Opening Ceremony of BerMUN2, 28 February-March 2, 2013, at the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung

Sixteen SESB students from the 8th, 9th and 10th grades attended the regional Model United Nations Conference organized by the John-F.-Kennedy-Schule with the help of Global Classrooms UN-USA. Schiller delegates represented a variety of countries including Morocco, Brazil, Turkey, Iceland and Kyrgyzstan.

For the students' reflections on the conference, read on!

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The first day of BerMUN2 had just ended and I have to admit that I was quite afraid of the following days that would be packed with debating and writing clauses and resolutions. What if I suddenly stuttered when trying to bring an argument? Or what if I mixed up words and my arguments made no sense? All those questions made me feel more and more unconfident. However, I had made friends with some of the ninth graders of Schiller Gymnasium that were also participating at BerMUN2. I asked one of them if a lot of people stuttered or made mistakes and his calming reply was: “Don’t worry; you won’t be the only one screwing up.” Thankfully, he later added: “You’ll do fine.” That at least calmed me down a little bit.

Actually, the next day was not as bad as I thought and after doing an “icebreaker” to get to know each other in the committee, I felt the tension going away and I started to become more and more active in debate and, in my opinion, represented Iceland quite well. Sadly, a headache made it hard for me to concentrate in the second half of our committee sessions and my activity dropped down to a minimum.

On the third day, we continued debate on the committee’s clauses in the General Assembly. Seeing Paula’s placard rise in a moderated caucus gave me enough self-confidence to participate actively as well, despite the 200 people in the GA, in front of which one could easily embarrass oneself.  After having successful debate in the first half, I was eager to participate that well again in the second half. I raised my placard whenever an issue was relevant to Iceland and its ideas of democracy. The Secretary General, however, never called on me. In the end, we came up with a master resolution. Six delegates were chosen to speak about the resolution and convince the other delegations to vote in their favour. And finally, I got called upon and I got to have the last speech of the whole GA, which I was very proud of. It worked out well and the resolution passed.

Although these were all incredible experiences for me, the best part of BerMUN2 was all the interesting individuals you meet and the fact that it was just a perfect mix of productive debate and simple chatting and making friends with other people (in the lunch break, for example). I talked to a student officer, for example, and it turned out that he had been at my old school and that we played soccer in the same team for a long time.

All in all, BerMUN2 was a great experience. I think all delegates will agree that it really made us become more confident and better in debating, and we got to meet great people, which is the perfect mix for a good time.                       
Vincent

Ten of Schiller's 16 delegates to BerMUN2

The delegation of Brazil very much appreciates the resolution passed in the General Assembly of the eighth BerMUN2 conference, since it includes solutions to many highly important and pressing problems, such as theocratic governments, the lack of free and accessible elections and education. While these are critical and important topics in need of discussion and consideration, Brazil deeply regrets that many of the clauses which the Committee of Latin America and the Caribbean had written were not included in the resolution due to the lack of time. These clauses were paramount to the solving of many problems in Brazil, such as drug and arms trafficking locally and along international drug routes. Apart from this, the conference brought on many interesting, heated debates and a decisive master resolution.
Melissa

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I greatly enjoyed this year’s BerMUN2, which discussed the important topic of Democratic Governance. The conference allowed me many insights on not only the various democratic systems around the world, but also other aspects such as human rights and foreign policies. It was particularly interesting for me due to the fact that, representing Turkey, I was called away to the Security Council (SC), along with the delegate of Syria. There was an issue that required the members of the SC to ask our opinions on an incident that had occurred along the Turkish-Syrian border. Answering the questions posed by the delegates forced me into a situation where I had to use my limited knowledge on the country’s relationship with Syria, as I had not researched that extensively on this aspect of Turkey as I had with, for example, the country’s political system.

Back in the General Assembly (GA), the delegates came together from the different regional committees to come up with a master resolution with clauses from all committees. We discussed, among other issues, the separation of religion and state, the accessibility and attractiveness of voting in national elections, and the importance of educating people about corruption and how the democracy works.

All in all, my second BerMUN conference taught me a lot, both about being confident with the way I present my ideas and opinions, and also about the way different countries handle their respective geographical, political and cultural problems.
Sophie

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The delegation of Mozambique thinks BerMUN2 was a great success. This year’s topic of discussion was democratic governance. We think this is an extremely important theme, especially as we have only been a democracy for a short period of time. In the regional committee of Africa we came up with a resolution the delegation of Mozambique agrees with. Many important aspects were discussed, such as intolerance of ethnic groups, anti-corruption policies and human rights. Solutions were not always found, but all in all our committee was very successful.
Lilian

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The delegate of Mongolia greatly appreciates the resolution achieved in the Asian committee at this year’s BerMUN 2 conference, as it fulfils all the expectations for which our delegation was hoping. It included amongst others issues the anti-corruption fight, which was the main aim of our delegation, as well as making education programs to encourage the children to think critically about a dictatorship. The delegation of Mongolia highly values the cooperation with the delegate of Kyrgyzstan and especially that of a democratically orientated delegate of Afghanistan, as the resolution of the Asian committee was greatly influenced by these countries.
Marc

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As the representative of the delegation of the Kingdom of Morocco on the United Nations Security Council 2012/13, I had the opportunity to be part of this year’s Mun SC at the 8th annual Bermun2 conference. The main topic of discussion for the General Assembly was Democratic Governance, whereas the SC discussed the highly complex Palestinian question.

The procedure of debate and formulating a resolution in the SC differs greatly from that in the GA. With only 15 delegates or ambassadors in the SC, debate and dialog are more intense and constructive. Formulating clauses was very challenging, as a 2/3 majority is required for one to pass. In addition, each clause has to meet the expectations of or compromise with the P5, the five permanent members of the SC that have the right of veto. This leads to good clauses being weakened in order to get them passed.

A major problem was the split Palestinian regions, Gaza and West Bank, which are ruled by highly contradictory parties: the Hamas is seen as a terrorist organization, and the Fatah as its friendly brother in West Bank. These parties caused great difficulties, the Hamas is recognized by China as a legitimate government, but not by many democratic countries such as the UK and the US.

In the course of the SC’s session multiple veto threats were used, as well as one veto that caused a “moderated P5 caucus”. Despite a brief interruption for the Harlem Shake as well as the threat of war between Turkey and Syria, for which a resolution had to be formulated within an hour, the session was highly challenging, constructive, and entertaining.
Chandni

The delegation of Belgium was very pleased to participate in the 2013 BerMUN2 conference. The delegation of Belgium are very satisfied with the master resolution. We supported every single clause in the resolution. Some of our resolutions were debated and made it into the master resolution with few changes. Amendments were discussed extensively and were mostly accepted by all delegations. However, some amendments passed with a very close vote and some failed. Very heated debates took place between the USA, Palestine, Finland and Belarus. Some delegations were very hard to convince, such as Palestine, the USA, Israel and Austria, as their opinion was hard like a rock. Not all clauses could be discussed due to time problems, and two of our resolutions didn’t make their way to debate.

But in the end the conference was succesful.
Serkan

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The representative of the delegation of Tajikistan was very impressed by the efficiency of the regional committee of Asia and the Pacific.

Our committee came up with four resolutions, each addressing this year’s topic of Democratic Governance differently. The group I joined, which submitted a resolution with Afghanistan as the main submitter, mainly concentrated on the problem of corruption and educating students about the different forms of governments to enable them to vote for the system they want. Also we formed a trade union for all Asian states striving towards or already having democratic governments.  Unfortunately this did not become part of the General Assembly's master resolution.

When the resolutions in our local commitment were presented, we were able to bring in quite a lot of amendments. In the end, the two resolutions which passed (including the one I worked on) were acceptable for most of the represented countries.

The General Assembly on Saturday was less efficient than the regional committee conference, as debating with representatives from more than a hundred countries got hung up on irrelevant details and the strict procedures of the conference. Even though we had some technical problems with our resolution not being printed, we included two clauses from our resolution into the master resolution.
Carlotta

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I attended the conference as the delegate of Morocco in the Security Council of 1 January 1993, also referred to as the Historical Security Council, with the topic of the situation in Somalia at the time. The goals I wanted to achieve included an emphasis on humanitarian aid and the absolute enforcement of a minimal force policy. A number of Morocco’s allies immediately declared their inclination to reinforce the UN troops currently employed as a part of the UNOSOM, causing me to forge an alliance with China and the Russian Federation, with the goal of securing Somalia’s national sovereignty and a minimal employment of UN troops. Throughout the debate, we effectively defended our ideas, preventing the three opposing permanent members from vetoing any of our clauses, while simultaneously stopping all attempts to pass more aggressive clauses.

We ended the session with an amusing attempt at annexing Somalia coming from the Russian Federation. Their attempt was stopped in its tracks, but they then threatened to veto the Resolution as a whole. Only a last-minute P5 meeting prevented all our work from going to waste.
Nils

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The Delegation of Senegal thinks this BerMUN2 conference was a great success. In the three days of intense work and debate, all the delegates came up with lots of creative and helpful ideas. The different contributions that were made had an influence on the final master resolution. The delegates started debate in regional committees, such as the African committee. This committee, which we were part of, came up with two great resolutions on the second day of debate. They both included important aspects that are worthy of discussion. In the end one resolution passed, including several amendments. The third day was probably the most fascinating day. With all the delegates in one room, the debate turned out very hearty and intense. The delegates were all so absorbed in debate that there was not nearly enough time to discuss all clauses. Still, the master resolution is the outcome of three days of hard work and totally agreeable. Those three days were definitely a great experience for our delegation.

Alina