The Hohenheim Castle MUN (HCMUN)

It had been quite a while since our delegates were able to practice negotiating and public speaking. So it was overdue that we participated in another Model United Nations Simulation, to keep these skills as sharp as possible. In this case, we attended the Hohenheim Castle MUN (HCMUN), which was hosted in the Hohenheim Castle by the Club of Hohenheim. The main difference to our internal simulation from November was, that this time there were delegates from other universities, namely Heidelberg and Hohenheim, participating as well.

To arrive in Hohenheim on time, we met early on Saturday, the 20th of January at the bus station in Tübingen and drove from there to the castle. During the bus trip, the excited (but nervous!) chatter grew in intensity: Which of the topics will we discuss? Am I prepared enough? Will I meet people from my committee from the other delegations? Is my tie fitting properly? Et cetera, et cetera.

After signing in at the castle and approximately half an hour of mingling and networking and looking for potential allies, it was finally 10 am and the simulation began. The topics on the agenda were:

1. General and Complete Disarmament

2. Implementation of the Outcomes of the United Nations Conferences on Human Settlements and on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development and Strengthening of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)

3.The Right of Peoples to Self-Determination

Finally, the delegates decided upon discussing the first topic, General and Complete Disarmament. These discussions led to five draft resolutions, that covered a variety of topics, ranging from small arms to landmines to nuclear weapons, from more controlled weapon trading systems to complete prohibition of certain weapons. In the end, the hard work, long discussions, and hours of writing and researching paid off, since four of the resolutions were adopted by our General Assembly. We felt that our previous training in implementing the Rules of Procedure or understanding how a draft resolution paper needs to be structured really helped us, since we quickly became comfortable in our role as delegates. This in turn created a productive and cooperative working atmosphere and is also one of the reasons why we will fondly remember our time at HCMUN.

To celebrate a successful simulation, the Club of Hohenheim had organized a wine-tasting event, which was a great opportunity for all participants to socialize with the other delegates and to get to know each other better. We enjoyed the local wine and food and had a great Saturday evening together. It was especially interesting for us to meet the delegates from Hohenheim and Heidelberg, who will also be part of the conference in New York this March.

A huge ‚Thank You‘ is also due to the organizers of HCMUN and all the delegates from Hohenheim and Heidelberg. It was a pleasure to get to know you and to work with you. We had a lot of fun in participaring in HCMUN and are looking forward to our next joined simulation, TMUN, on the 9th of February, in Tübingen.

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