Newsletter November 2023
Distinguished Delegates,
We are slowly approaching Christmas season (your Head of Communications' favourite time of year) and the semester is drawing to a close.
In this newsletter we want to look back on the past weeks and give an outlook on the things we have planned until the end of the year.
OxIMUN 2023 Recap
From 27th to 29th of October, MUN Team UZH had the pleasure of attending a conference organized by Oxford International Model United Nations.
During the Opening Ceremony, we heard speeches from The Lord Hannay of Chiswick, the Ambassador of Switzerland Mr. Markus Leitner, as well as the Ambassador of the Hellenic Republic Mr. Yannis Tsaousis. The speakers also engaged in an interesting Q&A panel discussion.
Our delegation of 16 members participated in the sessions of various committees, such as the Economic and Social Council, the Human Rights Council, the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee, and the International Court of Justice. Our delegates represented a wide range of states in the debates, including North Korea, Kuwait, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Argentina. A few of the interesting topics comprised discussions on improving access to safe reproductive health care and addressing the problem of international human trafficking networks. Moritz F. Adam and El Hamilton received an award for their best position paper in the UNSC as a double delegation representing Japan, well done!
A big thank you to our Chief Head Delegate Mila, you did an amazing job at leading our delegation for this first conference!
Furthermore, we are grateful to our main sponsor Swiss Re as well as our other supporters VSUZH and the University of Zurich for enabling us to attend these international conferences!
Mila Grönros - Chied Head Delegate
Halloween Party Recap
For this year’s Halloween party, on Saturday 4th of November, we all gathered at the MUN Office. As guests entered the dimly lit space, they were greeted by cobwebs, spooky decorations and haunting melodies of Halloween tunes.
The highlight of the evening was the much-anticipated costume contest. People were dressed up as spooky vampires, super heroes, princesses, film characters and red flags. Everybody put a lot of effort into their costumes. Through popular vote Noele won the contest dressed as a meme.
Thank you to everyone who came and making it such a fun event! And shoutout to Eli for setting everything up.
Francesca Peacey - Head of Events
Second Topic Block Recap
The second topic block has officially come to an end, and our delegates did an amazing job representing their countries.
This time, our topic was the repatriation of stolen artefacts, and many great points were brought up on how to ensure cultural history could be preserved, while also ensuring the safety of items preserved in museums around the world. As always, the standard of debate and everyone’s ability to cooperate was admirable.
And of course congratulations to our delegate of the topic block Ansu for her hard work representing the United Kingdom!
Eli Kupiec - Head of Operations
Rookie Interview
What are you most excited about for your first international conference?
Noah: I'm excited about the overall experience. I don't really know what to expect from the conference itself but I'm looking forward to going there and doing something surrounding MUN the whole day. That seems interesting to me.
Letizia: If I'm completely honest, the socials. But naturally also having kind of a different outlook on MUN, seeing it in a broader context with more countries, and people you're not familiar with and also the socializing with them during and after sessions.
What are you excited to see and do in Ljubljana?
Letizia: Well, I don't know Ljubljana very well. I just know it's a beautiful city, so I'm very excited to just get to see that. Also, because I just like walking and sightseeing. So I'm looking forward to doing that. But I do have this slight fear that it's going to be really, really cold.
Noah: Yeah, I agree. I've always liked Eastern European cities, so I think I will like Ljubljana as well.
Do you feel that the weekly sessions have prepared you for this conference?
Letizia: Well, you have to consider the fact that this is probably weekly session number eight, including the Rookie Session, so I think it's pretty difficult for it to have prepared one fully. But it definitely did give me a general understanding of it all.
Noah: Yeah, I agree. I think it has prepared me well enough to know the general structure.
Are you worried about anything regarding the conference?
Noah: Buying a new suit.
Letizia: Honestly, I'm more worried afterwards because I have exams like two weeks after the conference and I'm afraid that I'll get sick.
What are you looking forward to about joining our MUN delegation with people from our team?
Noah: To get to know them better and have a good time!
Letizia: Yeah I totally agree. I think that is my main goal with this conference, getting to know the people from MUN better, but also getting to know other people and just having fun at the socials with them.
- Thank you to Letizia and Noah for doing this interview with us!
We look forward to many more fruitful debates and exciting events to come! Stay tuned!
See you soon,
Your Board
Melkon, Tara, Mila, Eli, Kai, Francesca and Anna
Copyright © *2023* *MUN Team UZH*, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
info@mun-uzh.org
We would like to thank Swiss Re, VSUZH and UZH Alumni
for being our main sponsors this year!
