From July 27th to 29th of 2012, the 9th Model United Nations of Seoul (MUNOS) took place at the Coex conference center, in Samsung-dong, Seoul. Approximately 700 students from grade six to senior from all over the world were involved. They were divided into 22 different Junior or Senior committees, depend on their ages.

I, personally had an honor to be a part of this event as a senior committee member of the Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Affairs Committee (SOCHUM), which is a division of the General Assembly (GA), commonly referred to as the “Third Committee”.

The United Nations has six main bodies. The General Assembly is one of them. The General Assembly is the main deliberative organ of the UN. It is composed of representatives from all the Member States. The subsidiary organs of the General Assembly are divided into categories: Boards, Commissions, Committees, Councils and Panels, Working Groups and others. After discussing the items on the agenda, the member states sought where possible to harmonize their various approaches to serious world issues. The subsidiary organs present their recommendations, usually in the form of draft resolutions and decisions, to plenary meeting of the GA for its consideration.

Under the General Assembly, there are six main committees. Each of the six main committees has a distinct agenda. Agenda items for the SOCHUM relate to social, humanitarian affairs, and human rights issues that affect people from all over the world. I have always been interested in Third World Nations. Not only do they lack basic needs such as food, but they also suffer from violations of human rights. Fully aware of this and motivated by my desires to improve the conditions in Third World Nations, I chose to represent Uganda.

Two separate agendas were discussed during the meeting. The debates were heated up on the issues of combating illegal organ trafficking in Third World Nations and promoting and protecting the rights of children in armed conflicts. Both agendas dealt with heavy and serious matters that threaten the world, especially in developing countries such as Uganda, for a long time.

The first agenda item involved many countries that were interrelated in terms of organ trading. Illegal organ trade does not occur in only one country rather, it is happening throughout the world, the combined efforts of many nations lead to better and more successful solutions. The committee came up with some creative solutions such as establishing a fundraising organization, legalizing organ trafficking, and producing artificial organs to increase the number of available organs globally.
The other very serious agenda issue we worked on was the problem of child soldiers. As a Ugandan delegate, I felt responsible and obligated to appeal to other developed nations and developing countries to put an end to this problem as soon as possible. I emphasized how children are being recruited to be soldiers and how they never get to go back home. The way children soldiers are treated is horrific.
While discussing the issue of the recruitment of child soldiers in armed conflicts, everyone was so tired from the previous discussion. However, the discussion heated up again and surprisingly, I didn’t find even a single delegate who was too shy to speak at the podium. The discussion was quite fruitful despite the time constraints. We discussed the resolutions in depth since it is quite a serious and prolonged issue.

Over the course of the MUNOS, I got to know the other delegates as people. They came from many different countries. I found that my world perspectives were greatly affected by talking and sharing ideas with the other participants. I think that my understanding of the world developed and matured as a result of participating in this event. I hope I get to go again next year.
The whole process was driven and guided by the students involved in MUNOS. I was very impressed by the way the process was very interactive. I felt a great responsibility to participate.