Taking the Floor: University Students tackle the big issues at MUN
Tashkent’s University of World Economy and Diplomacy (UWED) is the home of the Model United Nations (MUN) in Uzbekistan. The university held the nation’s first conference in 2007, and has continued the tradition every year with the help of the United Nations Information Center (UNIC) and, as of 2010, the UNDP-MFA joint project. This means that the scene, which unfolded on the morning of the Saturday the 26th of November, was not an unfamiliar occasion but one that encouraged great pride with the participants of the day’s MUN conference. The event’s delegations had gathered with the intention of developing a resolution in order to address the decade-old issue of Nuclear Disarmament.
In existence since 1920, MUN has been the archetypal event in diplomatic and international relations education. The purpose of every conference, on its most fundamental level, is to create a professional replication of the proceedings that occur at the actual United Nations in New York. At each conference, participating high school and university students fill the roles of the delegates and ambassadors of various nations to the UN. Their role is to study the matter at hand, determine their nation’s stance regarding the topic, and then represent that country during the conference’s proceedings. Using official UN procedures, rules and practices, including structured debates and informal caucusing, the participating delegates intend to develop a binding resolution which will help to solve the matter at hand.
Finding a Solution
The session, which occurred at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy, addressed the topic ‘New Agenda for Nuclear Disarmament’, and was, therefore, conducted as a simulation of the General Assembly. Pairs of participants from both the UWED and regional universities in Uzbekistan represented twenty seven nations. Many of these nations, such as the United States of America, the Russian Federation, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), the Republic of Korea, India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom, have played important roles in the world-wide addressing of nuclear disarmament and were therefore represented by students.
After introductory speeches made by representatives of UN Information Center, the UWED Rector Mr. Abdujabar Abduvahitov, the Ambassador Mr. Alisher Vakhidov and the UNRCCA Representative in Uzbekistan Mr. Nodir Khudayberganov, which highlighted the importance of the upcoming event and encouraged the participants to make the most of the opportunity, the chairperson Aziz Elmurodov brought the floor to order, outlined the rules and procedures to be used during the debate, and asked each delegation to read their position papers. The strong statements made by national delegations illustrated the true complexity of the issue of Nuclear Disarmament. Matters brought to the fore included the need to reduce the size of nuclear stockpiles, the mutual concern that nuclear weapons may fall into the hands of international terrorists, and the importance to make a distinction between the use of nuclear energy for aggressive and peaceful purposes. Another matter of concern was whether nuclear weapons should not be disarmed in order to deter against future conflict.