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  • The UC3M is taking part in the organization of the the Harvard World Model United Nations 2019

The UC3M is taking part in the organization of the the Harvard World Model United Nations 2019

The WorldMUN 2019 will be held from 17th to 22nd March in Madrid

3/15/19

2,300 students from the most prestigious universities in the world will become diplomats in Madrid during the Harvard World Model United Nations 2019, a conference organised by and for students which will be held from 17th to 22nd March in the Palacio Municipal de Congresos (District Conference Centre) of Spain’s capital city. This event’s edition, known as the “Olympics of Model United Nations”, has been organised by 17 students from public universities of Madrid, 6 of whom are from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), an institution that is one of the partners of the WorldMUN 2019.

Harvard World Model United Nations 2019 Madrid
 

During the WorldMUN 2019, students of over 100 different nationalities from 160 universities will become diplomats for a week. For this, they will put their personal convictions to one side in terms of internal or exterior politics, economy or culture, in order to take on and defend the stance of the nation or person they represent. The aim is to resolve and deal with real topics within bodies of the UN or, in certain cases, within historical political cabinets, such as the renegotiation of Greece’s debt in 2014, the Tehran hostage crisis in 1979 or the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918, for example.

Blockchain, lethal autonomous weapons, human rights of migrants, laws against terrorism and security in the Mediterranean are some of the 20 current topics that will be simulated. It is important to mention that on the 40th anniversary of the Spanish Constitution, Harvard University is going to recreate the Spanish Transition, allowing the participants to find out about one of the most important periods in recent Spanish history.

The United Nations simulation is held every year in one city of the world after applications have been submitted. This event began being held in 1991 in the city of Miedzyzdroje (Poland). Over the last 25 years it has been to cities such as Prague, Luxemburg, Beijing, The Hague and Singapore, with the most recent ones being Rome (2016), Montreal (2017) and Panamá (2018). Until today, WorldMUN has had a total of 55,000 participants. The organising team from Harvard University selected Madrid to hold the 2019 edition.

The “Olympics of Model United Nations”, in Madrid

The city of Madrid’s application was organised by SAMUN (Spanish Alliance for Model United Nations), a non-profit organisation formed of students from the four main public universities of Madrid: the Universidad Autónoma, the Universidad Carlos III, the Universidad Complutense and the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.

The team is made up of 17 students from these universities who have voluntarily worked on the application for over two years, along with 104 volunteers from these institutions. At the head of this team is its president, Alba Gavaliugov, a student from Ferrol (Galicia) in her last year of the Dual Bachelor in Law and Political Science, who took part along with president Obama and three Nobel Prizes in the Circular Economy Summit. “For a week, Madrid will become the centre for worldwide young diplomacy. This will be the largest university conference in Europe in 2019 and the most international that has been held in Spain”, confirms Alba Gavaliugov. “Among its participants are the best university students, future leaders in education”, she adds.

Among the 160 universities that will attend the event are Cambridge, Columbia, Harvard, Heidelberg, King's College, London School of Economics, Montreal, MIT, Science-Po, Sorbonne, Stanford, Taiwan, the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education and Yale.

The event is backed by the Royal Household of Spain, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Education, Culture, Sport and Health, Social Affairs and Equality, through the INJUVE (Spanish Youth Institute), as well as the City Council of Madrid, the Community of Madrid and the vice-chancellor’s offices of the four universities that form SAMUN.

The opening ceremony of the 28th edition of the Harvard WorldMUN will take place on Monday 18th March at 16:00 in the Palacio Municipal de Congresos de Madrid. It will also be attended by: King Felipe VI of Spain; the minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Pedro Duque; the president of the Autonomous Community of Madrid, Ángel Garrido; and the mayoress of Madrid, Manuela Carmena,and the rector of the UC3M, Juan Romo, among other authorities

For more information: Web del WorldMUN 2019