Townshend Model United Nations (MUN) students are back from the Mediterranean Model United Nations conference hosted at the European University in Nicosia, Cyprus. Students had the opportunity to seek, through discussion, negotiation, lobbying, speeches, resolution drafting and debate, solutions to the various global challenges facing the United Nations ranging from human rights, natural disaster relief, public health crisis, disarmament, combating piracy, the problems of youth unemployment, maintaining security for journalists, gender violence, combating xenophobia and neo-Nazism, and humanitarian assistance in conflict zones. The United States Ambassador to Cyprus, Kathleen Doherty and the British High Commissioner to Cyprus, Matthew Kidd delivered inspiring speeches, along with the Special Representative of the Secretary General and Head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, Elizabeth Spehar.
Townshend MUN delegates also had the opportunity to interact and engage with the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) at the buffer zone between Northern Cyprus and Cyprus, which is the longest running international peacekeeping mandate by the United Nations since 1964. As part of our MUN adventures, we also ventured into North Cyprus, experienced the “old town” of Nicosia and admired flamingos near the Hala Sultan Tekke mosque and complex.
Townshend MUN delegates got first-hand experience not only participating in a real-world UN simulation, but also experiencing the real-life UN operations in the field.