From Friday 13 to Sunday 15 March, students from around the world came together for Habs’ 18th Model United Nations conference, HabsMUN.
This year’s theme, Bridging Divides, sparked engaging and insightful debates across various committees. For instance, committees such as CEP, Head Chair Izzy (U6 MJ/JH) looked at The Question of Accommodating Climate Change Refugees, resulting in solutions being discussed that brought together delegations to solve a common goal. Meanwhile, others such as ECOFIN (Economic and Financial Affairs Council) focused on International Collaboration to Aid Countries Dealing with Hyperinflation.
One particular highlight of the conference was the Crisis Committee led by Charlie (U6J1), announced at the end of Saturday where all delegates were summoned into the Bourne for announcement on a hypothetical scenario based around a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. On Sunday, delegates were intrigued by the level of depth in the scenario and exemplified their depth of student engagement and diplomacy through a final solution that saw the delegations of USA, Russia and China work together to de-escalate the crisis. This ran alongside our two General Assemblies organised by Rian (U6M1), President of GA, which brought together resolutions that were debated in committee.
Beyond debate, HabsMUN 2026 also fostered a sense of community, collaboration and friendship. We were fortunate to have Mr Gus Lock, Executive Principal, Gabrielle Gower (OBE), and Sir David Lidington, KCB, CBE and an Old Haberdasher, as guest speakers. They each provided their own views on the importance of bridging divides on how diplomacy and the United Nations can help us resolve issues around the world. The opening ceremony on Friday featured flag parades, a pre-recorded video from one Secretary-General and a confetti shower! Saturday ended with a memorable inter-committee karaoke competition that featured performances from teachers, chairs and the organising committee. Sunday brought together all aspects of the conference with our closing ceremony ending the weekend.
The event ran smoothly thanks to the efforts of the HabsMUN Organising Committee from both schools who worked closely with Mr Watson and Miss King to manage logistics, from catering to the opening ceremony. The organising committee was led by our Secretaries-General: Seb (U6S2), Alex (U6J3) and Tamara (U6 IBW/CAJ). Technology and reprographics were coordinated by Amar (U6R3) and Ishan (U6H3) whilst media and communications teams were run by Aarav (L6H3) and Sophie (U6 JJM/SN). The efforts of the secretariats who helped ensure the conference ran seamlessly was coordinated by Rhys (U6H2).
This year also saw an introduction of and advisor portal, run by Krish (U6S3), that allowed delegates to seek expert advice on their resolutions from teachers.
The success of the conference depended on dedicated support from teachers, IT, catering, marketing, finance, reprographics, the school nurses and estates. This gave us the chance to bring over 600 people together to engage in youth diplomacy and fruitful debate.
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