6 February 2020
Abingdon hosted its second Model United Nations conference on 30 January with our partnership schools. Over 80 delegates from Abingdon, Fitzharrys, John Mason, Larkmead, Our Lady’s Abingdon and St Helen and St Katharine took part.
The day began with speeches from Mrs Yarker, who spoke about the importance of diplomacy in the modern era as in history, and Lancelot Wilson, AbingMUN Secretary-General, who opened up about his beginnings in MUN and gave some efficacious advice to the many novice delegates attending their first conference.
Delegates submitted resolutions, passed (and vetoed) amendments and called for motions with a high standard of debate, over global issues such as freedom of religion, climate change refugees, the regulation of Martian colonisation and nuclear disarmament, as well as Iran taking on the United States in the International Court of Justice over alleged violations of the Treaty of Amity.
After a crisis in the General Assembly concerning a botched terrorist attack in Russia leading to several power struggles among its political and military elite, delegates were then fortunate to hear a speech from Layla Moran, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, about her time as a teacher, when she ran her school’s MUN society, much like Mrs Yarker! Delegates then put forward shrewd questions to Mrs Moran, some of which were a bit tricky to answer!
Many thanks go to Lancelot Wilson for organising the whole conference for months, and pulling everything and everyone together, even when it seemed like an organisational nightmare at times, and also to the Deputy Secretary Generals James Gibson, Johan Nerlov, and Jonathan Ferry.
We would also like to thank all our guest chairs from Larkmead and St Helen and St Katharine for holding our committees together when we were stretched too thin, and all delegates who gave up their time to attend the conference and make it as great as it was.
Written by Jonathan Ferry
