MUN 2022 Success
Students across Year 10 and College 1 were waved off on Friday morning as they travelled down to Bath to attend the 31st BISMUN 2022 conference held at Kingswood School.
Bath’s International Schools Model United Nations event saw The Mount girls represent Mexico and Israel as they debated pressing global matters and different issues to do with their respective councils.
Year 10 student Scarlett represented Mexico on the Human Rights Council and was successful in having her resolution passed, despite some amendments. “My resolution was to improve reproduction health care in rural areas, globally, in UN countries and making the practice of FGM illegal in all UN countries.” Scarlett overcame some initial nerves about the event and expressed, “Before I was really scared but then when I got it was okay. You walk up some stairs and there is a little microphone and a stand where you must speak.” Her advice for anyone else doing MUN, “Be brave and speak up! If you don’t know what’s happening, you can just ask people around you because most people are already experienced having done MUN before. They are really helpful if you ask them, like others helped me to say my resolution. Before you go, make sure you research the beliefs of your country.”
Also representing Mexico, Libby was on the Environmental Council and talked about land degradation, food waste and multi-scarcity. Students like Libby who didn’t speak directly, were able to offer points of information and voice their opinions.
Elisha, a delegate for Israel on the Political committee said of the day, “There were strong personalities there and it was very male dominated but I think I did pretty well. By the end of the weekend I was helping people with their amendments and signing off the amendments as Israel. It was really interesting and I hope I can do it again. Before, I was really nervous that I wouldn’t know anyone, but I realise that most of them were alone as well in their groups.” Elisha added that a particularly gratifying moment was catching out anyone not educated enough on their situation.
The event even touched on current affairs as, some of the students were from Ukraine, with one of male attendees offering “a really nice speech saying thank you for your support.”
Well done to Berlin who was successful on having an amendment passed on one of her resolutions. All of the girls were in agreement that the event was interesting, allowed them to learn a great deal and they are looking forward to taking part again in the future. College student Rosie added “I was already interested in what we were doing, but it got me even more interested in public speaking and I would like to do more debating in future.”
In their downtime, the girls enjoyed the sights of Bath City Centre, and in particular the vast array of restaurants available on their doorstep – and the in-room Nespresso machine also proved a particular hit!
Rosie, Economic council for Mexico – “We were debating different issues to do with our respective councils. In mine, it was land degradation, water shortage and global food shortage. People put their resolutions forward and then we would put amendments forward to change resolutions. We would all vote for them at the end. We even had an emergency scenario in the Environmental Council, a Nuclear Power station had blown up in Iran and all the nuclear fallout was blowing over to Pakistan and India. We had to come up with a resolution to solve that.”
Ruby – “On the Economic Committee for Mexico, we addressed the illegal drug trade, the energy crisis and forced labour. It was quite controversial because we had some strongly opinionated people on our committee. I passed an amendment for the Emergency Scenario on the Energy Crisis. In the General Assembly when all the delegates came together there were 300 – 400 people in the room, trying to solve the China-Taiwan crisis which was very interesting.”