Aimun (Asian International Model United Nations)

By Lou April 11, 2016

AIMUN (Asian International Model United Nation) ist he second important MUN in the world (right behind the MUN in New York City). It is a sort of fake United Nations Congress which is held for 4 days and lots of students from all over the world participate in it. AIMUN has lots of UN Committees such as General Assembly, Security Council, Ambassadorr Programme, IJC, UNICEF, UNEP, UN-Women, ESC, UNESCO, WHO and the Main Press Center. Each of those Committees has certain topics for example WHO had two topics which were anti-mircobiological resistance and mental health care after trauma. UNEP had nonmotorized Transportation and illegal widllife trade as their two topics.

AIMUN main conference room

The most people participating in AIMUN are majoring in international relations, social and political science or anything similar to that. The delegates in AIMUN had already leading roles in smaller MUNs all over the world.

Luckily we didn’t have to meet those demands. We registered when we were back in Germany and after that we got all the information and the requirements we had to meet before the congress started. You had to put 4 committees up which you would like to participate. From those 4 committees they choose one for you and provided all necessary informations for it. I got into the international Court of Justice (ICJ). The case weh ad to discuss on this year was whaling in the antarctic; Australia vs. Japan.

As I’m not a student for international law or law in general I found it quite challenging to deal with all the rules and the provided information on the case. I was supposed to be the Judge of France during the sessions so I had to look up on the internet what this country thinks about this topic in general but during Court I was only allowed to rely on the evidence and infromation presented during the sessions.

Lou acting as French judge

I have to admit that because of the exams in Germany I was not able to spend too much time on research and as I came to China I was busy fitting in and getting used to everything here. I won’t say I didn’t do anything but it could have got deeper and in China I found it quite challenging to do research. But. Suddenly the day was here and AIMUN started. On that Thursday morning I was very nervous when I headed of to the global village with my delegates. I was very curious how the congress would be and what the people would be like as I felt a little out of place compared to all the inteligent people.

After the opening ceremony I had my first session. When I entered the conference room I was a little shocked; there were ONLY Chinese delegates in the room and everyone was talking Chinese and I didn’t understand ANYTHING. The Judge of Australia placed 2 books on her desk and a pile of papers which didn’t help me at all to feel more comfortable. But. Fortunately I got used very quick to the people talking Chinese and I was able to get at least the meaning of their conversation. They were very enthusiastic and tried to help me as much as possible and some of them were very happy that they didn’t have to speak English and appreciated my bad Chinese a lot.

I don’t want to tell you every single thing that happened during the 5 sessions, I just want to tell you that it all went surprisingly well. I think the ICJ is a great committee for all the freshmen participating in AIMUN as there are so many rules you can hold on and during all the sessions you know excactly what to do and how long you are allowed to talk and so on. But I have to admit the other committees are personally more challenging and demand more initiative which will help the delegates to learn a lot from this congress. You have motions, (un)moderated caucus, speeches and so on. I think this would have been more interesting for me.

Well. In my personal opinion the most interesting part for me would be the organising part as I love to organise events and put a lot of effort in it and slowly see something awesome growing.

Those 4 days have been challenging but amazing. I learned a lot about ICJ and met so many nice people from all over the world. I’m very thankful that was given the opportunity to take part in AIMUN and I hope it wont be my last MUN. When I’m back in Europe I will have a look around the counrties wether they have MUNs as well.

At AIMUN I felt like all the top candidats for really improtant jobs were there and on the welcome party a lot of people made friends, took photos togeter and of course exchange their business cards. Maybe I should have got myself some too :D

Group shot of panel participants

After all I am extremely exhausted because of those 4 days but I am very happy too. It was really fun to listen to the points of the other delegates, answering notes, taking notes and preparing speeches all at the same time.

Everyone who is given the opportunity should take part in MUN.

And if you want to read more about me and my journey in China (BJ) here is the link to my website: louasia.wordpress.com