AON : A 4-Day Simulation of Model United Nations

Come, Converge, Collaborate – with this motto The Assembly of Nations 2023 was inaugurated on 27th April at 3.00 pm in Jubilee Hall. The BESC AON has been amongst the leading Model United Nations conferences in the East India circuit, based in Kolkata. Three years later, the AON came out with its 6th edition of the model UN. The opening ceremony was initiated with a video presented by the team displaying how the students have participated and emerged into confident Mun-ers over the years.

The AON was initiated with very graceful classical dancers who performed, giving out a thoughtful message that no matter how many wars happen between countries, there can only be peace if there’s unity and consensus amongst each country of the world. Dr. Suman K. Mukerjee, Director General introduced the concept of a MUN & the Chief Guest in his eloquent address. Further, the Teacher in Charge of the college, Dr.Subhabrata Ganguly was called upon to felicitate the Chief guest, Mr. Manfred Auster who is the Consul General of Germany. Mr. Auster then took the dais and spoke about the international relations between Germany and India. He spoke about the fact that despite some flaws in the current UN setup, the UN is a very valuable part of the international rules-based order and that the Charter provisions are key to world peace.

After the Chief Guest, Dean of Student Affairs, Prof. Dilip Shah took the stage and applauded the response of young delegates who decided to participate from all parts of the country. He encouraged the first-time Mun-ers and guided them on how well they could learn from each committee that was allocated to them. Further, the AON saw the investiture of the Secretariat members. And lastly, the Honorary Advisor, Swapneel Thakur acknowledged his gratitude and love towards MUN and how coming back to his own college was a flashback to all MUN’s he has delegated. With this he passed on the vote of thanks to the Deputy Secretary General who then declared “The 6th edition of BESC Assembly of Nations open” and with this, we came to the end of the inaugural of AON.

Day 1 was an opportunity for everyone to interact with each other so that all participants understood the dynamics of the committees and the discussions to be kickstarted smoothly from Day 02. The Second Day of MUN began with a great spirit of enthusiasm and competence, the delegates proceeded towards the committee proceedings as scheduled. There were a total of seven committees namely: Rajya Sabha, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC), The Joint Chief Of Staff’s Committee (JCSC), United Nations Commission on the Status of Women(UNCSW), United Nations Human Right Council(UNHRC), United Nations General Assembly-Disarmament and International Security Committee (UNGA-DISEC) and International Press Committee (IPC). On Day 1 the Committees discussed issues ranging from cross-border trafficking of Weapons of mass destruction to the decriminalization of homosexuality under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. They also brought global issues like linking climate change to agriculture and the impact of it on food security and issues of gender equality to the discussion.

On Day 3 of AON, the college street play group, “Antarjal” performed & after that, all the delegates moved to their respective committees to begin the 3rd day’s proceedings. Some remarkable discussions were the highlight of Day 2, like The UNHRC committee discussing the impact of climate change on women, particularly in relation to food security and agriculture. The UNFCCC on the second day of the COP28 conference started with the discussion of deliberation on the enforcement of the Green Climate Fund (GCF). The Joint Chiefs of Staff Commission (JCSC) committee on the second day discussed a project by India to build a dam on the Chenab River in Baglihar, while the UNGA(DISEC) pitched the idea of What is a Dirty Bomb?

On the last day of AON, each committee was in full action so that they could finally bring a resolution to the discussions. The 4-day long simulation of AON gave the students an opportunity to meet, converge & collaborate with each other. The future global leaders amongst these participating students were a treat to watch & listen to as they embarked on their individual committee roles and proceeded in a Parliamentary session to stand for their ideas & make revolutionary suggestions. The Model United Nations ended with a Closing ceremony after which they proceeded to the Jubilee Hall, for socials which was a Ballroom night, in which danced, laughed, and enjoyed for the rest of the evening. With more than 275 delegates from 30 institutes, AON is a remarkable intellectual event driven by students as organizers, speakers, and participants – or should we say baby steps into the democratic world order. Various prizes and mentions were announced at the valedictory session. The Best Delegation was awarded to Jadavpur University.