University of Szeged, Faculty of Law Where knowledge and challenge meet

Faculty of Law and Political Sciences  --  News  --  Archive  --  Faculty of Law and Political Science april 2012

3 days, 5 continents, 130 participants = SZEMUN 2012

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SzeMUN (Szeged Model United Nations) took place in Szeged third time this year, with almost 130 participants from all over the world.

All those people who are interested in international relations would like to try the job of a diplomat. This conference gives the opportunity for these students to have a practical insight to the functioning of the United Nations.On the first day the participants negotiate and debate individually in one of the committees as representatives of a certain country. The following day they form delegations as they participate in the General Assembly. This year six committees functioned on the conference and according to the chairmen the delegates were well prepared and heated debates took place, instead of the fact that the majority of the participants didn’t use their mother language.


Nothing proves last years’ successes better than the fact that this year several recognized person noticed the existence of the conference and paid visit to it. Amongst these persons were János Hóvári the vice under-secretary responsible for global affairs who participated in the opening ceremony and János Tisovszky the director of the UN Information Service in Vienna, who gave a speech in the General Assembly. Both of them expressed that they considered this conference a great initiative and assured the team of their further support.


No wonder that the stressful situations, the debate and the tactics exhaust the participants for the end of the day. This situation is resolved by organized leisure activities such as a pool night, a barbecue party and the closing party. This year the organizers implemented two new things in the conference. Firstly the Szemun News newspaper that allowed participants to be informed about the work in other parallel committees. Secondly the number of organizers was higher so the background work was even more coordinated this year.


As an organizer, my experience differs from others’ but I think that all the hard work is worth it, since I have the opportunity to talk to others from far countries and listen to their opinions. When I asked the participants about their main reasons for coming to this conference the majority mentioned the low registration fee and the curiosity in Hungarian culture. It was also proved that an event like this is beneficial for the University of Szeged and for its students, for students from other universities; furthermore it has a good impact on the reputation of our country.


As a conclusion the conference delivered the expected excellent results, the feedbacks are positive, the participants are satisfied and the organizers are exhausted. However the organizer team is not planning to stop at this point and a new conference is being planned for next year.


Albert Szabó Tönki


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