Diplomatic Breakfast Club was a success!

Last week we hosted our popular Diplomatic Breakfast Club 🌟 We thank the ambassadors of Serbia, Georgia, Norway and Czech Republic for their time 🙏

With the Ambassador Gabechava, from the Embassy of Georgia. Pictured also our President Sanni Selene Tenn (second left)  and our Secretary General Nour Teebi (third right).

What is the Diplomatic Breakfast Club?

We offer students a possibility to come and meet diplomats during breakfast, to discuss current issues and other interesting topics in a relaxed environment. The venue this year was Cafe Ekberg. This was the third year we organize the Breakfast Club and it is one of our Autumn highlights.

With the Ambassador Jukl, Embassy of the Czech Republic. Our board members Grete Vaatman and Irene Hurmerinta also participated.

Who can participate?

A maximum of 9 students can participate in each breakfast. One person can only attend one of the meetings. We select participants on a first come first served basis. This way we ensure most people will get to go to at least one breakfast.

With the Ambassador Grutle, Royal Norwegian Embassy. Our board members Matti Ylhäisi and Emilia Eräpolku also participated.

With the Ambassador Obradović, Embassy of the Republic of Serbia. Our board members Matti and Samuli participated.

Moreover I would like to thank our board member Julia for coordinating the events series.

Sanni Selene Tenn

President

FinMUN

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MunMö experince by Lisa Kucher

Honourable readers and future delegates! 

First of all,  I want to express my sincere gratitude to FinMUN selecting me as a delegate for Model United Nations Of Malmö in Sweden. It was my first, but truly unforgettable experience:  I will try to explain all the further details below.

 

I was participating in the Human Rights Council and represented Brazil. This year, our Council was focusing primarily on the MENA region, most particularly at the Human rights violations in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. In order to be more effective, we decided to narrow down the discussion to one particular issue, namely the situation of internally displaced persons or IDPs in the Yemeni territory. After three days of intense debates about humanitarian crisis and its consequences in the region, we have found a consensus and managed to merge two draft resolutions into the final one.  It was a challenging experience, but at the same time rewarding and useful: our Council was driven by the extraordinary commonality of purpose and willingness to find a solution. In my opinion, the hardest part was to prepare carefully and do a lot of reading about the countries we were representing.

Despite all the challenges, this conference significantly broadened my horizons: only a month ago I thought that writing a resolution is not a difficult task. Now I understand how much work and debates are hidden under its lines!

Moreover, besides this meandering journey in the world of human rights and international relations, I had a chance to explore the city, to have a wonderful diplomatic dinner and to meet a lot of like-minded people from all over Europe and beyond. I can honestly say that this conference will remain a beautiful memory from my exchange period in Finland and I will definitely participate in other MUNs in the future! 

 

Lisa Kucher

Join us for the Diplomatic Breakfast Club

Dear FinMUNers!

You are invited to join our event series, Diplomatic Breakfast Club!
We are offering you a possibility to come and meet diplomats during breakfast, to discuss current issues and other interesting topics in a relaxed environment.
This year our theme is Cyber Security.
A maximum of 9 students can participate in each breakfast. You can only attend one of the meetings. We select participants on a first come first served basis. An application form will be opened on Wednesday 7th of October at 9am in the morning. Be fast if you want to make sure you get to participate!
Link to the FB-event:

https://www.facebook.com/events/252943172055308/?active_tab=about

The participation fee is 6 euros and the price includes the breakfast. The participation fee is to be paid beforehand to FinMUN according to the directives given on the confirmation email.

The schedule is:

Monday 19th of November 9-10.30am: Ambassador Obradović, Embassy of the Republic of Serbia. Venue: Café Ekberg, Bulevardi 9

Wednesday 21th of November 9-10.30am: Ambassador Jukl, Embassy of the Czech Republic. Venue: Café Ekberg, Bulevardi 9

Thursday 22th of November 9-10.30am: TBA, Embassy of Georgia. Venue: Café Ekberg, Bulevardi 9

Friday 23th of November 9-10.30am: Ambassador Grutle, Royal Norwegian Embassy. Venue: Swedish Embassy, Pohjoisesplanadi 7B

WHAT: Breakfast with an Ambassador
WHERE: Café Ekberg
WHEN: Nov 19 & 21-23
WHY: Because who doesn’t want to talk with an Ambassador?
DRESS CODE: Good enough to meet an Ambassador (doesn’t need to be TOO fancy, just respectful

Hope to see as many as possible at the event! If you have any questions, please contact us at finmun-board(at) helsinki.fi

Kind regards,

Selene Tenn

President of FinMUN

Gender Equality and Youth in South Korea and Finland: Q&A Event on 30.10

 

What is gender equality? How does it work in Finland and South Korea? What are the challenges? When do you actually feel that the level of awareness regarding gender equality in Finland is high(or low)? Is there any difference existing between the older generation and the youth generation regarding gender equality issue?

Here is your chance to meet Korean students, share your opinions with them and us and enjoy some delicious snacks!
NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED: just come as you are! 

Where? Mannerheimintie 5B Helsinki, 4th Floor, Room Cajsa

When? 2pm-4pm, 30.10.2018

Facebook event

The agenda is as following:
1. Brief introduction of UN Youth of Finland
2. Discussion regarding gender equality issue
3. Q & A Session

Please note this event is held in English. This event is organized in collaboration with the UN Youth of Finland and the Korea Youth Work Agency.
*Korea Youth Work Agency (https://www.kywa.or.kr/) is the key institute in Korea for youth activity and entrusted by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF) of the Republic of Korea. KYWA works for youth to help nurture their capacity to grow on their own with dreams and passion through various activities. More particularly, for the activation of various and creative experience activities of youth, we will further develop our main projects and functions related to the activation of youth activities. They are sending a delegation of seven students to Finland in order to understand how gender equality works in Finland.

Apply for the 2019 FinMUN Organizing team!

Join the organizing team!!

Want to join us? Want to make #FinMUN 2019 to happen?

Say no more! Apply to the FinMUN 2019 organizing team!

Applicants should send their motivational letter + the CV to nour.teebi1(at)gmail.com
Selected applicants will be asked for an interview !

Looking forward to receiving your applications!

What does the Organizing team do?
The Organizing team is in charge of both practical and creative planning of the Conference. In the beginning the organizing team will meet once a week, later on we’ll meet depending on how often it is needed. But we will also do something fun with the team, to get to know each other better and balance work and leisure!

As part of the team you are the heart and soul of the event. Learn project management from scratch, develop essential communication skills and gain deeper insight into how MUN functions. These are all skills that will be useful for you later in life. Besides that, you will get to know amazing people and find new friends and connections!

What can you do in the organizing team?
There are seven specific positions open to be applied to: Director General, Head of delegates, 4x Under Secretary General for Administration with different responsibility fields (please specify which one you are applying for) and Under Secretary General for Information Services. In addition unspecified number of staff members will be chosen. Please find the job descriptions as attachment in this e-mail!
For the Director General position, fluent Finnish is required. Other positions are open to everyone.
Please note you should be able to come to the planning meetings held in Helsinki.

Open positions:

Director General

This is the most responsibility-carrying position. Director General works with close cooperation with the Secretary General and is responsible for creating background material and handling chair applications.

You will gain the most central perspective on the organizational process of an MUN. You will also be the first to get to know our honourable chairs and be the person responsible for the communication with them.

The Director General is expected to attend some additional meetings with the Secretary General besides the regular team meeting. Full commitment and engagement with deadlines is also expected. If you are interested in being more involved with FinMUN and maybe becoming the next Secretary General, then this is the right position for you!

Language requirements: Finnish, and English

Head of delegates

You are the linkage between our team and delegates. You are responsible for informing the delegates on current matters, run the application processes and be the head of registration process in the start of the conference.

You will gain valuable experience in effective communication and be the first to see the smiles of excited delegates when they arrive to the conference.

Under Secretary General for Administration – Head of finances and partnerships

This role is one of the most important and rewarding ones, since your work will do us able to organize a better conference! Your task will include everything from building different partnerships to applying for different fundings. The partnerships could be anything from financial sponsorships to material aid, your imagination is the limit!

This is a very good opportunity to get valuable experience in fund-raising and networking, which is really appreciated in many different fields of work.

Under Secretary General for Administration –Head of Food and beverages

Your job is to make people happy! As few things are better than food, you are in the role of filling the delegates’ and staffs nutritional requirement. Your responsibility is to plan menus, coordinate food breaks and dinners, as well as do catering reservations (if needed). You will be also leading staff members during the conference in all food related issues.

Under Secretary General for Administration –Head of Living and Transportation

Your responsibility is to make sure that no delegate sleeps under the bridge. You will find good hotel/hostel deals and coordinate transporting during visits and evening programs. This includes helping delegates to buy tickets and make sure everyone knows where and when to go.

Definitely suitable job if you are a practical thinker!

Under Secretary General for Administration –Head of Sustainability

The issue of sustainability and climate change is very topical at the moment, and has been raised times after times in UN. We also want to address this matter during our conference. As head of sustainability issues you are responsible for reviewing the process from organization till the end of conference and make changes in order to act in a more sustainable matter. During the conference this could mean running recycling spot.

This is an opportunity to be creative and solution orientated regarding sustainability. This is a first step to set an example on how student events can be made more ecological and way to draw attention to current environmental issues.

Under Secretary General for Information Services

This is for you if you find a computer more a friend than a monstrous creation of capitalism. You will have the responsibility of letting the world know about FINMUN2019 and keeping our website refreshed with current matters.

This is also an opportunity to overuse social media with good conscious or to learn better how Instagram, Twitter and Facebook function if you are not an everyday user yourself. This is something which even current employers seek in an employee in many fields.

Staff member

You will be an essential part of things actually getting done. Most of the work will be during the conference itself so it allows more flexibility if you have a busy autumn! You are anyhow part of the team and more than welcome to join all the meetings and events. During the conference you will be taking care of running issues, food and snack caterings, photocopies and all the other practical things needed to be done.

Stories from Stockholm

Our delegation took part in SMUN in Stockholm 10th till 13th of November.
Read on about their experiences there!

Anna Vorobtsova

Okay, here are some flashbacks from my very first, but hopefully not last MUN conference, which appeared to be the Stockholm Model United Nations 2016. If I had to put it in several words, I would describe it as an interesting, busy, challenging, tiring, productive and exciting time. It flew by so quickly!  

I got a place in the UN office on Drugs and Crime and was honored to represent The Kingdom of Netherlands. We were supposed to discuss the following topics: decriminalization and trade of psychoactive substances and rebalancing the global opioid trade. I didn’t know much about what to expect, especially, when I didn’t apply for this committee and I got basically no background in drug related issues that we were dealing with. So without some decent research it would be quite hard to keep up, especially while being a newbie. Nevertheless was doing my best and with the help of my co-delegate and other delegates we managed to adopt a resolution on the matter.

The debates were rather intensive and we ended up drafting two resolutions which were different when it comes to the key point of the decriminalization of a certain types of drugs. So basically the consensus wasn’t reached. Nevertheless one of the resolutions was adopted. All in all I got to know a lot of amazing people from all over the world, experienced the Stockholm nightlife and the first snow this year. I fell in love with the city! I’m glad that my very first time in Stockholm happened to be so valuable and I’m sure it will stay one of the most memorable times of my student life! It was an amazing experience! I will for sure put effort to make it happen again! 

Henri Iso-Koivisto

This was an amazing event full of skillful, adaptable people and a very growing experience for me! I had to do it alone for the most part because my partner was missing in action after Friday, the day we set up the motions, and it didn’t help that my country of representation was People’s Republic of China in the Security Council. Even in this scenario, instead of letting that slow me down I fought tirelessly for China’s benefit in the discussion about the arctic and, funnily, at times it was me versus the world. By the end of Saturday, regardless of enmities within the council, people began to innovate and create compromises. This was a sign of breakthrough. The United States of America, with the excuse of going to have Donald Trump as its future policy-maker, agreed eventually and proposed a China-supporting amendment to tag along with an arctic free zone amendment. The day would’ve been perfect if only France had not proposed an amendment about arctic tribal people’s rights without any kind of informal preparation prior to the vote, which would have been necessary in order to pass that and consequently another amendment as well. Fellow delegates congratulated me on my efforts later on Saturday, even though hours earlier people were pointing their gaze at me and the tension was clear. The next day, Sunday, I showed the good cop part of myself as People’s Republic of China no longer was the adversary of the council but the United States of America. Sunday went smoothly for the most part and we found mutual deals. Stockholm Model United Nations simulated the actual council negotiations in an authentic way – I made new friends and reckon this won’t end up as my last entry!

FinMUN´s delegation to Oxford

At OxIMUN 2015

The exciting weekend in Oxford was held between the 13th and the 15th November 2015. I was very much looking forward going to this legendary MUN.

The day started on Friday, when we started with our first topic. I was in the committee UN-Women. The topic was “Harmonizing the labour market in developing countries”. I very much looked forward to the debate on this topic and was prepared to represent the republic of Philippines in the committee. The debate for us took place in Wadham college.

The debate started with defining the topic – the first session was much about debating over education and how it can be used to help minimise the gender gap. Philippines has done very good job with reducing the gender gap and women and men have quite a good equality but still there is work to be done. The day ended with a really nice delegate reception at the popular Ashmoleum Museum.

The second day was really taugh, we would have 8 hours of debate in front of us. Philippines started the day aleady 8.15 by taking part in an unofficial negotiation with China and few other countries. The draft resolution started to be formed right there. The day included debate over working conditions, going back to education and taking into account the opinions of countries with more traditional views on the topic. Philippines highlighted that we need to keep in mind how to support women workers in rural areas, we hoped there would have been even more debate on this special issue especially. That night we rushed to change our clothing and went to have a really nice three-course-meal at the dining halls of the Exeter college. The dining room does look like the one in Harry Potter movies and paintings of old college students hang on the walls. The night ended with a club night.

The third and final day started with making the final resolution. There had been two draft resolutions, one was sponsored by Philippines. We managed to get a few important points to the resolution we sponsored, conserning especially how men can be educated about childcare and household duties and thus being able to lessen the burden women have taking care of  both work duties and duties at home.

The final resolution was a negotiation and a mixture of the two drafts. The final document passed voting and Philippines was a signatory for this resolution. A few very good amendments were passed to this resolution.

As we had still a few hours to go, our chairs  informed us that instead of going to the second topic, we would do an emergency case-scenario debate. This was hilarious as the countries were able to send notes to the chairs and constuct “a newsflash” where new events would occur all the time. At the end, the committee managed to find a solution on the matter. The final day ended with a coctail night with OxIMUN staff.

All in all I had a great time at Oxford. The MUN was international, broad and educating. The town is really beautiful, and the Oxford colleges are indeed exactly as beautiful as you would imagine. I would like to thank FinMUN for sponsoring our great delegation of four and OxIMUN-team for their wonderful work for this MUN. I definetely recommend this to everyone and just wish I could do it again!

By Pauliina Mattila