2025 Model United Nations (MUN) Launched

The opportunity comes as the Rotary Club of Barbados launched the 2025 Model United Nations Assembly, now in its 12th year. 

The students, drawn from across nine public and private schools across the island, will spend the next six weeks honing their diplomatic and public speaking skills, while serving as Ambassadors for UN member states which they randomly selected. The 2025 session will culminate in March, with a Security Council debate on 'War and Conflict Resolution'. 

UN Resident Coordinator, Simon Springett, welcomed MUN participants to UN House. He told students many of today's leaders in various sectors, and within the UN itself, participated in Model UN as students. With hundreds of thousands of students worldwide taking part annually, to learn about the values and principles of the UN, he stressed that its aim was also for students to come together to propose actions to address the world's current challenges. 

"You will also have the possibility to understand the crucial importance of international cooperation and multilateralism – or how countries work together - and the role everyone, including you, plays in it. This is especially important at this moment in time when we require diplomacy to steer us towards a more peaceful and prosperous future for all." 

Mr. Springett told MUN participants, the world, and Barbados, are facing a multitude of inter-related challenges, described by the UN as the triple planetary crisis: climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. He, however, described the war in Ukraine as one of the greatest challenges ever to the international order and the global peace, founded on the UN Charter, which was inflaming a three-dimensional crisis - food, energy and finance – which is affecting every country and everyone.

The well-being of people around the world and here in Barbados, the health of our planet, depends on the choices we make – or fail to make. These are difficult conversations, and every country has different views. It also depends on the willingness of Nations to come together and discuss, which is pre-requisite to come to agreements. This is not always easy, difficult conversations are just that, difficult. Which is also something you will be learning firsthand during the next few weeks in your negotiations.

Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Donna Forde, who is one of the MUN facilitators for 2025, briefly addressed students, highlighting the importance of having a global outlook. She also pledged her support in helping them on their journey to acquire or develop their diplomacy skills.

As you learn to understand better Barbados'  foreign policy, and as you learn more about the partners with whom we engage, and  about the  partnerships which Barbados has with other countries in the world, it could help you  also to develop a global focus , and not just a domestic insular focus , which tends to be a bit of a challenge when we are engaging with the world.

Some of the schools represented during the 2025 session include: Alleyne School, Christ Church Foundation, Codrington, Harrison College, Princess Margaret Secondary School, Queen's College, St. Winifred's School, The Alexandra School, and The St. Michaels School. 

View the album from the launch of the 2025 Model UN below:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/168786193@N04/albums/72177720323434462/with/5429121913