This recap has been provided by Justinas Mickus, LIMUN Staff
The conference, organized by two high school students, Dominykas Milašius and Justinas Mickus, was similar to Chicago’s school of MUN in its nature. The conference focuses on crises and emphasizes the pursuit of national goals, rather than peaceful and largely unrealistic co-operation. The organizers believe that, unfortunately or not, this is closer to the real nature of the real UN and politics in general.
Pessimism aside, the conference provided all delegates with a fully integrated crises panel, where decisions of any one committee impacts all other committees. The primary focus of the whole conference was the Arab Spring events, yet each committee had specific topics for discussion too. Thus, the conference allowed the delegates to experience both negotiating and working as a team when writing resolutions on topics ranging from child labor to Taiwan’s membership in the UN, and quick decision making in response to unfolding crises. As the main task of the delegates was to represent their country’s interests in all situations, the conference created a competitive and exciting atmosphere for all participators.
On the first day, delegates managed to pass a thorough resolution on child labor laws in the developing world in GA. In UNSC, delegates were faced with a tense situation when Turkey announced intentions on intervening Syria (in response to Syria’s actions that caused bloodshed in the refugee camps in Turkey this Monday). OPEC had to help Libya, which had its Sar-ir oil fields taken over by unidentified terrorists, while the Arab League welcomed Syria back to their ranks.
On the second day, the unstable Middle East suffered from even more turmoil – Turkey invaded Syria, prompting a quick and harsh response from some hard-core supporters of Syria, and creating an especially tense atmosphere in the UNSC, where Russia/China blocked every resolution of the Western powers, and vice versa. OPEC had to sort out their differences on whether oil prices should be lowered to boost the economy, or higher, to increase OPEC’s influence in the world. The GA was probably the only place where the countries managed to avoid a deadlock, writing and passing resolutions on their topics of child soldiers and Taiwan’s membership (sadly, no UN seat for Taiwan…), and in response to the crises (the GA was occupied with Israeli plans of attacking Iran).
Luckily for the world, the crises were resolved on the third and final day, when Turkey withdrew from Syria, Syrian government retreated and allowed UN peace corps to begin work, OPEC agreed on market-oriented prices worldwide, and all lived happily ever after (except for Taiwan).
For the organizers (and, hopefully, the world MUN community) more important than the crises and the committee work outcomes is the fact, that Lithuania has finally entered the MUN society, and did that very very enthusiastically. Organizers are already busy with setting grounds for an international event in Lithuania, as well as traveling to Chicago International MUN in December, and, hopefully, more MUN conferences in Europe and beyond.
So mark your maps, Lithuania is present and voting!
