Model United Nations TU München Delegation 2012 Final · PDF file3. Introduction....

Model United Nations TU MünchenDelegation 2012

Final Report

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WorldMUN 2011 - Final Report

IntroductionWorldMUN Project 3Quick Facts 4Foreword Prof. Dr. Klaus Mainzer 5Foreword Head Delegate 6Model UN Society At TUM 7

PreparationApplication Procedure 8Preparation Weekends 9Training Sessions 10National Model United Nations Europe 11IsarMUN 2011 12Fundraising 13

ConferenceTUM Delegation 2012 14ECOFIN – Committee Report 15SPECPOL – Committee Report 16DISEC – Committee Report 17LEGAL – Committee Report 18Third Party Actors – Committee Report 19Special Summit On Water – Committee Report 20SOCHUM – Committee Report 21Social Events 23

ConclusionExperiencing Vancouver 24Personal Resume From The Faculty Advisor 25Sponsors & Imprint 26

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Introduction

WorldMUN Project

This final report comprises the experiences the delegation of twelve students of the Technische Universität München representing the Islamic Re-public of Afghanistan at the Harvard World Model United Nations 2012 in Vancouver, Canada.

Harvard World Model United Nations (WorldMUN) is an annual model United Nations Conference or-ganized by Harvard University that brings together over 2.500 students from over 60 countries. World-MUN is a unique experience that allows students to debate on pressing political issues, while partici-pating in a simulation of the practices and debates of the real United Nations. Country positions are assigned to delegates in their various committees where they debate and discuss in a realistic simu-lation of the United Nations. The country assigned to the TUM delegation was the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and Yo-Yo Ma. During two sessions a day typically, delegates debate and advocate a topic to finally accomplish a solution that could be implemented actually.

The TUMgoesWorldMUN project was launched in 2006 and enabled the first TUM delegation ever to attend the WorldMUN 2007 in Geneva, Swit-zerland. Coinciding with the first participation, the “Model United Nations Technische Univer-sität München e.V.” (MUNTUM e.V.), a non-profit registered association, was founded. MUNTUM is supposed to provide a scope for intercultural exchange and communication as well as foster-ing political interest at the TUM focusing on the unique opportunity of Model United Nations. In a long-term perspective our project aims to create a broad basis consisting of MUN alumni and other interested students. IsarMUN 2008 was the first university-level Model United Nations conference organized by the Technische Universität München and the Ludwig Maximilians Universität (LMU) in Munich. For participating students this event was an enormous enrichment. Since 2008 IsarMUN has

been held every year in cooperation between the TUM and the LMU Model UN groups.

After TUM delegations had attended WorldMUNs in Geneva, Switzerland (2007), Puebla, Mexico (2008), The Hague, Netherlands (2009), Taipei, Taiwan (2010), Singapore (2011), the delegation for WorldMUN Vancouver was chosen in autumn 2011. Twelve students – Hakan Büyükkoru, Marc Hermann, Andreas Jankl, Michael Krapf, Felix Kristl, Benjamin Meindl, Robert Morasch, Lea Mulas, Cheng Ouyang, Robin Piepereit, Peter Seiringer, and Leonhard Spiegelberg – were selected in a de-manding application procedure to represent the TUM with support of their faculty advisor Chong Su Choi at the WorldMUN conference in Vancouver in March 2012.

Intensive prepataion started in autumn 2011: Fundraising, public relations, IsarMUN, position papers, preparation for the representation of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and Yo-Yo Ma, rhe-torical training, scheduling the trip to Vancouver, to name some tasks. After the delegation’s coun-try and goodwill ambassador had been assigned at the end of January, the individual and intensive preparations for the different committees began, which meant familiarizing oneself with the topics and analyzing Afghanistan’s and Yo-Yo Ma’s posi-tions towards them.

This final report will provide you detailed personal experiences delegates received during WorldMUN 2012. We hope you will enjoy reading and get both interested and touched of the WorldMUN spirit.

Benjamin Meindl and Robin Piepereit

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Quick Facts

Harvard WorldMUN 2012

General Organizer Harvard World Model United Nations

Local Organizer University of British Columbia

Venue Vancouver, Canada

Date March 11 – March 15, 2012

Simulated Committees 22

Delegates 2.200 students

Participating Universities 270

Participating Countries 65

Project founded 1991

Previous Venues Singapore, Taipei, The Hague, Puebla, Geneva, Beijing, Edinburgh, Sharm, Heidelberg, Belo Horizonte, Istanbul, Athens, London, Brussels, Budapest, Amstersdam, Geneva, Luxembourg, Prague, Miedzyzdroje

Website www.worldmun.org

TUMgoesWorldMUN 2012

Society MUNTUM e.V. at Technische Universität München

Country of Representation Afghanistan

Delegation Size 12+ Faculty Advisor

Committees Attended 7

2012 Project Start October 23, 2011

TUMgoesWorldMUN founded 2007

Patronage Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c.mult. Wolfgang A. Herrmann President Technische Universität München

Website www.worldmun.de

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Introduction

Dear Readers,

As Head of the Carl von Linde-Academy I ful-ly support the “TUM goes World Model United Nations” project with my greatest sympathies and conviction.

After having participated in the conferences in Geneva (2007), Puebla (2008), The Hague (2009), Taipei (2010), Singapore (2011), this year in Van-couver was the sixth time that a delegation of the Technische Universität München attended Harvard WorldMUN, offering a unique opportunity for our students to develop their cultural and social abili-ties. The delegation of the TU München considers the project as an excellent basis for interdisciplin-ary and intercultural exchange in order to gain a diverse understanding of today’s global problems.

Those are also the aims of the Carl von Linde-Academy. At TU München, the Carl von Linde-Academy provides an interdisciplinary and in-tercultural education program, covering a wide range of branches. It is based on the idea that excellence focusing just on one specific sub-ject is by far not enough in today’s globalized and complex world.

Therefore the Carl von Linde-Academy is fully

supporting the WorldMUN delegations. Due to the project’s high relevance it is also under the patronage of the president of the TU München. I am sure that this project will have a fruitful fu-ture and will enrich our university in a magnifi-cent way.

Sincerely,

Professor Dr. Klaus MainzerLehrstuhl für Philosophie und WissenschaftstheorieDirektor der Carl von Linde-Akademie

Foreword Prof. Dr. Klaus Mainzer

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Foreword Head Delegate

Dear distinguished readers,

Five intensive days of the World Model United Na-tions 2012 lay behind us. However us, a group of 13 students of the Technical University of Munich, will never forget the experiences we made during the conference and of course the friends we made from all over the world.

But let me explain one after the other. During the last six months of preparation for WorldMUN 2012 we tried to prepare ourselves the best as possible. This included weekly meetings where we discussed about political issues, about the structure of the United Nations with its com-mittees and about organizational matters. We did rhetorical classes on English and had training ses-sions on special topics concerning actual politi-cal themes. Additionally we had two preparation weekends which gave us the opportunity to get to know each other better, coordinate our work and focus on improving our ability for holding speech-es and doing diplomacy.

As Harvard University told us that our delegation will represent the Islamic Republic of Afghani-stan, everyone of our team was very motivated to represent the interests of the country the best as possible. This included a lot of reading about the country. I for myself was very impressed about the motivation of each student. Besides studying for tests at University every delegate invested a huge amount of time in the preparation and organiza-tion in order to make the WorldMUN an unforget-table experience – successfully. It was a pleasure for me to work together with such talented and political interested students in our delegation and at the WorldMUN 2012 in Vancouver from all over the World.

But there is one more thing to point out: the spon-sors of MUNTUM e.V. and of our delegation for WorldMUN 2012. Without financial support and aid this all would not be possible. In the name of every participating student I want to thank you very much. You enabled us a unique experience, you made it possible for us to build a network of friends all over the world, you gave us the oppor-tunity to learn about the UN, about its committees

and about the life as an ambassador. Where else could you imagine to discuss about political issues with students from the middle east, from South and North America, from Australia and China and listen to their opinion and their point of view. Every student who had this opportunity will never for-get such an experience – there is no better place to attack prejudices and make a little step towards world peace. We are very thankful that you made all this possible.

Warmest Regards,

Michael KrapfHead delegate of TU München WorldMUN 2012 delegation

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Introduction

Model UN Society at TUM

Dear Readers,

It is an honour for me to present the MUNTUM association and our brand new concept to you. It is the sixth team that we have sent to WorldMUN this year, our second to NMUN Europe and our very first to OxiMUN. As you can see our association has grown with the years and is continuing to.

We have radically restructured ourselves so that we can reach more students. Until last year the as-sociation was more or less ‘closed’, there was only the WorldMUN group that was chosen after an ap-plication procedure and for the rest of the year we did not reach any other students. From this year we have introduced open UN simulations for all students. We started off with two sessions in the summer that were a great hit with over 100 stu-dents attending. During the simulations all stu-dents received a country they have to represent and they discussed on a currently relevant political topic. After three hours of discussion the students prepared several resolutions which were adopted. Another change which we undertook is increasing our MUN participation. We newly started off with a group that attended OxiMUN which took place in Oxford. For the second time we sent a NMUN team that also had to also undergo a separate applica-tion procedure.

I would like to take the moment and thank all our sponsors and close friends. I would like to thank Prof. Herrmann, president of TUM, for his extend-ed patronage and Prof. Mainzer and Dr. Wernecke from the Carl von Linde Academy for their active and never-ending support. We have started with a stronger cooperation from this year and are plan-

ning to together organize workshops in the next semester. I would also like to thank Mrs. Friedsam from Bund der Freunde and Mrs. Weindel from DAAD PROMOS for their continuous and on-going support without which we would not be able to exist in our current form.

Last but not least I would like to thank my MUNTUM colleagues, Christian and Gregor, with whom we have spent hours of discussion and work on re-structuring and leading the association. It has been quite a long year with a lot of emotions and for me – experience. It was an honour working with you guys and I can say that we did a fine job!

I am excited to see the association continuously grow and just as the motto at this year’s World-MUN said: “[We] come together [and] go beyond!”.

Chong Su ChoiChairman of Model United Nations TU Munich r.s.

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The application period for WorldMUN 2012 started on the 2nd October 2011. In the first application round applicants had to fill out an online appli-cation form on our website. This form included general information about the applicant, MUN ex-perience and the engagement in other voluntary projects. Moreover, a written CV and a country plea were required. In the written CV applicants had to explain and state their motivation, why they par-ticularly applied for our WorldMUN project team. In the country plea applicants were free to choose a country and a political topic to write a political statement about it.

On the 23rd October the first application round was closed. The applicants were preselected with respect to the future project team. There were no knock out criteria for applicants, but our society fo-cused on sufficient skills in English, enough time besides studying and strong interest in foreign re-lations.

In the second round we invited the best applicants to personal interviews. These interviews took place from the 27th to 28th October. In the interviews we aimed at getting to know the applicants and to compare the application to the real experience. During the interview applicants had to deliver an unprepared speech to a given topic for around 30 seconds and answer questions about their expe-rience and their motivation to participate in the WorldMUN project team. All the interviews were held in English.

After the second round, we were happy to an-nounce 12 students as members of the future WorldMUN 2012 project team.

Cooperation MUNTUM e.V. and CvL

In order to extend the activities of our MUN soci-ety, we strengthened the cooperation with the Carl-von-Linde Akademie, a institution at TUM that promotes education in soft skills, philosophy and interdisciplinary topics as contrast to the scientific and technical studies at TUM.

As a very reliable sponsor the Carl-von-Linde Akad-emie has supported our MUN society for years. This semester our MUNTUM board organized several meetings with Mr. Wernecke, Prof. Mainzer and the TUM Vice-president Dr. Keidel to discuss the future of our society and the possibility of receiving ECTS Credits for a successful participation in a World-MUN project team.

As a result the CvL assured to support us with rooms for our activities, help for our fundraising and with advertising on their website and in their brochures. ECTS credits for our WorldMUN project team can be awarded, but there is still a long road to go. A TUM professor supervising the project has to be found and the faculties have to be convinced to acknowledge the participation in the World-MUN project as soft skills credits.

We thank the Carl-von-Linde Akademie for their ongoing support and are looking forward to a fruitful cooperation in the future!

Application Procedure

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Preparation

Preparation Weekend

A MUN, especially a Harvard Model United Nations Conference, requires a lot of preparation. Therefore MUN TUM e.V. and all WorldMUN as well as NMUN delegates got together for a whole weekend of training from 9th December 2011 till the 11th at the Jugendherberge Ottobeuren.

After a long day of university all the delegates gathered together Friday evening, cooking dinner together, watching movies and getting to know the others for the first time.

On Saturday the training began. The delegates were taught the Rules of Procedure of a World-MUN simulation, held a simulated conference ses-sion and improved their rhetoric skills. Especially the rhetoric exercises turned out to be very help-ful. The delegates were recorded during a speech which was analyzed by the others. After a few rounds it was interesting to see how much every-one improved.

In the end the preparation weekend not only im-proved our MUN knowledge and rhetoric skills, but built a friendly atmosphere and strong bonds in our teams.

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The meaning of our public training session is two-fold. MUNTUM is built primarily for Model United Nations activities such as NMUN and Harvard WorldMUN. Regular meetings are held weekly by faculty advisor so that delegates can gain MUN knowledge and rhetoric skills.

However it is far from enough due to the lack of non-MUNTUM members’ participation. Therefore the public training session, which is open for all students regardless their majors, is very necessary for MUNTUM delegates and beneficial for every participant. More importantly, the training session is a public platform for students to exchange ideas and discuss current global issues. MUNTUM also takes the interaction with publics to let more po-litical motivated students get to know MUNTUM.

The first training session was scheduled on Tues-day, 22.11.2011 at 19:30. More than 35 delegates gathered in the room 1180 of TUM to simulate the Disarmament and International Security Commit-tee (DISEC) with topic “Fighting Narcoterrorism”. Although this training session was the first expe-rience for most delegates, it exceeded our expec-tations with high quality and fruitful discussions. Delegates got to know the rules and procedures of MUN and try their first paging. After two and half hours’ intense discussion, we finally came to a reso-lution for this topic.

The second training session was held on Tuesday, 10.01.2012 in the same room. This time the simu-lation was again in DISEC but with a new topic “Nuclear Disarmament”. The discussion was in-

tense and interesting, especially the main dispute of disarming nuclear weapons in North Korea and Iran between these two countries and Western countries. DPRK and Iran refused to give up the right to develop nuclear weapons by arguing that developing self-defensive nuclear weapons is le-gal; while U.S. and other Western countries denied their nuclear development is intended for peace-ful uses and urged them to eliminate their nuclear weapons immediately. Eventually, Western coun-tries and their supporters won this battle.

With the experience from the first training session, delegates showed improvements in rhetoric skills and professionalism.

Training Sessions

Delegate

Cheng Ouyang

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Preparation

National Model United Nations Europe

Lille is the fourth largest city of France, located in the north of the country in Nord-Pas de Calais re-gion.

In order to get to Lille, we first flew to Paris and then took the TGV train. After we arrived in Lille, we were not sure how to go to our hotel. But we met many helpful people of France who tried to help us, even though some of them could not speak English. In the first night we wanted to make a small trip through the city center before the official conference trip. And we were able to discover a big part of the city center in a short time. So Lille has a relative small center, but it is full of very beautiful French-style buildings and many nice restaurants.

On the next day we attended the official city trip and had the opportunity to meet other delegates. But during the whole conference it was really cold. (About 20°) So the students of SciencePo Lille lead us to shopping centers.

Our hotel was really close to the conference center, we had to walk for about 15-20 min to get there. The conference center was the building of the Nord-Pas de Calais regional parliament and it was a good place to hold a MUN Conference. The open-ing ceremony was held with the attendance of the former United States Ambassador to the European Union. We also had the chance to talk to him per-sonally during the sessions.

There were many students from different countries on the conference. But as it is a NMUN the number of the students coming from the USA was really high. Also our working papers and draft resolu-tions had a really formal language and they were full of details. So the level of the conference is high which makes the conference more attractive for the ones who aim to attend other high-level inter-national MUN Conferences like WorldMUN.

The number of social events was in comparison to some other MUN Conferences low. But if we consider the freezing weather conditions, it was really difficult to organize events outside.Our trip to Lille was really fun and memorable. It was also really helpful to improve diplomacy skills and un-derstand the MUN concept. I would strongly rec-ommend NMUN Europe to next MUN participants.

Sincerely,

Hakan Büyükkoru

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IsarMUN 2012

In order to have a more profound preparation the Ludwig Maximilian University MUN group togeth-er with the MUNTUM e.V. organized a 3 day long Model United Nations Conference. This gave the groups preparing for the various MUNs a chance to improve their skills as delegates, as well as it was a possibility to give outsiders a glimpse of the MUN feeling.

The Opening Ceremony was a good chance to get an insight view into the Arab Spring from the viewpoint of the U.S. consul Conrad R. Tribble, who discussed together with the Tunisian businessman Malik Ben Chedli the recent events and key points in this historical event. This was extremely help-ful to the members of the DISEC (United Nations General Assembly Disarmament and International Security Committee) Committee, as their topic was the Arab Spring. Soon one problem crystalized out, the Syrian question. And after the first day of debate three different groups were working on three different solutions for the problem.

After the committee dinner, which was directly after the opening ceremony on the first day, the

second night was under the motto of partying, and so many delegates found themselves in a club together with the organization crew as well as the chairs to celebrate the event.

On the third and final day, the discussions became more and more intense since the deadline for res-olutions was coming up. The western states soon realized that the only chance to solve this conflict was to cooperate with the Arab League, and to work on a joint resolution, which at the end was passed with the support of nearly two-third of the committee.

After the closing ceremony, which gave everyone an insight in the different committees and their work, the delegates went home or came together in small groups to celebrate the last few hours of MUN spirit. This day they all went home with an in-sight in the work of the UN and international poli-tics, with many new experiences and mostly, many new friends.

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Preparation

Fundraising

When one thinks of Vancouver one always has in mind the beautiful scenery of the Rocky Moun-tains and the pacific. But bearing in mind that we had to travel over 8300km to get there and that Vancouver is one of the most expensive cities in the world it became clear that not every delegate could cover the needed expenses by himself. Thus, besides the preparation for the conference, fun-draising became one of our major organizational issues.

Having to deal with the withdrawal of one of our regular sponsors we did put in even more effort than before. We discussed a lot, how to improve the financial situation of the society. Therefore we organized again a “Glühwein” sale in order to as well raise money and advertise for the idea of Model United Nations at TUM. To build fundrais-ing relationships we focused on companies and organizations that at least one of our delegates already had a relationship with. Thus focusing on companies with those a delegate would have an internship with or trusts that a delegate would receive a scholarship from. Alike last year and the years before the delegates also, had to contribute to financing the project. Due to our new structure there has been as well a financial contribution to the MUNTUM society as for the project of World-MUN.

However having the financial contribution of each delegate we were still relying on financial aid trough our generous sponsors, thus rendering pos-sible our participation at 2012´s World Model Unit-

ed Nations. Therefore we would like to thank our longtime supporters: Prof. Herrmann, president of TUM and the Bund der Freunde der TU München, Prof. Mainzer and the Carl von Linde-Akademie. In addition we are grateful for the sponsorship by PROMOS (DAAD) and a fund administered by the Harvard University.

The contribution of our sponsors, once again al-lowed our participation at the Harvard WorldMUN. This unique experience motivates the people in the MUNTUM society to keep on working, thus spreading the idea of Model United Nations and improving year by year organization, preparation and the performance during our presence at the WorldMUN.

Delegate

Andreas Jankl

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TUM Delegation 2011

Our team this year shared an unforgettable experience in Vancouver which was also enabled by the fact that we had a very large diversity concerning cultures and nationalities within our group as well as many different fields of study.

It was very interesting and also challenging to represent Afghanistan, a country very present in the media yet unknown in its details to most people.

Name WorldMUN Committee Internal Department

Büyükkoru, Hakan Economics & Mechanical Engineering, TUM SOCHUM

Choi, Chong Su Medicine, TUM & LMU Faculty Advisor

Herrmann, Marc Economics & Informatics, TUM DISEC

Jankl, Andreas Mechanical Engineering, TUM SOCHUM

Krapf, Michael Mechanical Engineering, TUM ECOFIN

Kristl, Felix Electrical Engineering, TUM LEGAL

Mendl, Benjamin Industrial Engineering, TUM SSW

Morasch, Robert Electrical Engineering, TUM SPECPOL

Mulas, Lea Economics & Mechanical Engineering, TUM LEGAL

Ouyang, Cheng Communication Engineering, TUM ECOFIN

Piepereit, Robin Medicine, TUM & LMU TPA

Seiringer, Peter Medicine, TUM & LMU SPECPOL

Spiegelberg, Leonhard Informatics, TUM DISEC

from left to right: Chong Su Choi, Benjamin Meindl, Robin Piepereit, Peter Seiringer, Cheng Ouyang, Felix Kristl, Michael Krapf, Marc Hermann, Lea Mulas, Robert Morasch, Hakan Büyükkoru, Andreas Jankl, Leonhard Spiegelberg

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Conference

ECOFIN committee report

In March 2012 we finally headed for the exciting WorldMUN experience in Vancouver, Canada. More than 2000 delegates from more than 65 different countries gathered in this thrilling city to exchange ideas, create new friendships and explore an excit-ing city, which perfectly reflects this year’s devise “Come together, go beyond”. Vancouver Conven-tion Center, which is surrounded by the mountains and located in the heart of beautiful downtown Vancouver, was going to witness WorldMUN 2012.

With more than 200 delegates ECOFIN (Economic and Financial Committee) was one of the largest committees at WorldMUN 2012. Two topics were offered by the chair of ECOFIN. Topic A was the European debt crisis, while topic B focused on the economic integration. The 2 hours and 40 minutes record-breaking long debate over setting of agen-da had presaged delegates’ great enthusiasm and professionalism. Eventually the topic was set on “economic integration”.

As one of the poorest countries in the world and suffered from enduring civil war, the Islamic Re-public of Afghanistan’s political stance on this topic was clear. With its great geographical ad-vantages Afghanistan is seeking for enhanced re-gional economic cooperation, especially with Paki-stan and India, and trying to resume its “heartland of Eurasia” position. But that connection between Asia and Europe made it difficult for us to unify our important partners and convince them with our ideas. Soon there were three groups working on different topics and resolutions – African coun-tries, European and prosperous countries and the Middle East Countries together with South Ameri-cans. Russia and China supported our opinion and included our ideas in the working papers and reso-lutions. As, of course, only one resolution can be passed and all countries needed one solution our group was able to combine the African ideas with the draft resolution of our group.

Everyone agreed that economic integration is a great opportunity to solve national problems. But as every country has different problems which af-ford different solutions the committee decided to formulate a framework which gives help – no

compulsive schedule. Before the integration into the world market and complete globalization can take place everyone agreed that regional trade agreements and the salvation of national interests and individual culture has to be guaranteed. The economic integration can only be successful if the people of every country still feel as an individual and have the possibility to live their own cultural believes. As many countries agreed with the writ-ten draft resolution the ECOFIN – Committee made it to pass it with a 2/3 majority.

For us, it was the first WorldMUN experience and definitely a precious one. Time flies when you are having fun, but our memories will certainly be en-shrined in our hearts forever. Getting up at 6am., intense debates, negotiation during lunches, and partying till deep night, all these experiences made this journey outstanding and unforgettable. Final-ly, we would like to thank all the people who care about MUNTUM and, of cause, all of our MUNTUM members.

Delegates

Michael Krapf Cheng Ouyang

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SPECPOL committee report

The Fourth of the six Main Committees, the Spe-cial Political and Decolonization Committee (SPECPOL), deals with a variety of subjects which include those related to decolonization, Pales-tinian refugees and human rights, peacekeep-ing, mine action, outer space, public information, atomic radiation and University for Peace.

After reading the informative study guide pro-vided by the chair of our committee at WorldMUN, we had to decide which of the two provided topics we would prefer: A) The Palestinian Question or B) Civil Wars and the Creation of New States. The two of us came up with several arguments that spoke for and against each one of the topics. In the end, we decided to vote for putting “Topic Area B) Civil Wars and the Creation of New States” first on the agenda.

When we walked in the conference room about 30 minutes prior to the first session, a few delegates were already talking and lobbying for a specific topic. The two of us split up and tried to talk to as many others as possible, trying to convince them of voting for Topic B as well. The atmosphere was a little tense, people were getting to know each other and each others point of view. It seemed that Topic B would be preferred by a slight majority of the delegations in the room.

After the motion for putting Topic B first on the agenda, several delegates spoke for and against doing so. This was also the first time we had the chance to speak. Although the arguments for dis-cussing Topic B seemed stronger, it failed. So it came that “Topic A – The Palestinian Question” was

being discussed until the end of the conference.

During the coming up sessions, one of us stayed in the conference room while the other one was lobbying outside.

Our delegation supported the working paper and the subsequent draft resolution introduced by China, the United Kingdom, Russia and other in-fluential global players. After some talks, we were able to add three amendments that, in our opin-ion, needed to be part of a resolution. After our amendments were included in the draft resolution, we tried to lobby for it in our speeches and wanted it to be turned into a resolution.

In the end, there were four draft resolutions on the floor that were voted upon. The one our delega-tion supported got the most votes out of all. Un-fortunately, with 53 votes for, 53 votes against, and the rest abstentions, it did not achieve a simple majority and, therefore, did not pass the vote. So it came that our committee, after six committee sessions, full of hard work and dedication, was not able to come up with a resolution.

Nonetheless, we had a lot of fun in the SPECPOL committee, made new friends from all over the world and had a great experience representing the interests of Afghanistan in front of hundreds of other delegates.

Delegates

Robert Morasch Peter Seiringer

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Conference

DISEC committee report

The Disarment and Sercurity Counci at World-MUN 2012 was one of the General Assembly’s two person committees. The topics chosen by the DI-SEC chair were “Safeguarding of Nuclear materials” which meant the securement of both, civil nuclear power and nuclear weapons and as Topic B “Milita-rization of the Arctic”, dealing with the problems of the upcoming fight for the right of territory there.

After a long discussion which topic to chose the committee voted on Nuclear Material. Probably because more nations are affected by this one, especially all the small nations from Africa. Even though it would have been interesting to discuss Topic B we as Afghanistan were happy to discuss Topic A because the fear of Taliban and Al Quaida getting access to nuclear weapons in Pakistan to build a dirty bomb is troubling Afghan people.

Shortly after setting Topic A on the Agenda discus-sions started to heat up and outside of the com-mittee lobbying began and first groups started to build up, mainly devided in geographical blocks. As the United States of America were not involved in any of these groups we started to negotiate with mainly Arabic, African and South American coun-tries. The discussions were very fruitful and at the end of the first day working papers were almost finished.

On the second day the working papers were intro-duced and three major blocks were established. While discussions our group started to merge with the European countries. After tough negotiations at the end of the third day it became clear that there will be one major draft resolution which would obtain a simple majority.

Delegates

Marc Hermann Leonhard Spiegelberg

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LEGAL committee report

The United Nations General Assembly Sixth Com-mittee, also known as the „Legal“Committee, is one of the main and therefore one of the largest committees within the United Nations. During its sessions legal questions regarding the progressive development of public international law are being discussed. In our case we had two topics to chose from: On the one hand “Modernizing the Geneva Conventions” (Topic A) and on the other the “Legal status of the South China Sea” (Topic B).

At the beginning of the Conference we had a very long discussion – the longest in WorldMUN’s Legal history – which topic to choose. From our point of view as Afghanistan Topic A would concern us a lot more but Topic B promised more interesting dis-cussions. Nevertheless, after a lengthy and confus-ing discussion Topic A was chosen.

As we were in a two seats committee one delegate was outside lobbying and trying to find an ad-equate group of countries to work with on a work-ing paper and the other one stayed inside to repre-sent Afghanistan during the discussions. We soon found some countries such as Turkey, Russia or Yemen who shared similar ideas on the topic and we drew up a Working Paper together which was successfully submitted and later on turned into a draft resolution. In total six Working Papers were submitted out of which four became draft resolu-tions.

At that point it got more and more difficult for us as Afghanistan to stick to “our” draft resolution as more and more points were added which did not comply with the believes of our country. As a result

we decided to form a new group with fewer par-ticipants to promote a very straight and shortened draft resolution. Taking into consideration that most of the countries already had a draft resolu-tion which they supported, it was hardly possible to achieve a majority with our lately introduced one. As the time came to vote for the draft resolu-tions only two draft resolutions were left (the oth-ers had merged with them). However delegates were so divided that we had an outcome that had never been there before. Both topics failed by one vote!

Unfortunately we didn’t get to a resolution but at the end this is not the most important point. The contacts to international students from all over the world, new friendships and the great experience to work with them on global issues with such a high importance on a very high level were the most im-pressive part of the conference.

Lea Mulas Felix Kristl

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Conference

Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Commit-tee (SOCHUM) is the 3rd committee of the United Nations´ General Assembly and was the biggest committee at the WorldMUN 2012 in terms of the number of attendants. The two topics of the agenda set by the organization team of World-MUN were “Primary Education Development” and “Establishment of Adequate Housing”. Both top-ics were really interesting, as they adress the very basic human rights and fundamental issues which are never going to lose their priority on the inter-national agenda. They were also really relevant for the country we were representing, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a country, where the literacy rate is 28% (12% among wom-en). So we thought that the Topic A could be really interesting to discuss on. Nevertheless the Topic B adressing the housing problems was not less rel-evant, as there are about 500.000 IDPs (internally displaced people), millions of homeless people and others whose shelters are far below the ad-equate housing standards in Afghanistan.

Awaring of these facts, we were really excited to be the voice of afghan people in SOCHUM 2012. As we all witnessed the sufferings and disasters af-ghan people faced with during the history, it was a pleasure for us to represent this country. Even the idea of finding some solutions which can have important impacts on the lives of Afghan people fascinates us. I think this point is the most special thing about the MUN. It is possible for the atten-

dants to get an insight of the UN and understand what kind of a special duty is it to work as an UN Diplomat. It is useful in order the understand the level of responsibility and challenges, as the de-cisions taken here have the power to change the lives of millions.

With this motivation we went into the committe room on the first day of the sessions. It was a great advantage in the beginning that we already knew some of the delegates from the opening ceremony and “Global Village”. As soon as the agenda was set as “Primary Education Development” , we made our first speech and did some lobbying by paging with other deleagtes and talking to them outside of the room. So we were one of the delegations, with whom many delegations were looking for-ward to working, because we shared our ideas in the very beginning of the sessions. We worked to-gether with some arab and developing countries. Our motto was “developing countries for devel-oping countries”. Because we believed that these countries can develop the necessary solutions and ideas, as they are the ones who suffer. After we worked on our own draft resolution we were glad to find a common ground with other working groups including the Western countries. Through the end of the sessions we were able to merge with other papers and come up with a huge draft resolu-tion with a big consensus, which was the only reso-lution that was passed in the end of the debates. Our resolution paper about “Primary Education

SOCHUM committee report

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Development” consisted of many important ideas. Some of them were proposed to cover the oppor-tunity costs of students by giving them free food in order to encourage parents to send their children to school. Another clause which was an idea of our delegation was to talk to tribal and religious lead-ers in regions like Afghanistan where they have a big influence on the society, and convince them about the importance of primary education. So our aim was to create awareness among these people. We also emphasized that it is of central importance to create incentive systems in order to promote ac-tivities of the companies which help governments in order to develop primary education and show their commitments to the societies they are work-ing with.

It was a great fun and experience to take part in the WorldMUN 2012. During the social events and sessions we met inspiring people from all around the world and built nice friendships. As the presi-dent of the University of British Columbia men-

tioned in the closing ceremony, students from all around world came together and learnt how to be global citizens.

Delegates

Hakan Büyükkoru Andreas Jankl

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Conference

Special Summit on Water committee report

I was very happy to represent Afghanistan at the Special Summit on Water (SSW) at the Model UN conference. On the one hand this is a topic, which highly concerns Afghanistan. There are trans-boundry water issues as well as lack of water in some regions within Afghanistan. On the other hand I had the incredible chance to be a part of a novel, but critical, experience. The topics we dis-cussed are often mentioned and sometimes even discussed every now and then in other commit-tees, but never has an entire committee been de-voted to addressing the many issues of water avail-ability and management. Surely something as vital to life itself as water merits its own discussions! Our first topic, Increasing Global Access to Potable Wa-ter, deals with more humanitarian issues, and our second, Global Sustainable Water Management, deals more with an economic and political frame-work for the future. Together, the topics address one of the most crucially under-discussed crises of our era.

After more than two hours of discussion, Topic two was chosen by a thin majority of only one vote. Luckily this was the topic which was more important for Afghanistan. At the first unmoder-ated caucus, I gathered the representatives of the neighboring countries including the Aral Sea basin countries and Russia. We decided to work together on a framework for transboundary water conflicts, as this is a main concern in this region. Simultane-ously I followed other discussions and brought up some ideas.

At the second day, the first working papers have been handed in and it seemed to be quick prog-ress. But as soon as merging and formulating of the draft resolution started everything took much

longer, after long hours of work there was a final draft resolution with more than 60 signatories. In order to specifically address transboundary wa-ter issues we handed in a specific draft resolution quite early, but due to tactical votes it did not pass. Unfortunately an amendment was not possible due to time constraints, but the main draft resolu-tion at leads included many important points.

During the conference we had very interesting discussions. Since the SSW was a single delegate committee the workload was intense. In order to work on the draft resolutions and exchange ideas before discussing at the conference room we usu-ally met one hour earlier in the morning, even if the social events took long until midnight.

Overall it was a very good week where I had the chance to meet lots of great people. Even if I did not manage to talk to all of the 120 delegates in my committee. Our chair run the sessions very profes-sional and at the last day they even delighted us with a dance performance.

Delegate

Benjamin Meindl

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Third Party Actors committee report

Although the Third Party Actors Committee is the 2nd smallest committee at WorldMUN, it is one of the most exciting and dynamic committees. Composed of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Press Corps, and Goodwill Ambassadors, Third Party Actors provide a flexible environment for delegates to be involved in many aspects of the conference. Actors did not just extend their influ-ence to Economic and Social Councils, but also General Assembly and Specialized Agency com-mittees. Simply put, the Third Party Actors Com-mittee was where the action was at!

In the United Nations, Third Party Actors do not ac-tually exist. Rather, NGOs, Press Corps, and Good-will Ambassadors only play a supporting role in assisting the United Nations formulate policies on different issues. However, at WorldMUN, these players had the power to influence the decision-making processes in each and every committee.

The Third Party Actors Committee was an appli-cation-only committee. Out of 2000 WorldMUN delegates, 25 were chosen to represent NGOs, 3 became members of the Press Corps, and 2 were chosen to impersonate goodwill ambassadors. I myself had the pleasure and honor to have been chosen as a UN Messenger of Peace and imperson-ated the world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Because Giorgio Armani, the other goodwill ambassador, was not able to attend this year’s conference, I end-ed up being the only goodwill ambassador at this year’s 2000 student strong MUN conference.

As a goodwill ambassador, I represented a specif-ic cause and used my global influence to inspire change by spreading awareness about pressing is-sues around the world. Unlike „regular“ delegates, I did not just focus on my main committee, the WHO, only, but also extended my influence to SOCHUM and SSW. Because this committee was running for its second year only, I enjoyed a great degree of freedom and yet required innovation, teamwork, and enthusiasm because of the fast-paced dynamic of TPA.

Highly motivated, I cooperated and negotiated with delegates from all over the world. Because I

was a UN Messenger of Peace, I was open to any country and encouraged cooperations among countries.

After all, this was the United Nations. I encouraged the creation of various social programs which would have been under my patronage. However, my main work this year was the fundraising project for the Silk Road Project, Yo-Yo Ma’s own cultural foundation. This was the only „real“ and innovative part of this year’s conference, running for its first time. Having the support from volunteers (includ-ing personal assistants!) up to the Secretary Gen-eral under my belt, I literally ran from committee to committee to end up raising $1047, meeting the $1000 goal. Because of Yo-Yo Ma’s fame, I was the only person at this year’s WorldMUN to speak at every committee and received more invitations than I could handle during 6 committee sessions. Although I was not able to please every delegate, I tried my best to improve this world by bringing together societies- not just through music, but through words as well.

Students came together and went beyond- World-MUN 2012 was an incredible thrill I will never for-get.

Delegate

Robin Piepereit

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Conference

Social Events

World Model United Nation stands for a gathering of 2500 young students from all over the world at one place. This means to get in contact with peo-ple from many different countries while discus-sions about special topics in committee sessions and during the writing of resolutions. But besides this intensive work the idea of WorldMUN is also to give students the opportunity of making friends from all over the world, improve the students’ net-works and of course to get to know people with a background of different cultures and religions.

Therefore Harvard University and the University of British Columbia (UBC) had organized social events which included half day conference trips (for ex-ample to Whistler Mountain and to the famous Capilano Suspension Bridge) where we were able to get to know each other outside the conference. Additionally we had social events every night with different topics.

The first night was called “Global Village” and lo-cated in the famous Science Center in Vancouver. It gave students from different nations the oppor-tunity to present specialties from their home coun-try. Our delegation was able learn more about the life in Peru and Lebanon for example, we were able to try some Italian delicacy and eat some Belgian chocolate. In order to show our typical cultural dress, our delegation wore Dirndl and Lederhose. For all those reasons it was a very colorful and in-teresting evening.

The third night was definitely one of the highlights and everyone was anxious for that evening. In fa-mous yellow school buses we were taken to Whis-tler Village and had a fantastic masquerade ball in the Whistler Convention Center. Altogether it was a very special location and it was a lot of fun. Where else could someone imagine to have a snowball fight together with Indians and South Americas who have never seen snow before – a very special experience which makes friendships even closer.

The fourth night party was hold under the slogan “Sixties-Style”. The motivation of students to dress in hippy clothes was very impressive and resulted in a extremely colorful audience and a great atmo-sphere.

The conference ended with an ending ceremony and the every year awarding of the price for the best Universities at the conference in the different committees. Interesting speeches were held and a great farewell party in the building of the UBC rounded off the perfect impressions taken during the last five days. Highlight of the ending ceremo-ny was the lighting of the Olympic fire from 2010 and a great firework in front of Vancouver’s skyline.

Our delegation is still impressed by the amazing time we had and by the friends we made during the conference. Some of these friendships will definitely last forever. Celebrating and working to-gether with people from so many different coun-tries at WorldMUN is a unique experience which will be unforgettable to everyone of our delega-tion.

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Experiencing Vancouver

Vancouver, the biggest city of British Columbia, and eighth largest among Canadian cities, is locat-ed on a Peninsula in the southwest of the country. With more than 50% of its population for whom English is not their first language, Vancouver is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cit-ies in the world.

Taking a walk through the perfectly gridded streets, one is able to experience the positive atmosphere of this place at every street corner. Not for nothing has it been ranked as one of the most livable cities in the world for several consecutive years.

The hotel we were staying in during the confer-ence was about a 15-minute walk away from the waterfront where the conference center was lo-cated. The walk took us through Granville Street, a major street in Vancouver, where we could get a first impression of the city. Passing little fast-food restaurants, which made it easy to grab a slice of pizza and a can of coke at any time, night clubs, stores, skyscrapers and decent amount of home-less people, we made our way to the sessions every day. Once we got to the waterfront, we were able to feel the slight (and mostly pretty cold) breeze from the ocean while observing ships and water planes arriving at and departing from the harbor.

Another good option to explore the city was to rent bikes, which some of us did. We went around downtown and to Stanley Park, where we had a spectacular view over the bay with a breath-taking skyline and snow-capped mountains in the back.

Strolling through historic Gas Town, a whole new face of Vancouver was revealed to us. Plenty of little cafés, art galleries, souvenir shops and hip boutiques make this place a must-see in the city. A few blocks further, one of the largest Chinatowns in North America is situated.

On our last day in Vancouver together we had a delicious seafood dinner at the Public Market on Granville Island, which was a nice way to say good-bye to the city.

But this was not the end. The next day we got up early and went to Vancouver Island. After a five-hour transfer including one train, one ferry ride and two bus rides, we arrived in our hostel in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. We were very lucky with the weather and had two nice and warm spring days on the island, exploring the “City of Gardens.” We took a long walk through town and ended up at a viewpoint up on a hill in a park where we had a nice view over the Pacific shore.

It happened to be that St. Patrick’s Day was cele-brated while we were there. It seemed as if every Victorian had Irish ancestors, because everyone celebrated as if it was their own birthday. The wa-ter of the fountains was painted green, all the peo-ple were wearing green and guess the color of the beer we were served at a pub… Green!

This last day and night together was a perfect end to our trip and rounded up the incredible and un-forgettable experience we had together in Canada.

Peter Seiringer

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Conclusion

Personal resume from the Faculty Advisor

Dear distinguished readers,

More than four months have passed in intensive preparation until it all came down to the five days in March in Vancouver. All members arrived safely in Canada and the week began.

On the first day I saw the team with mixed feel-ings of worry and enthusiasm waiting to start off the conference. I and the head delegate went through registration while the others waited. I must also admit that I was also worried on how the con-ference will be and how my delegates would per-form, what my delegates would think about it. For some it was a completely new atmosphere seeing hundreds of suited up students walking around at the conference venue, for others it was already fa-miliar. Some seemed amazed; others tried to keep cool, despite of the emotions filling the conference venue. Later on at the opening ceremony quickly but at the same time slowly the CEO and Secretary General declared WorldMUN as officially open.

During the conference I as faculty advisor got to see every MUNTUM delegate “in action”. Some were busy writing working papers or draft reso-lutions, others where lobbying and others were nervously preparing their speeches, because they were up next on the speaker’s list. I could see the four months of preparation paying off. After the first day, after having visited all the committees and having seen all the MUNTUM association del-egates, I let my guard down. All seemed to be ad-justing very well in one way or another.

This year we had only four months to prepare due to the radical restructuring of the association, mentioned in the beginning of the report, which took longer than expected. It was quite an adven-ture running through content preparation and all organizational matters. But I think we did quite a good job. Got through organizational matters quickly and managed to cover most of the topics for WorldMUN including a training on the UN. It was a lot of fun for me and I hope also for the team members. But we all clearly learned a lot whether it was UN knowledge or on how to organize our-selves and keep the team spirit up.

I would also like to thank all sponsors who made everything possible. We would not have been able to intensively concentrate on preparation, if at all attend WorldMUN 2012, if it was not for your sup-port.

Sincerely,

Chong Su ChoiChairman of Model United Nations TU Munich r.s.

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Supporters Imprint

Studiendruck der Fachschaft Maschinenbau e.V.

We would like to express our gratitude to everyone who made this project possible, in particular to the following individuals at TU München for their enduring support: President Herrmann and Prof. Dr. Klaus Mainzer, Dr. Julia Schmid, Mrs. Gerlinde Friedsam, Mrs. Angelika Weindel and Mrs. Gudrun Obst

Publisher Model United Nations TU München (MUNTUM) e.V.c/o Maximilian GassPlanegger Straße 11281241 München

© 2012

Contact [email protected] www.worldmun.de

Final Report Markus Okur (Final Layout)

Donations MUNTUM e.V. Kreissparkasse München Starnberg BLZ 70250150 Konto 17283003

MUNTUM e.V. Board Chong Su Choi, Gregor Haidl, Alexander Binzer, Chris-tian Briegel

Print Fachschaft Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik e.V., TU München

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