Felsted School hosted its eighth Model United Nations (MUN) Conference with 19 schools from across the region attending. Pupils represented different countries, voicing the opinions of that country in order to bring about positive change. The delegates came together to discuss and debate the ever present issues of LGBT rights and how as a society we can be more tolerant and accepting.
Those in attendance were privileged to hear from Tess Brookes of the LGBT awareness charity Outhouse East, who gave everyone an insight into the daily plight of those identifying under the status of LGBT. On the second day the committees were gifted with an enthusiastic talk from Dr Ellie Barnes MBE who works with the Educate and Celebrate LGBT awareness charity. Dr Barnes encouraged the pupils to reflect on how they could create a completely equal environment for all children regardless of gender or sexual orientation and drew attention to the possibility of gender neutral school uniform and toilets.
With the under thought of tolerance and acceptance vivid in the minds of delegates, they debated various other topics across the two days, including nuclear disarmament, the issue of new settlements in the South China Sea and religious extremism in the Middle East.
I thoroughly enjoyed representing Bolivia in the Security Council and hearing from the two impassioned guest speakers. It was a great learning experience and I would like to congratulate everyone at Felsted who helped make this 8th MUN conference run as smoothly as possible.
Felsted School Year 11 pupil, Peter Hipkin.
