I had participated in the IPMUN as a delegate. It was a 2 day conference, where I was the delegate of USA in the United Nations Human Rights Council. The agenda of the UNHRC committee was “Human Rights violation in Ukraine-Russia War”. During the committee sessions, we had an effective debate about Ukraine-Russia War, the violations of human rights that had taken place in the conflict, and how the situation could be dealt with.

LOs met:

• LO1 and LO2
  In order to prepare effectively for the MUN, I had to understand my own strenghts and weaknesses so that I could use my strengths effectively and work on the weaknesses to improve on them. I personally knew that communication was one of my strengths as I could communicate my stand and perspective (on the behalf of the country I was representing) in the committee well. However, research was my weakness because I could not use the various available sources of information effectively in order to gather relevant and useful information which I can use in my speeches in the MUN. So I took it up as a challenge, and looked to improve on my research skills by making use of a variety of reliable and credible sources as I conducted thorough research about the topic and gathered important facts and statistics which supported the stand of the country I was representing. This supported my strength, communication skills, as I was able to effectively communicate all the points I had researched about and present the position of the country I was representing in an appropriate manner.
• LO4
  I showed perseverance and commitment towards participating in the MUN through understanding the aims and objectives of the committee, as well as the agenda in depth, to prepare for the MUN effectively. Also it is not easy to represent a powerful nation, USA, in any MUN because its stand is crucial due to its influence on the global conflicts, and numerous questions are raised on any delegate of USA because their actions and decisions are always in the spotlight. So I even had to anticipate a few questions that could potentially be raised against me and had to prepare for them well in-prior. Thus, overall I showed perseverance and commitment towards preparing well for this MUN, and eventually even ended up winning an award.
• LO5
  It is often misunderstood that MUNs do not require any group work or group efforts. Lobbying is essential in any MUN, where we discuss with other delegates about their stand and their expectations from any solution that is mutually decided. Hence lobbying helps ensure that the allies and the key trading partners are on the same page with us, and also that a solution to the conflict could be agreed upon. In the end, the resolution that passed was written by 3 sponsors (authors) including me, which required collaboration with the other two sponsors (authors).
• LO7
  From the committee’s perspective in the MUN, as a delegate representing a country, anything spoken is considered an official statement made, which would have impacts worldwide. So before making any statement, claim, or any promise to the international community, the ethics of choices and actions would have to be considered, and the possible impacts of the statement have to be calculated. Also being one of the sponsors (authors) of the resolution that passed, I had to consider the ethical implications of the measures being decided in the resolution, as well as their impacts, where I considered the ethics of choices and actions.

This CAS experience of participating in an MUN helped me improve on my research skills, and it also helped me in gaining more knowledge about global conflicts, international relations, and diplomacy.

Evidence: