Haarlem MUN - HMUN 2022

From the 8th of April to the 10^th of April, our very own ISH students wore their suits, skirts, and blouses to become delegates who would represent various countries and their foreign policies. Two of our students even had the honor of chairing their committees. Cleo Beal and Enya Yuniarta DP1 would go on to organize the debates of their committees which were the ICJ and the GA4. Cleo Beal voiced her opinions of chairing the ICJ...

“I really enjoyed being the deputy president of the ICJ. It allowed me to see how a court would work and allowed me to gain experience which could be useful for a possible career of mine, being a lawyer. I learnt many new skills of chairing a committee which I will most certainly take to future conferences!"

The conference was hosted in Haarlem in various locations. Some of our delegates even got to debate in the Haarlem City Hall. On the first day most of our students would go sit in their committees introduced themselves and broke the ice with the delegates in their committees. After that we were escorted by the amazing staff of the HMUN conference to the Janskerk where they would hold the opening ceremonies. We would be entertained by the Mayor of Haarlem, the Secretary General of the HMUN and an ex-Secretary General of NATO in the real UN. All the guest speakers had very entertaining speeches with interesting topics. The opening ceremony was held in a grandiose way and would be the perfect start to three rigorous days of debating.For many of our first-time delegates we had heard feedback that the first day was a great learning experience as it made them more accustomed to the MUN rules, regulations, and the procedure. Many of our first-time delegates and experienced delegates had signed up for a various range of workshops. Delegates had informed us that the workshops were very helpful, and it only facilitated in their communication skills.

It must not go unnoticed that for the first time we had a delegate (Riptiva Roy IS10) in the expert committee. The club has never seen an ISH delegate be part of this committee and Riptiva had a few words to say about her experiences in the Expert Committee ...

“I can say that participating in Expert Committee was certainly a challenge but a very interesting and eye-opening experience in which I got to develop and learn new skills, very different from how I have participated in the past MUNs.”

Our first MUN day came to a close and during the train ride back we shared our own personal anecdotes from each of our committees with many enjoyable stories emerging from Day 1. On Day 2 there would be no interruptions with a full day scheduled for just debating and diplomatic negotiation. Many of our delegates were prepared for all three topics that would be debated. There were a few guest speakers, and this is what Rishi Narendran (Vice President of the MUN club) had to say about the interesting topics and insightful comments that guest speakers had...

“In our G20 committee we had a woman who worked with Tata Steel to minimize the impacts of the greenhouse gasses and to build more sustainable energy factories. Personally, I found this topic very interesting as it had also corresponded with the issue, we were debating of countries not complying with the Paris Agreement. However, I wondered whether the dream that Tata Steel and the Netherlands had, was only a European dream and whether such measures could be implemented globally in developing countries especially.”

On the final day the General Assembly had a plenary while committees such as the security council, G20, Historical security council would have business as usual. This is what Enya Yuniarta (Vice President of the MUN club) had to say about her experiences in the GA  plenary...

“Truly was a new learning experience to be able to moderate the debate and GA plenary: ensuring one resolution was passed per topic, regulating delegates’ behaviour/ time management and overall maintaining the structured parliamentary procedure. This opportunity was a great challenge, though it was a pleasure being involved in the preparation of HMUN itself. Definitely looking forward to for more chairing positions again in the future.”

When Day 3 was closing its curtains, most chairs of the committees would read gossips that the delegates had on each other giving a wholesome end to the MUN experience. This was also where it was decided that Siddharth Tapkhirwala was the best delegate of his committee (ECOSOC) and this is what he had to say about his commendable achievement “I feel overjoyed, and all the preparation that the MUN club gave really paid off”. However, our ISH delegates kept surprising us with Ridhi Maganahalli and Tara Chanda winning joint best delegate in the Security Council which can be categorized as one of the more experienced committees making it a feat that should not go unnoticed. The debating had finally ended, and our students would have to go back to bland reality but not without a few comments on the experience.

Francois van Eden voiced...

“Thank you everyone for this great MUN. It was an entirely different experience to my first conference, but just as enjoyable if not even more so! (Also representing DPRK was extremely fun.)”

Siddharth Tapkhirwala stated...

“Thank you to everyone involved in the planning and thank you to everyone who attended for making this one of the most enjoyable MUN’s that I have attended. Congrats to Enya and Cleo once again and thank you to the MUN club leaders for all their hard work”.

Ridhi Maganahalli had made a few statements on her view of the conference...

“Thank you so much everyone, I had a great time with you all! Our MUN president and Vice Presidents have taught us all well, and of course Mr Skarvelis and Mr Maguire who made this lovely event possible!”

Finally, Ramxy Kataoka expressed ...

“I found MUN very educational as we had a fruitful debate while using formal speech. I entered the building being very nervous as this was my first MUN, but soon came to realize that MUN was a fun learning experience rather than a place to fear. Overall, I had a great time at HMUN.”

Our MUN delegates seemed to have had an amazing time at the conference and finally we would like to thank our MUN directors Mr Skarvelis and Mr Maguire for escorting us to the places we needed to be and for keeping us safe. We would also like to give a hearty sendoff to Asmita Nayak of DP2 our very own MUN president who will sadly be leaving our school and giving away her seat to a new president. She has been an integral part of the MUN club and an important factor in preparing our delegates for numerous conferences. She has paved a new way for us and has brought the MUN club and its members to the level it is today. We would like to thank you Asmita for all your hard work throughout your years as a President and a Member. We wish you the best of luck in everything you do!