Now Shenzhen | April 1, 2024
“Honorable chairs, esteemed delegates, distinguished advisors and guests—welcome!”
The words of Caroline rang out into the crowd of over one-hundred student delegates and chairs as she extended her warmest greetings on behalf of the SCIMUN Cabinet and QSI Shenzhen.
Caroline attended her first Model United Nations at the mere age of twelve. Many years later, she was now standing before an applauding audience as the Secretary General of the cabinet for the ninth Southern China International Model United Nations event.
Model United Nations, also known as MUN, is a well-known extracurricular activity in which participants roleplay in a simulation of the United Nations. Students come together to act as chairs and delegates for different committees, and debate on some of the most pressing global issues of the modern day.
SCIMUN is an MUN event which not only encourages the development of research skills and fosters collaboration, but also teaches students the importance of professionalism in their communication. The activity challenges student minds to think critically, and to embrace the viewpoints of different minds.
This year, SCIMUN IX was a conference of great importance—it marked the first year the event was able to return to an esteemed hotel for its location since the COVID-19 outbreak. During the pandemic, SCIMUN suffered greatly from the inconsistencies that came with the lockdowns. In the past four years, attendees have seen SCIMUN in many forms-even as an online video conference.
Last year, SCIMUN VIII was a transformative conference which allowed for the transition back to in-person conferencing from online video conferencing. Hosted at the QSI Secondary campus, the event was a huge success. Caroline had been part of the cabinet, serving as the Deputy Secretary General. After her ascension to being Secretary General this year, she was determined to restore SCIMUN’s former reputation as the most professional Model United Nations event in the region. In the wake of her leadership, the cabinet for SCIMUN IX led a successful conference at the Nanhai Hilton Hotel.
When SCIMUN was first established, it came with the motto “student-led, student-initiated, student-involved.” The cabinet members of SCIMUN IX fully embodied this motto by managing and planning the conference on their own, with supervision from Ms. Sukdeo. This year, the cabinet was comprised of six members: Caroline as the previously mentioned Secretary General, Jackie Nie as the Deputy Secretary General, Sam Zhang as the Chief of Staff, Vic Chen as the Chief of Finance, John Park as the Secretary, and Artem Skorobogatov as the Chief of Press.
As Caroline concluded her opening speech, she reinforced this year’s conference theme within the minds of every student by parting with a question: “I want to end with a question for everyone in this room: to you, what is the key to ‘Confronting Humanity?’ I hope you will all find an answer in the next three days of the ninth annual Southern China Model United Nations. Good luck!” She banged her gavel on the podium, and with that, the conference had officially begun.
The first day of SCIMUN is often characterized by policy debates on various global issues, while resolutions to those issues are drafted and debated upon on the second day. The conference theme, “Confronting Humanity,” sought to highlight the various human struggles the world had been facing in the past few years. Each committee brought forth different world problems in their individual committee topics, which had been thought up by Deputy Secretary General Jackie Nie.
The World Health Organization (WHO) was working hard to develop a plan to promote more affordable drug costs in less economically developed countries and finding ways to remedy the health risks caused by the Fukushima waste release.
The Human Rights Council (HRC) was avidly defending the rights of those who were displaced in the Ukraine-Russian conflict and discussing ways to protect minorities from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) addressed concerns regarding poverty within Caribbean and Latin American communities and about the rapidly declining birth rates in East Asian countries.
The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) embarked on a pathway to boost economic wellbeing through combating inequalities caused by digitalization and counteracted the effects of poverty through microfinancing.
Lastly, the Security Council debated vigorously on how to confront the rising conflicts responsibly and systematically between Yemen and Saudi-Arabia, as well as mitigate the crises in Mali.
With the diversity of these topics and the different roles present at SCIMUN, conferencing looked different for everybody. For delegates, their experience involved diligently conducting research, delivering promising speeches on their country’s stances, and asking for points of information (POIs). Chairs had to display consistent shows of professionalism in mediating and supervising the debates, ensuring a productive and collaborative atmosphere. For the runners, the days were filled with a lot of walking to assist in note-passing, supervising technology use among delegates, and making sure that everyone was on schedule. On the other hand, the cabinet and advisors floated freely in and out of each conference room, partly ensuring that everything was going well, and partly observing the fruitful debates that were taking place in every committee.
With the conference coming to an end, delegates and chairs across all committees came together for one last general assembly before the closing ceremony. Delegates were brought together by their countries, and it was announced that everybody would be debating on two resolutions all together: one from the United Nations Development Programme on the declining birth rate in East Asian countries, and the other from the Security Council’s topic on the Yemeni-Saudi Arabian conflict.
The general assembly was a wonderful opportunity for delegates to confer and communicate with the other students of the same stance. The culmination of every student’s hard work was evident in the way delegates confidently raised their placards at every opportunity present.
As I was the chair of the Security Council myself, I was thrilled to have been presented with the opportunity to chair the general assembly debate on the Security Council’s resolution. It was amazing to hear the different sorts of POIs delegates from other committees raised. I was also proud each time I saw a delegate from my committee speak, whether it was for or against the resolution, because I was able to witness the amazing growth that they experienced in the mere two and a half days at the conference.
When the general assembly came to an end and after awards were presented to their rightful owners, Deputy Secretary General Jackie Nie and Secretary John Park took to the stage for two final closing speeches, in which they reflected on the major success of the conference, and all the effort that went into planning it.
“We give our deepest thanks to all participants that attended our ninth annual SCIMUN Conference,” Jackie said. “Whether you came as a supervisor, delegate, chair, volunteer, or in any other capacity, your contributions have enriched our discussions and strengthened our resolve to confront humanity’s challenges together.”
After Jackie finished, he yielded the floor to Secretary John Park, who will ascend to the position of Secretary General for SCIMUN X. It was seemingly a metaphorical gesture for yielding the responsibilities of the SCIMUN cabinet to him for the year to come.
“I echo the words of our DSG,” John added. “In the past few days, the delegates have shown exceptional passion, eagerness, courage, and responsibility. I hope this conference has served as an opportunity for all the delegates, to inspire them to become leaders and to contribute to the community we all live in. Thank you all. I truly hope to see you again next year.”
He raises the gavel and moves to bring it down.
“SCIMUN 2024 is now adjourned!”
For more information, please visit SCIMUN’s website: www.scimun.net, and SCIMUN’s official WeChat Subscriptions Account: SCIMUN2022. We are looking forward to seeing both familiar and new faces at the next conference in the upcoming year!
This article comes courtesy of Jennifer Wang, S4, SCIMUN Security Council Chair.