| Logo | ||
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| Basic Data | ||
| Founded: | 22. Jänner 1991 | |
| Founded in: | Vienna | |
| President: | Michael F. Pfeifer | |
| Vice-President: | Herbert Gmoser | |
| Members: | approx. 32700 (as of: January 2023) | |
| Website: | www.afa.at | |
The United Nations Youth and Students Association of Austria (UNYSA-Austria) - Academic Forum for Foreign Affairs (AFA) was founded on January 22, 1991, and is the Austrian non-partisan organization for young people, students, and graduates interested in international issues. UNYSA-Austria is member of the Austrian national youth-council and also a founding member of the United Nations Youth Associations Network (UNYANET).[1]
UNYSA-Austria has 32700 members in Austria and all over the world. Membership is open to anyone interested below the age of 30. All activities of UNYSA-Austria are organized by 120 active members on a voluntary basis. The range of activities are lectures, discussions, trainings, debates and Model United Nations, all about international relations, foreign policy or about the United Nations.
Prominent former active members of UNYSA-Austria or its predecessor the "Academic Union for Foreign Affairs" (AVA) are e.g. Ewald Nowotny.
The biggest and most prestigious event organized by UNYSA-Austria is the Vienna International Model United Nations (VIMUN). This international conference, which is the only one of its kind in Austria, has been taking place every beginning of August since 1995. Although with approximately 250 participants from around 40 different nations VIMUN is not one of the largest Model United Nations worldwide, it is the only one where the entire conference is taking place at offices of the UN. At the conference, various UN committees such as the Security Council, the Human Rights Council (HRC), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), or the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are simulated very authentically, using the actual rules of procedure of the UN. Each participant represents one country with the aim of asserting its national interests in the committee. Besides extensive negotiations over the period of four days, different social programs are offered every day. Social programs may vary from a dinner at a typical Austrian “Heurigen”, a reception at the city hall of Vienna hosted by the mayor of Vienna or a clubbing at a fashionable disco in Vienna.
The Global View Magazine is a project, published by UNYSA-Austria and is a discussion platform for everyone interested in international relations, foreign policy and the United Nations. It is published four times a year and contains articles in German and English language, written by experts as well as by young graduates and students.
In 2004 Afa held its first debate club, one of the earliest in Austria. Since then debate clubs have been founded in several Austrian cities, and the Afa Debattierclub in Vienna is one of the two largest in the country (together with Debattierklub Wien.) 2012 it hosted the German Debating Championships.