Model United Nations is an extracurricular educational activity in which the United Nations is replicated by schools for students. It aids young people in acquiring a better understanding of world issues, international relations and today’s politics as well as enhancing and improving their debating and critical thinking skills. Participants (referred to as delegates) are designated a country and a committee in which they debate the topics assigned to their committee from the perspective of their country only and not their own.
On Saturday 16th November, hundreds of students from many schools in the area came to Croydon High School for its annual Model United Nations event. The event consisted of seven different committees which debated problems that our world faces today such as ‘The question of the payment of reparations to former colonies’ and ‘The question of the proxy war in Libya’. The specialisation of these committees were: Disarmament and International Security; Economic and Financial; Social Cultural and Humanitarian; Special Political and Decolonisation; Women’s Commission; Human Rights and Security Council.
The day consisted of many debates in committees on resolutions made by students which outlined policies that their country would like to implicate related to one of the topics assigned to their committees. Amendments were made to these resolutions by other countries in the same committee. The whole committee debated each of these and then voted on whether to keep the amendment or not. Once many of these had been debated and voted on, the students chairing the committee led a whole committee vote on whether to pass the resolution as a whole including amendments which had previously passed and been added.
Leila Nurbhai, a student at Croydon High School and a delegate at CROYMUN told me, “CROYMUN was a fantastic experience! It was great to meet new people, hear new perspectives and debate topical and interesting concepts. I really enjoyed the challenge of being the delegate of Mongolia in the Woman’s Commission committee and look forward to taking on a new country’s views in the next MUN conference”.
CROYMUN is just one of the many school MUN conferences that give students the enriching experience of being in the UN. I myself represented Algeria in the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee. The seating of every committee is arranged in alphabetical order according to country names and due to this, I found myself sitting next to the delegate of Argentina who was born to an Algerian family. It proved to me that MUN is an amazing opportunity to meet different people and make many new friends.
Article written by Dina Motashaw
