MUN, also known as Model United Nations, is an international conference where students usually from the age group 14 and above play the role of delegates of respective countries and solve real-world issues taking into account the perspective and the foreign policies of the country that they are representing. It usually continues for 3 days and 8 sessions.
I participated in my first MUN on the 19th and 20th of June. It was the CSMUN organized by College Source. It was their first edition and was sponsored by Pioneer, Vedic Maths India, Vivaron, and Sat n Paper. We had 2 days and 4 committee sessions.
Since I was a first timer in this MUN , I required some time to understand the concepts and the research procedure. I was representing the country Austria and was a part of the Committee UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) . Our topic was to discus the ongoing situation between Israel and Palestine. To be honest, this topic is complex as the Israel -Palestine conflict is amongst the world’s most enduring conflict and it has been going on for more than seventy-four years. It becomes more complicated when you have to take sides. Since I was the Delegate of Austria, I had to give the USA bloc more preference , which meant that I was on the supporting side of Israel. After quite a lot of research and thought I decided to maintain a neutral stance as in that way I would have the scope to speak for both sides. As of the country I was representing , in the present it does support Israel as they think that Palestine resorted to violence towards Israel a few months ago. But earlier it always had maintained a neutral stance and had extended their support to both the countries.
Other than the above what I really enjoyed was researching about the topic as it gave me a new perspective of both Israel and Palestine and the other countries who are involved in this conflict. I learned many new things about how the different committees and the respective organs of the United Nations function and their respective powers. In the UN, the security council is the most effective and powerful organ , while the general assembly passes resolutions and does an in-depth discussion about the same. Some of the topics that we did an in-depth discussion in the committee were “ Elimination of the Hamas Militant Group” , “The viability of the Two state solution”, “Legalities in the conflict”, etc. These were really heavy topics and a lot of research were required for it but I really enjoyed doing it. I got to know about things that I had never known and the root causes of the conflict.
This MUN opened me to many new things and helped me to enhance my public speaking skills . It also taught me that it is a very tough role to be a delegate in the General Assembly as a lot of hard work is required to convince the Chair and the other delegates to vote for your motion. But I guess it is a tough job to have people on your side in life also, right ?
I really enjoyed being a part of the First edition of the CSMUN and I thank College Source and the sponsors of the MUN for this wonderful opportunity that I will cherish forever! .
By Shriya Biswas
