UK's largest Model United Nations conference to be held at Haileybury

Nearly 700 delegates from nine countries and four continents will gather at Haileybury from Friday, 23 to Sunday, 25 March to discuss issues ranging from developing an international law for euthanasia to the unification of Cyprus.

Pupils from schools afar afield as Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and the USA will participate in the 16th Haileybury Model United Nations conference (HMUN) 2012. The conference is now officially the biggest such event to be held in the UK.

The staging of the event is a mammoth task which, in addition to all the delegates, takes 80 advisors, 75 security assistants and 26 Chairs to pull off.

Explains Michael Perrins, Head of Politics at Haileybury who is in charge of the event: "The purpose and nature of MUN conferences such as the one held at Haileybury are to replicate the real UN. Delegates are assigned a country and a committee, and are required to play the roles of diplomats.

"They have to research issues from the perspective of both the UN and the country they represent, and then have to prepare a stance on these issues which accurately and realistically reflect their country’s views."

In addition to the General Assembly, there are committees on economics and social, disarmament, human rights, ecology and the environment, politics and the security council.