My name is Mohammad Maruf Bashiri (柯木迪) I come from Herat, Afghanistan. I am studying in Wuhan University, school of Economics and Management majoring in International Economics and Trade and I am in my 3rdyear. I am the country representative of Afghanistan in the students’ union, as well as the Secretary-General of Wuhan University International Students Model United Nations (WISMUN).
Here I want to share my experience in MUN. MUN stands for Model United Nations. An activity in which students typically role-play delegates of the United Nations and simulate UN committees, discussing global environmental, political, social, cultural and economic issues. MUN allows students to practice substantial researching, public speaking, debating, and writing, as well as critical thinking, teamwork, and leadership abilities.
Receiving an Outstanding Delegate award in my first MUN in 2016 proves the fact that from the very beginning I fell in love with this activity. Since then I encouraged myself to dig deeper in this activity. My intense interest not only helped me to find a way to Asian International Model United Nations (AIMUN) in April of 2017 in Beijing University, but also won an Outstanding Delegate award representing South Africa. AIMUN is the largest and most prominent MUN in Asia with 10 committees more than 700 participants and from all over the world.
Following my passion toMUN, I decided to join the WISMUN and at the end of the June 2017 I was elected as Secretary-General by the team. In order to find more opportunities to further extend my academic skills, I joined MUN-France Strasbourg, a leading MUN conference in France which is also well known in Europe. There I was representing Australia in WHO committee under the topic- Patent-Medicine: Addressing the unequal access between developed and less developed countries.
The Opening ceremony and first debate took place in The Council of Europe The European Parliamentarea, where we were welcomed by Executive members of Council of Europe - Mr. Michael Worbs, former Chairman of Executive board of UNESCO. We were given very insightful speeches and I had the opportunity to have a detailed discussion with Mr. Worbs on the importance of Review Groups on Sustainable Development goals, Agenda 2030.
During the first day, the debate started with fierce positions from India, Turkey and other delegates. Our main disagreement was the role of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in patenting medicine and therefore not allowing it to reach the less developed countries because of high pricing resulting in poor unable to afford it.
At the end of the second day, we were able to convince the delegates of the importance of anti-trust laws, intellectual property rights as well as the fact that Least Developed Countries (LDCs) were not able to have access to medicine was rather because of social, economic challenges in their countries.
During the third and the last day, the delegate of Australia together with other developed countries finally passed a resolution that prioritized strengthening of socioeconomic matters, governance, healthcare systems, exchange of technologies and data between developed and less developed countries, conducting a traceability system for pharmaceutical products to avoid fake, counterfeit and illegal drugs, and urging all countries to work hand in hand in situations of crisis, war and natural disasters. Our resolution was passed by consensus.
In the closing ceremony of MUN France，I was honored to be awarded the “Best Delegate” award, representing Wuhan University. It was a very enriching, challenging and inspiring experience that led to my further success. I want to give very special thanks to our respected personnel of Wuhan University School of International Education and teachers who made this trip possible by their support.
To any student, parent, teacher or individual who is reading this article, I strongly suggest to always try to step out of your boundaries and broaden your horizons, try something you are afraid of and help someone try something he is afraid of. Be a supporter instead of a criticizer, be a person who undertakes new experiences, who travels and sees the world. As a student of Economics and Business studies, I have come to only one conclusion: The best investment is when you invest in enriching and expanding your thoughts and knowledge.
（Edited by: Sun Jingyi, Liu Jiachen and Liu Xiaoli）
