MODEL UNITED NATIONS (MUN)

MODEL UNITED NATIONS (MUN)

The MUNs or Model United Nations are on a peak and a burning event across the world. Every next University you would come across is hosting an MUN. The very first question that arises in the mind is, What are MUNs ?

Let's first see that what Wikipedia says about MUNs,

Model United Nations, also known as Model UN or MUN, is an educational simulation and/or academic activity in which students can learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the United Nations.

The definition focuses more upon three words, diplomacy, international relations and United Nations.

If we talk about the improvement of the skill of diplomacy among students then it wouldn't be wrong that it gets developed during MUNs. The mind thinks out of the box solutions and diversify its range of thoughts.

International relations and UN is something that the delegate or student already have a previous knowledge to that. 

• THE PROCESS:

Now, let us know the process of the entire MUN, from registrations to the closing ceremony.

You always have to keep an eye on the registration dates of the event organised by the University. Registration is a pretty simple procedure and very smooth to go.

After that, they would send you your country name and your committee. An agenda too will be provided on which you have to debate.

Once you have known your country's name, committee, agenda, venue and time of the commencement of the event, you are all set to go. Just wait till the D-day arrives.

• DAY 1:

We know that the entire MUN is a three day event and further the description of the event will be differentiated on the basis of days. So, lets begin what happens on Day 1.

I was allotted Cyprus country in SPECPOL committee. On the very first day, the organizing authority will collect all the delegates from different committees and a short opening ceremony would be done, then the delegates of different committees will be shifted to the different campuses for further sessions. In my case, the organising committee was KIIT UNIVERSITY. 

Executive Chair explaining the agenda.

On the first day, they will explaining the entire process of how the upcoming three days are going to be conducted and the rules and regulations of the committee and of course the agenda.

Our agenda

It was basically about the Palestinian refugees as mentioned above. But along with the agenda, there comes a lot of debate, followed by humongous research and explanations.

At first there is a General Speakers List or GSL in which any delegate would come up with a debatable topic related to the agenda and is given only 90 seconds(different for different universities) to put forward their points. 

There are basically four points of consideration:

• Points of Inquiry. These are used if you have a question about an aspect of committee you don’t understand.

• Points of Personal Privilege. These are used if you experience some sort of discomfort such as the inability to hear a delegate, you would kindly bring this up to the chair.

• Points of Order. These are used if you believe there was a mistake made in the rules of procedure.

• Motions. Motions are used mainly to transition between stages of committee. For example, motions are used to move into a moderated caucus or to move into voting procedure. They can also be used to open and suspend debate and various other things that vary from conference to conference.

We call the above list as the very basic stuff for any MUN. Generally by the evening the session would come to an end and after that there comes the time for some fun. In our MUN the KIIT had organised a social dinner after which all the delegates were allowed to leave.

• DAY 2:

The day 2 of any MUN is considered as the most vital day of the three day event, because the most crucial things that would wind up the entire MUN would happen on this day.

The day would begin at around 9/10 am and the same pattern would be followed up.

GSL followed by moderated coccus and several unmoderated coccus. They are the official and unofficial forms of the debates respectively.

The Executive Chair also tries to focus more upon formal or moderated coccus and tries to find the better solution for the problem. 

 

 This is me on the second day of MUN.

Wait... The day isn't over yet. As I told you the second day is an amazing and the most integral day, then how can we end this without making it more special ?

To make the day more special and memorable, we had Mr. Abish Mathew, the star comedian of Amazon Prime who also hosts a show called Son of Abish.

There goes our star comedian.

The entire Organizing Committee of KIITMUN 2019.

• DAY 3:

The day 3 is the final day of an MUN. Now, the major focus of every delegate comprises on the preparation of the position paper or the resolution paper.

A resolution paper is basically a written conclusion that comprises of the solution of every topic discussed in the past three days.

There could be more than one resolution paper, but the one getting the most number of countries in their favor would be the winning paper and finally that would be submitted to the chair.

After all this, there we conclude the entire MUN event with a closing ceremony.

• CONCLUSION:

After the MUN days will be over, you can feel that you have gained enough of confidence in this time span. The three days you will be spending here will be the most cherished and most formal days of your life. MUNs are addictive in nature and hence you will leave this only by promising yourself to come back again next year.

Keep MUNing.