United gathering of nations

2009/10/10

A COMMON goal to try and end world poverty brought
representatives of 37 countries to Malaysia for the Kuala Lumpur International Model United Nations (KLIMUN) 2009 conference.

Organised by the United Nations Club of INTI University College (INTI-UC), KLIMUN 2009 was the third model United Nations conference run by INTI-UC and the 11th to be supported by the United Nations Association of Malaysia. Aside from foreign participants, Malaysian school, college and university students made up the conference delegates. Also present were United Nations Association of Malaysia secretary-general and Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations executive chairman Tan Sri Hasmy Agam, Malaysian Human Rights Commission Economic, Social and Cultural Working Group chairman Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria INTI-UC president Professor Dr Lee Fah Onn.

Delegations, which were formed, consisted of five students each. Each delegation represented five committees — Human Rights, Technology, Political, Ecology and the Environment, and Economic — as well as a country or an organisation. A delegate was not required to be a national of the chosen country. In addition to a resolution on eradicating poverty, the delegates raised funds through its A Ringgit a Day project in aid of the Educational Welfare and Research Foundation (EWRF), where they committed to giving RM1 for the six days of KLIMUN 2009. EWRF organised a workshop to help delegates understand the suffering of those stricken by poverty through a pictorial depiction.

Delegates at the opening ceremony of KLIMUN 2009