In late November of 2023, an international Model United Nations (MUN) meeting was held in Lammi, Hämeenlinna. The meeting was a part of the Erasmus+ project in which many schools participate in from all over the EU. Three of these schools have combined their efforts and have decided to hold three MUN meetings throughout the year. These schools are Lammi High School from Finland, Jaan Poska Gümnaasium from Estonia and Gymnasium Schillerstrasse from Austria.  

The first of the three meetings planned was hosted by Lammi High School in November of 2023. The second one is to be hosted by Jaan Poska Gümnaasium in Tartu, Estonia in May of 2024. The third and final meeting is to be hosted by Gymnasium Schillerstrasse in Feldkirch, Austria in December of 2024. Selected students and their teachers travel from their own countries to the host country where they all spend a week. The students reside in host families while the teachers stay at a nearby hotel.  

Lammi was the first place to hold a MUN meeting because of its experience with Finnish MUN meetings. The topic of the meeting was the non-proliferation and disarmament of nuclear weapons – a way to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. About 10 guests from each country came to Finland on Thursday 23rd of November. The evening was spent settling down. The next day the guests were given a tour of the school and some group bonding activities were held. The entire group went to a sauna at the Evo vocational college and spent the evening together.  

On Saturday the 25th the MUN meeting began. A total of nine countries participated in the meeting. Each country had two delegates who had been in contact with each other via Teams before the meeting. These Teams calls were spent planning out each country’s strategy for the meeting. The first day of the meeting was spent working in a committee, lobbying and voting on different countries’ draft resolutions. In the end a combined draft resolution of Ireland and South Africa was sent to the general assembly which was to be held on Sunday.

On Sunday the 26th the delegates kept lobbying and preparing for the final voting. The final voting was full of tension and surprising twists. In the end the draft resolution of Ireland and South Africa was approved with five votes for and four votes against. The resolution’s contents were progressive and full of peaceful tactics to end the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Before the international guests left for their home countries on Wednesday a few group activities were planned for the participating people. On Monday everyone went to Helsinki for a day trip. The group visited Aalto university where they listened to a lecture by John Millar about the threats caused by nuclear weapons. After spending the rest of the day sightseeing, dining and shopping the group travelled back to Lammi to prepare for the final day together. On Tuesday the guests learnt about the Finnish school system and got to make traditional Finnish pastries. On Wednesday the 29th goodbyes were said, and all international guests went on their way back home.

Text by Aliisa Mattila, delegate of the USA in the Lammi MUN meeting