From the 14th to the 19th of March, 2016, the HanseMUN e.V. very proudly sent a 13 person team to the Harvard World Model United Nations Conference in Rome. With over 2,500 participants from over 100 countries, WorldMUN is the largest international Model United Nations Conference outside of the USA. The unique aspect of this MUN is the varied location, every year WorldMUN takes place in a different country. Every five years the converence takes place on a different continent, our delegation was very happy to hear that the 2016 conference was due to take place in Europe.
The experiences our delegation gathered at the WorldMUN was truly unique. From the hotel, the Sheraton, which was given to the young conference participants for this week, who used it to heatedly debate world politics during the day, and to get to know each other at the Socials in the evenings.
Our delegates worked together with delegations from Venezuela, Morocco, even the Syrians had sent a delegation. The feeling to work with so many interested young people on a common goal was a truly amazing experience.
Our delegation represented the Kingdom of Spain. We prepared for months before, with weekly meetings, focused exercises and seminars. The conference began on Monday, with an international Chorus performance of „We are the World“. There was truly no better way to describe the feeling at the conference. Speeches from many well-known politicians, including the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who called for a united Europe and open borders, exceeded our wildest expectations.
The next days were filled with five sessions, where our delegates represented the Kingdom of Spain in seven different committees. One of our delegates even had the opportunity to participate as a Chair, in a debate-guiding position!
This experience allowed our entire Delegation a unique glimpse behind the curtain of a world-wide enormous MUN conference, and to see all of the organisational work that is typically ignored, as long as everything runs smoothly. We were also able to get to know not only the team from harvard, but with the large numbers of the Rome Model United Nations Society who volunteered to help out at the conference. We were able to take some tips and tricks home with us for our annual conference, the Hammun.
Due to the large size of the conference, everything was full. We were able to work as a team in the larger committees, allowing one of us to actively participate in debate, while the other one was able to work on alliances and Resolutions.
The Committes topics were as varied as the committees themselves, Legal concentrated on HIV and Patent rights, UN Conference on Women concentrated on women in leadership positions in different government agencies. The Council of the European Union concentrated on structural reforms in the EU, focusing on Labor Laws. The Disarmament and International Security Committee discussed Violent Non-State Actors and Disputed Territories. SPECPOL debated State Building, while the Executive Committee of FIFA discussed „The 2018 and 2022 World Cups“ as well as „Coordination with Domestic Leagues“. These topics were only able to be discussed through an unbelievable amount of preparation, from all participants in the conferences.
(The HanseMUN-Delegation at the Toga Party)
One of the best parts of the conference was the speech given by Pope Francis, who discussed the importance of MUN in his speech,
“The greatest benefit of your time together here in Rome, however, does not have to do with learning about diplomacy, institutional systems or organizations, however significant and worthy of your study these are. The greatest benefit is your time together, your encounter with people from around the world, who represent not only our many contemporary challenges, but above all the rich diversity of talents and potential of the human family.”
All in all, Rome was an unbelievable experience, and we would like to thank our sponsers, we would have never been able to have this experience without their help.
A very special thanks to Frau Dr. Hedwig-Else Dürr from the Dürr-Stiftung (http://www.duerr-stiftung-hamburg.de/)
And the Law Officies of Norton Rose Fulbright (http://www.nortonrosefulbright.com/de/de/).