From the evening of Friday 6th March, till the Sunday afternoon, six of us went to the MUN (Model United Nations) Conference at Kingswood School Bath, to discuss some of the pressing issues faced by today’s society. We represented Australia within two committees: Human Rights and secondly, the Political, Disarmament, and Economic committee. Here, armed with our knowledge surrounding the topics, Australia’s perspective on these matters, and resolutions needing to be deliberated, we came forth, not truly knowing what was in store for us.

On Friday, we aimed to get eight signatures on our resolutions – this would allow us to submit them. In an attempt to gain signatures, we had to socialise with other delegates within our committees, and in turn, created friendships.

We returned on Saturday, and despite the early start, we were ready for action, beginning the day by discussing the resolutions which had been submitted. It was both interesting and amusing to see how different countries perceived different situations – take for example Iran in HR1, who in their resolution on the rights of the disabled, stated they wanted to remove all government funding from the disabled and put it towards their army. Likewise, we could see the different political ideologies held by different countries, depending on whether or not they voted in favour of a resolution.

By the end of day one, most of us had made points of information (questions), with some of us even making amendments to certain clauses.

Moreover, there was a great mix of people at MUN, some of whom had never been to a conference before, and like most of us from St Mary’s, were, to some extent, undertaking a baptism of fire. On the other hand, there were also experienced delegates, some of whom gracefully led the task of undertaking the first few resolutions, until the newer delegates gained more confidence.

However, the conference was not wholly serious, for there were still some flickers of fun seen, be it in the note-passing, the exile of annoying delegates, Vatican City not knowing Catholic doctrine, or even an amusing point of information.

Altogether, MUN was an experience that none of us will ever forget. It was both hugely informative and mind-opening, whilst also giving us the chance to meet new people. We look forward to returning to another MUN conference in the future.

Lizzie (Year 12)