Over 1,500 participants dive into Model UN experience

In pictures — LAU’s Beirut and Byblos campuses welcome high school and middle school students for the first MUN training session of 2011.

January 28, 2011

In pictures —

LAU’s two campuses welcomed high school and middle school students for the first training session of this year’s AL WALID GC-LAU Model United Nations program, on January 8.

Overall, around 1,600 students were distributed into 32 classes on both campuses. In the above photo, groups of students are gathered in front of the newly constructed Frem Civic Center in Byblos.

LAU student Tannous Kass Hanna, High School MUN deputy secretary-general and director of training, giving a welcome address to the participants. After the opening speech, students were divided into classes.

Middle school students, who are participating in the program for the first time this year, were divided into five classes that were named after five prominent UN secretary-generals.

LAU student Mohammad Obeid, a middle school MUN trainer, assisting one of his students during a training session.

Discussion among middle school students during a training session.

In the high school classes, students were also divided into groups, each of which had to find a name that represented every one of the members in it. Group names varied from funny, like Wasabi, to more serious ones, like Russiastine, which consisted of two girls, a half Russian and a half Palestinian.

The training sessions introduced participants to the UN bodies and functions, with a focus on the primary six organs: The General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the Trusteeship Council, and the International Court of Justice.

The sessions ended with awareness-building activities, through which high school students learned about human rights as part of the training’s “What YOUth Should Know” section, and middle school students explored the Millennium Development Goals.

Stands set up by the MUN Public Information Team aimed to raise awareness among participants about different types of human rights violations, particularly in Lebanon. During the lunch break, participants were encouraged to express their opinion about the featured issues. They also participated in games to test their general knowledge of human rights.

A group of high school students in front of the Business Building at LAU Beirut. Overall, around 110 high schools and 53 middle schools are participating in this year’s MUN. For many of them, this is not the first time.

“Our school has been participating in MUN since it was initiated in Lebanon,” said the student adviser of Al-Ahlia School of Beirut. “We don’t need to explain about the program to our pupils anymore since the students who participated previously are promoting it among their friends.”

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