On March, 21st – 25th, 2018, as an opportunity proposed by the students, we attended the Model United Nations Milan 2018 as delegates. We would like to take this chance to express sincere gratitude towards our English teacher and IB Coordinator, Kim Philot, for supervising and preparing us for the conference.
MUN is a debate on actual issues based on the model of the UN. MUN is an experience that involves young people to know the problems worldwide. It is really important to develop such experiences because the young of today are the adults of tomorrow.
MUN is composed by delegates: every delegate represents a country in a committee (ECOSOC Committee, Human Rights Committee, Disarmament Committee, Political Committee, Environment Committee, Security Council, Historical Committee).
Three of us GSO students– Sithis, Natalia and Elisabetta – joined the conference under the delegation of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, where Natalia was the ambassador and delegate of ECOSOC committee; Sithis was delegate of Human Rights Committee; and Elisabetta of Disarmament Committee.
Each committee has three topics to discuss and to find a solution to. In order to discuss the topics, the first day there is a special meeting where each delegate has to be in his/her committee to do lobbying. Lobbying consists in staying together and sharing the ideas about the given issues. At the end of this, each delegate has to sign the resolution of the country that found the most interesting ideas. The resolutions that receive a gret number of signs will be discussed the following days, with the possibility to add amendments or to strike out some clauses.
The first day we stayed at Manzoni High School to do lobbying and be divided into committees. The following day we were at Bocconi University: during the morning we stayed in the Aula Magna, divided according to our represented countries, and started the MUN Opening Ceremony. During the afternoon, and the third day, we were divided into committees and discussed our committee issues.
The last day we all met together at the Bocconi University Aula Magna: we were still divided into countries, to discuss the GA (GeneralAssembly). It is always a topic of a certain relevance, for example this year topic was The Radical Islam Threats in the States of Russian Federation.
We immensely appreciated the time of the conference as we were introduced to a wide range of international issues and placed in prestigious roles as a part of a member state to resolve such issues. This experience is extremely valuable to IB learners like us as we were somewhat procured all the IB learner attributes.
All of us were hosted separately by families in Milan, which contributed to aggrandising the experience: this is an aspect that enriches our cultural understanding of Italy. We were blessed to be placed with our beloved host-families as having been welcomed with the most incredible love, care and kindness from all of them.
We, GSO students, reached some achievements during the conference. Sithis, in the Human Rights Committee, was awarded the best first-timer and an unofficial one: the funniest delegate. Altogether, one of our clauses submitted for the General Assembly was selected. Unfortunately, due to time constraint, the assembly could not debate it.
Milan MUN 2018 was a glorious opportunity and experience for us, as participants. We all enjoyed a lot this experience that really helped us open our minds and know the world in this era. We learned and engaged ourselves to the world in the form of advocacy. With this, we believe that we are growing as a part of the global peace and sustainability. We truly encourage all students, especially IB learners, to take a step out of your comfort zone and play a role in this marvellous challenge.
Elisabetta Casonato and Sithis Yim Samnang
GSO students