Source : Arab news / 24 Mar 2014

Swansea University law undergraduate Jood Al-Harthi has been selected to attend a Geneva International Model United Nations (GIMUN) conference later this month. Jood will be attending as the representative of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the university announced on its website.

Jood, 20, is a single honors law student in her second year at Swansea University. She was born and brought up in Riyadh.

Jood will be going to GIMUN all by herself. To secure her seat at the conference she had to include in her application a statement explaining why she wanted to participate and how she would contribute to GIMUN.

GIMUN is an annual weeklong event. It is being held this year from March 22 to March 28. During the week, university students will be debating and justifying their country’s or organization’s actions, and passing resolutions.

This year the event theme is "Access to Energy." The theme for the GIMUN 2014 annual conference aims to touch upon a number of the major challenges that the international community will be facing over the course of this century.

“Sustainable development is on everyone’s lips, yet we are failing to effectively depart from fossil fuels as an essential part of our economies,” says the conference website.

Speaking about her role, Jood said: “I am honored and excited to have been chosen as the OIC representative as there are only two people in one bloc representative position. What is expected of me is to act as a coach to the states, and make sure they do not go far off his/her state’s policy; contributing to the realism of the conference.”