MUNA 2025

Thursday, 22nd May 2025 at 11:44am

Written by Krisha Karippail (Year 12)

The Model UN Assembly took place on Friday and Saturday, and consisted of 100 teams representing a different country each in United Nations-style assemblies. Each team had to deliver two speeches over the weekend in which we argued our country's opinions on proposals in hopes of convincing other countries to vote in favour of our desired outcome, and were also expected to consistently participate in offering Points of Information (questions to other speakers with an opposing point of view) and Points of Order (objections to the Secretary General about the Assembly's proceedings).

Over the roughly 8-9 hours each day, countries were encouraged to form alliances, create and sign Amendments to the remits we were voting and speaking on, and work towards any goal you believe your country would want completed - these were all done through talking with the other teams and through note-passing, which was facilitated by runners who delivered notes between teams during the assembly.

What made it especially interesting was that every team was only allowed to behave in the way their country would, which took a lot of research and creativity.

We were assigned to be Germany, and chose to give speeches about proposals surrounding the use of AI in autonomous weapons and mass surveillance, and whether the World Trade Organisation should have the ability to prosecute countries using exploitative trade practices.

It was a very eventful two days, and definitely kept us very active the whole time.

The Secretary General was Labour MP Shanan Halbert - who at one point even got voted out of his role by the Assembly - and we got to hear from and ask questions to former Minister of Education Chris Carter.

Overall, I really enjoyed the weekend and I know my teammates did too. It was a fantastic experience that taught me a lot about politics, diplomacy, public persuasive speaking, and so much else.

Big thank you to Mr McGregor for organising it and showing up to support us, along with Mr Woodward and Mr Bacarella who also came to support.