Distinguished Delegates,

This semester went by like a flash and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Before this semester comes to an end, we want to look back at our association’s events of the last month.

Third Topic Block - The Golden Age of Piracy

Our third and last Topic Block of HS22, "The Golden Age of Piracy" has come to end. It was no ordinary topic block, as it was a crisis simulation. We had the opportunity to take an in depth look at the Bahamas in late 1718, right after the collapse of the “Republic of Pirates” and many pirates accepted the King’s Pardon and became privateers. Our delegates, despite many of them being new to the crisis format, were successful in their many creative plots.

One Cabinet consisted of Pirates, with some familiar names such as Blackbeard and Calico Jack. Their main aim was to be freed from Royal Navy control and have their old carefree lives on the high seas back. Did they succeed in this task? At the end of the crisis, Nassau was in ruins and the Governor of the Bahamas had to flee. The pirates definitely stuck to their roles with looting trade routes, plundering coastal towns and even supporting slave revolts. The pirate cabinet also witnessed the lovely wedding between Calico Jack and Anne Bonny. All in all, it seems the pirate cabinet did not fall short of our expectations.

The other cabinet consisted of Royal Navy Officers, Privateers and the Governor of South Carolina. Their main aim was to chase the pirates out of the Bahamas and protect their trade routes. However, it seems that this cabinet was a lot more chaotic. One privateer, John Auger, successfully killed his fellow privateer, Benjamin Hornigold. Far away from the Bahamas, troubling was also brewing in South Carolina. With officer Sir John Balchen taking power from the Governor of South Carolina and sending him on the run. There was one man in particular who believed in destroying the pirates, that was Sir Chaloner Ogle. After heroically bringing his cabinet members together, he was successful in capturing the notorious pirate Blackbeard. Unfortunately, he met a tragic demise when the Island of Nassau was bombarded by a pirate fleet.

I am proud and delighted to say that this has been an excellent semester. I have been pleasantly surprised at how many new members joined us this year and in addition to that how talented they are. It has been a pleasure chairing these past couple of months and seeing our members put the work in during sessions. I’m very much looking forward to the next semester and would like to wish everyone a happy new year!

- Melkon Yengibaryan, Head of Operations

MUN Team UZH in Festive Spirits

When the weather outside becomes frightful MUN Team UZH kicks off the Holiday season!

We started things off with a visit to the Christmas market at Bellevue on November 30th after our session. The weather may have been frigid, but we kept warm with some mulled wine and snacks.

On December 6th we were able to host the Irchelbar. Since December 6th is a Holiday, we got ourselves in the mood by serving drinks with Santa Claus hats on and playing Christmas music outside. To rise the mood barometer a bit further Aurora and Humberto prepared an amazing quiz for us. A special thank you to Ansu, Max, Eli, Jonas, Benjamin, Louis, Liz, Valentina, Beril and of course all the board members for helping me out with the hosting. It wouldn’t have been possible without you!

The following week on December 14th it was time for the last weekly session of the semester. To end the semester properly we hosted our annual Secret Santa gift exchange and a small Christmas party at our office. Even though, many were already studying hard for their exams we were able to leave that stress outside the door and enjoy our time.

To end my last guest article for this semester: I want to thank everyone that helped me plan and make all the events this semester possible. You are awesome! I truly hope that all of you enjoyed this semester as much as I did, and I can’t wait for the next one. Happy Holidays and a great start into the new year! See y‘all back at it again in February!

- Deniz Yildirim, Head of Events

Recap BIMUN 2022

From the 23rd - 28th of November our team was fortunate enough to participate in the MUN Conference held in Bonn. It was the second year in a row that we went to Bonn, and we are happy to say it was as much of a resounding success as the first time.

Thursday the 24th saw the official start of the conference itself. At registration we caught a first glimpse of the many new faces we’d be working together with over the next days. Our delegates used this opportunity - as all other breaks and down-time on the trip - to get to know each other and the other participants at this conference. The registration along with the opening ceremony was held in the LVR Landesmuseum in Bonn. We heard great speeches from the organisers, amongst which we are happy to see our very own Jessica Fenger who was acting as the Deputy Secretary General for the Conference. We were further delighted to hear a guest speech by Elke Ferner the President of UN Women Germany and a video message by Annalena Baerbock the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Opening ceremony was followed up with our first visit to Bonn’s Christmas market and a reception in the old town hall.

On Friday we finally got to debating and our team members got right to it! Many great opening speeches were held and both rookies and veterans put the skills they had practiced in our weekly sessions to good use. In the evening most of our delegates went to the carnival party organised by BIMUN while others took the train to Köln to experience the Christmas market there as well.

Saturday and Sunday were both full schedule days and our delegates continued with great effort at trying to push forward the agenda of their respective countries. At times they had to face tough questions by the Journalists working for the BIMUN Tribune who were keeping a close eye on proceedings in the different committees. We were also able to continue making new friends and we linked up with the delegation sent by ETHMUN to take a nice Swiss delegation picture. Saturday evening committee dinners took place and Sunday evening was the grand finale with the Gala event hosted in a boat club right next to the Rhine.

The final day of the conference, Monday the 28th, started like all the others with our final few committee sessions before the Closing Ceremony in the afternoon and our homeward journey right after.

Overall, we couldn’t be happier about this trip, and we’ve been delighted to hear that delegates who went had a great time. We want to thank the delegates who joined us and hope to see many come along next time again.

- August Norup, President

Following up with our BIMUN-Rookies

Eli Kupiec When I first heard about BIMUN, I was admittedly unsure if I would go. Having only started MUN this semester, I was worried that I would be out of my depth and wouldn’t be able to properly participate in the debates. However, after quite a bit of convincing by delegates from previous years, I signed up and am so thankful that I did. I was luckily assigned to the UNICEF committee, which was specifically for rookies, so the chairs were especially patient, offering advice and feedback whenever necessary. We talked in depth about gender inequality in education and how to tackle HIV, focusing our attention on concrete solutions. Because of the many interesting debates, we not only were very efficient in writing a resolution which benefitted all member states, but I also learned a lot personally that I previously would not have known.

The highlight for me, however, was the social aspect. Both during the social events and the coffee breaks, I met lots of interesting people and built friendships with students from all over Europe, many of which I already look forward to seeing again at conferences in the future. Besides the new friends I made, BIMUN was also a great opportunity to strengthen bonds with my fellow UZH delegates, who I feel so much closer to now. Looking back, I am infinitely grateful for the opportunity to participate and I already can’t wait to attend my next conference.

Eleah Paetsch I was part of the UZH MUN delegation that participated at the conference in Bonn which took place from the 23rd to the 28th of November.

As already mentioned, this was my first conference and I participated in the International Labour Organisation committee.

During the event in the first evening in the “town hall” we were able to exchange with the other delegates from our committee for the first time. It was very helpful for me to get to know the other delegates beforehand, so I did not have to speak in front of completely unknown faces for the first time. This is also the reason why I really appreciate the events of MUN UZH, dinners before the sessions and the Beer Delegations after the session because it gave me a great opportunity to get to know the people and also made me more confident to give a speech since I am not a person who likes to just stand up in front of others and talk.

Throughout the conferences, the atmosphere was always relaxed and people felt at ease. However, it took a lot out of me to always listen and respond. For me, the first topic we dealt with, which was about the integration of disabled people into the labour market, was not easy, because I didn't have a lot of information about this topic and at the beginning of the conference, I didn't feel confident enough to just start talking. So, the second topic, which was about the rights of migrant workers, was much easier for me because I was much more interested.

I always spent the breaks and lunch with people from the committee, which was a good opportunity to get to know people.
The social events were in general very cool to get to know each other better and still talk about interesting and controversial issues since the people from my committee had very diverse backgrounds. For example, I was able to talk directly to someone from Taiwan about the conflict with China. This was very impressive. Usually, you don't get opportunities like that very often otherwise. In general, I really appreciate that there are completely different people in MUN with whom you can exchange ideas and critically discuss them. I really enjoy that.

Furthermore, I am very grateful that my allies helped me and gave me the opportunity to work independently on the working papers and the draft resolution as I did not have the opportunity to work on such papers before. It was very nice to have a bit of a longer period of time to discuss about a topic to also get more time to work on such papers and get more experience in the way these are structured.

I had to represent Bahrain which is a country whose ideas I really do not personally represent at all. On the one hand, this was a challenge but on the other hand, it was quite helpful because that gave me the opportunity to actively have a look into completely foreign laws and get to know foreign views (that I had never dealt with before) and their background.

In general, I would say that I have really enjoyed the conference because I got to know a lot of different people with whom I was able to exchange ideas and also because we got a longer period of time to discuss about a topic and I also got to know the processes more closely and could practice them (e.g. how to write and structure a working paper and draft resolution correctly).

Seasonal Greetings

The whole MUN Team UZH Board wishes you a joyous Holiday season and a happy and peaceful New Year!

We look forward to welcoming you back to our weekly sessions and events in the spring semester.

Until then, we wish you the best of luck and success with your exams and a relaxing well-deserved semester break.

See you soon,
Your Board

August, Darya, Tajana, Melkon, Sebastián, Deniz, Humberto and Aurora