Model United Nations

Fotogallery

For the first time the ESF was invited to participate in the 4 th annual Model United Nations Conference (MunoM 2007, www.munom.eu) which took place at the European Patents Office from November 5 th-9 th. A Model United Nations (MUN) Conference is a simulated session of the UN in which the participants adopt the role of Delegates to the UN, they debate issues and pass Resolutions which are conducted under the procedural rules which are similar to those used in the UN. I was surprised to learn that such conferences have taken place since the 1920s when the League of Nations was formed. In Germany alone there is Bermun (Berlin), Munol (Lübeck), MUNBW (Baden Württemberg), MUN-SH (Schleswig Holstein), Olmun (Oldenburg), Schueler-Planspiel United Nations , and Die Jugenddelegierten zur Generalversammlung . We were not the only European School involved. It was organized by the European School of Munich, and Karlsruhe and Mol were also involved.

We decided to participate with our 4 period History course in Year 7 because they are studying the United Nations as a possible topic for the written Baccalaureate exam, and I felt that it would be a very interesting opportunity for them to have an insight into how the UN operates because it would be helpful in preparation for a possibility of an essay question on the effectiveness of the UN as a peacekeeping organization and to improve understanding of the role of the UN during the Cold War.

We were asked to choose a number of countries from a list and we were allocated North Korea with a delegation of seven students, and two for Afghanistan for the special committees. As none of us had any prior experience of preparing for such a conference we focused on gathering as much information as possible on the two countries, and the students chose to represent their countries in different theme areas as follows:

General Assembly Committee 1 : Disarmamant and International Security

Mark Wenzler, North Korea

General Assembly Committee 2: Economic and Financial

Maria Androvitsanea, North Korea

General Assembly Committee 3 : Social, Humanitarian and Cultural

Verena Rauball , North Korea

General Assembly Committee 4: Special Political and Decolonization

Sara Klueppelholz, North Korea (Ambassador)

General Assembly 6: Legal

Lora Mihova, North Korea

Special Conference 1: Globalisation

Priyanka Nagpal , Afghanistan

Special Conference 2: Globalisation

Aster Wapperom, North Korea; Alexandra Saran, Afghanistan (Ambassador)

 

What they had to do was to find out as much as possible about their countries, and given their political ideas and position on things in general, decide what views they would have on the three areas they were allocated above. This of course was extremely challenging, particularly in the case of North Korea which was the target of much criticism in all of these areas, although recent developments in the news with nuclear weapons and aid provided useful bargaining tools during the conference!

We left Frankfurt late on Monday 5 th by train and stayed in a hostel near the main railway station…coming of course from the countries above we could not justify a 5 star hotel! The hostel had the advantage of only being a few stops away from the conference centre. All the conference delegates were smartly dressed in suits and ties for the boys, and business dress for the girls, and it was quite an unusual sight in Germany to see around 300 smartly dressed students aged between 14-18 walking around with their official delegates badges.

They worked in their committees, there were larger gatherings of the General Assembly and the Special Conferences, there was formal debate and the writing of resolutions. All of this was incredibly time-consuming, but gave all the participants a real insight into the way the UN is run. Sometimes it was difficult to tell whether some of the speeches and views expressed were those of the individuals or the countries, but in our case it was very clear. Having heard the hardline introductory speech by Aster in the Special Committee, none of us was in any doubt that she was representing North Korea! The profile of the event was certainly a high one, including the presence of the Bayerische Rundfunk and an article on the TV news on the Wednesday evening of the Conference.

Overall, the experience was an excellent one. I was most impressed at the level of organization and the way in which all the participants got down to such detailed discussion, particularly in the development of the resolutions. It makes me realize that as a teacher we often underestimate the ability of our students to go into depth, and I was so impressed at the way they were all able to sustain the level of debate over the four days. It was also mainly organized and run by students as well. As the Mun Director I really only had to be there..just in case! As a history teacher it has impressed me too, because the students here have done one of the most difficult things of all which is to develop the skill of empathy. From the way in which our ESF students presented their case, you would think that they really were representing those countries, and they were all looking for arguments to justify their case. So…what have they learned? A difficult one to answer, because in these four days they have been exposed to things which they will be able to draw upon in all kinds of ways in the future. The European Patent Office employees in their beautiful modern building overlooking the River Isar will most certainly be looking forward to having the use of their canteen back after the Conference, but they could not have failed to be impressed by the appearance and attitude of these young diplomats from around 20 schools between Belgium and Austria representing some 30 states and non-governmental organisations who invaded their work-space for most of one of their weeks.

Steve Lewis, teacher

What some of the students said:

Verena Rauball: How I experienced MunoM: Munom was a great experience as we got to debate about serious political stuff with other nations. It was exhausting but interesting and we met a lot of people. In the conference itself people didn’t seem to be representing their country but more their own opinion… After all I was happy to go home knowing that I had said all that I wanted to say and knowing that we made the others look stupid in a way. Representing North Korea was a hard job but I guess we all managed well, especially aster  telling someone else to sit down :

Aster Wapperom: How I experienced MunoM. The Model United Nations is a simulation of the UN General Assembly and other UN bodies. In MUN, students take on the role of delegates from UN member states and NGOs to debate current issues on the conference agenda. The country I had to represent was; North Korea. During the conference delegates of all countries make speeches, prepare draft resolutions, and negotiate with others in an attempt to resolve conflicts. Delegates ally/lobby, work together, debate against each other and make conclusions on the current topic given to them. This years theme was ‘Globalisation’ and people came up with excellent ideas. Ideas, which (most of t he time) didn’t identify with the countries they represented. This is what made it so amusing for our group, ‘ North Korea’. People thought we actually believed in what we were saying; that North Korea (for example) made nuclear weapons for peace (a bargaining tool), that Kim Jong Il is a good leader, etc. One of the ‘fun’ activities we had to do was ‘sing a national anthem for our country’. Since I lost my voice I wasn’t quite in the mood to sing a song so I told the chairs that I found a Famous North Korean Poem. Instead, I was listing all the Korean swearwords I knew. The class surprisingly enjoyed my performance even though they had no idea of what I was saying. Overall, I had a great time in Munom, I met a lot of new people and have experienced how decisions are made when you are a delegate of the United Nations.

Mark Wenzler: MunoM is a yearly conference held by the ESM which rein acts the the UN General Assembly and the Security Council. We represented North Korea which was a rather difficult task because of its isolated position. Yet this lead to a great experience because we had to argue out of a position of which no one could really know what it was and the general perception of it being rather contrary to our western beliefs. The debates held in the General Assembly were lively and showed that the delegates had fully absorbed the role of the country they represented in the last 3 days. Yet sometimes the debates seemed to be endless and unimportant. 10 minutes argument about the word “especially” in an amendment to an operative clause can cost some nerves. All in all the conference was a full success and allowed us to get a real feel of what the UN is really like.

Sara Klüppelholz: Als wir am Morgen des 6. November im Europäischen Patentamt ankamen, wussten wir alle nicht, was uns die nächsten vier Tage erwarten würde.

Aber nachdem wir alle begrüßt worden waren und man die ersten Leute kennen gelernt hatte, wurde alles sehr viel entspannter. Die nächsten Tage verbrachten wir damit Resolutionen zu entwerfen, dabei war es schwer Länder zu finden die, die selben Vorstellungen hatten, wie Nordkorea. Doch auch dieses Problem war nach einigen hitzigen Diskussionen behoben und wir konnten unsere Resolution schreiben. Am Mittwoch wurden diese dann endlich besprochen und wir hatten die Möglichkeit die anderen Delegierten von der Meinung unseres Landes zu überzeugen. Dabei hat es besonders Spaß gemacht immer wieder zu betonen, was für ein wunderbares Land Nord Korea doch ist. Manche der Delegierten waren wohl der Überzeugung, dass diese Meinung nicht die meines Landes sondern auch meine persönliche war. Aber all das machte die Diskussionen sehr spannend. Die Model United Nation Konferenz war für mich persönlich eine interessanten und spannende Erfahrung, die ich gerne noch einmal erleben würde.

Lora Mihova: The great thing about the Model United Nations is that it lasts several days and allows you to really slip into the role of a delegate for a given country. At some times it can be very demanding and even frustrating, as you try to achieve the best for the country you are representing and start taking it very seriously. Still most of the excitement was positive and there were a few hilarious moments. The honourable delegate of France for example constantly quoted Napoleon, holding a bottle of wine and with a baguette under his arm.

Overall, especially when representing a country such as North Korea, you become sort of a devil’s advocate, because you need to oppose the human rights for example and so on. Nevertheless, in the end of the day, you have learned to defend a point of view, use logic in your debates, be confident when speaking up in front of 150 people, a number of whom would disagree with you and last but not least, get a feel of how the United Nations really functions on the inside.