HCMUN 2021
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Founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries,the United Nations is an International Organization committed to maintaining international peace, security, fostering relations among nations, promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights.
Model United Nations (MUN) was born asa platform to mold the future diplomats of the world,simulating, and adhering to the ethos of the United Nations.
Students role-play the nerve-racking task of national representatives in a committee of the UN, where they research on a country and participate in debate to discuss world issues, with the end goal of engaging young minds in debate and introduce them to diplomacy and the many intricacies related to it.
Trinity College and Gateway College worked hand in hand with the Sri Lanka Model United Nations (SLMUN) Executive Committee to organize Hill Country Model United Nations (HCMUN) conference an opportunity for smaller schools in the Central Province to experience MUN.
The 4th session of HCMUN took place on the 28th and 29th of August 2021 via Zoom under the upcoming SLMUN conferences theme of ‘Restless for Change’.Mr.SachindaDulanjana; former official Sri Lankan Youth Delegate to the United Nations graced this special occasion with his virtual presence as the keynote speaker of the opening ceremony in which he spoke about the necessity of voicing the opinions for the voiceless and actively taking up responsibility to address the burning issues the country is facing presently. He also shed a significant amount of light on the importance of the youth coming forward as active citizens and volunteers to find innovative answers to the unsolved problems in the world today.
The delegates and the executive committee were undoubtedly motivated and encouraged by his inspiring words of wisdom.Seth Ganepola the former Secretary General of Sri Lanka Model United Nations addressed the virtual gathering in the closing ceremony. He expressed how vital it was for the youth to speak out and voice their opinions to fight against the vast amount of discriminatory actions, injustices and social inequalities that we encounter in the world today.
Even with the SLMUN Executive Committee’s familiarity with the conference’s digital setup and tedious preparation for everything to function correctly, they still faced challenges, such as connectivity issues, audio problems, or display issues. These meeting challenges arose out of nowhere, placing the head table under a great deal of stress or pressure to continue the conference whilst also managing the problems that have arisen.
Both the Executive Committees and delegates faced gaps in communication.
Whilst usually together during the conference the Heads now found themselves in their homes unable to communicate their concerns with their own committee members and as such making it a real struggle for them to work together and help many of the novice delegates that were present.It is not always easy for delegates to get exact points across via a virtual meeting.
Face to Face conferences enable delegates to pick up on specific cues such as body language and posture which help them continue with their speeches. A video conferencing problem is that it limits the power of these gestures. While you may be able to see and hear the other person through the camera, it does not have quite the same effect.
Despite all this both the Executive Committee and Delegates faced the challenges and adapted accordinglywhether it was by developing effective virtual communication or overcoming the nervousness of being a novice and actively partaking in the discussion. Amidst all the technical difficulties the delegates may have faced during the conference, the executive committee worked in their fullest capacity to deliver a successful MUN experience to all participants.
Hence, this virtual conference undeniably was a platform for all delegates to improve themselves, express their ideas and gain a firsthand MUN experience despite the situation of the country.
The conferences proceedings concluded with the following delegates from the four committees being awarded the respective awards;
GA3
Best Delegate: AayshaManaal Fahim (Gateway College Kandy)
1st Higher Commendation: Rashmina Ranasinghe (Royal Institute)
2nd Higher Commendation: NishkaVivekanandan
1st Honorary Mention: ManugaMandivSamaratunga
2nd Honorary Mention: SenukaDeegala (Dharmaraja College Kandy)
3rd Honorary Mention: ShaveenKanageswaran
ECOSOC
Best Delegate – Lahiru Manisha Ranasinghe (Gateway College Kandy)
Higher Commendation – AdharshnaVinothkumar (Gateway College Kandy)
Honorary Mention- GavithAluthgedara (Dharmaraja College Kandy)
Arab League
Best Delegate – SanchithaWikrama (Trinity College Kandy)
Higher Commendation- SanthushSuraweera (Gateway College Kandy)
Honorary Mention – SinekaChitrasiri (Gateway College Kandy)
Security Council
Best Delegate – Dinith Senior Rajugamuwa (Dharmaraja College Kandy)
Higher Commendation – Azeem Faizal (Gateway College Kandy)
Honorary Mention – Thesath Damketh Mallikarachchi (Gateway College Kandy)
Session XIV of SLMUN will be held on the 11th and 12th of September 2021 at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH), Colombo, Sri Lanka.
For further details, head on over to our website on www.slmun.org ,
or please contact us via:
Email – cda@slmun.org / pr@slmun.org
Telephone – +94 71 801 3722 /
+94 71 444 9694 / +94 76 898 9763
- Ashan Chandrasena
(Newsand Media Team–SLMUN2021)