Conference 2023

Welcome Address 

By the Mayor of Bonn

 

Dear Delegates,

 

A warm welcome to this year’s BIMUN/SINUB Model United Nations Conference! As Mayor of Bonn, Germany’s United Nations City of 25 years, I am very happy to see you join in our anniversary program!

BIMUN/SINUB is dear and special to me. Young people, students of my own alma mater, the University of Bonn, are championing multilateralism and political awareness of the challenges of our time. I commend the Board and members for putting together a program with a finger on the pulse of the times and for making this conference sustainable for years now, both thematically and in its organization and management.

 

As you will know, Bonn is a UN hub and powerhouse for sustainability. I am very happy to see the concept of multilateralism thrive in Bonn – on our UN Campus and also in a conference like yours, one that is entirely driven by the next generation. 

This year 2021 has been – besides being year two of a global pandemic – an eventful one in terms of sustainability. With Conferences of the Parties for Biodiversity and Climate and the World Food Systems Summit on the one side, with disasters, conflict and a halt to many important development processes on the other side. 

The committees chosen for this year’s conference are taking all of this into consideration by addressing UNDP, FAO and the UN Security Council. Thank you for including the European Council as a forth committee. It is true: Europe bears a huge responsibility to turn it around, as the SDG Action Campaign words it. The European Union as a political power, as a donor, as a driver of change - and I am thrilled to see you discuss the future role of the EU in respect to multilateralism!

 

A global pandemic is limiting our options of hosting conferences in these days. I am very much hoping to be able to personally welcome our guests from twenty nations to our beautiful city on the Rhine. However, should the virus put further obstacles in the way, I will put my faith in the flexibility of the Secretary-Generals and the Board led by Nancy Prieto when it comes to finding creative solutions. 

 

Let me express my gratitude to BIMUN/SINUB e.V. for moving young people to passionately engage with international topics and multilateral collaboration. 

I wish you safe travels and lively debates - hoping to see you here in Bonn on 26 November!

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Katja Dörner