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By Monika Hägele, Lea Deubner, Julian Lotz & Lydia Michalek

Introduction: On our Way to NMUN

We are delighted and relieved to announce: We have successfully participated in the National Model United Nations (NMUN) 2022! After months of worrying whether our study trip would really come true, our intensive preparations of the past semester have finally paid off.

But first things first: NMUN is an official NGO of the United Nations (UN) and an international project that brings together about 5000 students from all over the world! In the 5-day simulation from April 3 to 7, we had the great opportunity to practice and implement the working methods and agendas of the UN in New York. In this simulation, each university represents a different UN member state or NGO. Each participant represents a different UN organization, e.g. HRC, IOM, UNICEF, UNESCO etc. This way there are about 20 parallel simulations in New York. This year we represented Venezuela – a country that is far from our familiar political and economic structures and was not easy to work through.

This is what our course of 18 advanced bachelor’s and master’s students spent one semester intensively preparing for. And this is how it all began: First, we meticulously familiarized ourselves with the complex structures, the various functions and organs of the UN. A special focus was on our country of representation, Venezuela. Through regular presentations on history, politics, culture and economics, we slowly gained an understanding of our confusing and hard to grasp country. There should have been deeper insights during our UN excursion to Geneva, but Corona thwarted our plans. Instead, representatives from the WHO, WTO and UNCTAD faced our critical questions via Zoom. These expert discussions in particular brought more light into the darkness for us.

One particular challenge was the process of writing our position papers. In this report, each member state presents its positions and visions for the future on two organization-specific agenda topics (e.g. HCR, IOM, UNEA, UNESCO, etc.). Although the position papers are only two pages long, they form the substantive basis for the resolutions during the NMUN conference. For this reason, our Head Delegates put great emphasis on accuracy, which meant that we spent hours and days researching and improving the report. However, the effort and frustration was worth it! This year, our delegation from Tübingen won two awards for outstanding position papers: Congratulations to the representatives from UNEA and UNESCO!

In order to train our soft skills, throughout the semester we held internal simulations on the weekends. Thereby we went through a noticeable development process! While during our first simulation in December we were all very nervous, insecure and cognitively as well as emotionally completely exhausted at the end, things looked very different after our last and largest TMUN simulation with the University of Hohenheim (by the way, the T in TMUN stands for Tübingen). Routinized in terms of all rules and procedures, we confidently went into the negotiations, held spontaneous speeches and built up cooperations with diplomatic skills. After this weekend we all felt well prepared and ready for the challenges of New York!

New York, New York: The Tübingen Delegation at the NMUN Conference

On Sunday, April 3, the time had come. Our delegation, consisting of 18 delegates, two head delegates and our faculty advisor, arrived at the Hilton Midtown Hotel in New York City, where we would sleep and work for the next five days. We were allowed to check into our rooms, change to our business attire, and then we were off. Our delegation met for a short briefing before the opening ceremony, where final questions were clarified, and we wished each other good luck. The opening ceremony took place in the great hall of the Hilton Hotel, which was imposingly decorated and seated for thousands of participants. An impressive sight.

During the ceremony, the president of the non-profit organization that organizes NMUN each year welcomed us all warmly and honored a delegation from a Ukrainian university that was able to attend the conference despite the war in their country. He also reminded us all, that the Canadian university representing Russia has no influence on the actions of the Russian government and we should please include them in our sessions with respect. We can happily report that during our simulations, no students were antagonized for the country they represented. In addition, some of the volunteers who have been preparing National Model United Nations 2022 for over a year introduced themselves. It turned out that most of them had once started as delegates themselves and the experience meant so much to them that they wanted to help out as volunteers.

After the opening ceremony, we went straight to the first meeting of each committee. This was used to vote on the order of the agenda for the upcoming conference. At 10 p.m., exhausted but proud of our work, we were able to return to our rooms and talk about our days with our roommates. On Monday morning, each delegation had time to meet and exchange ideas with the permanent UN representatives of the countries they represent. Unfortunately, our attempts to contact the Venezuelan mission were in vain. For cases like ours, a panel discussion on the war in Ukraine was offered at the same time. The rest of the day was spent working in the respective committees. On Tuesday and Wednesday, too, we were busy in our committees all day, interrupted by short breaks for lunch and dinner, and on Wednesday afternoon we declared the contracting of the committees to the next year. An official motion, as is customary in the UN.

On Thursday, the three General Assemblies, as well as the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), were scheduled to hold their voting proceedings in the General Assembly hall at UN Headquarters. The closing ceremony should also have been held there. Unfortunately, UN Headquarters was not open to the public at that time and all events were moved to the room in the Hilton where the opening ceremony had also taken place. During the closing ceremony, our delegation was awarded a prize as a distinguished delegation for representing Venezuela. In addition, two position papers of the delegation were awarded and one delegate received an outstanding delegate award from his committee. We can really be proud of our delegation. We were then able to celebrate the exciting week and our successes during the conference together at the Delegate Ball on Thursday evening. With heavy hearts, we headed home on Friday, where we had time to reflect on our experiences.

The End of the Road: Important Takeaways from NMUN 2022

Thanks to the NMUN project in New York, we learned incredibly much. From organizational skills to charismatic speaking and diplomatic negotiating. We learned to put ourselves in the strategic-political shoes of a country and to gain an understanding of the international relations. As a result, we have all gained an enormous amount of flexibility, resilience, presence, assertiveness and self-confidence. During this intensive time, we gave each other a lot of support and got to know each other very well. We also networked with students from other countries – even beyond the simulation. This level of friendship made the whole experience especially memorable.

We successfully mastered all the challenges of NMUN – which was also rewarded! We proudly bring three awards back to Tübingen: two position paper awards for UNEA and UNESCO as well as one award as „Distinguished Delegation“.

However, a differentiated reflection also includes critical aspects. It should be emphasized that primarily universities from the global North participated in this simulation. Unfortunately, only a few delegates from regions such as Latin America, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe were present. As a result, the project had a rather exclusive character and a strongly Eurocentric perspective. Reasons for this include the high cost of participation and strict US visa requirements. In the future, it would be desirable for NMUN to promote more countries of the global South in order to live up to its international claim.

The authenticity of the simulations is also debatable. In many committees, the negotiations were extremely compromising and harmony-driven. Often, states cooperated with each other that would never pull together in reality. Eventually, in most committees, almost all resolutions were adopted – a successful and satisfying feeling for us. But if it would work the same way in the real UN, the world would probably look more environmentally friendly, social and peaceful today.

In a nutshell, the project took a lot of time and organization, strong nerves and endurance. In retrospect, however, the efforts were well worth it. We gained a realistic insight into the nature of political work, built our social skills, made new friends, and had an exciting time in New York! We are very grateful for these experiences, as they are a great privilege.

Human Rights Council (HRC) 

During the 2022 NMUN Conference, the two topics addressed by the Human Rights Council were, first, „Promoting international human rights to protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity“ and, second, „The impact of unilateral coercive measures on the protection and enjoyment of human rights.“

On the first issue, Venezuela’s position is quite simple. Homosexuality is neither persecuted nor illegal in Venezuela. Same-sex marriage has been on the parliament’s agenda for years, but has always been overshadowed by other issues and therefore left to the side. This may be due to the fact that the Catholic Church has quite a large influence on the Venezuelan government and population. However, President Maduro has announced that his party is in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage and wants to introduce it soon. Accordingly, our position during the conference in New York was to be in favor of same-sex relationships but not to push it too much. Venezuela has no laws on gender identity and it is difficult for people in Venezuela to officially change their gender, let alone take any gender confirming measures. This is what Venezuela, and so we as delegates, are trying to ignore by focusing more on same-sex marriage. In general, our tactic was to be as neutral as possible in order to cooperate with both progressive and conservative countries and not antagonize them, because Venezuela does not have a strong opinion on this issue and does not want to lose potential allies for other issues.

What Venezuela lacks in interest in the first issue it makes up for in the second. Venezuela is strongly affected by unilateral coercive measures, especially from the United States. Venezuela’s oil exports and food imports are severely hindered by various sanctions. During the pandemic, Venezuela had virtually no access to medical protection measures, such as masks, protective gowns, gloves, etc. for their hospitals, let alone for the general population. They were also denied access to medication and vaccines. Venezuela’s bank accounts in the UK were frozen, so Venezuela had no money for further action. In addition, Internet access in Venezuela is very poor, as they are denied access to American satellites. This meant that children and young people – if they even had access to devices with which they would be able to access the internet – could not participate in virtual classes because they did not have any internet connection. Therefore, we as Venezuela were very interested in clarifying the legality of unilateral coercive measures (unfortunately, international laws are very vague on this) and making international criminal procedures more efficient and attractive to resolve disagreements between countries through legal means rather than coercive measures.

During the first session in New York, we were unfortunately outvoted, resulting in topic one being discussed first, which usually takes up the entire conference. Due to the nature of the topic, we were unfortunately unable to take a leading role in the negotiations, but our delegation did act as a mediator between factions, among other things. We actively worked on two working papers and were signatories on the other two papers. Of course, it was not always easy to distinguish one’s own opinion from the opinion of the country one represented, but in the end we succeeded quite well in representing Venezuela in the Human Rights Council. Three of the four working papers were finally merged into a single paper through a lot of work and compromise. And both final papers were adopted as resolutions at the end of the last session, which we are very proud of. Although the papers could not generate sweeping new policies, it was still a great concession by all participating states to respect and defend the fundamental rights of all people. 

United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA)

The United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA) is a UN committee composed of all member states. For decades, it has acted as a forum for member states to work together to tackle the world’s many environmental challenges. In contrast to other committees, the work is relatively harmonious. The world community is aware of the environmental problems – even if they do not always do what they promise. Faced with the historic tasks of the 21st century, it was an honour for my committee partner, Tom Webb, and me, Julian Lotz, to consider today’s solutions to avoid tomorrow’s problems.

On the 1^st April, over 200 delegates representing 106 nations filled the prestigious green room of the Hilton Hotel. Finely dressed women and men readied themselves for the challenges of the coming days. The tension was palpable, this day had finally come after six long months of preparation. In the morning we jogged in Central Park and now we stood here as delegates from Venezuela while the seconds ticked by until the start. We asked ourselves what topic would be chosen and what would we spend the next few days debating and struggling over? The choices were between Reducing Marine Pollution, including Plastic or Implementing a Circular Economy to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Both were worthy topics, each representing a pressing global problem, with significant interlinkages. We, as the delegation from Venezuela, decided to vote for the circular economy, primarily because the actual UNEA had recently made pathbreaking progress on tackling marine pollution. Right from the start, there were enthusiastic speeches and heated discussions on both issues. In the end, the international community decided by a narrow majority in favour of topic 2, the circular economy.

Three full days began. Speeches were made, discussions and negotiations were held, partners and compromises found. Member states began to form blocks comprising common interests, such as region of the world or ideological perspective. In order to protect Venezuela’s interests as much as possible, my partner and I joined two different blocs. During the days, one became aware of the immense value of having a committee partner. „Secret information“ about the activities of other blocs could be exchanged, support was offered in difficult times and mutual help was given. Without a partner, this exciting, yet very exhausting experience would not have been half as enjoyable and bearable.

In the end, the delegates had 7 drafted resolutions on the table. Now it was time for amendments. As a delegation from Venezuela, we did not agree with everything and did everything in our power to get amendments passed. In the end, all 7 resolutions were adopted by the international community. If this had been the reality, it would certainly have been another important step towards preserving our environment. But despite the largely harmonious working atmosphere of the UNEA, and taking into account the simulation, I think we fell short of expectations. And it is at this point that it becomes clear how incredibly difficult it is to find solutions with so many actors and interests – even though the issues were less confrontational. This makes it understandable why there are only small steps in real assemblies and why the accusation of unambitious solutions is justified but difficult to change.

At the beginning of the days, I had looked with slight dread at the intense days ahead. How could I muster enough energy from 8 in the morning until half-past ten in the evening? Looking back, the days went by far too quickly. It was sad to end this wonderful time with all the new contacts and experiences. But as an added reward, this experience was crowned with an award for our UNEA delegation’s position paper. What a great ending to this unique and unforgettable time!

International Organization for Migration (IOM) 

1 in 20 people all over the world is considered an international migrant. The more than 280 million migrant all over the world contribute tremendously to the development of their sending and receiving states, but migration also comes with many challenges. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has assisted millions of migrants since it emerged more than 70 years ago with the goal to promote humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all.

“Migration and racial discrimination” and „Access to preventive healthcare for migrant workers“ were the two bang up-to date topics on the floor for our IOM committee simulation at NMUN 2022.
Lea Deubner and Lydia Michalek had the honor to represent Venezuela in this committee. Of course, we had prepared intensly for the conference and worked hard to find out, which interests Venezuela has regarding these topics. Venezuela is one of the main sending countries for migrants all over the world and the massive migration flows from Venezuela affect especially South America. We therefore found that Venezuela cares about its people in other countries and can take an active stand in discussions about both topics.

At the beginning of the conference on Sunday, different countries and non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) presented their arguments on how the agenda should be set. In between, there heated discussions took place. It was clear that all countries had interests on the floor that they wanted to be heard. There were good arguments for both agenda topics, as both are highly relevant and intertwined. When we voted in the late night on the setting of the agenda, there were many votes for both topics, but one topic had the majority of votes: Topic II, “Access to preventive healthcare for migrant workers”.

After choosing the topic, speeches and negotiations by all IOM members followed from Monday till Wednesday, full of innovative ideas. A lot of countries, such as Peru and Belgium, talked about the need for more research and good data collection. Other countries, such as Egypt, put a focus on empowering female migrant workers. Israel and more countries encouraged to reduce language and cultural barriers. Many of those suggestions were in line with the goals that we have set for Venezuela. For example, Venezuela is part of the Universal Health Coverage Partnership (UHC-P). Therefore, we encouraged to improve access to preventive healthcare for migrant workers by promoting UHC all over the world. Also, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we urged to provide vaccinations for migrant workers and more.

Following the different national priorities and international relationships, around twelve working groups formed, that focused on single topics. We as delegates of Venezuela engaged in the speeches, discussions and focused on participating in two working groups, that were collecting ideas to improve female migrant workers health care, improving education of migrant workers, reducing cultural and language barriers and on improving especially mental healthcare for migrant workers. In both working groups we were able to partner with countries from the South American region, such as Guatemala Ecuador.

At the end of the conference, working papers of different groups were merged and turned into draft resolutions. Friendly and unfriendly amendments by different countries were made and suddenly it became visible that even though before there was consensus that “all countries wanted the best health for the migrant workers” there was discord about practical solutions. As in the “real IOM” we thought. Hungary for example even said provocatively, “The best migrants are those that do not come”. Most countries disagreed, including us. In all the discussions, our committee was able to find common ground between the different nations and we adopted six diverse resolutions. For us, these days were a very good educational experience that helped us to better understand international diplomacy and campaign for human rights in the context of international migration. 

On February 4th, the 2022 delegation of Tübingen welcomed students from Hohenheim and Regensburg for the annual Tübingen Model United Nations (TMUN), the last big simulation before New York. After enjoying pretzels, fruits,and apple juice, everyone was eager to tackle the following topics:

1) Rights of Indigenous People

2) Advancing Responsible State Behavior in Cyberspace in the context of International Security

After a few agenda-setting speeches, the committee voted to address topic 1 in this simulation. Soon after, multiple working groups formed and approached this issue in different ways. Some groups focused on providing access to health care supplies, whereas others concentrated on giving indigenous communities a stronger voice in today’s world. Many speeches, motions, and negotiations later, 4 draft resolutions were finalized. In the end, all of them were passed through majority votes, which were accompanied by applause by the delegates. After these achievements, the honorable chair and the delegates voted on several awards, such as best speech and best negotiator but also on less serious awards like best outfit and funniest speech. 

The successful simulation was followed by a celebratory dinner at the Neckarmüller, where the group enjoyed dinner, drinks, and entertaining conversations into the late hours of the night. 

Many thanks to the TMUN department for the exceptional organization, to all the participants, and also to Lea, Lina and Freddy who played the roles of the chair and rapporteurs.

 

As we are slowly but surely approaching the end of the semester, the workload on our delegation has doubled. Finishing the second drafts of our position papers, planning and organizing the upcoming TMUN and preparing for exams next week at the same time… definitely not easy! However, we are becoming more and more confident in our knowledge of Azerbaijan and UN procedures and our role as delegates. We can’t wait to put our skills to the test in New York!

Last weekend, we also attended the annual General Assembly simulation at Hohenheim Castle with the universities of Hohenheim and Heidelberg. It was great to get to know some other delegations, especially since Hohenheim will be joining our delegation in New York, representing Iraq. The location was extraordinary and gave the negotiations a unique atmosphere. At the beginning of the assembly, we set the agenda on the topic „Forced Displacement Due to Climate Change“. As we had never participated in a simulation with more than 20 people, we quickly realized that we did not need to worry about the speaker’s list running out. It is also more difficult to find a working group that best represents your country’s interests when there are so many delegates you could cooperate with. This was definitely a good exercise for New York, where some of us will be in committees with about 100 nations more than in Hohenheim. 

One of the main disputed issues between the different working groups was the question if the term „refugee“ should be broadened to include people displaced due to climate change, guaranteeing them the same political rights as people displaced due to violent conflicts or human rights violations. While mainly European and North American countries debated this definition, African and Asian countries called for more concrete ideas on how to help people already displaced due to climate change and how to prepare countries with a higher risk of being affected. In the end, two resolutions were adopted, one of them containing detailed suggestions and one defining „environmental migrant“, without using the term refugee, and most of our delegates were happy with the achievement. To top everything off, Jakob, representing Togo, was honored with the title „Best Delegate“! 

To celebrate our hard work, we attended a wine tasting the Hohenheimer delegation had prepared. This gave us the opportunity to relax and get to know the other delegations on a more private level. We will see them all again on Friday when they come to visit us in Tübingen for TMUN. We can’t wait! 

 

The Tübingen Delegation to NMUN takes preparation very seriously, in an effort to prepare for the New York conference as best as possible we held our own little simulation. Over the course of a single weekend, we honed our diplomatic skills in heated discussions, focusing on two very important topics: „Combatting the threat of terrorist attacks“ and „Xenophobia, Racism and Related Intolerances“. After hearing some well-crafted speeches, the agenda was set to discuss the issue of terrorist attacks first.
Speeches continued and soon the first informal caucuses proved useful in coming up with the very first drafts of what would later become two outstanding resolutions.
Many of the delegates present did not have prior MUN or debating experience, yet they did splendidly at adapting to the rules and rhythm that is a MUN conference.
The lunch break on our first day was also used to take the group and individual pictures of the delegates that can now be found on our website and respective social media profiles.
Soon after groups formed and went off to forage for a lunch that would sustain them throughout the rest of the first day.
As time progressed the procedures became more and more natural and everybody used their chance to give points, hold speeches or prove themselves in the informal discussions.
The delegates left the institute on the first day with a feeling of accomplishment and exhaustion and also a very promising draft for a resolution in progress.
Day two started and so did the negotiations. For some time seemingly all the delegates tried to compromise on one single paper and miraculously produced a document that everybody had agreed upon. After submission to the Chairing Dais, it was soon clear that a paper that respected all the nations represented was simply too long and entailed too many different aspects of the issue to become a working resolution. The chair’s suggestion to split the paper into two was accepted, and once again negotiations started anew.
Over the course of the second half of the day, the delegates became a little less constructive and had a little more fun playing with the intricate political relationships between certain states. Besides that, the work on the papers continued and in the end, two working papers were submitted. After some minor changes, both papers were approved as draft resolutions and the delegates entered the voting procedure.
With only two minor amendments, draft resolution one was approved to resolution one, and draft resolution two was able to be approved without any further amendments.
Thus the second day of our simulation came to a satisfying ending, with the delegates and Dias both happy about the results that had been achieved in such a short time.
The feedback was widely positive and a general consensus was found: Let’s do this again sometime soon!

 

Last Friday, the 31 January, was an exciting day for the 2020 delegation of Tübingen: we hosted the TMUN, our last simulation before New York. Our delegation as well as the delegations from Hohenheim and Heidelberg met in the „Alte Aula“ in Tübingen discussing the following topics:

1. The Elimination of All Forms of Religious Intolerance
2. Measures to Strengthen International Counter-Terrorism Efforts

After a couple of Agenda Setting Speeches as well as a short informal caucaus to discuss the agenda order, the General Assembly decided to firstly deal with the second topic. Various Working Groups were formed, all dealing with the topic from different perspectives and with different focusses. Apart from that, we heard some great and substantive speeches, had fruitful debates and of course a whole lot of fun! With the HCMUN right before TMUN, we were already trained in participating in a bigger simulation with more countries. Therefore, many things such as finding the right working group that best represents the country’s interest, were a bit easier. Lastly, the GA successfully passed four resolutions. Moreover, two of our delegates got an award for „Best Speeches“ which we are very proud of. Well done, guys! 🙂

The TMUN-Team made sure that we had plenty of food in order to get all the energy we needed for having a successful simulation. They did not only offer breakfast but also a huge buffet for lunch as well as plenty of snacks and drinks. As everyone of our delegation brought something for the buffet, we had a delicious variety of all kind of foods from Mediterranean noodle salad to Romanian apple cake.

In the evening, most of the participants of TMUN had dinner in the Neckarmüller which was great due to great conversations and delicious food. It was really rewarding to enjoy dinner with a huge group of young and ambitous delegates, talking about many different topics after a whole day of hard work. The delegations of Hohenheim and Heidelberg went home afterwards. But for the Tübingen delegation the evening had even more up its sleeve…

Starting at 11pm, we had our NMUN party at the Friedrichs Club in Tübingen. What can we say – it was an awesome and unforgettable party!! The music was great, the club was nice and most importantly, the athmosphere was awesome! It was definitely a night to remember and has further strengthened our team spirit immensely.

Having in mind, that all this happened during exam period, we are even more happy to be able to mark this day as a success. It would not have been possible without the help of our volunteers – thank you so much for spending your whole day at TMUN! Furthermore, we thank the TMUN department for organising the whole event in such a professional way. Big thanks also to Lea, Savannah and Lucas who were the best dais a simulation could ask for!

Last but not least, we feel well prepared for New York now. With the semester coming to an end, we are even more aware of the huge amount of knowledge we have gained during the last few month. We are very thankful for the professional preparation we received and still receive. Compared to our first simulation at the beginning of the semester, we have improved a lot, which makes us not only confident but also even more motivated to do our very best in New York!