The Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN) 2026

This year, KLAS had more MUN than ever before! Of course, we attended the 2026 THIMUN conference, but before we did so, we also attended three conferences within Switzerland, at the International School of Lausanne, Institut Le Rosey, and at our neighbour school here in town, the Leysin American School. These smaller local conferences provided invaluable practice and experience for our students before they attended the conference in The Hague. This was an important step for strengthening our MUN programme in order to provide KLAS students with more and better MUN opportunities and experiences.

As for THIMUN, the 2026 THIMUN Conference saw KLAS students challenge themselves for our fourth consecutive year since the resumption of in-person conferences in The Hague. The venue was the World Forum Conference Centre in The Hague, as always, and the conference had continued to adopt some more modern approaches. This allowed the organisers to continue to pursue their goal of making it better and more productive for the twenty-first century

As I explain every year, the amount of work that goes into preparing for the THIMUN conference is a massive challenge. The KLAS students who are on the THIMUN delegation officially start MUN activity in the summer during Term 1, and each delegate has to become intimately familiar with information about the UN, their country or UN organisation – Ghana, this year – the theme of the conference, which this year was “Culture & Heritage: Embracing Diversity” – a very important theme in this time of increasing worldwide divisiveness – their assigned world issues, three issues each, and how these issues affect and are affected by the country that they represent and the rest of the world. They have to do research, give presentations, and write reports on three issues as they relate to their country; the specific world issues each delegate researches depend on the committee that they choose. Moreover, they have to be ready to use all of this information in English once they arrive in The Hague.

For the conference itself, the THIMUN delegation departed KLAS on Saturday, January 24. We flew to the Netherlands and then took our transfer bus to Amsterdam. There, we did a tour of the Anne Frank House, a tour that cannot in any way be described as fun, but that is undeniably worthwhile, and sadly now more relevant to current world affairs than ever before. Afterwards, we took our bus to our hotel, Bilderberg Europa Hotel, in Scheveningen in The Hague. As it was past dinner time, and we were all fairly tired after a fairly long day – we had departed KLAS at 07:30 – we had free time to eat, relax, and plan for Sunday.

On Sunday, January 25, we had a day for sightseeing in Amsterdam. On Monday, January 26, while I registered for the conference with the help of a kind student, the students had a free day to do things in The Hague, including visiting museums and shopping. Then it was time for study hall, during which they had a chance to undertake some last-minute preparation for the conference.

Then, on Tuesday, the hard work began. THIMUN is the largest Model United Nations conference in the world, and comprises about 3,200 students from around 200 schools from over 100 different countries. It is an official NGO under the United Nations, so when students are at THIMUN, they are, literally, working for the United Nations. From Tuesday to Friday, the delegation participated in full work days from about 09:00 to 17:00, long days and hard work. They also had study halls at night in order to prepare for the following days. They faced the challenges of lobbying, merging resolutions, giving opening speeches, and debating in the conference centre among thousands of students from hundreds of schools from nearly one hundred countries around the world. It was a difficult experience for even the best-prepared delegates. Nevertheless, despite what was a daunting beginning on the first day of the conference, the delegates refused to give up and kept trying hard all the way until the end of the conference. In fact, the motivation and enthusiasm of this year’s delegation were exceptional. While none of our delegates succeeded in becoming main submitters of resolutions, the most prestigious accomplishment possible in the conference, this year, our delegation accomplished something perhaps even more valuable – everybody in the delegation succeeded in speaking in debate during the conference, for our fourth year running! While having a delegate become a main submitter is an amazing accomplishment for one delegate, having all of the delegates speaking in debate during the conference is an amazing accomplishment for the whole delegation, and one that doesn’t usually happen, and the whole delegation felt quite proud of it, as they deserved to! On Friday, we finished the day by having a team dinner together at a delicious Indian restaurant in Scheveningen.

On Saturday, January 31, we had a late-morning departure from our hotel for our transfer back to Schiphol Airport for our flight back to KLAS. It all added up to a stimulating week. I am sure the members of the delegation learned a lot not only about the world but also themselves, not only through their participation in the conference itself but also through their forging of new friendships with people like themselves from all over the world. I hope that MUN and THIMUN will always be a treasured part of their memories of KLAS.

Considering all of the above, I strongly encourage any KLAS student who is willing to make it their most serious commitment to consider applying to join the MUN Activity and the THIMUN Team. They must be aware that it is highly challenging, however. Applicants must have excellent motivation, English skills, grades, and discipline records in order even to be considered. If they meet these standards, THIMUN is a great opportunity for KLAS students to challenge themselves.