Model United Nations
Straight after
arriving back from a week of activities in Carlingford Activity Centre, myself,
Jane, Harry, Ciaran, Laoise, Joshua, Zenia, Sabine and Cian headed off to a
Model United Nations Conference in Wesley College, Dublin along with some fifth
years who included, Cameron Brady, Mark Cullen and Liam Noonan. I was in the
delegation of Ukraine alongside Cameron, Jane and Joshua. The others were part
of the delegation of Syria.
Model United Nations or MUN is a simulation
activity in which young people play the role of diplomats representing a
particular member state of the United Nations, with older young people,
teachers or youth workers taking on the role of UN advisors. Taking part in MUN
involves playing the role of an official delegate representing one member state
of the United Nations and working in a team to form a delegation. Each
delegation will try to persuade other member states to support their
resolution.
I was in the Environmental
Committee and I was solely representing Ukraine among 30 other delegates
representing their member states. Other committees included economic and
social, security, human rights and many more. In my committee we discussed
issues like Global warming and oil spills. My resolution got submitted and was
discussed thoroughly in my committee but sadly it didn’t pass. I was very proud
though to have even got it submitted as it was my first time taking part in MUN
and I only had a vague idea of what was going on around me!
We were at MUN for 2
days, Friday evening and all of Saturday. And even though all of us TYs were
exhausted we threw ourselves into the vibrant, working atmosphere that is MUN.
On the first evening we had to lobby for 30 minutes which meant we had to try
and get as many signatures as possible on our resolutions. Lobbying was
probably one of my favourite parts of MUN as I love to talk to new people and I
managed to get 13 countries to sign my resolution which definitely helped me to
get my resolution submitted.
Ferdy Emmet, Thomas
Rafferty and Cameron Dorlas, past St Gerard’s alumni, were all around to give
us advice and help if we were in need of any tips. There was many students from
all around the country and the delegation of Ukraine soon became allies with
Uruguay, America and Spain, thanks to our expertise note passing at General
Assembly.
MUN was an exciting
and crazy experience and although it took me a little while to figure out the
different elements to MUN, once I caught on I found it very enjoyable and had a
brilliant time. I would definitely do another MUN conference in the future.
After the conference ended on the Saturday Evening we all headed to Dundrum and
got dinner which was a lovely way to finish what had been a great weekend.
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