A History Lesson
The MUN phenomenon started in the United States where simulations were being held even before the birth of the United Nations. Records indicate that as early as the 1920ʼs simulations of the League of Nations, the predecessor to the United Nations, were taking place. The oldest modern simulation (of the UN) is the Harvard Model United Nations, which was established in 1951. Itʼs hard to say what the oldest MUN in Europe is, but the The Hague International Model United Nations is certainly one of the oldest. This high school level MUN was established in 1968 and now hosts a conference for almost 4000 students and teachers from all over the world.
In its history, the MUN Team Uni Basel has participated to very many conferences, including the prestigious Harvard WorldMUN conference.
Aims and Goals
The aim of a MUN conference is to encourage debate and share views with students from different schools and cultural background. The ultimate goal of a MUN Conference is to promote awareness of international relations and issues in young people, and to inspire global mindedness and an understanding of the problems of the world and how to solve them, whilst providing an atmosphere where students can improve their communication skills and learn open mindedness. This allows students further insight and deepening of their understanding of global and international politics.
MUN at Uni Basel
Model United Nations (MUN) Team Uni Basel is an association of students of the University of Basel dedicated to international politics and the United Nations Organizations.
We meet every week in order to simulate UN bodies at the University of Basel. At the beginning of each semester, every member of MUN Team Uni Basel is assigned to a country, which he or she is going to represent for the time of the semester. Every semester, we simulate a different UN body as for example the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the Economical and Social Council (ECOSOC) or the Committee on Disarmament and International Security (DISEC).
The highlights in our MUN year are the international conferences. As most of the worldʼs universities have MUN Teams, there are a lot of international MUN coferences where students from all over the world get together to carry out a great UN simulation. In the last ten years, the MUN Team Uni Basel has participated to conferences in Montréal, New York, Taipei, Singapore, Helsinki, Vienna, Berlin and Lausanne. Moreover, we are the organisers of the renowned yearly MUN Regio Basel conference for pupils of the Basel region.