A change to adapt

Last year, MUN@TIU 2020 was successfully held with two committees: United Nations High Commissioner of Refugee on the topic of child refugees on July 4th and 5th, and our first-ever SPECPOL Crisis Committee on July 11th and 12th. MUN@TIU 2020 was supposed to be an in-person conference. But due to an unprecedented pandemic, we had to change our plan and convert it into an online event. While this is unfortunate, a silver lining was that delegates from various countries could join our conference without travelling all the way to Japan, making the group of participants more diverse compared to previous years.

Planning Stage

Despite the hardship, we had a memorable experience not only with nearly 30 outstanding delegates who came from different countries but also together with our TIUMUN team who had dedicated almost 7 months and overcome the trying time to organize the conference. Since the conference became online, we had tried our best to adapt ourselves to a new platform – Zoom and developed a helpful IT guidebook for every delegate. We also had a memorable journey in the preparation for our first online conference. Our team tirelessly worked and discussed with each other to provide the best online MUN experience for the delegates. TIUMUN has been honoured to have talented individuals attending our committees as delegates, who have contributed exciting ideas and brought critical aspects of the issues to the discussion.

UNHCR COMMITTEE

In the UNHCR committee, the delegates discussed how to safeguard the future of child refugees around the globe. Child refugees are vulnerable to all sorts of perils and dangers while being forced to stay at refugee camps with often inadequate facilities to ensure their growth and development. Seeing the importance of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in helping child refugees, the conference also had delegates become representatives of private and NGO actors. 

On the second day, it was our honor to welcome Mr. Toshitsuki Kawauchi for joining MUN@TIU 2020 as a keynote speaker to share his expertise on the matter of child refugees. After Mr. Kawauchi’s speech, delegates came in order to start the session. The discussion had a wide range of perspectives from member states and non-state participants. From the delegate of New Zealand to the delegate of Mexico, to even the representative of Microsoft pitched in on how to safeguard the future of child refugees all over the world. The conference was held for two days, neatly divided into sections discussing particular topics of interest. These topics of interest include simple, yet crucial topics such as the protection of child refugees from various threats and education to ensure that they will not become the 'lost generation'. Ultimately, the solutions were divided into global and regional actions and pledges from member states and non-state actors. The solutions were very innovative, as it was done through the PPP framework. One resolution was drafted and passed. Congratulations to all delegates of MUN@TIU 2020 UNHCR committee for passing the Draft Resolution by unanimity, and to award delegates whose merit has impressed the Dais throughout the conference!

SPECPOL COMMITTEE

The conference officially started with the opening remark from our Secretariat. After hearing the general rules, the first session of the conference began with eloquent opening speeches from all delegates touching on several critical aspects, such as coordination on humanitarian and disaster relief efforts, building resilient infrastructure, preservation of identity and culture, and increasing funding for small islands and developing states.

The second day of MUN@TIU 2020 started with a speech from our keynote speaker – Professor Christopher Edmonds. After the speech, the first session started. The debate became intense on this second day. Delegates discussed and negotiated about several issues such as cyclone, refugee law as well as the legal framework such as UNCLOS. Some states also offered different methods to build artificial islands. As a result, one draft resolution was successfully passed. The two-day conference ended with the Awards and Closing Ceremony, the Dais honorably announced the Best Delegate, the Best Position Paper, and the Outstanding Delegate Award.

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