Model United Nations: Encyclopedia II - Model United Nations - Participants

Model United Nations - Participants

Model United Nations groups are usually organized as either a club, conference, or class. A class can be a full semester class called "Model United Nations" or just one class period devoted to a short simulation. A conference is a school-wide, local, regional or international gathering of Model United Nations students who come together over one day or even one week for a simulation. Such conferences include Harvard Model United Nations (HMUN) held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Princeton Model United Nations Conference (PMUNC) held in Princeton, New Jersey, Ivy League Model United Nations Conference (ILMUNC) held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University Model United Nations Conference (JHUMUNC) held in Baltimore, Maryland, and Rutgers Model United Nations (RUMUN) held in New Brunswick, NJ. HMUN, which attracts schools from all around the world, is traditionally viewed as the most prestigious conference.

In the early days of Model United Nations, participants were mostly students at select colleges in the United States of America. Today, Model United Nations has greatly matured and expanded. It is now practiced all over the world in classes, clubs, or conferences on every continent besides Antarctica. Model United Nation participants are elementary, secondary, undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students…and recently even university alumni and professionals; participants come from public and private schools and universities; and they live in city, suburban and rural areas.

Model United Nations International estimates that over 400,000 students annually participate in a simulation education activity (class, club or conference) in over 70 countries and territories with over 500 conferences and myriad classroom simulations. The United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) publishes the most comprehensive calendar of Model United Nations conferences: the 2003-2004 (on-line) edition lists 400+ conferences in 48 countries. Today, Model United Nations is one of the fastest growing and most popular extra-curricular programs and an estimated 30-50 new classes, clubs or conferences are created annually. It also is interesting to note that South Africa and Dominican Republic have both initiated national Model United Nations programs.

Some simulations are small, including only members of a single class. For example, 20 students can do a one-hour simulation of the (15-member) United Nations Security Council in their classroom. On the opposite end, the two most famous MUNs are the Hague International Model United Nations Conference (THIMUN) in the Netherlands and the Harvard Model United Nations which both regularly hosts over 3,000 college students from around the world at their annual conferences. They both are the largest simulations and include simulations of the Security Council and many other bodies in the UN system as well as other IGOs. The majority of conferences are between 70 and 300 students and the students come from one regional area. It is also interesting to note that some conferences are organized by students only, such as Germany`s largest MUN conference, the Oldenburg Model United Nations (OLMUN). Each simulation and conference varies greatly in number of participants and their involvement.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Participants", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki