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ISO Education Schools Model United Nations Conference

The ISO Education Schools Model United Nations Conference is an annual event hosted in Amman, bringing together high school students for an immersive diplomatic simulation. This conference provides a platform for young delegates to engage with complex global issues, refine their public speaking and negotiation skills, and develop a deeper understanding of international relations. Participants will step into the shoes of diplomats, representing various nations and working collaboratively to draft resolutions that address pressing world challenges.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 5 countries stand on the dominant committee topic. Click through for the full country profile.

United StatesUnited States

Advocates for democratic principles and human rights, often emphasizing economic liberalization and international cooperation through established institutions.

Role in topic

Likely to champion resolutions promoting global stability and economic development, potentially focusing on humanitarian aid or security concerns relevant to the region.

ChinaChina

Prioritizes national sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs, while expanding its economic and political influence globally.

Role in topic

May emphasize economic partnerships and infrastructure development, potentially advocating for solutions that align with its Belt and Road Initiative or other strategic investments.

RussiaRussia

Seeks to maintain its sphere of influence, often challenging Western-led international norms and advocating for a multipolar world order.

Role in topic

Could focus on security issues, arms control, or regional stability, potentially aligning with countries that share similar geopolitical interests.

United KingdomUnited Kingdom

Supports multilateralism and international law, often playing a mediating role in global disputes and advocating for human rights.

Role in topic

Likely to support resolutions that strengthen international institutions and promote peaceful conflict resolution, possibly with a focus on humanitarian assistance.

FranceFrance

A strong proponent of European integration and multilateralism, often taking a leading role in humanitarian interventions and cultural diplomacy.

Role in topic

Might advocate for robust international responses to crises, emphasizing cultural preservation, educational initiatives, or environmental protection.

Topics & background

The history behind each committee topic and the states that shape it.

1

United Nations Security Council

The United Nations Security Council was established in 1945 under Chapter V of the UN Charter as the organ with primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Composed of five permanent members with veto power and ten elected non-permanent members, the Council can authorize sanctions, peacekeeping operations, and the use of force. Its decisions under Chapter VII are binding on all UN member states, making it the most powerful organ in the UN system. In recent years the Council's agenda has been dominated by the war in Ukraine following Russia's 2022 invasion, the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza since October 2023, and the civil war in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, which since April 2023 has produced the world's largest displacement crisis. Repeated use of the veto by P5 members on Ukraine, Gaza, and Syria has revived debate over Council paralysis and reform, including the 2022 General Assembly 'veto initiative' requiring justification for any veto cast. Today the Council juggles legacy files (Sudan sanctions under Resolution 1591, the DRC, Haiti, Yemen) alongside emerging threats such as state behavior in cyberspace, where the Open-Ended Working Group on ICTs continues to negotiate norms. Delegates must balance enforcement of existing sanctions regimes, humanitarian access, and the credibility of the Council itself.

Key players

2

Future Security Council: Reform and Emerging Threats

Calls to reform the Security Council are nearly as old as the Council itself, but they have accelerated since the early 2000s with the G4 initiative (Brazil, Germany, India, Japan) seeking permanent seats, the African Union's Ezulwini Consensus demanding two permanent African seats, and the 'Uniting for Consensus' bloc led by Italy opposing new permanent members. The 2024 Pact for the Future, adopted at the UN Summit of the Future, committed member states to redress the historical under-representation of Africa and to consider limits on the veto, giving fresh momentum to longstanding reform debates. A forward-looking Security Council must also confront threats the 1945 Charter did not anticipate: malicious cyber operations against critical infrastructure, the weaponization of artificial intelligence, climate-driven instability, pandemic security, and the militarization of outer space. The Council has held thematic debates on each of these but has yet to produce binding frameworks, in part because P5 members disagree on whether such issues fall within its mandate at all. The Future Security Council committee asks delegates to negotiate both structural reform — composition, working methods, the veto — and substantive responses to next-generation threats, recognizing that the Council's legitimacy in coming decades depends on both.

Key players

3

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

UNODC was established in 1997 through the merger of the UN Drug Control Programme and the Centre for International Crime Prevention. It is the custodian of the three international drug control conventions (1961, 1971, 1988), the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo, 2000) and its protocols on trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants, and firearms, as well as the UN Convention against Corruption (2003). It also services the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. The global drug landscape has been transformed by the synthetic opioid crisis, particularly fentanyl and its analogues, which have driven record overdose deaths in North America and increasingly in Europe. Cocaine production in the Andean region has reached historic highs, while methamphetamine flows from the Golden Triangle have made Southeast Asia the world's largest meth market. At the same time, transnational organized crime has diversified into cyber-enabled fraud (notably the 'pig-butchering' scam compounds in Southeast Asia), illicit financial flows, environmental crime, and human trafficking linked to displacement. UNODC today must reconcile a fragmenting international consensus — with some states pursuing regulated cannabis markets and harm-reduction approaches while others maintain strict prohibition — with the operational challenge of disrupting agile, technology-enabled criminal networks that exploit weak institutions and conflict zones.

Key players

4

United Nations Human Rights Council

The Human Rights Council was created by General Assembly Resolution 60/251 in 2006, replacing the discredited Commission on Human Rights. Based in Geneva and composed of 47 elected member states, it conducts the Universal Periodic Review of every UN member, appoints Special Rapporteurs and independent experts, and mandates Commissions of Inquiry on situations ranging from Syria and Myanmar to the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Ukraine. Its work is grounded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the two 1966 Covenants on civil-political and economic-social-cultural rights. In recent sessions the Council has wrestled with the rapid diffusion of generative AI, which raises questions about freedom of expression under ICCPR Article 19, privacy, non-discrimination, and algorithmic accountability — issues highlighted in successive OHCHR reports and B-Tech Project outputs. It has also been the principal UN forum operationalizing General Assembly Resolution 76/300 recognizing the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, with growing attention to climate-displaced populations who fall outside the 1951 Refugee Convention. The Council remains politically contested: Western states press country-specific resolutions while a bloc of states emphasizes non-selectivity, sovereignty, and economic-social rights. Delegates must navigate this divide while producing concrete protections for rights-holders affected by emerging technology and climate change.

Key players

5

Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

ECOSOC, one of the six principal organs of the UN under Chapter X of the Charter, coordinates the economic, social, and related work of the UN system, including its 15 specialized agencies, regional commissions, and functional commissions. Its 54 members oversee the High-Level Political Forum that reviews progress on the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, and it convenes the annual Financing for Development Forum. The post-COVID, high-interest-rate environment has produced a severe development-finance crunch. More than half of low-income countries are in or at high risk of debt distress; the G20 Common Framework for Debt Treatments has progressed slowly, prompting African and Latin American debtors to push for a UN-led sovereign debt restructuring mechanism, a long-standing demand revived in the run-up to the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Seville in 2025. In parallel, the 2024 Global Digital Compact, annexed to the Pact for the Future, places digital public infrastructure — identity, payments, data exchange — at the center of SDG delivery. ECOSOC's challenge is to translate these political commitments into operational outcomes: closing the SDG financing gap estimated by UNCTAD at over USD 4 trillion annually for developing countries, while ensuring that digital transitions are inclusive, rights-respecting, and interoperable.

Key players

6

United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

UN Women: Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

UN Women was established by General Assembly Resolution 64/289 in 2010, consolidating four pre-existing UN gender entities (DAW, INSTRAW, OSAGI, and UNIFEM). It supports intergovernmental bodies such as the Commission on the Status of Women, advances implementation of the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and leads UN system coordination on gender equality, including the Women, Peace and Security agenda launched by Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000). Thirty years after Beijing, progress has been uneven. UN Women estimates that at current rates it will take more than 130 years to close the gender gap in the highest political positions, and conflict-related sexual violence has risen sharply in contexts including Sudan, Ukraine, Ethiopia, and the DRC. Rollbacks of reproductive rights in several jurisdictions, the gendered impact of climate disasters, and online gender-based violence amplified by generative AI — including non-consensual deepfakes — have added new fronts to a contested agenda. The entity now focuses on financing for gender equality (with only a small share of ODA targeting gender as a principal objective), accelerating implementation of National Action Plans on Women, Peace and Security, and embedding gender perspectives in emerging governance frameworks for AI, climate, and pandemic response.

Key players

7

World Health Organization (WHO)

Founded in 1948 as the UN's specialized agency for health, the WHO is governed by the World Health Assembly, in which all 194 member states are represented. It sets international health norms — most notably the International Health Regulations (2005) — coordinates responses to outbreaks, and supports member states across the spectrum from primary care to health emergencies. SDG 3 places health at the center of the 2030 Agenda. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed serious gaps in global health security, prompting parallel negotiations to amend the IHR and to draft a new WHO Pandemic Agreement under the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body. The Pandemic Agreement was adopted at the World Health Assembly in May 2025 and has now entered its implementation phase, with continuing disputes over a Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing system (PABS), technology transfer, and equitable allocation of countermeasures. At the same time, non-communicable diseases — cardiovascular disease, cancers, diabetes, and mental health conditions — account for roughly three-quarters of global deaths, and the 2025 UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs set new targets for 2030 whose implementation remains uneven. WHO also confronts antimicrobial resistance, climate-sensitive disease, attacks on health workers in conflict, and persistent financing fragility, with a large share of its budget tied to earmarked voluntary contributions that constrain agility.

Key players

Key terms & resources

The concepts worth knowing before ISO Education Schools Model United Nations Conference, plus lessons and profiles to go deeper.

Ad Hoc Committee CybercrimeAnnexation of CrimeaAsia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)Association of Southeast Asian NationsAU Peace and Security Councilback office

Lessons

Courses

Country profiles

In the news

Frequently asked questions

  • What is the eligibility level for participants in this conference?

    The ISO Education Schools Model United Nations Conference is designed for high-school level students.

  • Where is the conference located?

    The conference takes place in Amman, a city known for its rich history and vibrant culture.

  • What is the expected duration of the conference?

    The conference is scheduled to run for a total of three days.

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