By Olivia Moynihan and Aimee Morley

On Saturday, 28th January, the United Nations Association Coventry Branch, along with the University of Warwick MUN group, hosted a Model United Nations Presentation and Simulation in the Pope Francis Hall. At the start, the team informed us about the role of UNA and MUN groups and explained what happened in a simulation. We also learnt some key terms, such as delegate and points of motion, which helped us to understand the roles that the countries play and how each country speaks in turn.

Then we got onto the simulation. Firstly, we were delegated countries. These included UK, USA, China, Turkey and Russia, to name but a few. Even if we didn’t have the UK, we still had to think in our delegated country’s state of mind. Our topic of debate was Unsettlement on the west bank and Gaza strip, where there is currently a lot of conflict between the Israelites and the Palestinians. As a UN representative, our job was to try and find a resolution to this conflict.

Then we started. Some people did a general speech and then people could ask questions. These were hard because you only had a certain amount of time to talk. In a real conference, this may be your only chance to talk in 3 days, so you had to make it count. One of the best bits of the debate was the ‘points of motion’, where people could make a discussion about a topic within the main topic of debate, such as migration or settlement building. There were two types. Moderated and Unmoderated. Moderated is just like the general speaking but other countries get a say straight away about it and can say that another country was incorrect about their speech. Unmoderated is when you actually get to discuss issues with other countries. This was helpful because it gave you ideas and you got to see other countries sides to the issue. For example, the USA has very different views on immigration to the UK.

Overall, the event was great fun. We enjoyed the opportunity to share our opinions and learn the views of others on topics of great significance that greatly impact on our world today. It gave us a good insight into the work that the UN do and we hope that in the future, we can host similar events and encourage more of the students to take part.

For more information on the UNA or MUN, visit www.UNACov.uk