Model United Nations: Attending IRRSMUN in Croydon, UK

From 13th to 18th October, 21 students from Year 10 to 2nd Bach (accompanied by Miss Nicola and Miss I) travelled to Croydon, UK to attend the 41st annual international Model United Nations conference hosted by Royal Russell School. The conference was attended by 600 students from 40 schools across eight countries. 

18 students were delegates representing the Member States of Austria, Portugal and Switzerland in committees such as the Security Council, Environment, Disarmament, Sochum and Ecofin, where a wide variety of topics were debated.

Two of the students (Eugenia Gonzalez and Victoria Munar) were Chairs in the two disarmament committees where they were responsible for running the committees. Our final student (Naroa Lorenzo) was a Judge in the International Court of Justice, which deliberated on the (pending) boundary dispute between Guatemala and Belize, and where after hearing all the evidence the majority ruled in favour of Belize.

The conference started with the Ambassadors of our three delegations making their speeches in the Opening Ceremony. The delegates were then involved in lobbying in order to get their resolutions submitted to the Approval Panel. In total, we had nine individual or co-submitted resolutions approved, and four were then chosen by Chairs to be debated in committees.

After all the delegates had presented their Policy Statements, the committees moved into debate. In the Disarmament 1 Committee, our Swiss delegate (Ines Zorrozua) had her resolution on state-sponsored cyber crime debated, where it passed with a clear majority. In the Disarmament 2 Committee, our Austrian Ambassador (Daniel Traas) had co-submitted a resolution with Indonesia on the question of the Mexican drug war. In Ecofin, the Portuguese delegate (Tra my Ngo) co-submitted with Australia a resolution on the questioning of financing for terrorist organisations, and in Specpol 1 our Austrian delegate (Sofia Arana) co-submitted a resolution with Israel on the question of free and fair elections, which resulted in being passed in the General Assembly.

Our other delegates made various Points of Information and speeches in their respective committees, along with being recognised on numerous occasions during the General Assembly. The delegation of Switzerland (Luis Dong, Ines Zorrozua and Koldo López) made two speeches in favour on the resolutions submitted by the Security Council and Disarmament 1 and a Point of Information, whilst our Austrian Delegation (Daniel Traas and Eugenia Gonzalez) asked a Point of Information on the resolution from the Disarmament 2 committee and made a speech in favour for the resolution submitted by the Disarmament 1 committee.

After much fruitful debate, our students had a well-deserved evening out in London where they enjoyed the sights, did some shopping and had dinner. Congratulations to all the students for their hard work before and during the conference.