Model United Nations
Posted On: 08/03/19
On the 3rd and 4th of March 15 Sixth Formers took part in the annual Model UN conference at Felsted School. The theme for this year’s conference was the 12th Sustainable Development Goal - Sustainable Consumption and Production - and our delegates representing France, Canada and Senegal, yielded many fruitful discussions in their respective committees.
Our delegates had the opportunity to debate and propose solutions to a variety of global issues, such as the human rights situation in the occupied territory of Palestine; the need to instigate and safeguard equitable access to vital water-based infrastructure in arid regions of the world; managing the global distribution of food and waste; the fair distribution of the cost of migration; and the economic rehabilitation of post-conflict countries.
Although we were expected to act in a diplomatic way that didn’t stop the delegates from having a laugh - in the Security Council the USA submitted a resolution proposing the UN to recognise the Crimea as being lawfully under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation, and against all odds, none of the P5 member states vetoed it (as the delegate of France I was guilty of not vetoing this resolution) and as a result the Crimea is now definitely a part of Russia (indisputable fact).
We also got to form allies and coalitions with other countries during the General Assembly emergency crisis. This year our job was to help the Bihar state of India and its people to cope with the region’s highly polluted air. There were many solutions which were questionable in their feasibility (but this is MUN so anything can happen). For example, the USA proposed to re-colonise India and partition the country into three parts; and France suggested dispersing the polluted air rather than the people by constructing massive fans to evenly distribute the air around the world.
The majority of our delegates that took part in this conference had never done MUN before and so I am extremely proud of everyone who took the initiative to stand up in their committees and during the General Assembly debate to share their country’s view with the other delegates. In particular, Scott, Kesh, Felix, Kayinsola, Marie, Lucy and Sam all presented their resolutions to their committees, showing that they have confidence in their own work. We took home 3 awards: Scott received the Highly Commended award, and Marie and I received the Commended Delegate award. All in all, this MUN conference was a success and everyone who took part should be very proud of themselves.
Joyce Leung—13DMi
