Thimun

You might have heard of the Model United nations of The Hague. In this article will be made clear what THIMUN is, what’s going on there and what it means to the participants.
To make sure we know what we are talking about: THIMUN stands for The Hague Model United Nations.
THIMUN is a simulation game taking the form of a Conference which is organized yearly by the THIMUN Foundation, a UN recognized NGO (Non-Governmental Organization). The Conference is held in the Nederlands Congres Centrum in The Hague for a whole week. English is the official language; other languages are not accepted. The dress code is that of the common UN representative.
This conference is participated in by International Schools and Schools for Pre-University Education from all over the world. Every participating school is assigned a Member Country or NGO and is supposed to send in a delegation of 8-18 representatives, depending on the number of commissions, committees of the conference the country takes part in. The delegation must promote their country’s interests and speaks on behalf of their country.
In the period prior to the actual conference delegations are supposed to prepare for their tasks and get up-to-date with the political situation of ‘their’ country. It is advisable to write (draft) resolutions on the topics to be debated at the conference and to set up a lobby to promote them.
During the conference the draft resolutions are processed: they are read out, debated and finally voted upon. If the resolution passes it will be published in the foundation’s year book, if it fails its future is the waste-paper basket.
The structure of MUN is as follows: There is a General Assembly (of 6 committees), an Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Security Council (SC), International Court of Justice (ICJ). There are also Commissions: Human Rights, Disarmament, Environment. Finally there is a Special Conference which has a different topic every year (e.g. SCIS = Special Conference on Information Society). A meeting processes 6 to 8 resolutions.
At the end of the Conference a Year Book is published, containing the resolutions that have been passed. These resolutions are then submitted to the real United Nations and regarded as valid resolutions.
My own experience with THIMUN is that it is a great conference: you meet lots of people from different cultures and different opinions on certain topics. Since participants are from all over the world you literally live in a ‘mini-world’ which opens a window on the real world: a small scale exercise.
I was active during the preliminary lobby and have also drafted a resolution which was unfortunately not debated. Thus I was noticed and it made contacting others a lot easier. This resulted in the fact that the conference didn’t stop for me after the Closing Ceremonies: I’m still in touch with a number of friends I made there.
But there is more! In the first place you are trained to speak English at a high level; also you get insight into matters and problems many people are confronted with (think of AIDS, malaria and nature conservation). And all that by debating these topics in a relatively short span of time!
It’s not just party-time all week long. If you want to do well, there’s a lot of work to do.
To begin with you must get yourself selected for the delegation. For those who have participated in the year before this is no problem, but ‘rookies’ have to pass a selection, testing their communication skills.
You must show a good understanding of debating topics and be able to gather loads of information in a short time.
A challenge is the fact that you are supposed to be master of the English language and not be shy of addressing a big audience (200-1,000 people).
You have to be a specialist in your field which means a long and thorough preparation. This preparation is more than half the job done. Alertness and asking at least one intelligent question per day are standard requirement, if you don’t want to just occupy some space during debate. Daily meetings are from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. The evenings are needed for a good preparation for the next day and not to forget, to charge the battery. The food served at lunch is good, also for vegetarians. The organization offers an evening programme on Wednesday and Thursday there’s a film, on Friday a Dance (a must). The initiative for the other evenings lies with the delegation.
In conclusion I can say that THIMUN is more than worth its while, an when the delegation you’re in turns out to be cool (thanks guys!!!) it’s an unforgettable experience.

Hugo van Oosterhout