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National Youth Model UN 2018: We have arrived

Chairs of NYMUN 2017

The National Youth Model United Nations (NYMUN) is here, yet again to engage and inspire Sri Lankan youth. NYMUN is a two-day conference that functions as a national simulation of the United Nations and its affiliated organisations for youth aged 14-30 in Sri Lanka.

From 250 young individuals in 2016 and 350 delegates in 2017, NYMUN is launching this session with the hope of engaging 1,500 individuals from various parts of the island. NYMUN 2018 will be held on September 29 and 30 in Colombo and aims to work towards creating the space for youth to learn, understand and analyse pressing international development challenges and enhance their ability to develop target-oriented solutions.

In the process of developing policies and mechanisms to address international and national challenges, young people will learn to negotiate, compromise and adopt an open-minded approach to the discourse that is taking place.

NYMUN is the largest youth MUN platform in Sri Lanka, as youth pursuing all kinds of education and those engaging in professional careers participate on a single platform. This has opened opportunities to youth to join MUN and renew their passion for international relations, policy-planning and forming discussions on local and global issues.

While its conferences in 2016 and 2017 were highly successful in developing the understanding of foreign affairs and inculcating diplomacy skills among its participating delegates, the conference in 2018 hopes to instill a much wider scope of skill-sets for the optimal benefit of its delegates.

Given its overall vision, the conference is based on the theme of youth, peace and security with special emphasis on the United Nations’ Security Council Resolution 2250. Since its inception in 2016, NYMUN has and will continue to encourage its delegates to channel their discussions through Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to be in line with the global development agenda. With aspirations to expand the conference to eliminate the barrier of language, NYMUN 2018 looks to expand trilinguality through working towards Vision 2020.

Vision 2020 (V2020) is an initiative taken by NYMUN solely to tap into the full potential of youth across the island and give them an opportunity to voice their ideas and innovative solutions that would address root causes and bring about advanced systematic changes.

V2020 is focused on creating a national youth assembly to make sure the voice of youth is considered by relevant authorities to ensure greater fairness in political, legal and economic systems and safeguard fundamental rights.

There has never been a better opportunity to organise youth across Sri Lanka to tackle such issues and in fact, this will be the first-ever youth assembly to engage youth from all the nine provinces covering provincial youth clubs and societies, universities, other youth organisations and individual participants who are keen to bring tangible change for a better Sri Lanka.

This entails a three-phased programme spanning a timeline of three years. The first and most fundamental phase is to inform and expose youth of the country to the activities of a UN simulation.

Therefore, this year, in addition to the main conference to be held in Colombo, the NYMUN Secretariat seeks to organise eight provincial workshops which will focus on a simulation of the UN and its various bodies and include many other informative sessions, while providing a platform for youth to develop their public-speaking and conflict-resolution abilities.

The second phase, to happen in 2019, is to organise Provincial Model United Nations (MUN) including all nine provinces. This would incorporate three provinces into a single conference in which the best delegates from each province will participate. The Provincial MUNs allow the participants to discuss global topics at a local level in order to adopt international norms and principles to the local context.

The third and final phase would be executed in 2020, where the best delegates from all the nine provinces of Sri Lanka would participate in a bigger and better assembly and voice their opinions, ideas and beliefs to lead the way and bring revolutionary change for a better nation.

The Model United Nations is built on open minds and fresh ideas. On the two days of the conference, delegates will represent the United Nations, people from all countries coming together to find solutions through constructive debate and an exchange of ideas. This open-mindedness would encourage the essence of successful diplomacy – the ability to understand and analyse all positions, including those that one opposes.

NYMUN 2018 returns with the enactment of six different committees, out of which two would be trilingual. The committees are the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), The First Committee: Disarmament and International Security (DISEC), The Fourth Committee: Special Political and Decolonization (SPECPOL), United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD), United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) .


A session during NYMUN 2017  

NYMUN believes that a peaceful and inclusive society is the pre-condition for national integration and reconciliation. The youth play a pivotal role in the journey of achieving it. By engaging 1,500 youth across Sri Lanka, NYMUN looks to promote increased participation in terms of local discourse, thereby enabling the youth of this nation to recognise their potential and lead the country towards sustainable peace and development.

To quote Shakespeare, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

The Executive Committee expects nothing short of greatness for NYMUN 2018 and extends a warm welcome to all young leaders of Sri Lanka to join them for a conference that offers a dynamic experience, beyond just an award or a certificate.

Uniting Nine Provinces: One Nation, One Conference. Registrations are possible at www.nymunsl.org or by writing to email: [email protected].

Executive Committee, NYMUN 2018

 

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