Year 9 student, Oscar, recently attended the Model United Nations Conference in Manchester, representing Mexico, along with other students, who were all Sixth Formers!. Read his account of the day...
At the MUN Conference, I was a delegate representing Mexico and had a seat at the Security Council along with 15 other delegates representing other nations.
We debated issues such as the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, especially interesting seen as both nations were represented in the Security Council. We eventually voted on a two-state solution, restoring the old borders from 1967 as well as implementing countermeasures for quarrels over Jerusalem, making it in an international city akin to the Vatican.
The second issue, the threats to international security from the Kurdistan Workers Party, was hotly debated. Delegates from Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran aggressively proposing the systematic degradation of the Kurds already dismal rights and in some cases even their complete eradication. Delegates representing France, the United Kingdom and the USA opposed this alongside China and the Russian Federation. These nations, with permanent seats in the Security Council make up the P5 and have veto powers. This means they can change or remove certain areas of clauses if it is against their national interests or even strike a clause outright.
Over the course of the weekend, their power was exercised in a frustrating way to block anything not in that country’s national interests. Many of us questioned its democratic uses. We also had a crisis debate on the second day of the conference, designed to test the delegate’s ability to make change in a short and entirely unfamiliar setting. However, this was not as serious as the previous day but still proved to be productive and generated a lot of interesting and fruitful debate.
The experience over all has been awe inspiring. Watching incredibly skilled young people battling over some controversial issues. It has generated more of an appetite for MUN than any other conference I have attended before.
It was also great fun. There was lots of research required just to understand the subjects we were going to debate. So in the weeks leading up to the conference my Google was full of requests for different views on both problems, watching YouTube videos so I could master the subject and making family members sick of my constant nattering over the Oslo Records and the Kurds right to a nation of their own.
At the end of the conference I received the award for Best Young Delegate on the Security Council. Most, if not all of the other students in the Security Council are sixth form students with many years of MUN experience behind them. The chairs of the Security Council commented that it was indeed unusual to see someone from Year 9 take a seat and debate on equal terms with sixth form students.
So, all in all, the experience has been really beyond belief. I can honestly say I am now hooked and I hope that on my next conference, I am placed on the prestigious council for a second time.
Back To Top
