IMUN has originated from of a long tradition preparatory debates for THIMUN between the Carlucci American International School of Lisbon and the American International School of Madrid, meeting with one another "halfway" in Merida, Spain. IMUN now stands on its own, in affiliation with THIMUN. The IMUN conferences are now held at Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon, Portugal. "Out-of-Lisbon" students may stay at specially priced rooms at the Estoril Eden Hotel.
In the conference of 2006, IMUN brought together delegations from 17 schools throughout the Iberian Peninsula, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway and Romania, comprising 220 delegates and representing 141 UN member countries.
The IMUN conference promotes a myriad of skills which our limited size greatly facilitates. IMUN views itself as providing a supportive environment in which student delegates can develop their diplomatic, consensus building skills. The majority of participating schools later participate in the January THIMUN conference held in The Hague.
IMUN seeks to cultivate an appreciation of the complexity of the world's problems and the challenges that we face in solving them. Through a combination of written resolutions, debate, speeches and lobbying, delegates seek consensus. In recognition of these immense challenges, IMUN places emphasis upon the process of achieving resolution to the actual UN agenda issues, rather than the final product which, in fact, very much reflects the historical reality of the United Nations.
Additionally, IMUN aims to bring about an understanding of the necessity of nations compromising their immediate national interest in the hopes of achieving a viable, lasting solution to global problems.
IMUN's goals are to be seen within the foundation of the MUN program. The sole exception to IMUN's policy of being student run is the invitation to a speaker, prominent in the international arena, to launch the conference and set an appropriate tone and model.
IMUN models the UN General Assembly, addressing selected actual agenda issues worked on by the UN committees. Delegates lobby from 13:00-18:00 at CAISL and then debate all day Friday and Saturday at CCB in plenary session. Once again, the relative small size of the conference avails participants the opportunity of real participation in debate and consensus making.
Considerable preparation is necessary on the delegate's part in order to maximize the educational benefit of IMUN. Delegates must appropriately represent the policies, attitudes, and outlook of their assigned country. To facilitate this, delegates must extensively research their assigned country (delegates may represent their country solo or in pairs only) well in advance of the conference. IMUN distributes country assignment in May to facilitate and encourage accurate representation. Delegates should also be well versed in the major current event issues of the day.
The Iberian Model United Nations will be happy to answer any question that you may have in regard to the conferences. All inquiries and correspondence should be directed to:
Iberian Model United Nations
Carlucci American School of Lisbon
Rua Antonio dos Reis, 95
Linhó 2710 301 Sintra, Portugal
Telephone:
00 351 21 923 9800
Fax: 00 351 21 923 9899
