Delegates shine at DIAMUN international debating event in Dubai
QE was named as one of the top-performing schools at the Dubai International Academy Model United Nations conference, with three of QE’s delegates picking up awards.
The seven sixth-formers joined around 800 other delegates from across seven countries for the three-day debating event.
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “I congratulate our students for taking the initiative and organising this visit, for the preparation they did ahead of taking part in the debates, and for the level of their performance in the debates: they did the School proud!”
The long-established DIAMUN annual conference is affiliated to The Hague International Model United Nations, which specifies standards and procedures. It was held at the Dubai International Academy’s Emirates Hills campus, with a social event on the evening of the second day organised at the Jabal Ali resort.
Delegates came from more than 50 schools in Mauritius, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, UAE, Uganda, and the UK for the conference, which, like all Model United Nations (MUN) events, is closely modelled on the work of the real United Nations.
QE’s experienced MUN group, all from Year 13, were: Saim Khan, Koustuv Bhowmick, Chanakya Seetharam, Hari Kumarappan, Kanusan Naveendran, Uday Dash, and Kyshaan Ravikumar.
The delegation as a whole won a certificate recording QE’s honourable mention as a top-performing school.
Koustuv won a Best Delegate award for his work with the Arab League – one of the conference’s special committees.
Two other QE delegates, Chanakya and Uday, won Best Position Paper awards. Position papers are single-A4 page documents written to outline the views of the country or group the delegates are representing. Chanakya’s was for his paper for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) and Uday’s award was for his work for the Economic and Financial Committee (ECOFIN). Uday also received an honourable mention when it came to selecting the best delegate across all the committees.
And Saim Khan, who afterwards penned a report on the event, was runner-up for Best Delegate for SPECPOL (Special Political & Decolonization Committee). “I lost out by one mark! – 29 to 30 – to the delegate who also ended up winning the Nirav Passi award – best delegate across all committees.
“We chose to arrange this for ourselves as a ‘last hurrah’ MUN – everything from reaching out and emailing the school, to organising flights and accommodation, to getting the absences authorised, was managed entirely independently,” Saim continued.
The group found time for sightseeing, including a desert safari and a visit to Old Dubai. One or more of the group also visited: Museum of the Future; Museum of Illusions; the Burj Khalifa skyscraper; Aquaventure Water Park; and Kite Beach.
Saim, who managed to procure a full Saudi robe and headgear for the second-day social, particularly relished the multi-cultural nature of the event. “Despite London itself being a rather multicultural city, it was taken to the next level in Dubai – in my committee there were people from four different continents (including a Palestinian-Russian and a French-Indian).”
This experience was not without its lighter moments – Saim tried to learn local styles of wearing the shemagh (traditional headscarf). “According to one Lebanese person, I had at one point worn it in the style of someone about to get married!” said Saim.
“The conference gave an invaluable insight into how the lives of people of similar ages and educational background from around the globe can vary. Whether it was practising my (somewhat rusty) GCSE French with native speakers, picking up Arab phrases from a local Emirati, it was an amazing trip all around.”