TIMEMUN

In the middle of the half term break, whilst the rest of Tabeetha were resting or returning from church services in their Sunday best, a few dedicated, and possibly apprehensive, pupils were turning up at school in similar dress but for a completely different purpose.  These lucky 11 had been selected to participate in this year's The Middle East Model United Nations Conference (TIMEMUN).  They had applied back in October and, since, had spent many a month preparing for the experience.  Weekly, the delegates would meet in the history classroom and practice the art of debate, oratory and writing resolutions for some of the most pressing issues facing the planet.

On arrival at the American International School, the Tabeetha 11 stepped off the bus to a mass of fellow peers converging on the sports hall for the opening ceremony.  Once seated with their delegations, they could finally take in the immensity of the hall (possibly three times the size of our school) and participants.  This year’s conference had over 500 pupils participating from all over the country and the world.  The diversity of backgrounds, ethnicities, and nationalities resembled that of the actual UNO's General Assembly.  After a few opening remarks, delegates were sent off to their assigned committees, where for the next two and a half days their hard preparatory work would finally pay off.

  

There were 10 committees altogether, most with fairly obvious focus, such as human rights and environment but, this year, a new and controversial Special Committee on the Arab-Israel conflict was introduced.  In each committee room, there were between 50-60 delegates, each representing a different United Nations member.  We had two delegations, Canada and France (a permanent member of the Security Council).  The delegates were expected to use the committee time to hammer out, clause by clause, a resolution, for two different problems.  These varied from environmental issues, like the prevention and containment of oils spills, to more organizational matters, such as suspending and revoking UN membership.

The delegates had to, in role as representatives of their assigned countries, lobby committee members in an effort to get their clauses debated.  Once they had enough signatories, they could then submit their clauses to the chairs, who would in turn decide which of those submitted were to be presented.  If selected, the clause was debated, possibly amended and finally approved or rejected by the committee.

The Tabeetha team did exceedingly well!  We had many clauses debated and quite a few adopted.  By the end of the conference, we had made quite an impression.  Not only had we a number of approved clauses to our name, we also had been mentioned a number of times in the conference press and received a few honourable mentions in the closing ceremony, including best dressed delegate.

The students all enjoyed and learnt a great deal from the experience, even those who chose to spend most of the conference observing rather than actively participating in the proceedings.  Many new friends were made and eagerness to participate in next year's TIMEMUN was rife.  Roll on 2014!!!