ROYMUN conference ( Model United Nations)

Saturday 29 April saw the first ROYMUN conference held at RHS, organised and run by two Secretary-Generals and the ROYMUN Secretariat.

We were pleased to welcome over 50 delegates from Woodbridge School, St. Joseph’s College, Thomas Gainsborough School, Cobham Hall and Felsted Prep as well as our own 60 delegates, representing countries ranging from the USA to China.

The day began with an opening ceremony  and welcome and our guest speaker spoke to the delegates about his experiences working with the United Nations. He was a former RHS pupil who has worked with the UN for 25 years, flying into humanitarian crisis areas all over the world as a member of UNDAC (United Nations Disaster Assessment Co-ordination) and INSARAG (International Search and Rescue Advisory Group). Ted was also the speaker at our MUN Dinner earlier this year and it was marvellous to have him speak for us a second time; he educated us about the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina, customs of Turkmenistan, conflict in Rwanda and the spoke of the beauty of Sumatra.

With the speech coming to a close, he declared the very first ROYMUN conference open and the Chairs led their delegates to their committees. Resolutions had been submitted in advance and, after voluntary policy statements, debate began in earnest.

Topics for the day ranged from the question of prostitution in ECOSOC, rising sea levels in Ecology and Environment, Boko Haram in Political, human trafficking in Human Rights and all the way to nuclear, biological and chemical warfare in Security Council. The delegates and Chairs alike did a marvellous job debating the resolutions put forward by a range of countries and the quality of the discussion was incredibly high.

Pupils had two committee sessions and then finished the day with a General Assembly debate based on a pre-prepared "article" on North Korea setting off missiles in the South China Sea. The delegates rose to the challenge and came up with a great resolution together.

The day finished with a closing ceremony where the Commended, Highly Commended and Best Delegates of the committee rooms were awarded with certificates and trophies and Russia represented by Woodbridge School were named overall Best Delegation of the conference. The day was a great success and congratulations must go to Tom, Billy and the rest of the Secretariat and Chairs for their hard work and smooth running of the conference. Thank you too to all of the press team, the Y7 note-passers and to all of the staff who assisted in the preparations.