Hanane’s first session day in United Nations, Geneva
Hanane Thamik from Morocco, one of the excellent international students of Wuhan University, the outstanding African student in China 2018 and the winner of the Cultural achievement award by UNESCO 2018, was one of the successful 54 young people around the world who has been selected to participate in the training program of The United Nations in Switzerland this year.
Everything began with Wuhan University International Students Model United Nations (WISMUN) which has been founded by Freddie Cloke and Hiroyuki Tanaka. Since that time, Wuhan University has had a proud history of involvement with Model United Nations (MUN) program.
Being part of WISMUN has been such a delightful experience for Hanane. The fast -paced MUN conferences have boosted her skills in public speaking and made her a better critical thinker.WISMUN gave her amazing opportunities to get exposed to people from different culture backgrounds. She said: “WISMUN offers students a unique opportunity to discuss frontline problems in international community and work collectively to solve them. In this program, students participate in team-building exercises, practice public speaking, strengthen negotiation skills, and develop leadership capabilities as they represent their country's interests in various committees and on a wide array of issues in this simulation of global diplomacy”.
Certificate issued by United Nations Geneva
Going to the United Nations was her dream and she finally realized it. She felt privileged to be chosen to attend the program that has opened new ways of thinking in her diplomatic career. This program allowed her to understand the type of work at the United Nations and how the United Nations system is managed, also to build a network with the UN staff. She said: “This program provided a very interactive opportunity to discuss various issues with people all over the world, since today, with the topic “Multilateralism: challenges and issues”, it allowed me to discuss the emergence of new participants on the global landscape, with China or Singapore, for instance. The international landscape is experiencing a new era. I had learned a lot.” She had really learned so much about the multilateral system and the diplomatic multilateralism, “We come together to discuss the significance of the multilateralism system, the basic principles that should be included in the system and promote and encourage multilateralism in the whole world, also in this case to reform the United Nations, And this is very important for us as global citizens because we cannot come together to achieve common goals especially in the recent issue of climate change without multilateralism. One of the benefits of the program is that it organized working groups on practical projects in the afternoons. These groups were an opportunity to work with candidates from all over the world.”
It was very interesting for her to see the divergence and convergence points of discussion. For her, having this exposure to the different kinds of fields, disciplines and opinions coming from different participants, the guest lecturers, organizers in the United Nations and the visits to institutions and intergovernmental bodies enabled her to learn more about multilateralism.
Working group of the first topic (The United Nations and Multilateralism: Past, Present and Future)
Hanane also found that United Nations is extremely interesting about the topic of Artificial Intelligence during her visit to the UN library so she proposed to her moderator to formulate suggestions to strengthen the impact of the United Nations in the future. The report 100 years of multilateralism : taking stock and preparing the future ( Enhancing multilateralism in the 21st century ) can be found at the official website of United Nations.
Edited by Wei Junyi, Zheng Yayun & Hu Sijia.
