RRSIMUN 2023
After school finished on Friday 13th October, all the teams gathered to transform the site, ready to welcome all our visitors the next day for the start of our 41st RRSIMUN Conference. On Saturday our Student Secretariat Team warmly guided hundreds of pupils and staff from 38 different schools who had travelled from 10 different countries to attend our conference. Over the next few days, pupils debated in eleven different committees current issues such as The question of the expansion of NATO, The question of nuclear in a low carbon economy, The question of gender equality, The question of reparations for slavery, The question of advancing the role of women in leadership and political participation, The question of justice for war crimes amongst many others, and The Question of Artificial Intelligence in the Crisis committee. The sun shone on all participants as they represented eighty member states of the United Nations. Our Royal Russell Chairs led their committees with professionalism and openness. Well done to Winnie Wang, Raashmi Niranjan, Caprice Walsh and Francesco Licheri. Our Heads of Secretariat, Conor Morris, Jasmine Rihal, Nadra Webb and Fabio Marmarchi, ensured the smooth running of committees. Hollie Taylor and Tahnee Dione and their Press Team produced four fantastic new editions of our MUN Magazine The Delegate. Poppy Clements and Will Press and the Media Team are to be commended for all their incredible work in the production of a game show, filming and streaming of the General Assembly, Opening and Closing Ceremonies and of course our very own MUN’s Got Talent event. Our Senior Officers made our school very proud with their commitment, thoroughness and diplomacy when leading the General Assembly and Security Council. Congratulations to Iris Nuredini, Secretary General, Jiya Desai, Mark Ben Mikhelson, Johan Prinsloo, Presidents of the General Assembly, Lucas Easton and Alexander Chesters, Presidents of the Security Council. Well done to all our delegates who represented Cyprus, Jamaica and Syria and a special mention to Rohan Phillpot who received the Distinguished Delegate Award in the Social and Humanitarian Committee.
Reigate MUN 2023
On Saturday 7th October, a group of nine pupils attended the 27th Reigate MUN conference. Archer Stephen, Joseph Soya-Bongay and Zachary Devlin represented Germany in the Historical Security Council, Disarmament and Security Committee and Social Humanitarian Committee respectively. Doris Vucinic, Rohan Phillpot, Mahalea Mitchell and Manha Chaudhry represented France in the Security Council, Environment, Health and Social Humanitarian Committees. As Chair of the Crisis Committee and Vice-President of the Historical Security Council, Mark Ben Mikhelson and Johan Prinsloo showed great professionalism, a week before officiating at our Royal Russell IMUN Conference as Presidents of the General Assembly. The conference was a perfect opportunity to start the MUN season for our pupils, whether first-time or more experienced delegates.
Last weekend, a group of Royal Russell students attended the 28th Haileybury MUN Conference. They represented the Republic of Korea and Jordan in the Disarmament and Security, Ecology and Environment, and Conference Special Committees and the Human Rights Council. This was a great opportunity for our students to develop their public speaking skills and debate topics such as the Establishment of the use of biological weapons in warfare, Improving the monitoring and management of natural disasters, Combating intolerance and discrimination against persons based on religion or beliefs and The rights of protestors, amongst many other current issues. Congratulations to Winnie Wang, Caprice Walsh, Nana Otchere-Darko, Alexander Chesters and Mark Ben Mikhelson for taking part. A special mention to Rohan Phillpot who was taking part in his first MUN Conference and received the Distinguished Delegate Award.
This week, a group of Royal Russell pupils attended the 55th edition of The Hague International MUN Conference. The Hague is a key United Nations city, home of the International Court of Justice, hosting the biggest MUN Conference in Europe and welcoming this year over 150 schools from all around the world.
Around 2500 pupils were greeted in the World Forum by a recorded video message from the current Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, wishing them a fantastic conference.
Congratulations to Iris Nuredini, our Vietnam Ambassador and delegate in the General Assembly’s Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee, Mark Ben Mikhelson, in the General Assembly’s Disarmament and Security Committee, Lucas Easton in the General Assembly’s Economic and Financial Committee, Johan Prinsloo in the General Assembly’s Special Political & Decolonization Committee, Francesco Licheri in the Special Conference on the future of Borders, Aman Niranjan and Winnie Wang in the Human Rights sub-commissions 1 and 2, for their participation in this unique event.
This was a fantastic opportunity to debate topics such as, Legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons, Designing a universal code of ethics for tourism, Measures to eradicate forced labour and end modern slavery, The question of territorial sovereignty in Antarctica, Protecting the right of LGBT+ people and The question of countries building walls and other forms of barriers, amongst many other global issues. This was also a perfect environment to develop public speaking and diplomatic skills as well as making new friends.
On Monday 5th December, 9 Royal Russell students attended the 15th Benenden MUN conference, representing France (CJ Coleman-Benjamin, Alexander Chesters, Johan Prinsloo), Canada (Jeffry Tang, Nana Otchere-Darko, Joseph Venkatasami) and the French Polynesia (Daniel Petkov, Zoe Spellings, Caprice Walsh) in the Security Council, Human Rights Council and the Health, Economic and Financial, and Social Humanitarian and Cultural Committees. Whether experienced or first-time delegates, our students were a credit to our school and got involved in debates on topics such as the foreign intervention in conflict areas, the question of brain drain with the migration of skilled human capital to developed countries, the question of pharmaceutical regulation, the protection of labourers in the manufacturing industry and the question of protecting the professional freedom of journalists. Congratulations to all participants.
Reigate MUN Conference – 1st October 2022
On Saturday 1st October, a group of Royal Russell pupils attended the 26th Reigate MUN Conference. Johan Prinsloo, Winnie Wang, Caprice Walsh, Raashmi Niranjan and Alexander Chesters represented Kenya in the Economic and Financial, Disarmament and Security, Special and Political, Social and Humanitarian Committees and Security Council respectively. CJ Coleman-Benjamin was a great Guest Chair in the Crisis Committee as well as in the General Assembly. Whether a first time or more experienced delegate, this was a fantastic opportunity to prepare for our upcoming Royal Russell International MUN Conference (15th-18th October) for all involved. Congratulations to Alexander who received the Highly Commended Delegate award, representing Kenya in the Security Council.
Haileybury MUN Conference 2022
Last weekend was another success for our students and for Royal Russell at the Haileybury MUN Conference 2022. Twelve delegates across five different committees (Special Political, Environment and Ecology, Disarmament and International Security, Economic and Social and Human Rights) represented Congo, Cuba and Cyprus. Charlotte Mawer and Katie Hamerton were Guest Chairs in the Disarmament Committee and Special Committee on Youth and Health respectively and were a credit to the school for their professionalism. In true Royal Russell style, we came back with a few awards. Congratulations to the following students:
Luke McCabe: Award for Distinguished Delegate in the Special Political Committee, representing Cuba
Anastacia Allan: Award for Distinguished Delegate in The Economic and Social Committee, representing Congo
CJ Coleman Benjamin: Award for Highly Commended Delegate in the Economic and Social Committee, representing Cuba
Urusharman Hemanth: Award for Highly Commended Delegate in the Disarmament and International Security Committee, representing Congo
Well done to all participants!
We have had an amazing conference, after a year or more of Covid restrictions and cancellations, we were able to again run our in-person conference. 25 schools attended, some new schools, who will be back next year, having expressed the most wonderful experience for their students. Well done to our fantastic Officers and teams for making everyone so welcome at one of the first in-person conferences to run safely since THIMUN 2019! See you all next year!!
Our students have now returned from a very successful trip to the 52nd annual Hague Model United Nations’ conference. Over 3,000 students from around the world had gathered in The Hague for the conference including just four schools from the UK. Our students, representing Georgia, all enjoyed the week and did really well. Everyone set themselves different targets at the beginning of the week and it was great to see them reach them. Some of our students, unused to speaking in public, did amazingly to stand up in committees of over 150 delegates to ask questions, make amendments and take the floor. Other more extrovert students like Betsy and Simon made real impacts in their committees with their amendments and other speeches. And perhaps the two most active delegates, Izzy and Sam, worked well collaboratively in their committees and took the floor many times during the week. Sam did brilliantly to main submit his resolution and to lead the debate in committee. Elsewhere at the conference we had three members of the press team with Ella writing a number of excellent articles, Zoya producing some excellent pictures and Sammie working on lay-out. Dionne was one of the best chairs at the conference and Aaron did a really good job in the ICJ. He was alone in his judgement on the first case but impressed everyone with the logic of his decision. Finally Ella Jones really did the school proud as one of the Deputy Sec Gens (who basically run the conference). She made an emotional but very good speech at the closing ceremonies in front of 2,000!
15 Royal Russell School students attended BMUN XII. This year we represented Sudan, Iraq and China with an excellent mix of experienced and less experienced delegates who all gave position statements in their committees, and managed to either take the floor or ask a point of information. Perhaps our busiest delegate was Sam who managed to get his resolution debated in both his committee and the plenary, getting it passed in both forums. Poppy did a good job in her first time as a Security Council delegate and it was great to see CJ and David taking the floor to speak alongside sixth form students. In the closing ceremonies only a small numbers of delegates were given awards so Betsy, Isabelle (both Highly Commended delegates) and Aaron (Outstanding delegate) did particularly well to win theirs. All their efforts were rewarded when China won a prestigious Highly Commended award.
On Saturday we took eleven students to Croydon High School’s MUN Conference. We had a mix of experienced delegates and relative newcomers, including two who were attending their first conference. Without exception, all got really involved and spoke well in their committees, including Charlotte and Arjun who impressed immensely in their first ever conference, showing that the future of MUN in Royal Russell is looking strong. Amongst the more experienced students, Ella chaired with absolute aplomb in the prestigious Security Council, and both Sam and Simon won awards as Highly Commended Delegates, a wonderful achievement given the range of quality on show at the conference.
All came away having thoroughly enjoyed the day, and are looking forward to their next MUN encounters.
The 38th International RRS MUN Conference is now closed!
All films can be seen by following the links below:
You can follow us on Twitter @RoyalRussellMUN
Instagram royalrussell_muntv
FB: rrsimun
The actual General assembly parts of the conference were live streamed on You Tube:
Opening ceremony and opening speeches:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAbR83Ms4Qw
Monday debates:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_CCEtZeFMA
The Distinguished Delegate Awards went to students representing:
SOCHUM 1: Belgium, Pakistan, Indonesia, France, Canada, Jamaica, Syria, Costa Rica
SOCHUM 2: Sri Lanka, Singapore, Russian Federation, Serbia, Malaysia, Latvia, Indonesia, Republic of Congo
SPECPOL 1: Croatia, Côte d’Ivoire, Yemen, Belgium, Bahrain, Latvia, DR Congo, UK
SPECPOL 2: DR Congo, Belgium, Jordan, Russian Federation, Turkey, Madagascar, Côte d’Ivoire, Slovakia
DISEC 1: Israel, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Myanmar, Syria, UK, Yemen
DISEC 2: Angola, Canada, China, Cambodia, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, UK
ENVIRONMENT: Belgium, Côte d’Ivoire, France, Yemen, Serbia, India, Sri Lanka, DR Congo
ECOFIN: Bolivia, Canada, DR Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Yemen, Zimbabwe
SPECIAL CONFERENCE ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF BREXIT: UK, Zimbabwe, Iraq, France, Israel, Ethiopia, Bahrain, Estonia
CRISIS: Croatia, Bahrain, Czech Republic, Belgium, UK, Yemen, Indonesia, Jordan
SECURITY COUNCIL:
Côte d’Ivoire, Russian Federation, UK, Indonesia
The Highly Commended Delegation awards went to schools representing:
Côte d’Ivoire: Terenure College, Dublin
Yemen: St Andrew’s College, Dublin
Indonesia: Shrewsbury College
Sri Lanka: Benenden School
Croatia: St Gerard’s School, Dublin
Belgium: Wesley College, Dublin
The Distinguished Delegation awards went to schools representing:
Russian Federation: Habs Boys
France: Santa Margarita Catholic High School, California
United Kingdom: St Andrew’s College, Dublin
The 39th Annual conference will take place between Saturday 17th and Tuesday 20th October 2020 at Royal Russell School. Invitations will be sent by email in early March 2020 to all schools who have previously attended or have requested an invitation. The closing date for applications will be Monday 11th May, after which schools will be advised of their allocated delegation(s), along with successful Chair and ICJ appplicants who will be listed separately on the website.
