The 11 members of Hamilton's Model United Nations Club traveled to Montreal, Quebec, on Jan. 27 to participate in the 2005 Model United Nations Conference hosted by McGill University. They met with 1300 other students, representing more than 80 different colleges throughout the United States and Canada.
Hamilton students were model representatives for the Central African Republic and the Republic of Macedonia. The opening ceremonies on Thursday night marked the beginning of a four-day conference that would consist of debating various world issues, such as access to clean water, cloning, and disaster relief efforts.
The students broke off into UN committees, including the World Health Organization, Sixth-Legal, UN Commission of Human Rights, and the Security Council. Each committee was required to follow the same rules of procedure that the actual United Nations follows during real conferences. Students spent a number of hours working diligently to get various mock resolutions passed. The conference allowed students to interact with a diverse group of people and take in other
countries' political and cultural perspectives.
Amanda Pooler '08, a Hamilton student who represented the Republic of Macedonia, felt that the trip to Montreal helped Hamilton's Model UN team in many ways. Pooler said, "The conference gave us a chance to see the world from a different perspective. Instead of thinking about things from a strictly American point of view, we were required to adopt the political mentalities of the countries we were representing."
The conference was a globally eye-opening experience, but it benefitted the team in a number of other ways as well. Murtaza Jafri '08, a representative for the Central African Republic said, "the trip to Montreal created strong bonds between Hamilton and other colleges; it made everyone on our own team closer as well. This conference was an unforgettable experience."
The students' trip to Montreal was subsidized by the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center at Hamilton. Ntokozo Xaba '08, the head delegate for Hamilton's Model UN team, also credited Student Assembly and the Government Department for providing funding. "They all played a large part in making sure we were able to attend the McGill conference," Xaba said.
The U.S. Secretary General, Kofi Annan, wrote a letter to the McGill Model UN Assembly. He said, "Each of you has an important role to play in this path of change, and I hope you will make your voices heard." Hamilton's Model United Nations team certainly did just that.
-- by Melissa Kong '08
