In November (16th to 18th) five students from our school participated at LEMUN conference. LEMUN is a MUN which is organised by students of Leiden Gymnasium, the Netherlands. This was the 17th conference of LEMUN and approximately 450 students participated. It was our 16th participation at LEMUN.
MUN is a Model United Nations conference, where students from secondary schools all around the world represent allocated country in different committees. They have to negotiate resolutions on various current problems and at the same time defend the interests of their countries.
Although the journey to the Netherlands was very long and tiring as we got stuck in road works in Germany (yes, even the Germans have to do some maintenance to their great motorwaysJ), it was worth it. Leiden is a lovely town. The people there were so friendly and nice. Our students met many people from all around the world and made some new friends. There were schools from the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Greece, UK, Egypt, Turkey, Portugal, Latvia, Israel and Nepal. Our school is the only one from Slovakia participating in LEMUN. Our students actively lobbied and debated in all committees. They have learned how to communicate effectively with other people, how to talk formally, how to speak in front of the public. They have obviously gained much more confidence about speaking in English, and moreover, gained some leadership abilities. Students also realised how complicated the world is and it has helped them develop debating, communicative and also diplomatic skills
LEMUN has committees for the beginners as well as for experienced delegates. To this end, LEMUN has regular UN committees and more challenging special committees. Everyone was in a different committee. Being at LEMUN has been a great experience. Here are brief descriptions of committees students have been in and what they say about the whole event.
Peter Židek:
This year at Lemun, I participated in the North Atlantic Council as a delegate of Iceland. It was a bit different than usual committees since the NAC is an ad-hoc committee, where you submit single amendments not a whole resolution at the beginning. We debated issues such as growing Russian influence on the Balkans, weaponization of social media and the question about the future of common European military service. As every year, I’ve enjoyed the conference and I’ve gained new experiences, got new thoughts, friends and also I’ve learned new things.
Sebastian Maríkovec:
This year I got a chance to participate at Lemun conference. From the beginning I was really stressed out since this was my first MUN conference abroad, but later on it was ok. After we came to a school, our host families came to pick us up and took us home. I had really great time thanks to our chair, host family and all the people who were there. In my committee, GA3, where I represented Iceland, we discussed women´s participation in the workforce, access to religious sites in Jerusalem, recognition of indigenous land ownership in Latin America, guaranteeing the rights of minority language speakers. The conference ended up successfully and I am really looking forward to the next year!
Šarlota Pozsonyiová:
LEMUN 2018 was amazing. Great issues, new friends, memories and experiences. I was a delegate of Egypt in the Human Rights Committee. We discusses a few of the most important problems such as women’s rights, which was by the way pretty hard for me since I represented Egypt. Other issues included human rights of suspects of terrorism, and stateless individuals. Besides the conference I had the best opportunity to visit the centre of Leiden. I love that city even more that I had before. I hope that next year there will be a chance of going again because I had the best time of my life.
Robert Bušfy:
LEMUN 2018 was my first MUN. It was amazing, full of new experience and a lot of fun. I was a delegate of Egypt. It was really interesting since I was in the UNEP that specialises in the environment. We came up with resolutions for sustainable use of forest resources or measures for recovery of insect population. Beyond conference I also had chance to look through Leiden. It was a really lovely city, which I will look forward to coming back to. I am really looking forward to the next year MUN and I hope it will be as good as this one.
Mgr. Lenka Števková