Blessed are the Peacemakers

A group of Harvard undergraduates met in Athens, Greece, during spring break, March 25-29, to coordinate the World Model United Nations (WorldMUN). The diplomatic simulation allowed students, representing United Nations member-states, to draft resolutions on issues ranging from capital punishment to the situation in Kashmir. In a mock crisis, for example, the World Health Organization and the Organization for African Unity addressed a cholera epidemic in Sudan. Those who attended the conference represented nations on 12 different committees.

Conference staff members include, clockwise from lower left: Nick Stephanopoulos ’01, Ramy Adeeb ’00, Christian Westra ’01, Marko Soldo ’02, Mwashuma Nyatta ’02, Ziad Obermeyer ’00, Mike Gilbert ’02, Winnie Li ’00, Mohamad Al-Ississ ’00, and Alex Athanassiou ’02. Participants not pictured include Taryn Arthur ’01, Sameera Fazili ’00, Shirley Hung ’00, Josh Jones ’00, Daniel Lyons ’00, and James Mwangi ’00. WorldMUN was founded in a small Polish fishing village by a group of Harvard students in 1991. With 600 delegates from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, it is the largest collegiate United Nations simulation outside of North America.