Haarlem Model United Nations 2016

"How do I start this article?" Annemarie
"Start with: tears..." Nana

Tears. The four day Model United Nations trip ended with tears. Tears of joy, as we all survived the horrors of public speaking, and tears of sadness, as we checked out of the hostel and got onto our last Haarlem bus ride, headed towards the Amsterdam Schipol Airport. 

The trip to Haarlem was our favorite one yet (though we only have the Dublin MUN - SAIMUN - to compare it with). The senior MUN team, representing Argentina for the UN and one student representing the Czech Republic for NATO, arrived a day early to tour Haarlem and get some last minute speeches written. None of us were looking forward to staying at a hostel and going on thirty minute bus rides to the conference every morning... but it ended up being our favorite part of the trip (that and touring Amsterdam).

After the conferences we'd rush back to the hostel to grab six bikes the hostel would happily rent to us, to ride around the park conveniently located behind our hostel, and explore the city. People say that you get closer when you stay in hostels, and though it wasn't aesthetically pleasing, we really did become better friends.

The Haarlem Model United Nations Conference was well planned. All of the delegates got a personalized leather binder, notepad, badges, and pens. The committees all took committee pictures, every day there was an 'HMUN Chronicle' published summarizing the conference progress, there were hospitality teams ready to help around every corner, fun HMUN merchandise sold at the lobby, and interesting Dutch food for the students to try out every day.


The conference started with an opening ceremony at the Grote Kerk Cathedral a block away from the school hosting the conference. The secretary general and the school director gave short speeches, followed by a few words by Bernt Schneiders, the mayor of Haarlem, and a keynote speech by Fred Zaal, a geographer with more than 20 years of experience doing rural development research and advisory work in Africa. After the ceremony the delegates went into their committee rooms for a long day of solving the issues our world faces today.

The members of the senior MUN team were Nana (representing Argentina for GA3), Taisia (representing Argentina in the Human Rights Council), Avery (representing Argentina for GA4), Guy (Argentina for ECOSOC), Russo (Argentina for GA1), and Annemarie (Czech Republic for NATO).

ECOSOC, HRC, and the GA committees had to create resolutions on topics ranging from disarming political factions in North Africa to reducing abuse caused by exorcism and witchcraft, which were later debated with every GA committee in the General Assembly. The NAC committee for NATO on the other hand, was given two topics to write a resolution on during the conference, one of them being 'reviewing the role of international coalition in Syria'. On the final day of the conference, special committees like the NAC (Security Council, ASEAN, and G20 to name a few) were given a "crisis" to deal with. The committees were given new continents and new countries and a fictional Oil Crisis in the year of 2066 to solve (which ended in the Latin American countries declaring war on the African countries... long story).

On behalf of everyone on the team... this trip was the highlight of the year. Adventures in Haarlem, countless inside jokes, thought-provoking and funny debates, and new friendships... all thanks to HMUN 2016.

By Annemarie Imnadze