by Charlotte Lewis
by Charlotte Lewis
published Winter 2025
Harvard Model United Nations, (HMUN), is an annual and prestigious model UN conference in which a select group of high school students from around the globe get to participate. This conference is held in Boston, Massachusetts in late January into early February, and is run by Harvard students. This year, HMUN celebrated its 71st year offering students this unique opportunity. The conference is a total of four days, consisting of multiple committee meetings a day, those of which are run in the format of the United Nations itself. Twenty Bow High School students participate in this conference as delegates, alongside advisors Mrs. Hlavaz and Mr. Watson. Many BHS delegates found success for their assigned country or specialized identity.
Mallory Hinck represented the United Arab Emirates in the International Children's Emergency Fund. Her committee's topic was Child Witches and how innocent children face abuse, murder, outcasting, and accusations of black magic, specifically in African nations. Her goal as the delegation of the UAE was to spread awareness and educate others on the topic, as well as install legal framework on the matter.
Hinck explained, "The UAE also sought to utilize NGOs to aid in this process, (for our own benefit, as the UAE is so rich because it launders money, especially through NGOs)." Mallory did not fail to represent the UAE well when creating blocs, assuring other delegations that the UAE would protect funds and handle the flow of money with NGOs.
Aside from the UAE's wants from the conference, a five-pronged solution was passed with no amendments. This was the CPR, (Child Protection Resolution). The esolution had a focus on education, legislation, protection of culture, active response to the issue at hand, and funding. It's safe to say that Mallory entered the committee with purpose and confidence, leading to a successful conference for the UAE.
Matthew Mampuzha reported on his time in committee alongside his co-delegate James Menezes. They represented the UAE in the Special Political and Decolonization committee with the topic of climate migration. The UAE had simple but essential goals, which Matthew described as helping migrants, "but also looking for climate-resilient infrastructure to be modeled off of solutions that the UAE has utilized." He used the example of desalination plants, facilities in which salt is filtered out of seawater in order to create drinking water. His delegation helped to curb other delegates' ideas that weren't practical or ethical, such as tracking climate migrants with wristbands without their permission. In the end, the SPECPOL committee did not pass a resolution. Matthew and James played a crucial role on the committee, noticing something unethical in a clause and calling it to people's attention.
Anabelle Cattabriga and Charlotte Lewis represented Morocco on the Social Humanitarian and Cultural committee, (SOCHUM). The topic for this committee was linguistic minorities, of which Morocco has many. Morocco's position on this topic was that linguistic minorities should receive more attention, allowing them to thrive and proliferate. Their bloc was inclined to use Al and today's technology to translate and spread usage of minority languages, to which Morocco was not opposed, but lacked funds. In the end, the delegation of Morocco voted for another solution due to their own resolution having multiple inconsistencies while the other was likely to be for the greater good. This showed that participants did not have to be loyal to a resolution they wrote, and could vote other ways if it yielded a better outcome.
The Falcon Vision would like to thank the delegates who chose to report on their time at HMUN 2025. Also many thanks for the hard work put in by advisors Mrs. Hlavaz and Mr. Watson, as well as head delegates Trevor Abel, Katie McCabe, Jonathan Gancarz, and Adam Valpey.