Model United Nations TU München Delegation WorldMUN 2011 ...

Model United Nations TU MünchenDelegation WorldMUN 2011

Final Report

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WorldMUN 2011 - Final Report Introduction

WorldMUN Project

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

PreparationApplication Procedure 8Preparation Weekends 9National Model United Nations Europe 10IsarMUN 2010 11Fundraising 12

ConferenceTUM Delegation 2011 13SPECPOL committee report 14UNDP committee report 15DISEC committee report 16Blood in the Mobile 17Example Working Paper 18Social Events 20

ConclusionExperiencing Singapore 21Personal resume from the Faculty Advisor 22Review & Outlook 23Photo Gallery 24Sponsors & Imprint 27

This final report comprises the experiences the delegation of ten students of the Tech-nische Universität München representing the Democratic Republic of the Congo made at the Harvard World Model United Nations 2011 in Singapore.

Harvard World Model United Nations (World-MUN) is an annual model United Nations Con-ference organized by Harvard University that brings together over 2.500 students from over 60 countries. WorldMUN is a unique experience that allows students to debate on pressing political issues, while participating in a simulation of the practices and debates of the real United Nations. Country po-sitions are assigned to delegates in their various com-mittees where they debate and discuss in a realistic simula-tion of the United Nations. The country assigned to the TUM delegation was the Democratic Repub-lic of the Congo. Over a series of sessions, del-egates are debating and advocating over a certain topic in an effort to arrive at a solution that can actually be implemented.

The TUMgoesWorldMUN project was launched in 2006 and enabled the first TUM delegation ever to attend the WorldMUN 2007 in Geneva, Switzerland. Coinciding with the first participation, the “Model United Na-tions Technische Universität München e.V.” (MUNTUM e.V.), a non-profit registered asso-ciation, was founded. MUNTUM is supposed to provide a scope for intercultural exchange and communication as well as fostering politi-cal 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 Uni-versität München and the Ludwig Maximilians Universität (LMU) in Munich. For the participat-ing students, this event was an enormous en-richment. From 2008 on, IsarMUN is held every year in cooperation between the TUM and the LMU Model UN groups.

After TUM delegations having attended WorldMUNs in Geneva, Switzerland (2007),

Puebla, Mexico (2008), The Hague, Neth-erlands (2009), Taipei, Taiwan (2010), the

delegation for WorldMUN Singapore was chosen in summer 2010. Eleven

students – Alexander Binzer, Christian Briegel, Chong Su

Choi, Benedikt De-champs, Gregor Haidl,

Leonie Kastner, Milan Padilla, Berit Plumhoff,

Diego Selle and Sina Straub – were select-ed in a demanding application pro-

cedure to represent the TUM, with the support of their faculty advisor Yvonne Boose, at

the WorldMUN conference in Sin-gapore in March 2011. The intensive

preparation began already in the summer of 2010: Fundraising, public relations work, the IsarMUN, writing position papers, preparing the representation of the DR Congo, rhetori-cal training, planning the trip to Singapore, to just name some of the tasks. After the delega-tion’s country had been assigned at the end of January, the individual and intensive prepara-tions for the different committees began, which meant familiarizing oneself with the topics and analyzing the DR Congo’s position towards them.

Milan Padilla, June 2011

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Quick Facts

Harvard WorldMUN 2011

General Organizer Harvard World Model United Nations

Local Organizer National University of Singapore

Venue Singapore

Date March 14 – March 18, 2011

Simulated Committees 21

Delegates 2255 students

Participating Universities 266

Participating Countries 65

Project founded 1991

Previous Venues 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 2011

Society MUNTUM e.V. at Technische Universität München

Country of Representation Democratic Republic of the Congo

Delegation Size 10 + Faculty Advisor

Committees Attended 6

2011 Project Start June 8, 2010

TUMgoesWorldMUN founded 2007

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

Website www.worldmun.de

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), this year in Singapore was the fifth time that a delegation of the Tech-nische Universität München attended Harvard WorldMUN, offering a unique opportunity for our students to develop their cultural and so-cial abilities. The delegation of the TU München considers the project as an excellent basis for interdisciplinary and intercultural exchange in order to gain a diverse understanding of to-day’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 Model UN Society at TUM

Dear distinguished readers,

Let me start off with something that usually stays at the end, but this time I think it deserves to be in the beginning. I want to show my grati-tude and thankfulness to our delegation and sponsors.

Working together with such politically moti-vated, clever and international students was a great honor for me. Preparing for nine months for WorldMUN 2011 was an experience I shall never forget. We had joyful moments, but they also had their price, and there were the hard-er moments. But I must say it was that com-bination that added to the spice of teamwork – learning and making new experiences. The best part is that we overcame the hardships and attended WorldMUN 2011 successfully.

During three preparatory weekends, we sim-ulated committees of the UN, practiced and improved our rhetoric skills. One exercise that I will not forget due to its productiveness and fun was when our faculty advisor decided to film our speeches. None of us was used to look at oneself and it first felt awkward watching how we talked and moved. But the awkwardness soon disappeared with the constructive criti-cism from the other delegates. Weekly meet-ings were also an essential part of our prepa-ration. We once again practiced our rhetorical skills, discussed current political topics and looked for sponsors.

Sponsoring – always one of the most heat-ed topics during our weekly meetings. It was not possible for us to cover all expenses of the WorldMUN project on our own. But in the end everything turned out well. I am joyful, de-lighted, exultant and above all thankful that the different foundations, associations and orga-nizations have decided to sponsor our group. MUN was and is an experience that changes a person from the inside. One learns what in-ternationality really means, one learns how to compromise and work with other people, one learns about current political problems and sees how hard it is to solve them, how to be open-minded, how to speak in front of hun-

dreds of people and much more. After all, I think it comes down to one thing – this is an ex-clusive experience, which no other conference, seminar, lecture etc. can teach. I believe that every one of us has come back with a bag of different views, ideas and improvements, and thus I can surely say that your sponsorship was an investment in minds of the future. It is our phase to learn in order to be able to come fully prepared into society and do our part in this big cake called “World”. And it was You that helped make it possible.

Warmest regards,

Chong Su Choi Head delegate of TU München WorldMUN 2011 delegation

Dear Supporters, Friends and Alumni,

Half a decade – and no end in sight. Who would have thought five years ago, that stu-dents from the TU München would participate in Harvard World Model United Nations five times in a row? Therefore, I am very happy to congratulate the fifth TUMgoesWorldMUN del-egation on its successful participation in the 20th Harvard WorldMUN 2011 in Singapore.

Once again it was possible to select an in-ternational and interdisciplinary team of highly motivated and inspiring students, who were eager to go beyond their daily lives as students at the university and prepare for a conference that has no equal. Rewarded with one week of fruitful discussions, social events and intercul-tural exchange, it was a memorable experience for all delegates.

Even with the greatest internal efforts the project can only survive with sufficient exter-nal support. I want to thank our encouraging partners and supporters: Prof. Mainzer and the Carl von Linde-Akademie as well as Prof. Her-rmann, president of TU München, for his ex-tended patronage. Furthermore, I would like to thank DAAD, Robert Bosch Stiftung, Bund der Freunde der TU München and Studiendruck der Fachschaft Maschinenbau e.V. for their support. We all know how invaluable this sup-port is and how essential it is for a holistic and interdisciplinary education. I especially want to thank our faculty advisor Yvonne Boose for her countless hours of dedicated preparation.

After one and a half years this foreword will be my last one as president of MUNTUM e.V.. The latest delegation promoted our initiated re-structuring process significantly and members of the delegation are impatient to take the til-ler. I am looking forward to new and innovative ideas stimulating interest in the United Nations and raising awareness for international topics among TUM students.

Even though many more challenging decades are ahead of us, I am sure that even in a century no end will be in sight!

Kind regards

David Wehner 1. Vorstand MUNTUM e.V.

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WorldMUN 2011 - Final Report Preparation

Each year the selection of members for the new WorldMUN delegation is a challenge. Since the Harvard WorldMUN rules only allow delegations of up to 20 people per university, not all applicants can participate. Also, the suc-cess of the project is based completely on the voluntary commitment of each delegate. In or-der to guarantee a fair and transparent selec-tion, the former delegation of 2009/10 and the board of the MUNTUM association decided to establish a selection committee (SC) working according to the following rules:

1. All members of the SC must have attended Harvard WorldMUN at least once.

2. In order to avoid decisions out of personal interests, members of the SC are not attend-ing the upcoming WorldMUN as delegate.

3. Applicants can apply for the project within a given 3 week period.

4. Only applications that include all required documents are accepted. These documents

are the following:a) a short questionnaire, containing informa-

tion like address, field of study, etc.b) Curriculum Vitae in Germanc) Plea for a country to be represented in a

committee of personal choice in English,d) Letter to convince a fictive sponsor in

German5. Applications are read and evaluated by three

different members of the SC. The evaluation is done using a point system.

6. All applicants whose documents gain a minimum amount of points are invited to a personal interview hold by two members of the SC of who one should be the designated Faculty Advisor.

7. The criteria on which the SC bases its deci-sions are the following:a) enrollment in a university in the year of

attendance of WorldMUN, preferably but not excluding Technische Universität München

b) good language skills in written and spo-ken English

c) high interest in and understanding of inter-national relations

d) high motivation and willingness to invest a sufficient amount of time into the project

e) team spirit, openness and a minimum of debating skills

8. To ensure neutrality and objectivity SC mem-bers had to abstain from voting if he or she is acquainted with an applicant in any way. Furthermore the applications are submitted without any picture of the applicants.

For the first time in this year’s selection pro-cess interviews took place. Although it is time-consuming for both sides, we highly recom-mend it to all upcoming SCs.

The SC finally formed a delegation of 13 stu-dents between their first year of studies and PhD, with a maximum age difference of 12 years and from a variety of faculties, namely Mathematics, Business Administration, Medi-cine, Physics and Mechanical Engineering. Due to exams du in March, three students had to leave the team during the time of preparation.

Yvonne Boose

Application Procedure Preparation Weekends

In a demanding project such as the TUM-goesWorldMUN, a weekly meeting is just not enough to cover all the preparation that is re-quired for a satisfactory participation in a high profile conference like Harvard WorldMUN. That is why two preparation weekends were organized in order to let all delegates put resort work aside and focus mainly in their content preparation, language and oratory skills.

The first preparation weekend, the Kick-off Weekend, was hosted in the Hans Leipelt Haus in Grafrath between the 8th and 10th of June 2010. This was the first time the delegation ever met and defined the start of the project World-MUM Singapore 2011. During this weekend, the delegates were introduced to the Rules of Procedure of a WorldMUN simulation, held a simulated conference session and wrote the first resolution. One very important outcome of this Kick-off Weekend was the social bonding of the delegation resulted from living together with other delegates. This ensured a good re-lationship between delegates and created a friendly working atmosphere for the rest of the year.

The second preparation weekend found its place in the Haus für Jugendarbeit in Fürsten-feldbruck between the 10th and 12th of De-cember 2010. During this weekend, the dele-gation split into three groups. Each group then worked on different topics (e.g. narcoterrorism, health infrastructure, etc.) with the established goal of writing a resolution that could tackle these issues. The resolutions were then ana-lyzed by the whole delegation. Furthermore, during this weekend rhetoric exercises were done. For example, by recording each delegate giving speeches and then watching the video to find ways to improve the delegate’s speech delivery. It turned out to be a very fruitful exer-cise leading to a noticeable improvement after only a few rounds.

Diego Selle

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WorldMUN 2011 - Final Report Preparation

IsarMUN 2010National Model United Nations Europe

As part of our preparation for WorldMUN 2011, our delegation visited the National Model United Nations Europe (NMUN) in Olomouc, Czech Republic. For some of us, it was the first MUN conference ever and a great opportunity to gain experience on the diplomatic floor of Model United Nations. After a touristic stop-over in beautiful Prague we arrived at the Hos-tel Poet’s Corner, which should become our home for the next week in Olomouc.

The Daytrips to Krakow or Auschwitz orga-nized by the host team gave a first opportunity to make friends with other delegations. During social events, in an atmosphere more informal compared to the committee, one could discuss all different kinds of topics and points of inter-ests.

The three hundred participants came mainly from universities from the United States and Europe. So NMUN was not as international as WorldMUN but still had an international flair. It was also interesting to see how this amount of suited and tie-wearing students could influ-ence the appearance of Olomouc city in such a manner.

Though committee started officially at 9 a.m., negotiations began as soon as one en-tered the conference room. Some faces were familiar from the pre-conference trips or from the opening ceremony. However, most were completely new. Through small talk and while

debating which topic should be set first on the agenda, one had to build up first important diplomatic relations with the other delegates. The TU München represented both Egypt and Denmark in four different committees. As the rules of procedure on NMUN conferences are slightly different to the rules from WorldMUN, most of the time was spent in unmoderated caucuses. Sitting on the floors of the Univer-sity of Olomouc, notebooks on the knees, the delegates argued about the wording of opera-tive clauses or the importance of a so far unre-solved problem.

After the official end of a committee session, the work was not over. Social events like the American Thanks Giving Dinner or the unoffi-cial after committee meetings in “the Plane” (an actual aircraft turned into a bar) or “15 minutes club” gave possibility to further evaluate the work of the day and to build up new alliances.

Friday afternoon, after the voting procedure, three out of five resolutions passed and the conference found its successful end. The clos-ing ceremony and the delegates dance where the last opportunity to exchange contact infor-mation and to say goodbye to the new friends. It was a great experience for all of us, as a three-day conference with experienced people from the United States was a good training for the challenges of WorldMUN ahead.

Benedikt Dechamps

“The situation in Afghanistan” or “Interna-tonal terrorism in Yemen”. Those were the two topics to choose from in the Security Council at Isar Model United Nations conference 2011. Two Students from the TU München represent-ed the delegations from France and Gabon in this important council at the yearly conference organized in cooperation by MUNAM, the MUN student association at the Ludwig Maximilian Universität, and MUNTUM. For delegates go-ing for Harvard WorldMUN in March, IsarMUN is traditionally an important preparatory event.

Besides the Security Council (SC), the Gen-eral Assembly (GA), also chaired by TUM stu-dents, and the Human Right Council (UNHRC) were simulated. About 80 people participated in the event, which took place from December 3rd to 5th, 2011. It was truly impressive how well the organizers performed in making the conference professional, always keeping the discussions on a high level, although for some, this was their first MUN conference. The event included a fabulous catering service, some very interesting guest speakers and really fun social events.

I was representing Gabon in the Security Council and was very pleased that we managed to put the topic on Yemen first on the agenda. Mainly, because countless resolutions have been passed on the situation in Afghanistan, while the United Nations had never agreed so far on policies regarding the unstable region of Yemen, where al-Qaida is growing strongly year by year. Each decision in the Security Council

requires 9 out of 15 votes in favor. Most impor-tantly, no resolution can pass if one of the five permanent members USA, China, United King-dom, Russia or France votes against. There-fore, since every vote is important, negotia-tions are even more intense and thorough than usual. In contrast to large committees with fifty or even hundreds of delegates, debate in very small committees happens in moderated cau-cuses and with speeches instead of behind the scenes negotiations.

The result of the intense negotiations was a resolution that decides on the establishment of a United Nations Assistance Mission Yemen (UNAMY), in analogy with the UNAMA in Af-ghanistan. We had a lot of fun throughout the entire conference and I can say that it was the best MUN I have attended yet.

Milan Padilla

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WorldMUN 2011 - Final Report Conference

Fundraising TUM Delegation 2011

As Chong Su Choi, this year‘s head delegate, wrote in his foreword, sponsoring has been one of the most exhausting topics during our preparation period. Experiencing a country like Singapore, meeting students from all over the world and participating in Harvard WorldMUN is an exciting venture that has its costs. The members of our delegation were unable to cover all expenses by themselves, so external sponsorship was necessary.

During our weekly meetings, we discussed a lot about the funding for the project and tried our best to bring up as much money as we could. Besides a financial contribution of ev-ery MUNTUM delegate, we organized a waffles sale at the TUM Campus Garching that was well received by our fellow students. Besides improving the project’s financial situation, the waffles sale also helped increasing our soci-ety’s popularity.

The TUM WorldMUN 2011 delegation was a very international mix of students from all kinds of fields like mechanical engineering, medicine, physics, economics and mathematics. Our different backgrounds gave us the chance to have fruitful discussions with different views on how the world works.

Although it was not easy to represent the DR Congo, it was fascinating to learn about this country and to find out how its history, its natural wealth and the role it plays in the region gave rise to pres-ent problems.

To raise enough money to ensure our unique journey to Singapore, we were dependent on generous sponsors. 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 as well as Robert Bosch Stiftung. In addition we are grateful for the sponsorship by PROMOS (DAAD) and a fund administered by Fachschaft Maschinenbau.

All these sponsors once again enabled our participation at Harvard WorldMUN and en-couraged all delegates to further spread the idea of Model United Nations at TUM and to continue partaking in national and international conferences.

Leonie Kastner

Alexander Binzer, Benedikt Dechamps, David Wehner, Christian Briegel; Gregor Haidl, TUM-President Herrmann, Diego Selle, Milan Padilla; Tom Braun, Sina Straub, Leonie Kastner, Berit Plumhoff (from left to right, top to bottom)

Name WorldMUN Committee Internal Department

Alexander Binzer HGA Fundraising

Yvonne Boose (Faculty Advisor) Preparation

Christian Briegel UNDP Public Relations

Chong Su Choi WHO Events

Benedikt Dechamps SOCHUM Finances

Gregor Haidl DISEC Fundraising

Leonie Kastner DISEC University Relations

Milan Padilla SPECPOL Public Relations

Berit Plumhoff SPECPOL Events

Diego Selle SOCHUM Preparation

Sina Straub HGA Preparation

Milan Padilla, Christian Briegel, Yvonne Boose, Berit Plumhoff, Alexander Binzer, Leonie Kastner, Benedikt Dechamps, Diego Selle, Gregor Haidl; Chong Su Choi, Sina Straub(from left to right, top to bottom)

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SPECPOL committee report

When we entered the SPECPOL (Special Po-litical and Decolonization Committee) confer-ence room I was quite overwhelmed. In this 40-times 10 meter large room were seven rows of tables covered with a dark blue tablecloth, each place marked by a wineglass for water, a writing pad and a pencil. As we were early, we had the chance to get a seat right in front of the committee Chair.

Before the start of the first session, it was time to make friends and even more so, allies, and to discuss the most important point at the be-ginning of each MUN conference: Which topic should be set first on the agenda? The topic areas proposed by the Chair were “Sovereign Wealth Funds” and “The Future of Decoloniza-tion”. Both seemed to be favored equally by the delegates. The room started to fill with people and soon it became impossible to remember names. Finally, we sat together with 300 other students from all over the world in this room and had intense days ahead. Committee ses-sion started and for about three hours we dis-cussed which topic was more urgent. The Chair finally led the discussion in one direction and we ended up voting for the Sovereign Wealth Funds. In moderated caucuses key positions were made clear and as soon as this was done, the first delegates headed out of the room, a laptop in their hands.

The topic was difficult to discuss, as it was a very new topic that needed a lot of economic background to be truly understood. As there were two delegates per country, one of us was working outside on working papers, while the other one followed the debates inside the con-ference room and prepared speeches. The al-liances formed during the first day were not always sensible. We decided to work together with Togo and Russia. In the next days the po-sitions became lined out clearer, as some del-egates went on social events on Wednesday afternoon, while others decided to work further on working papers for the draft resolutions. These were of course delegations that led the discussions and held more speeches than oth-ers. After the second day, it was all about writ-

UNDP committee report

The UNDP is the United Nations network for global development. With its strong focus on enabling the least developed countries to ac-cess knowledge, experience and resources, it is at the very heart of the UN agenda. Both top-ic areas that were picked for WorldMUN 2011, “Health Infrastructure and Poverty Alleviation” and “Alternative Energy and Sustainable De-velopment”, and the comparably small size of approximately 40 seats promised intense dis-cussions. Since both topics are an important matter for DR Congo, it was my honor to repre-sent our delegation in this committee.

After several civil wars and years of conflict, the DR Congo’s health system is amongst the worst in the world. It lacks fundamental fund-ing and personnel. Since alternative energy has been one of the world’s hot topics over the last years and offers a lot of connections between the developed and least developed world, it became evident that the committee decided to choose this topic as first on the agenda.

Thanks to our preparation, we could make a strong statement in this topic area as well: our country almost exclusively runs on hydro-power that is generated by the two Inga Dams. DR Congo possesses a river system that could provide hydro electric power for the entire con-tinent, as World Bank studies show. Further

down the discussion, most developed coun-tries put their emphasis on carbon trading and the Clean Development Mechanism. A joint session with the G20 enabled us to exchange ideas with heads of states and to meet Barack Obama and Dimitri Medwedew, or at least the students who impersonated them!

For the DR Congo, members of the African Union and other developing countries, we felt that the discussion was well founded, but not going in the right direction since it lacked the specific needs and circumstances of the least developed countries. Tanzania, Sierra Leone and we united almost a third of the committee members to draft our very own Working Paper 1.7 (see page 18 of this final report). It had a huge impact! Supported by the US and Russia, it became the foundation of the final resolution.

This was my first MUN conference. Starting in a single seated committee meant connecting with other people, exchanging ideas, paging them, lobbying, writing our working paper, all at the same time. It sure was intense, but fea-sible with my experience from other precedent political activities. If you ever get the chance to participate in any small committee like this one, you have my highest recommendations.

I would like to express my gratitude to our team as well as all friends and supporters of our Model UN group. WorldMUN was an ad-venture I will certainly never forget.

Christian Briegel

ing and people started lobbying as much as possible in order to get all support possible for their papers.

Finally, we ended up having about 20 work-ing papers that were merged into four draft resolutions, which were then again merged into two drafts with nearly the same number of sup-porters. We voted on the resolutions and the second won with a very small majority. All in all, this committee was very fascinating due to the large number of delegates present. But that made discussions very hard and many delega-tions were hardly ever heard. We were able to speak more often and contribute to the de-bate..Both of us arevery glad to have had the experience and are sure that WorldMUN 2011 won’t be our last MUN conference.

Berit Plumhoff

Delegates

Milan Padilla Berit Plumhoff

Delegate

Christian Briegel

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Blood in the MobileDISEC committee report

The Disarmament and Security Council was one of the largest Committees at the WorldMUN 2011, including over 300 students. The topics selected by the DISEC chair were “Kosovo and the Balkans”, dealing with the future of the UN-MIK (United Nations Interim Mission in Kosovo) and Kosovo’s declaration of independence and “Narcoterrorism”, tackling the problem of ter-rorist activities funded by illicit drug trade.

After the start of the conference, Narcoter-rorism quickly emerged to the topic being discussed in this WorldMUN. This probably happened because every nation had a stance towards terrorism and could contribute to the upcoming discussions. The situation in the Kosovo might have been more interesting from our point of view but it was too specialized, thus making it hard for all countries to join the debate.

As soon as the topic was set, the first coun-tries started to form blocks. Mostly regions and geographical neighborhood determined these blocks. Representing the DR Congo, we quick-ly found ourselves in the African Union sur-rounded by a large number of African states. In a fruitful cooperation, the whole group with the aim of including all the interests of the Afri-can states wrote the first working papers. For DR Congo, this was a clause including the term “resource terrorism”. Our aim was to generate awareness of Congo’s illegal mining issues and the connected civil war.

After the majority of regional blocks finished their first working papers, it was clear that only one draft resolution would pass in the end. From this moment on, the lobbying in the DI-SEC began, because to pass a resolution a simple majority was required. Everybody was trying to find allies on their political stances and to merge existing working papers to gain larger groups of supporters.

As a member of the African Union, naturally having a large number of allies, we were fre-quently approached by countries from other regional blocks like Latin America, Europe and Asia, which tried to pull us on their side. As Afri-

Kinshasa, sometime in 2009. Danish film-maker Frank Piasecki Poulsen and his camera-man are in a cab, cruising through the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It’s late in the evening. The vehicle stops, a friendly looking man approaches while they are film-ing, “What are you doing here?”. They answer evasively. The man turns around, a machine gun flashes in the shadow of the night. He gets back to them, commanding “Chauffeur, stop the engine!”

The scene at the beginning sucks you right into the story: Frank and his colleague are tracking down a conflict in Central Africa that is highly interconnected with our high-tech products: blood minerals. An executive of the UN MONUC-Mission first promises them sup-port, then cancels their helicopter flight to a re-mote area in the eastern Kivu region where the biggest illegal mines in the DR Congo are as-sumed to be located: After a nightly ambush of rebel forces on a village nearby, he states that it is simply too dangerous for any European to visit the unprotected zones.

Frank and his cameraman go anyway, a small aircraft brings them deep into North Kivu, it lands on a tiny street in the middle of the jun-gle. They meet 16-year old Chance. The boy promises to guide them to his old mine where he has worked for the last three years. After a two day walk through the rain forest, they reach a camp where approximately 15 to 25.000 people are mining coltan under the oppression of an armed militia: down in the mine, in total darkness, children and men of every age, some of them with simple flashlights bound to their heads, are hammering on the walls.

can Union, we decided not to cooperate but to take our Draft Resolution as a basic framework to which other states could make amendments later on. Keeping this in mind, we turned all proposals from other regional blocks down and stayed with the African Union. This proved to be a good move because we finally managed to get the European Union and some Latin Ameri-can states on board. After that happened, we knew that our Draft Resolution would pass sim-ply because we had far more states on our side than a single majority actually required.

For us, the WorldMUN 2011 was an outstand-ing experience. We had tough negotiations, but we were really happy when we reached our aim of representing DR Congo’s political interests successfully.

Gregor Haidl

Delegates

Gregor Haidl Leonie Kastner

Back in Europe, the filmmaker tries to get in touch with the world’s biggest cellphone manufacturer. Could it be that conflict minerals are ending up in the supply chain of high-tech companies and the western hemisphere is un-willingly financing the war in DR Congo? Coltan is the basis to extract tantalum, a rare and very valuable metal which is used to produce su-per small capacitors with high density, ideal for mobile equipment, like cell phones.

To cut a long story short, he does not receive a clear statement. Frank is unsatisfied, he in-terviews US congressmen, things are moving slowly. But there is good news since then: in July 2010, the US introduced the Dodd-Frank Act, which requires manufacturers to certify that their supply chain is free of conflict miner-als. In a joint session of the African Caribbean Pacific – European Union and of the European Parliament, the EU followed this example in December 2010.

Christian Briegel

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After a successful committee session, a resolution is passed, expressing the opinion of the com-mittee and recommending appropriate actions. The following document is an example for a work-ing paper that was submitted in the WorldMUN 2011 UNDP committee dealing with the topic of “Alternative Energy and Sustainable Development” which later on became the foundation of the passed resolution.

Working Paper 1.7 Submitted by (in alphabetical order): Austria, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Mauritania, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Tanzania The United Nations Development Programme Economic and Social Council, Acknowledging the urgency of providing technology and expertise to less-developed and least-developed nations; Driven by the fact that most of the Millennium Development Goals can be reached with a major improvement in the quantity and quality of energy services; Deeply conscious of the fact that diversity of local resources requires the development of diverse solutions; Bearing in mind that adopting alternative energies provides nations with the opportunity to address improvements in living standards, social and gender inequalities, education systems, and health infrastructure; Recognizing the potential risks associated with the use of various alternative energies, and the physical and social implications of integrating such technologies; Considering the resolution adopted by the General Assembly to designate 2012 as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for all;

1) Declares accordingly that alternative energy, (in relation to sustainable development), is defined as any form of renewable energy that minimizes harmful environmental impacts, and that emphasizes easy access and supply of sustainable modern energy services in populated and rural areas of developing countries;

2) Draws attention to the fact that alternative energy implemented at early stages of development will foster greater independence from fossil fuels and will assist in the self-determination of nations;

3) Encourages the adaptation of programs that develop equal partnerships that allow industrialized countries and companies to better understand the needs of people in the developing world, through trade, shared resources, and mentorship;

4) Further seeks solutions that consider the cultural, demographic and geographic diversity of nations, and that acknowledge the monetary implications of such endeavors;

5) Encourages the implementation of capacity building programs between nations in the technology sector;

6) Further invites non-state actors to develop and implement creative grassroots and community-based projects that will ensure energy supply in isolated villages and rural communities;

7) Requests the use of external agencies to audit and evaluate communities fort he use of various types of alternative energies (i.e. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC);

8) Encourages collaboration with UNESCO and UNICEF to create educational tools focused on local relevant elements for communities so as to ensure the effectiveness of education related to alternative energies;

9) Draws attention that implementing alternative energy on national, regional and community based levels offers a great opportunity to

a) Combine these efforts with educational programs, b) To have a hands-on approach on educating communities on the usage and promotion of

alternative energies, c) To foster interest in self-education and d) Possibilities to gain higher education {Remark by the authors: This point is a great

opportunity to merge all ideas relating to education from other papers}; 10) Requests the use of responsible incentive-based mechanisms to encourage multilateral

investment, innovative trade agreements, and the transfer of knowledge between nations, (i.e. Clean Development Mechanism);

11) Recommends that nations utilize policies that ensure the rights and benefits of the private sector, transformation of technology ownership shall be regulated to ensure the sustainable economics of sovereign nations;

12) Calls for the creation of one central, international marketplace by combining different aspects of alternative energy; like technology, services, funding and knowledge exchange, as follows: Scope & Concept: a) The main scope of this institution is to provide and balance access to alternative energies

with strong emphasis on the collaboration between developed, less developed and least-developed countries;

b) Thus, the market is open for all stakeholders, ranging from governments, private sector companies to investors and research facilities;

c) The marketplace is customer oriented (pull principle), following the needs that are posted in the requests;

Stakeholders: d) Governments of developing countries can draw attention and spark business opportunities

by posting and expressing their needs on the marketplace; e) Governments of developed countries can streamline bi-national programs by running them

through the marketplace, which increases transparency; f) The same applies for NGOs; Subsequently, this will increase efficiency of state-of-the-art

efforts to implement and promote the usage of alternative energy; g) Private sector private industries in developing countries are highly encouraged to take the

role to advertise, demonstrate and educate the mass the importance of the available alternative energy.

h) Private industries shall seek the interest of improving standard of living in developing countries.

Financing: i) Investors can browse the market on the search for business opportunities; j) Private-sector investors, governments, NGOs and comparable organizations are regarded

as “Investors” no matter if a project is non-profit or has to provide a return on invest; k) The IMF, UNDP funds or Development Banks might be considered to secure project

funding in unstable states;

Promotion of Best Case Projects / Knowledge Exchange: l) Successfully established and completed projects remain in the market archive to provide

Best Case Role Models for future implementation. m) Evaluation of projects at the end of their lifetime by scoring efficiency, economy of scale,

transferability and outcome.

Example Working Paper

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WorldMUN 2011 - Final Report Conclusion

Social Events Experiencing Singapore

The Social Events represent an essential part of the WorldMUN experience, because the conference is not only about learning how the United Nations are functioning and how a resolution is written, but it is also about get-ting in touch with young people from around the globe.

At the opening ceremony this year’s secre-tary general addressed the audience with one particular wish. He asked every participant to become friends with at least five people during the conference, which meant one per day. With so many new people around it was very easy to make dozens of acquaintances. However, isn’t it far more desirable to come back home with some new lasting friendships? The host team from National University of Singapore definitely did a great job and made it possible for us to party at some of Singapore’s most selected spots: As every WorldMUN the social events started with Global Village on Monday evening. This year it was directly located at the harbor front ahead of Singapore Flyer, the world’s larg-est Ferris wheel. At 25 booths one could taste typical food and beverages from the present nationalities. Additionally, every delegation was wearing traditional clothes from either the country they were coming from or they were representing, so our delegation ended up with Lederhosen, Dirndl and a Congolese flag. Fi-nally, the party ended in a Greek theater nearby which was converted into an open-air disco for one night.

On our second night we were asked to wear white or fluorescent since the motto was GLO

With around five million inhabitants, Singa-pore is rather small in comparison to the Asian mega cities Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo or Mum-bai. Nevertheless, it is economically one of the most important cities in Asia. A vast number of ships queuing up to enter Singapore cover the horizon and symbolize Singapore’s powerful role as a city of traders and merchants. To un-derline Singapore’s outstanding performance a few facts: It is the world’s fourth most impor-tant financial center and in addition, the World Bank ranked Singapore 2007 the no.1 logistics hub in the world.

Going for a stroll through the streets, the prosperity of this city and its population is om-nipresent. State-of-the-art malls, luxury hotels and a modern transport system make some European capitals seem like cities that are de-cades behind. Nevertheless the costs of living are still lower than in Germany, of course de-pending on your consumption.

Walking through the streets, there is more to experience than simply the rule of money. Singapore is a melting pot of a variety of Asian cultures. 74% of the entire population is Chi-nese, 13% from Malaysia and about 10% origi-nally from India. If you have a look on the city

and go to the Zouk club. Zouk club is one of the oldest and most popular nightclubs in Sin-gapore and constantly ranked under the Top 10 clubs in the world. Although we had to queue for about half an hour, it was totally worth it, since the whole club was literally GLOwing.

The third night of WorldMUN is traditionally Cabaret Night, where delegations can show their dancing, singing, acting or entertaining qualities to their fellow delegates. This year of-fered a great variety of different performances ranging from Korean dancing to Indian drum-ming. The great atmosphere in the Fort Can-ning Park reached its peak when the Harvard Host Team performed its dance performance.

ASEAN Night was not only a perfect evening to gather more information about the countries of Southeast Asia, but due to the events in Ja-pan there was also a spontaneously organized action, where people could express their com-passion with the victims of the earthquake and tsunami. The rest of the evening many people had their first flight attempts with Chinese kites while others were gazing at Singapore’s illumi-nated skyline at the other side of the bay.

Last but not least we celebrated our Farewell Party and WorldMUN’s 20th birthday at the beaches of Sentosa Island, where the Closing Ceremony took place beforehand. I could have not imagined of a better place in Singapore to end this exhilarating week. Although we had not slept more than four hours the previous nights, we enjoyed our last night together with all the acquaintances and friends we had made during the week.

Alexander Binzer

map, this is also reflected by the quarters “Chi-natown” and “Little India” – a visit is an easy way to escape from modernity and to dive into these traditional quarters for a while. Local spe-cialties and various exotic products are offered and unlike to Singapore’s shopping streets the prices are really cheap.

The life of all these people in Singapore seems to be permanently observed by the local authorities. Everywhere CCTV cameras follow you and big signs remind you of the punish-ment you receive for violation of the law. Eating and drinking in the subway is e.g. fined with 500 Singapore Dollars (approx. 250 – 300 €). These strict laws make Singapore a very clean and safe place, but from time to time it seems that the city is boring and the only occupation of the inhabitants is consumption.

Nonetheless, we all had a great time in Singa-pore and hopefully we will get a chance to visit this city again in the future and gain a deeper understanding of its complex society.

Gregor Haidl

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WorldMUN 2011 - Final Report Conclusion

Personal resume from the Faculty Advisor

Review & Outlook

It’s Friday, the last day of the Harvard World Model United Nations conference 2011. The closing ceremony took place on a beach on Sentosa, an island resort in Singapore. Our delegation of 11 students is sitting in the dark of the night. The other 2500 participants of this year’s conference have already moved on, to celebrate this overwhelming week. Our group is tired and excited, agitated and a little melan-cholic. Some want to move on, meet their new friends at the party location, have a last drink together, a last chat, promise each other to keep in touch and exchange facebook names, maybe make plans when to visit each other. Others just want to keep sitting here in the dark and discussing. Not everything has been said, not everyone has found the right words for his or her feelings about the last five days, has ex-pressed his anger about some other delegates who stole his ideas, her happiness about meet-ing students from different continents as much interested in our world’s future as herself. I’m exhausted myself.

Although I wasn’t involved in the tough dis-cussions during the week, didn’t argue about Narcoterrorism, wrote Draft Resolutions until late at night about the Right to Development or presented my solutions for Alternative En-ergies and Sustainable Development from the perspective of one of the world’s poorest coun-tries, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I just tried to advise, keep up the motivation and encourage those of our delegation who were awed by the size of the committees to raise their voices in front of the maybe up to 300 del-egates, to believe in themselves and their skills, to remember what we had discussed before, had trained for nine months.

I am happy. I knew before that the team members would perform well. But I am im-pressed how much they have even surpassed themselves. Although I know their high moti-vation for almost a year now, it still surprises me. The amount of time, ideas and power all of them put in during the nine months of prepara-tion were unique. Although very individual and strong characters, with a maximum age differ-

ence of twelve years we managed to create a team spirit that brought us through hard times when the funding was unclear, it survived all debates on principles and let us participate not only in Harvard WorldMUN in Singapore but also at NMUN Europe in Czech Republic and IsarMUN in Munich. Now it is May and all of us are back from South East Asia. I hope you could gain an insight in the MUN spirit in gen-eral and in particular of our team.

Sincere thanks go to our sponsors and sup-porters on all levels, the university, in particular president Herrmann and his coworkers, Prof. Mainzer from the Carl von Linde Akademie, Bund der Freunde, Studiendruck der Fach-schaft Maschinenbau e.V., Robert Bosch Stif-tung, Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD) and the Harvard WorldMUN Secretary, as well as all individuals who supported us in many ways. Without all of you our participation at three different conferences in 2010/11 would not have been possible. I also want to express my gratitude to former associates of MUNTUM,

who established the idea at TUM and helped continuing the project though sailing against the wind as well as the current ones who be-lieved in and fostered the project without par-ticipating in the conference itself. And last but not least I want to thank “my” delegates for the great times we spend together, for all the things I learned from them; for accepting me as their adviser although some of them were six years older than me; for their reliability, their devotion, creativity and patience.

I wish all of you the very best for your per-sonal future. May you truly become the World’s future leaders and contribute in your way to make it a better place. I know you will!

Sincerely,

Yvonne BooseFaculty Advisor 2011

New facebook page

July 31, 2010: Relaunch www.worldmun.de

June 8, 2011: Public MUN-Simulation for

students and project presentation at TUM

Fahre mit auf die nächsteOxIMUN, NMUN oder WorldMUNin Oxford, Lille oder Vancouver

Interesse an internationaler Politik und globalen Zusammenhängen?Lust ein fremdes Land zu repräsentierenund Studenten aus aller Welt zu treff en?

Vertrete die TU München als Delegation beiverschiedenen nationalen und internationalenSimulationen der Vereinten Nationen!

Model UnitedNations

V.i.S.d.P. Model United Nations TU München e.V. - Kontakt auf www.worldmun.de

Infos undSimulation08. Juni06. Juli 19 UhrRaum 0999TU Stammgelände

worldmun.de/join-usfacebook.com/TUMgoesWorldMUN

Poster for 2011 MUN-Simulations

Dec. 15, 2010: Mulled wine and waffles

27

Conclusion

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.

© 2011

www.worldmun.de

Final Report Milan Padilla (Editor, Layout, V.i.S.d.P.R.) Yvonne Boose (Proofreading) Christian Briegel (Final Layout)

MUNTUM e.V. Board David Wehner, Tom Braun, Alexander Binzer, Maria Meier

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

Picture Credits p. 1 top: Public Domain bottom: Milan Padilla p. 2, 3 Harvard WorldMUN 2011 logo p. 5 Courtesy of Carl von Linde-Akademie p. 6 Milan Padilla p. 7 David Wehner; MUNTUM e.V. p. 8 Gregor Haidl; UN photo © Mark Garten p. 9 Delegation members p. 10 NMUN Europe; Milan Padilla p. 11 IsarMUN organisation team p. 12 © Astrid Eckert (TU München) p. 13 Milan Padilla p. 14 - 16 Yvonne Boose, Milan Padilla p. 17 © Mark Craemer; Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion GmbH p. 20 - 22 Milan Padilla p. 23 Lukas Richter, Christian Briegel p. 24 - 26 Delegation members; template © Apple p. 27 Wikimedia Commons; Courtesy Organ.

More photos by Milan Padilla at lvxphotography.net

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