by Lena Kirchner MUN- Student Officer
Last week, a group of NMS students participated in the Berlin Model United Nations (BERMUN) conference at the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. Over the course of three days,more than 150 students from Berlin, other parts of Europe as well as Mexico, explored thetopic of “Protecting the Freedom of Expression while confronting Censorship”.
At this year’s Bermun2, hosted by the John F. Kennedy School, students from NMS served as delegates to the United States and Azerbaijan in a variety of panels.
In the Political Committee, for example, our delegates worked hard to produce a resolution outlining “Measures to Ensurethe Protection of Journalists”, and in the Special Conference, the “Question of MediaCensorship” was confronted. Tasked with representing their assigned country’s policy of 2012, our students in the Historical Security Council had to find a non-violent solution to theArab Spring of that year. Additionally, three of our students participated as judges in the International Court of Justice, deliberating the case of “The Application of the Convention of Eliminating All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Qatar vs. the United Arab Emirates”, acurrently pending case at the ICJ. After weighing the evidence and putting their analyticalskills to use, the Bermun judges ruled that the UAE did, in fact, discriminate against theQatari people.The Model United Nations Programme is an academic simulation of the United Nations,striving to provide a platform for young adults to engage politically, whilst practising their public speaking, debating and social skills. Through MUN, students learn to find compromises and collective solutions to international problems. Outside the formal debates, the conferences provide opportunities to meet other students from around the world.