The Model United Nations competition, taking place on Saturday 2nd March 2024 at Ryde School, offers students a greater insight into the largest political organisation in the world. 

I was lucky enough to be able to interview the Cowes Enterprise College Model UN team, who will be participating in the upcoming competition. 

Within the competition itself, each student taking part is delegated to a specific country within their allocated council, which they must research prior to the competition to accurately represent their views on the topic discussed in their committee sessions. 

The competition itself divides the UN into four councils: the Security Council, the Women’s Rights Council, the Economic and Social Council, and the Human Rights Council.  

Each council covers a different topic based on their council’s jurisdiction and discusses it during multiple caucuses (debates) throughout the committee session until they pass a vote and come to a resolution of whatever issue they have been presented with. 

Later in the day, however, all the delegates come together for the General Assembly, where the UN are faced with an international crisis – last year this was a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.  

One member of the Cowes team, Kaden Thomas, was looking forward to this section in particular. He was ‘excited for everyone to come together’, and that the General Assembly is completely ‘on the spot, helping develop people’s confidence’ as they defuse the crisis set to them. 

The team meets every Wednesday and is largely comprised of Year 12s who are eager to debate, and of course looking to enrich their university applications. Each week they tackle different topics – food waste, child brides, transitional justice – in preparation for the competition.  

The team’s supervisor, Vanessa Wester, highlighted what she feels makes Model UN such an important event for these students: ‘It really helps to build up their teamwork, organisational skills, and confidence and communication skills that they’ll need later in life’. 

Model United Nations summits are important events that happen across the globe, that help to foster students’ debate skills and in turn their confidence, helping to shape the leaders of the future.