The model United Nations, a simulation of the real UN, was hosted in York this weekend after months of preparation.
Muizzah Zakariah, a third year SPS Student told Vision that The Secretariat lead by Shareen Khaliq did an “impressive job” organizing the entire thing.
Mimicking the UN, students are divided into sub-committees, such as the Security Council or the IMF. In addition, delegates would play the role of a country, responding to debates as their country would in light of the current social and political climates. They would debate, work together or oppose each other in order to try to pass resolutions that would resolve the issue.
Issues under debate included the Central American drug war, drone strikes and economic diversification in oil producing countries. Zakaria commented that these became “emotional debates” surrounded by “late nights, early mornings, and even an impromptu opera performance.”
It was not only the political situations that were simulated, those interested in the media side also had a valuable experience. Press officer for the event, Diederik van Wersch explains that the “reporters” would write “articles about the conference from the perspective of different nations. So if we were writing for the China Daily, we’d criticise the delegate of the USA.”
The event took place at the Ron Cooke Hub. The opening on Friday featured a UN worker who had been in Haiti after the earthquake who simulated the components of the relief effort.
On Sunday, awards were given out; the most honourable delegation going to the University of Edinburgh, with Zakaria commenting that “delegates from Highgate School were particularly impressive for being able to keep up with the debates among the university students”.
Dozens of York students who studied a wide variety of degrees attended, and some universities came from as far away as Belarus. Zakaria found it a valuable experience: “It was definitely a great way to expand my knowledge on international policies.”
Van Wersch tells Vision that: “Overall it was a massive success and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. It reflected well on the York UNA and hopefully we’ll get invited to other high-profile conferences in the future.”