On 10 and 11 December, the ISA Model United Nations (MUN) program held its second annual MUNISA MUN Conference. Sixty Upper School students in grades 8-12 took part in this in-house conference, addressing pressing political issues involving human rights and national security, collaborating to debate and solve these issues through diplomacy.

ISA’s student-run MUN conference took place for the first time last year, as many interschool MUN conferences had been cancelled due to the pandemic. However, not a group to be daunted by a challenge, the student leaders decided to organise a conference of their own, to allow all of their club members to experience an in-person MUN conference. The resounding success of our first MUNISA last year helped to grow our MUN program, with twice as many students participating in this year’s conference. 

This year, students divided into two committees: the Human Rights Committee, which debated issues such as cobalt mineworker’s rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the deteriorating human rights in the Republic of Venezuela; and the Security Council, which focused on the issue of resolving political tensions in the Republic of Sudan.

Students also had the opportunity to hear from two guest speakers from the ISA parent community: Sebastian Reyn, the Deputy Director of Defense for the Dutch government, and Simon Zadek, Co-Director of UN Environmental Program, who spoke virtually on their experience in international relations.

The MUN press team set up a dedicated website and an Instagram account with live updates from the event on Friday and Saturday to ensure that the event could be followed digitally by the wider ISA community.

The conference is becoming an established tradition here at ISA, and we look forward to growing the event next year to include other schools. Well done to all of the ISA MUN members for your hard work and flexibility in organising and participating in the conference.