Senior school students find resolutions at Model United Nations conference

In early November, students from around the world, including 45 senior school students from the British School in the Netherlands, participated in the Model United Nations held at the International School of The Hague (MUNISH)

MUNISH is a conference where students gather to learn more about how international politics is carried out. These Model United Nations (MUN) events are common worldwide and are designed to reflect the real proceedings that occur in the United Nations (UN).

This year, students at the British School in the Netherlands (BSN) represented 7 different countries in 15 different councils, with 5 of our students chairing some of the councils. In the words of one of the students, “I found a great experience in being the main submitter of a resolution, and the added responsibility was fun and challenging”. After a weekend of delegating and debating, students walk away enriched with this experience, and perhaps some of them will become the next generation of leaders.

History of the Model United Nations (MUN)

Starting before World War 2, there have been models of the UN, the League of Nations. They quickly spread from British to American universities, as the notion of international cooperation saw growing importance. After WW2, the first MUN conference was held in Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, on April 5, 1947. Over 150 students represented different nations as 'delegates', and conducted business no differently than the real General Assembly of the UN. Over the years, and in particular since the end of the Cold War, MUN has spread worldwide, with many schools across the world partaking in and organising both local and international conferences.

In MUNISH, over a thousand students represent a nation in one of the many councils. Students are randomly assigned a council and a country, and after attending the opening ceremony, they carry out discussions on their council's topics (chosen beforehand by the organizers). The core element of MUN is reaching a resolution - documents that are effectively a form of international law. Ambitious students typically write up a resolution prior to the conference, and then, during a council's lobbying time, these resolutions are merged and adjusted before they have enough signatories to be debated on. Here, the critical skill of compromise is vital - delegates are able to propose amendments, such that the final document is a reflection of an internationally agreed-upon compromise. Given the diversity of the states, arguments are presented for and against each amendment and resolution, before delegates vote on whether they approve. Once any amendments have been voted on, the resolution as a whole is put to vote, and those that strike a balance between different voices of the international community are often approved by a substantial majority.

BSN's MUN Society

Click here for more information on BSN’s MUN Society.

Published: Senior School Voorschoten's journalism club

This article is written by a Sixth Form Senior School Voorschoten (SSV) student, in their role as a reporter at SSV's newly formed Published. This article was first published, in a condensed form, in the Voorschoten Krant (pg 33) on 15 November 2019.