The Concordia University Political Science Student Association’s (PSSA) Model United Nations team is off to participate in the annual Queen’s University Model UN (QMUN) competition on Feb. 6.
The team was organized exclusively by the PSSA, which is a separate entity from Concordia’s Model United Nations team (CONMUN).
According to Jawoon Kim, a member of the PSSA and team organizer for this year’s event, this is the first time Concordia has participated at QMUN.
QMUN is a simulated United Nation’s conference, providing a forum for students to discuss and debate contemporary world issues. Students will be able to distinguish themselves by acting as delegates for different states.
In preparation for the competition, delegates from both Concordia and Queen’s University were able to request three states in order of preference, which were then sent to the QMUN organizers, who will make the final decision regarding which delegate will be assigned which state.
For the competition, each delegate must represent their assigned state and debate different topics. Which topic they will debate depends on which committee they are assigned to.
At the competition, delegates will have the opportunity to participate in several different committees such as the African Union, the Arab League, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Historical Security Council, the Security Council, the United Nations Centre for Science and Technology for Development (UNCSTD), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the World Health Organization.
Topics being discussed in these committees range from food security to renewable energy sources for the future.
At this year’s event, there will be four guest speakers in attendance: John McNee, a former ambassador and official representative of Canada to the United Nations; Dienne Hardianti Moehario, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Republic of Indonesia; Hugh Segal, the senator for Kingston-Frontenac-Leeds; and Guillermo E. Rishchynski, Canada’s ambassador, and official representative of Canada to the United Nations.
A number of different awards will be presented to the delegates competing, such as best delegate, best policy paper (a paper written before the competition), and best dressed man and woman. There will also be one honourable mention.
This is the 29th QMUN competition to take place at Queen’s University.
The competition will begin on Feb. 6 and end on Feb. 9.
