After last year’s success, in the spring of 2011, SzeMUN (Szeged Model United Nations) was organized for the second time at the Faculty of Law of the University of Szeged and at Attila József Study and Information Centre. In this well-known conference, 110 students participated from 15 nationalities (British, Chinese, Czech, Danish, French, German, Holland, Hungarian, Israeli, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Romanian and Slovakian).

The participants – also known as the delegates – represented a foreign country’s interests and views in six committees: the Security Council, the Human Rights Council, the UN Environmental Programme, the UN Development Programme, the Disarmament Commission and the International Olympic Committee. Even though the resolutions that passed in the committees will not end up on the tables of real politicians, the conference gave a chance for future diplomats to gain practical knowledge while modelling the work of the United Nations. The delegates were lobbying and writing resolutions, holding speeches, and trying to convince each other to reach a better future, representing and using another nation’s arguments in English.

This is how the delegates could agree on LGBT rights in the Human Rights Council or choose Nigeria as the host for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in the International Olympic Committee (which is not a UN organ, but it is frequently modelled at model UN conferences). After the committee work, the delegates debated in the General Assembly, forming delegations. Contrary to last year, the General Assembly lasted one and a half days this year, where the delegates did not debate on the resolutions that had passed in the committees, but on another issue: reforming the United Nations.

Since there were participants from more countries, the multicultural spirit of the UN could be felt not only in the committees, but during the extracurrical activities as well. This is how an Italian student studying in Germany could sit next to a German student studying in Italy during the dinner, how the Chinese participants from the United Kingdom could get to know a Japanese student who arrived from Norway at the grill party, and how the Czechs and the Hungarians agreed at the goodbye party that next time, they would meet in the real General Assembly. Futhermore, the participants visited Anna Leisure, Thermal and Medicinal Spa to relax and get to know the famous Hungarian thermal waters.

The conference was organized by the students of the Faculty of Law: Dávid Gottesman, Nóra Kata Lázár, István Szabó and Albert Szabó Tönki, who study International Relations. They received a great amount of help from two law students as well: András Hárs, the president of the Security Council and Annabella Kovács, the head of the administrative staff. Besides the delegates, 34 students worked on making this conference happen, and so did the European Studies Centre and the University Students’ Union, without the help of whom SzeMUN could not have happened.

 

Szeged, 20.04.2011.

Visit also the website of SZEMUN.