ADMUN 2023 – The College’s MUN conference

Model United Nations (MUN) is a student-led CAS activity at our College. Every year a small but enthusiastic group of second-year students – this year  Mihalo Vucetic, Anuj Krishnan and Weronika Wozny – teaches the other students in this activity the basic MUN skills and together they organise the school conference, which is mandatory for all first-year students and is preceded by training sessions for all participants.

Our Rettore, Dr. Kahlid El-Metaal gave an introductory speech at the conference’s opening ceremony, enhancing the strong educational value of such a simulation exercise involving students genuinely committed to putting in practice the lessons learned at our College on international understanding. The College President, Ambassador Cristina Ravaglia, encouraged our students to take every opportunity at the conference to test their negotiation skills and introduced the conference’s keynote speaker, Ambassador Fabio Cassese. Ambassador Cassese is now the Diplomatic Advisor of the Italian President of the Republic, after working for several years at the United Nations and in other international organisations. He described the changes that have intervened in the way the UN functions – for example, how most UN resolutions are now adopted by consensus (i.e. without taking a vote), while previously votes were taken and a simple majority was sufficient, making the process much less inclusive. Ambassador Cassese admitted the many challenges and hurdles that confront the representatives of the UN’s 193 Member States, yet he stressed that no matter how slow the UN may be in making progress towards achieving its lofty goals, the world today is a better place than it would have been without multilateralism and organisations where its nations engage in dialogue.

Ambassador Cassese’s emphasis on the importance of multilateralism was echoed in the words of Anuj Krishnan, Deputy Secretary General in his final speech during the closing ceremony (see excerpt below):

This year’s ADMUN conference – held on 24-25 March – was dedicated to the complex issue of migration and students discussed the following topics in six UN committees or councils:

• The effects of migration due to the war in Ukraine on global security – Security Council
• The refugee crisis in Afghanistan and the threat of Islamist extremism – Counter Terrorism Council
• Human rights violations of refugees when crossing international borders – Human Rights Council
• Reducing the environmental impacts of the humanitarian response to population displacement in the Middle East – Environmental Programme
• The effects of migrations on international trade and workers’ rights – Economic and Social Council
• East German aggression and the freedom of mobility during the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 – Historical Council.

Photo credits
Photogallery pictures: Erika Burolo
Pictures of the entire MUN  conference on this link: Max Zimmermann (UWCAD 2021-23)