digital Public Goods (DPGs) and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). The Digital Public Goods Alliance, co-convened by UNICEF, UNDP, Norway, and others since 2020, maintains a registry of vetted open-source solutions advancing the SDGs. India's 'India Stack' (Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker) has become the most cited reference model, processing billions of transactions and inspiring similar systems in Brazil (Pix), Indonesia, and across Africa under the Smart Africa initiative and the African Union's Digital Transformation Strategy. The 2024 Global Digital Compact, adopted as part of the Pact for the Future, explicitly recognizes DPI and DPGs as accelerators of the SDGs and commits states to promoting open standards, interoperability, and inclusive design. The G20, under successive Indian, Brazilian, and South African presidencies, has elevated DPI as a development priority. Yet significant gaps remain: roughly one-third of humanity is still offline, open-source maintenance is chronically underfunded, and concerns over surveillance, exclusion (as documented in some Aadhaar use cases), and vendor lock-in persist. Current debates address how to finance and maintain open-source infrastructure as a global public good, how to ensure that DPI deployments embed privacy, inclusion, and rights safeguards from the outset, how to share intellectual property for climate and health technologies (building on debates around the TRIPS waiver and the WHO Pandemic Agreement), and how to prevent DPI from becoming a vector for new forms of dependency or surveillance.

Key players

Resources

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Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Conflict Resolution

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Concurso de Debates Universitarios en Responsabilidad Social Universitaria 2026

Jun 1, 2026Trujillo, PeruIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Topics
The Crisis in Haiti · Governance of Artificial Intelligence · International Peace and Security · Children's Rights · Global Literacy and the Right to Education · The Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment · Digital Technologies and Human Rights · Open Source Technologies for Sustainable Development

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 3 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Peru

As the host nation, PER has a vested interest in promoting university social responsibility, particularly concerning local environmental and public health issues.

Role in topic

Brazil

BRA, with its vast biodiversity and significant environmental challenges, views university social responsibility as critical for sustainable development and environmental protection.

Role in topic

Germany

DEU emphasizes the role of universities in fostering innovation for sustainability and contributing to global environmental governance.

Role in topic