History of the WorldMUN Intitiative in Heidelberg
Back in 1999, a group of 3 law students, led by "founding father" Constantin Schoehl von Norman, decided to participate in WorldMUN 1999 in Cambridge (UK) (>link) for the first time. Since then, the University of Heidelberg has been annually represented by a student delegation at the Harvard World Model United Nations Conference.
Subsequent to the participation in Cambridge this group founded an interdisciplinary study group in autumn 1999. The primary aim was to recruit more capable delegates. The delegation of the year 2000 was selected after a demanding application test. In particular social, academic and linguistic competence were required. The new delegation consisted of four law students as well as two representatives of economics and one of medicine. The WorldMUN Conference was held in Athens (Greece). Here, the Delegation of the University of Heidelberg was able to prove its worth. Two delegates were awarded with “Verbal Recommendations”.
The ESCAP-Committee at the WorldMUN 2001 in Istanbul
In the meantime the delegation is one of the best known and renowned at the conference. In 2001, the delegation participated with 12 delegates from six different faculties (Jurisprudence, Economics, Psychology, Medicine, Educational Theory and History). Thus prepared, the delegation was one of the most successful at the 2001 conference in Istanbul (Turkey). It managed to make a convincing impression with its interdisciplinary combination.
In fact, five out of the 12 delegates were awarded with the highest rated awards (four “Honourable-Delegate-Awards” and one “Award for Diplomacy”). Due to this, the 2001 delegation was ranked the second non-English-speaking university team. Again, at the 2002 WorldMUN Conference in Belo Horizonte (Brazil), the Heidelberg Delegation was able to keep up its high standard and win three Honorable Delegate Awards (> WorldMUN 2002 Info). For the first time, Heidelberg's Delegation has been assigned a UN Security Council's permanent meber ("P5"), the United Kingdom.
In 2003, the Heidelberg WorldMUN initiative was proud to host the Harvard WorldMUN 2003 conference (> WorldMUN 2003 Info). Almost 900 delegates had a wonderful time in Heidelberg - and we too!
In 2004, the conference once again left Europe to head to Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt. With its largest-ever delegation of 22 people, Heidelberg continued to mark their spot as established WorldMUN-contestors (> WorldMUN 2004 Info). Again, the initiative's efforts were recongnized and led to the representation of the Russian Federation.
The 2004 Delegation in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt
In 2005, WorldMUN returned to Europe: the event was held in Edinburgh, Scottland. The University of Heidelberg has sent 14 delegates representing the People's Republic of China - once again a P5-contry - and the Republic of Botswana (> WorldMUN 2005 Info). For the first time, Heidelberg has dispatched a delegation to the other renowned MUN-conference: the New York National Model United Nations (NMUN) representing the Republic of Slovenia (> NMUN 2005 Info).
In 2006, we joined Harvard WorldMUN moving to Asia, held at Beijing, China, and hosted by Peking University (> WorldMUN 2006 Info). At this impressive conference we represented the Republic of Italy. The second encounter with New York's NMUN as Central African Republic was also the source for many positive memories for our delegates (> NMUN 2006 Info).
In 2007, one delegation was representing Arab Republic of Egypt and Romania at Harvard WorldMUN in Geneva, Switzerland (> WorldMUN 2007 Info), and another delegation represented the Kingdom of Bahrain at the NMUN conference in New York (> NMUN 2007 Info).
2008 saw the University of Heidelberg's delegation go to Puebla, Mexico, for a great WorldMUN. After participating in the 2009 Harvard WorldMUN in The Hague, Netherlands, 2010 in Taipei, Taiwan, 2011 in Singapore, 2012 in Vancouver, and 2013 in Melbourne, Australia, Harvard WorldMUN 2014 again returned to Europe, namely to Brussels, Belgium.