Model United Nations

With MUN Students of Lahore International school

Colombo Model United Nations (COMUN) with over 500 representatives could be quite intimidating but having been a part of the process before I was ready with my research and eagerly waiting for the day. I hosted three girls from Lahore, Pakistan and that is definitely a new experience for me and an interesting personal learning. COMUN operated between 5/3/2010 to 7/3/2010 and it was an opportunity for me to develop my debating skills as I stated at the beginning of the year. I was in Committee One and I was the representative of Zimbabwe. It indeed was a challenge to represent Zimbabwe when the central topic of discussion is Human trafficking. I learnt so many facts about human trafficking such as, it is not done just for sex trade and not all the victims are women and children. Eventhough my country Zimbabwe was a challenging one to debate, I managed to talk few times. Below is the definition of Human Trafficking.

MUN is a creative activity because Every student need to do role play. We need to feel one with the country that we are representing. This Role play can be very challenging especially when you are representing a country that defies your beliefs. If we do not sound convincing in our argument for the country that we represent, we'll be shot down by the representatives of the developed countries in no time.

On day 1 we debated "combating the illicit trafficking of human beings caught in armed conflict" and on day 2 we debated "exercising the responsibility to protect". MUN gives us great insights into social issues that we do not really focus on, day to day. I attribute this for my social awareness and great interest in related world issues to a large extent. It gives us an opportunity to know and understand the horrendous crimes and grievences, that are inconceivable to us living normal lives in distant places. MUN also gives us an opportunity to come up with diplomatic resolutions and in the process helps us to develop our analytical skills and also to not be judgemental.

So, this experience of representing Zimbabwe taught me to research as much in detail as possible because to find their positive acts was rather difficult. I learnt to speak with conviction and also write resolutuins rather fast, in less than 45 minutes. I learnt to take a stand for Zimbabwe and supported war in the process, which is against my personal conviction. I said, "In a situation where Libya fails to hand over the persons responsible for the death on the Chinese Ambasodor, Zinbabwe would be willing to use its full military might against Libya."Thus I can say, MUN helped me develop my role playing skills.

On Days 1 and 2, each committee operated independently but on day 3 General Assembly convened at Water's Edge. A near nuclear war between China and Taiwan was the 'Emergence Topic' that was debated on the day. I did talk on the day and I am proud of my accomplishment. Public speaking, I have to say is not an easy task, especially if I have to speak in front of 500 delegates but once I am there I love it. It is something that I enjoy and in the process makes me confident about what I am speaking.

Overall, each day was challenging, with the sessions lasting around 10 hours but it great experience that helped me hone my research skills, debating skills, Speech skills, language skills while writing resolutions and last but not the least role-playing skills. However, in future, I would like to use my organizational skills in MUN and for that I want to be in the organizing committee. I feel that I am a responsible individual and I have the ability to plan an event such as this and to work collaboratively with members of organizing committee. I would like to develop my oraganisational skills further by being a part of the committee.