Model United Nations Conference

On Monday 4 December eleven students from St Simon Stock transformed into delegates of the Republic of Chile or the Democratic Republic of the Congo to debate international issues currently affecting the international community in the sixteenth Model United Nations Conference which was held at Benenden school.

After a brief opening ceremony, the delegates went to their assigned committees to debate regulations drawn up on the day. These deliberations were in turn passionate, heated or funny – like the discussion in UNWOMEN, in which predominantly female delegates from more repressive regimes had to brazenly argue that women are not capable of rational thought, which led to gasps and some laughter. Generally, the more engaging the topic and the more outspoken the delegates, the more fun each committee – and our students – had. Apart from the obligatory position papers, all our students made points of information, some so well that the main speaker had no adequate response, and others even took the floor to speak. The students all participated with panache and slipped into their roles as international delegates with aplomb.

Apart from many verbal contributions, a sumptuous lunch, lots of contacts made and snapchats exchanged, two of our students received accolades: Eli was highly commended as a delegate, which is an amazing achievement, given he was debating with much more seasoned MUN-ers; another students allegedly reaped two of the joke awards, namely “most likely to declare war” and “most likely to become a dictator”- I have no clue how that could have happened…

All pupils enjoyed the day immensely and we hope to soon be able to attend another MUN conference – the students are certainly keen.

The committees, topics and delegates:

AIDA – ethical AI regulation

Chile: Chinenye; DRC: Hayden

DISEC – countering the illicit arms trade

Chile: Luke; DRC: Tom

ECOFIN – long-term debt sustainability in developing countries

DRC: Luca

HRC – the Rohingya refugee crisis

DRC: Ethan

SOCHUM – supporting refugees affected by Covid-19 in South American countries

Chile: James; DRC: James

UNEP – regulation of deep-sea mining

Chile: Eli; DRC: Evan

UNWOMEN – gender equality in conflict-affected areas

Chile: Chinazo