AMUN, the Americas Model United Nations, was the first Model UN conference to be established in South America, hosted by the Universidade de Brasília (UnB).

Before there ware any Model UN conferences in Brazil, UnB started its participation in UN simulations by sending a delegation to the Harvard National Model UN in Boston. The delegation was formed by the members of the Special Training Program, a tutored group of undergraduate students in International Relations, and had Professors Antonio Jorge (IR) and Marcus Faro (Law) as their Faculty Advisers.

The experience was considered so worthwhile by the delegates and professors that they decided to attend the 1997 edition of the Harvard World Model UN, which was held in Budapest.

The UnB team represented Brazil and left the event with two “best delegate” awards and several verbal commendations. More than that, those students, along with Professor Eiiti Sato (the first Director of the Brazilian Association of International Relations and currently Head of the IR Institute of UnB & AMUN’s Faculty Advisor), came back from Hungary willing to launch the Models UN initiatives South America.

The idea came up when the Harvard World MUN staff suggested the idea of having a Brazilian candidacy for hosting the next World MUN edition. The UnB students thought at the time that this would be too ambitious, given the total lack of a Model UN culture in Brazil.

However, already on the flight back to Brazil, those students discussed for hours and hours about the idea of organizing a more modest conference, a pioneer of its kind in Brazil.

The UnB students counted on the support of the Georgia Institute of Technology on this endeavor, and on March 31st, 1998, the first edition of the Americas Model United Nations was officially started in Brasília.

The difficulties were enormous but AMUN team managed its path through all challenges and has ever since stood for the MUNs culture and UN principles throughout the continent. Always improving upon its own tradition of innovation and excellence, AMUN not only remains at the core of MUNs life in Brazil, but also have spilled over from the category of ordinary extension project.

AMUN committee discussions are envisioned to directly contribute to approaching real problems, both informing and calling upon the society’s consciousness towards pressing issues. For more than 5 five years, AMUN has bore the concern of advancing the most challenging issues in academic discussions and its study guides have been welcomed by  renown universities worldwide.

Finally, AMUN partners also praise its marvelous phase. Never before has project had such amount of admirers and sponsors and, for the second time in this 2009 edition, AMUN will be held in IRBr, the official Brazilian diplomacy school, operated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.