28 May 2022
On Saturday, Annaliese, Estelle and myself attended the 2022 Rotary District 9675 Model United Nations Assembly at NSW Parliament House. The Model United Nations Assembly (MUNA) is an initiative by Rotary to develop an understanding of World Affairs for Senior Secondary School Students in a forum similar to a General Assembly of the United Nations. The objective is to develop tolerance, international understanding and world peace.
Within this event, teams consisting of 3 delegates from year 10-12 are randomly allocated to a country who is a member state to the UN. They, as representatives for the country, have to adopt their policies, beliefs, values, and ultimately, world views. They then must debate throughout the day three major resolutions and 1 general resolution on topical issues, and pass or deny these solutions as international law.
Our team was given the country of Japan to represent, and for a few weeks leading up to the event had to research certain policies and recent foreign affairs’ reactions from Japan. We divided the debates between the 3 of us and with the help of Ms. Mustapic(our coach)prepared speeches for the day. The resolutions to be debated were:
- Major resolution 1: PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT FOR PRESENT AND FUTURE GENERATIONS
- Major resolution 2: HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN UKRAINE
- General resolution: International Migration
- Major resolution 3: Structural Reform of the SECURITY COUNCIL
We started the day bright and early at Annaliese’s house to prepare for the long UN session. With the assistance of her grandma, we got into our Kimonos for national dress, and then headed off to NSW Parliament House.
During the day, we debated the above resolutions and made connections during break times with other countries to pass the resolutions that we wanted. We would like to give a special mention to the girls from Dapto High School who were representing the Solomon Islands,with whom we formed a strong alliance.
At the conclusion of the day, we were awarded with the Highly Commended award, coming 2nd to Ascham school. This means that we are now heading to Nationals at Parliament House in Canberra.
The day was such an amazing opportunity to consider real issues confronting the world. We are absolutely delighted to have been able to be a part of such a prestigious event, and are beyond excited to be competing at Nationals in Canberra. Thank you so much to the Sutherland Rotary Club for sponsoring us, and to Ms Mustapic. Without their support and encouragement we would not have been able to succeed in this worthwhile event.
Amadene Edwards, Annaliese Mustapic, Estelle Stark - Year 11