Meet the new Oxford Brookes United Nations Association society

The United Nation Association (UNA) Oxford Brookes is one of the newest societies on campus and we attended their first public meeting.

The Model UN hold mock debates in the style of the actual UN. These take place within clubs, or at larger meeting called conferences, which can range from a few clubs and a hundred participants to massive week long international events with thousands of students attending.

There are different committees for topics such as health, disarmament, economic and social issues.

However, as a speaker you take on the stance of a country rather than as yourself, so if you were Saudi Arabia you would have to be pro=execution, or be from the USA and probably disagree with the Russian delegate.

The majority of attendants were politics or law students, but the club is open to everyone.

The committee

The president of the new society, Dalia De Silva Lopes, did most of the talking, mostly about her plans for the society and what she hopes to achieve with it.

You can expect in-house debates to help get some practice in before attending the big conferences in Cambridge, Manchester, London or even Paris and Canada.

These conferences will cost a bit, with Cambridge being priced at about £100 in total, and with limited spaces at 10 people, but the president made it clear that they aim to get as many people to conferences as possible, not just committee and those with the money.

Dalila told The Tab: “The Brookes MUN is determined to encourage a deeper understanding of the United Nations to promote awareness of political, military, social, cultural, economic and humanitarian issues of the world, whilst providing an open forum for students to discuss issues whilst enhancing students skills in diplomacy, debate, negotiation , public speaking and leadership.”