Is our future artificial?’ asked the theme of the first ever Milestone MUN Conference (MiMUN) organised by our student-led MUN Society. Have a look at the review below by the President of the MUN Society and also the Conference’s Secretary General, Emma Somos and learn about how a Society is run at the Institute.
Training new-comers to become professional delegates, preparing delegations for international conferences and seeing our delegates earning prestigious awards are the few accomplishments the Milestone MUN Society have been truly proud of. However, our society has for a long time considered the idea of reaching the next-level, which would mean organizing our own MUN Conference and training our delegates not only to become outstanding delegates, but chairs.
These long-term dreams of our society have become a reality as the first ever Milestone Model United Nations Conference has taken place on the 17th-18th of July. MiMUN 2019 was attended by 37 delegates, including the chairs, from 21 different high-school from across four Hungarian cities, that being Debrecen, Győr, Pécs and Budapest.
The start of Milestone Model United Nations Conference began with an Opening Ceremony on the 16th of July. After the MUN Society presidency opened the night, Ákos Erzse, a mentor and module leader at Milestone, hold a speech about the various uses of artificial intelligence in everyday life, touching upon the moral issues and the feasibility of limiting it, connecting this to the practice of policy making. He was followed by Dalma Bíró, a human-rights defender activist who amongst many achievements, worked for the Nobel Prize-winner Campaign to Ban Landmines and is now working with the Milestone Student Organizations to involve Youth in the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.
MiMUN was organised involving the International Campaign to Stop Killer Robots. This Campaign, which holds together an international coalition of more than 110 non-governmental organisations across 60 countries working to pre-emptively ban the use of fully autonomous weapons systems, provided the main theme for our conference. At the three different-level committee, delegates debated the regulation of weaponized robotics and artificial intelligence and the place of robots in modern societies.
A shared characteristic of MUN conferences is that teenagers gather to debate about the pressing issues of today’s world in order to find solutions knowing that these proposed solutions would never be implemented and thus have no real-life effect. However, in the case of the first ever Milestone Model United Nations Conference, this might be different due to our cooperation with the International Campaign to Ban Killer Robots, which holds the possibility that the news of our conference and the proposed resolutions will get to the United Nations Secretary General, thus to the real United Nations and who knows, might be once implemented as real-life policies.
The Human Rights Council was our beginner level committee and although because many delegates weren’t able to come, only 5 delegates constituted the council, they have debated more than 4 resolutions and become truly professional delegates at the end of their productive committee sessions. This council focused on and discussed the moral and ethical issues raised by artificial intelligence as well as the controversial topic of robots being regarded as their own individual entity.
Our intermediate-level committee, the Disarmament and International Security Council, has earned the title of the most productive committee as they have debated the many resolution through-out the only two-day long conference. Recognizing the growing importance of modern technologies, such as resounding advances in robotics and surveillance systems, this committee discussed, and debated resolutions aimed at limiting and regulating the weaponization of artificial intelligence.
In the Crisis Security Council, the delegates faced new challenges through different crisis updates and their committee work took place in the imaginary future of the year 2025. During the debates, where they received updates titled “21st century Cold War?” or “Syria: the new playground of Killer Robots?” just to mention a few examples, the Russian delegate earned the title of the “Veto King” causing the delegate of Pakistan to get more and more angry and write longer and longer operative clauses. The delegate representing Iran in the CSC came home from his family vacation at Thailand six days earlier, just to debate one day at MiMUN, which dedication was awarded with the Honourable Mention of The Most Dedicated Delegate of the Conference Award. After many hours of hard work and negotiation, the delegates eventually managed to accept some operative clauses against Russian vetoes.
At the end of the second day, we closed the first ever Milestone Model United Nations Conference with the Award Ceremony. As the chair and the Secretary General told their closing remarks, the Honourable Mentions, the Outstanding Delegate and the Best Delegate in each committee received their awards. The success of the conference was celebrated with a pizza party in the garden of the Milestone Institute.
In the last minute, the MiMUN Media Team was formed, with the help of Dorottya Kovács and Gergő Dara, who managed to take wonderful pictured, thus to record the delegates during the serious, sometimes funny committee work. They deserve this huge shout-out as the MUN Society is truly grateful for their work.
Emma Somos
The Crisis Security Council of MiMUN 2019:
The Disarmament and International Security Council of MiMUN 2019:
The Human Rights Council of MiMUN 2019:
The awarded delegates:
Best Delegate of the Crisis Security Council: Barnabás Pintér (representing Pakistan)
Outstanding Delegate of the Crisis Security Council: László Illés Katona (Russia)
Honourable Mention of the Crisis Security Council: Udvardi Dániel (USA)
Honourable Mention of the Crisis Security Council: Laura Dorottya Takács (France)
Best Delegate of the Disarmament and International Security Council: Ábris Béndek (USA)
Outstanding Delegate of the Disarmament and International Security Council: Szabolcs Veress (China)
Honourable Mention of the Disarmament and International Security Council: Sebestyén Pfisztner (France)
Honourable Mention of the Disarmament and International Security Council: Jenni Morris (Iran)
Best Delegate of the Human Rights Council: Zsiborács Dorottya (United Kingdom)
Outstanding Delegate of the Human Rights Council: Li Tan (China)
Honourable Mention of the Human Rights Council: Zita Szekér (Germany)
Chairs and other Organizers of the MiMUN 2019:
Bianka Bodon, chairing in the Crisis Security Council
Sophie Dara, chairing in the Crisis Security Council
Gergely Bérces, chairing in the Crisis Security Council
Judit Török, chairing in the Disarmament and International Security Council
Dávid Bató, chairing in the Disarmament and International Security Council
Olivér Baranyai, chairing in the Disarmament and International Security Council
Laura Bánhidi, chairing in the Human Rights Council
Bori Kovács, chairing in the Human Rights Council
Benjámin Gulyás, chairing in the Human Rights Council
Anna Házas, organizer
Dorottya Kovács, organizer
Emma Somos, the Secretary General of MiMUN 2019
The 21 Hunarian secondary-school, whose students participated at MiMUN 2019:
Eötvös József Gimnázium
Karinthy Frigyes Gimnázium
Koch Valéria Iskolaközpont
Szerb Antal Gimnázium
ELTE Radnóti Miklós Gyakorló Általános Iskola és Gyakorló Gimnázium
Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Két Tanítási Nyelvű Baptista Gimnázium
Móricz Zsigmond Gimnázium
Toldy Ferenc Grammar School
British School of Budapest
Alternative High School of Economics
Budai Ciszterci Szent Imre Gimnázium
Premontrei Iskolaközpont
Budapesti Fazekas Mihály Gyakorló Általános Iskola és Gimnázium
Greater Grace International School
Lauder Javne Zsidó Közösségi Iskola
Debreceni Egyetem Kossuth Lajos Gyakorló Gimnáziuma
Németh László Gimnázium
ELTE Apáczai Csere János Gyakorlógimnázium és Kollégium
Óbudai Árpád Gimnázium
Győri Kazinczy Ferenc Gimnázium és Kollégium
Városmajori Gimnázium