Model UN is almost as old as the United Nations itself. Launched in the USA this movement has spread across the globe. Organized mainly by students on a voluntary basis it simulates the work of various UN committees putting students in the shoes of high ranking diplomats on the international arena.
Students who take part in a Model UN represent there a sovereign state and defend its position on the issues on the agenda just the way the real diplomats do at the UN conferences. Their main objective is to assure that the final resolution of the committee reflects the interests of the country they represent. To do so participants should study in depth the country they are entrusted and the subject the committee is going to discuss. During the sessions they are referred to only as “delegates” and are not entitled to express an opinion on the issues but the official position of “their government”. Besides, delegates ought to know well the Rules of procedure that are close the procedure within the UN but, so to say, student-adapted. In a nutshell, Model UN, or simply MUN, is a successful attempt to mix a student conference and a role-play, a happy confluence of work, game and study.
Nowadays, Models UN are often held in schools, colleges and universities as they proved to be a highly motivating educational project. But an international Model UN is a credit for every city that becomes the venue.
MUNs find support among non-profit organizations and NGOs. Many of them are sponsored by national ministries or UN Associations, while largest international MUNs are conducted under the auspices of the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA). Global Model United Nations, first held in 2009, is organised in the cities all over the world and coordinated by senior officials from the UN. However, it is students who remain the main driving force of MUNs. Thousand of them join the MUN movement annually to learn teamwork and to speak their mind, to meet interesting and extraordinary people, to find new friends from all over the Earth, to know lots of new things on the world and international relations in particular and to have fun in a unique multicultural youth environment.
Model UN is open for everyone. Simply apply as a delegate now!
