Annual Model United Nations Conference

On Saturday 2 December, a team of 15 members of Caterham’s Model United Nations (MUN) took part in the annual MUN conference hosted by Lingfield. Our delegation was split into three smaller ones, representing the DPRK (North Korea), Canada and Switzerland. After hearing about the experiences of a former major in the British Army who served alongside UN Peacekeepers in former Yugoslavia, each nation then sent a delegate to represent their nation on each of the six main council (Security Council, WHO, DISEC, ECOFIN, Environment and SPECPOL) negotiating on a wide range of issues, from the current crises in Ukraine and Palestine, to vaccine misinformation and the use of tax-havens. Each delegate negotiated tirelessly, both in the council chamber and during breaks more informally (this was found to be the most effective). After successfully completing work on our issues we then had to deal with an unknown crisis. This was a fictional Chinese conquest of the island of Taiwan. After finishing our second topic, we were then reunified in the General Assembly to outline our nation’s view on the issue. The nations that we were representing shared a wide range of views with the DPRK being very much supportive of what China was doing compared to the Canadian and Swiss views that what they were doing was illegal and immoral.

After finalising the resolution to the General Assembly, each council’s chair gave out awards to the best three members of each council.  Mary B won the highly commended award for her actions in the WHO dealing with vaccine misinformation and the duel-use of biotechnologies. William J won the award for the Distinguished Delegate for his actions in the Security Council dealing with the current crises in Ukraine and Palestine. Well done to every delegate who participated in the conference; to you, clapping is in order!  

William J (Lower Sixth)