Where is the Bell Tower Tournament held?

The Bell Tower Tournament is held in Greenville, USA.

What level of students is eligible to participate in this event?

The tournament is open to college-level students.

What is the format of the Bell Tower Tournament?

The Bell Tower Tournament is a mock trial competition, indicating a simulated courtroom format.

Bell Tower Tournament (2026)

Mar 14–15, 2026Greenville, United StatesIn-person

ConcludedRegistration closed

The Bell Tower Tournament is an annual mock trial competition designed for college-level participants. Hosted in Greenville, USA, this event provides a platform for students to engage in simulated legal proceedings. The tournament is a key fixture in the collegiate mock trial circuit, attracting teams from various institutions.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the dominant committee topic. Click through for the full country profile.

United States

The USA is the host nation for the Bell Tower Tournament, reflecting its strong tradition of collegiate mock trial competitions and legal education.

Role in topic

As the host country, the USA provides the institutional framework and educational environment for this college-level mock trial event. The legal education system in the USA places a significant emphasis on practical skills development, which is directly supported by competitions such as the Bell Tower Tournament. The event takes place in Greenville, USA.

Topics & background

The history behind each committee topic and the states that shape it.

First Committee (Disarmament & International Security)

Disarmament & International Security (GA First Committee)

The First Committee was established in 1945 as the General Assembly's principal forum for issues of disarmament, global challenges, and threats to peace. For decades its agenda was dominated by Cold War nuclear competition, producing landmark instruments such as the Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968), the Biological Weapons Convention (1972), and the Chemical Weapons Convention (1993). With the post-Cold War expansion of dual-use technology, its remit has broadened to cover cyber operations, outer space security, and conventional arms flows. In recent years the Committee's debates have been pulled in two directions. Legacy arms control architecture is fraying: New START expires in 2026, the Treaty on Open Skies has collapsed, and the Conference on Disarmament remains deadlocked over a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty and Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS). At the same time, emerging technologies are outrunning existing law. The Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons has struggled to bridge a gap between states seeking a binding ban and major military powers preferring non-binding principles. The current agenda therefore centers on the regulation of autonomous weapons systems, norms of responsible state behavior in cyberspace under the Open-Ended Working Group on ICTs, and the militarization of outer space following anti-satellite weapons tests by several powers. Delegates must weigh how to maintain meaningful human control over force, verify compliance in opaque domains, and reconcile commercial dual-use innovation with traditional arms control.

Key players

Second Committee (Economic & Financial)

Economic & Financial Affairs (GA Second Committee)

The Second Committee handles the General Assembly's work on global economic policy, sustainable development, trade, and financing. Its modern agenda is anchored in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted in 2015 and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on financing. With less than five years to the SDG deadline, progress on most goals has stalled or reversed since the COVID-19 pandemic, with the UN estimating an annual SDG financing gap of roughly USD 4 trillion for developing countries. A cascade of shocks — pandemic spending, the war in Ukraine's effect on food and energy prices, and sharp interest-rate rises in advanced economies — has pushed many low- and middle-income countries into debt distress. The G20 Common Framework for Debt Treatments has produced slow and uneven results in cases such as Zambia, Ghana, and Sri Lanka, fueling calls from the G77 for a UN-led sovereign debt workout mechanism. The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville in 2025 set the political stage for these talks. The Committee also confronts climate finance shortfalls following the new collective quantified goal agreed at COP29, the operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund, reform of the international financial architecture sought by the Bridgetown Initiative, and the digital economy's tax and governance implications. Underlying every debate is the North–South contest over voice and representation in the Bretton Woods institutions.

Key players

Third Committee (Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian)

Social, Humanitarian & Cultural Affairs (GA Third Committee)

The Third Committee, also known as SOCHUM, addresses the human rights, social development, and humanitarian issues that fall within the General Assembly's remit. It complements the Geneva-based Human Rights Council by drafting resolutions for adoption by the full Assembly, including country-specific resolutions on situations such as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Myanmar, Iran, Syria, and Crimea. These resolutions are politically charged, with sharp divides over whether human rights monitoring constitutes legitimate scrutiny or impermissible interference in domestic affairs. The Committee's thematic agenda spans the rights of women, children, indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, refugees, and migrants; the elimination of racism and xenophobia; crime prevention; and drug control. Recent sessions have grappled with the global protection regime under strain from record displacement — over 120 million people forcibly displaced according to UNHCR — and from restrictive asylum policies in many destination states. Debates on the Global Compacts for Migration and on Refugees remain politically contested. New issues are pressing onto the agenda: the human rights impact of generative AI and online disinformation, the safety of journalists, civic space restrictions, and the digital divide's effect on the right to education. Delegates negotiate against a backdrop of growing polarization between blocs advocating "traditional values" and those defending the universality and indivisibility of rights.

Key players

Novice General Assembly (GA) Committee

Novice General Assembly Committee

The General Assembly is the UN's principal deliberative organ, established under Chapter IV of the 1945 Charter, in which every member state has one vote. While its resolutions are generally non-binding, the GA carries unique legitimacy as the only universal-membership body in the international system. It has used this convening power to set norms — from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — and to act when the Security Council is paralyzed, notably through the 1950 Uniting for Peace resolution and the 2022 mechanism requiring debate after any P5 veto. For a novice committee, the GA's plenary format offers an accessible introduction to multilateral diplomacy: bloc politics, resolution drafting, and consensus-building across regional groups (African, Asia-Pacific, Eastern European, Latin American and Caribbean, and Western European and Others). Typical novice agendas focus on issues with broad relevance and clear policy options, such as climate change, global health equity, refugee protection, peaceful uses of outer space, or cultural heritage protection. Today's GA operates against the backdrop of intense great-power competition, war in Ukraine and Gaza, and uneven progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. The "Pact for the Future" adopted in September 2024 outlined an ambitious reform agenda spanning sustainable development, peace and security, science and technology, youth, and global governance — providing fertile ground for novice delegates to learn how the UN translates broad aspirations into negotiated text.

Key players

Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

ECOSOC was established under Chapter X of the UN Charter as one of the six principal organs, with 54 member states elected to coordinate the economic, social, and related work of 15 UN specialized agencies, functional commissions, and regional commissions. Since the 2030 Agenda's adoption in 2015, ECOSOC has become the principal venue for follow-up and review of the Sustainable Development Goals, hosting the annual High-Level Political Forum where states present Voluntary National Reviews. The Council's current agenda is shaped by what the Secretary-General has called a "great finance divide." Developing countries face simultaneous shocks from pandemic recovery costs, climate impacts, food and energy price volatility, and tightened global financial conditions. The G20 Common Framework for Debt Treatments has produced only a handful of restructurings, prompting calls — championed by the African Group and Latin American debtors — for a UN-led sovereign debt workout mechanism. The Fourth Financing for Development Conference in Seville in 2025 set a new agenda for reform of the international financial architecture. A second front concerns digital public infrastructure (DPI). Following the Global Digital Compact agreed in 2024 as part of the Pact for the Future, ECOSOC is examining how interoperable digital identity, payments, and data-exchange systems — pioneered in countries such as India, Brazil, and Estonia — can accelerate SDG progress while protecting privacy and preventing exclusion. The Council must balance ambition with capacity constraints in least developed countries.

Key players

Human Rights Council (HRC)

The Human Rights Council was established by GA Resolution 60/251 in 2006, replacing the discredited Commission on Human Rights. Based in Geneva and comprising 47 elected members, it oversees the Universal Periodic Review of every UN member state, appoints Special Procedures mandate-holders, and convenes commissions of inquiry on situations from Syria and Myanmar to Ukraine, the occupied Palestinian territory, and Iran. Its work rests on the legal foundation of the Universal Declaration and the core human rights treaties, notably the ICCPR and ICESCR. The Council operates in a polarized environment. Western states and many Latin American and African democracies emphasize country-specific scrutiny and civic space, while a "Like-Minded Group" led by China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan, and others promotes sovereignty-focused framings and "mutually beneficial cooperation." Procedural fights over membership, NGO accreditation, and the budgets of investigative mechanisms are a constant feature. Current agenda items reflect new frontiers. Following the 2024 OHCHR work on AI and human rights and the appointment of advisory bodies under the Global Digital Compact, the Council is debating algorithmic accountability, content moderation, and the implications of generative AI for freedom of expression under ICCPR Article 19. In parallel, GA Resolution 76/300's recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment has accelerated work on climate-displaced persons, who fall outside the 1951 Refugee Convention and require new protection frameworks.

Key players

Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO)

The WHO was established in 1948 as the UN specialized agency for global health, with the World Health Assembly as its supreme decision-making body and a 34-member Executive Board that prepares the Assembly's agenda and gives effect to its decisions. Board members serve in their individual capacity but are nominated by states elected on a regional basis. The WHO's authority rests largely on the International Health Regulations (IHR, last revised in 2005 with amendments adopted in 2024) and its standard-setting role across infectious and non-communicable diseases. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed deep weaknesses in global health security: uneven surveillance, vaccine nationalism, and disputes over pathogen and benefit sharing. After more than three years of negotiation under the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, the WHO Pandemic Agreement was adopted by the World Health Assembly in May 2025. The Executive Board now plays a central role in operationalizing the Agreement, especially its Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing system, technology transfer commitments, and One Health provisions. In parallel, the Board must accelerate progress on the SDG 3 health targets. The September 2025 UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs set fresh 2030 commitments on cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and mental health, but financing and health workforce shortages remain acute, particularly in Africa and small island developing states. The Board also navigates persistent budgetary constraints, climate-health linkages, antimicrobial resistance, and emerging threats such as mpox and avian influenza.

Key players

United Nations Security Council

The Security Council is the UN organ with primary responsibility under Chapter V of the Charter for the maintenance of international peace and security. It comprises five permanent members with veto power (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and ten elected members serving two-year terms. Its decisions under Chapter VII are binding on all UN member states and can authorize sanctions, peacekeeping operations, and the use of force. Long-running calls to reform the Council's composition — to better reflect 21st-century geopolitics — remain unresolved despite renewed momentum from the 2024 Pact for the Future. The Council's recent record has been shaped by paralysis among the P5. Russia's veto on Ukraine and the splits over Israel-Palestine have triggered repeated invocations of the 2022 veto-initiative resolution requiring General Assembly debate. Sudan's civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, ongoing since April 2023, has produced the world's largest displacement crisis and famine conditions in Darfur, yet the Council's 1591 sanctions regime is widely seen as under-enforced and an arms embargo remains limited to Darfur. Beyond active conflicts, the Council is grappling with thematic threats. The Open-Ended Working Group on ICT security has produced norms for responsible state behavior in cyberspace, but attacks on critical infrastructure — hospitals, energy grids, undersea cables — continue. Climate-security linkages, women, peace and security, and the protection of civilians remain on the agenda, even as members disagree on whether these belong in the Council at all.

Key players