Twelve students from Davis College in Mallow were selected to represent Ireland at a prestigious Model United Nations (MUN) conference in Lisbon, Portugal, recently. They represented different delegations such as Paraguay, Azerbaijan, Jamaica, OPEC, Cape Verde and the Maldives. Their role was to write resolutions and debate issues as pressing as the increased use of artificial intelligence in the job market, criminal liability in the area of unmanned aerial vehicles, limiting the availability of light weapons as a measure to reduce urban violence, eliminating xenophobia in resettlement refugee camps, strategies towards regulating international tax havens, etc.
The Davis College students skillfully used diplomacy to come to agreements towards solving world problems with students from all over Europe and Africa. The Davis College delegate of Paraguay, Áine Kelleher, was extremely successful as her resolution on the limitation of light weapons was considered to be one of the best ones at this conference. This conference allowed all of these students to train their debating, diplomacy and problem solving skills. Most importantly, they viewed a variety of different global issues through a different perspective; an exercise that permits them to grow as more tolerant, respectful and responsible global citizens.