On the 24-26th of November, 2023, one of the international schools in Singapore, Australian International School, one of Singapore's international schools, hosted a MUN conference.

This is officially the 2nd conference hosted by AIS after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the theme of protecting, preserving and producing harmony.

MUN is a conference where students represent different countries and debate about global affairs based on the respective countries’ stance on the issue.

MUN conferences are generally hosted by schools, inviting other schools for the conference.

Around 10 schools attended and 180 students participated as chairs and delegates in 8 different committees in this year’s event.

Different committees handled different aspects of those global affairs: UNEP, Environment; UNICEF, United Nations Children's Fund; UNODC, The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; HRC, Human Rights Council; UN Women, The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women; SC, Security Council; WHO, World Health Organization and more

Two chairs are elected for each committee.t One runs the debate while the other records delegates’ contributions.

Despite the fact that many delegates were new to the conference and, therefore, had less contribution in the beginning, support from the chairs and other delegates had the amount of contributions and discussions soaring.

The conference started with an opening ceremony on day one, debating sessions on day two, and ended with the closing ceremony on day three.

A guest speaker from the Red Cross visited to encourage donations from people in the conference.

She talked about different ways that people could support the red cross and how important it was to give support to the community.

The conference donated all profits from hosting MUN to the Red Cross.

The school principal and head of secondary school mentioned the importance of addressing these global affairs to produce harmony in our rapidly changing society.

During the debate session, delegates debated and collaborated to produce the best resolution that all nations should follow.

They debated about the resolution based on their countries’ stances while taking different motions and points to express their opinions.

For example, points of information (POI) are used to ask a question to other delegates or chairs through the chairs as no cross-talking is permitted.

Motion to move to voting procedure is a motion that delegates suggest to chairs to directly move on to voting without further debate.

In such a case, delegates will give their reasons and the chair will ask if there are any seconds or objections to the motion.

In the case of an objection, a justification must be produced. The chairs then decide based on their reasoning and the arguments put in front of them.

All the delegates’ contributions are recorded by chairs. After each of the day's debate sessions, chair meetings were held to discuss further actions.

By discussing and debating issues from different countries’ perspectives, students are able to learn how to cooperate in a team and interact with different people and points of views.

The secretary general said “I hope this MUN conference gave you an opportunity to broaden your perspective”

Yujin Son

Australian International School

Year 11