Guest Speakers

Here you will find the people that will make our 2024 conference more interesting with their professional point of view on the issues the delegates will be discussing during the weekend.

Keynote speaker

Geoffrey van Leeuwen

We will be welcoming Mr. Van Leeuwen to speak during our Opening Ceremony on April 5th

Geoffrey van Leeuwen is currently the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation. His tasks include the Sustainable Development Goals as well as international climate policy. Part of his job is to regulate international trade, but it also includes meeting with a variety of leaders to discuss aid. He has also served as an advisor to the Prime Minister on foreign policy and defense, as well as representing the Netherlands as an Ambassador in Afghanistan. His experience in and expertise of the diplomatic field are of incredible value, especially in today's day and age, and we are very excited to welcome him at the HMUN Opening Ceremony of 2024.

Guest Speaker GA1

Jan Broeks

We will be welcoming Mr. Broeks in the GA1 on Saturday at 10.30

Jan Broeks is the Vice-Chair of the Peace and Security Committee at the Dutch Advisory Council on Internal Affairs, an organization that writes up advisory reports which are read and used by the Dutch government. He has also served as a Lieutenant General in the Dutch military, as well as Director-General International Military Staff at NATO. Furthermore, he was a representative at the EU and NATO for several years, and currently holds the position of Senior Mentor at NATO defence college. He has assisted in the writing of several advisory reports, one of which concerning the importance of regulating and investing in Autonomous Weapon Systems, which we have invited him to speak on.

Guest speaker ECOSOC

Julia Soldatiuk-Westerveld,

We will be welcoming Ms. Soldatiuk-Westerveld in the ECOSOC on Saturday at 15.00

Julia Soldatiuk-Westerveld is a Research Fellow on EU and Global Affairs at the Clingendael Institue. Her research is aimed at contemporary issues in Eastern Europe, regarding politics, economics and securities. A particular focus lies with the post-war reconstruction in Ukraine and the EU-integration progress of this nation. She has worked at both VNG international and PAX, peacebuilding organizations in the Netherlands, where she advised governments in Eastern Partnership countries. She is very educated on the EU's global position, IDPs, and post-conflict recovery, the topic we requested her to speak about.

Guest speaker UNEP

Maxime Veenhoven

We will be welcoming Ms. Veenhoven in the UNEP on Friday at 11.30

Maxime Veenhoven is a researcher at the Netherlands Court of Audit, one of the main bodies responsible for investigating the government's way of handling money. They report to the parliament once a year, and publish individual reports about a variety of subjects. Maxime has worked on a report regarding the Dutch influence on clean water in developing countries, where the Netherlands' contribution to drinking water and sanitation is elaborated upon in great detail. This is the reason we asked her to speech for us in this committee.

Guest speaker GA6

Jelle Snoeks

We will be welcoming Mr. Snoeks in the GA6 on Friday at 11.30

Jelle Snoeks has now worked at the Stedelijk Gymnasium Haarlem for eight years, but before that, he spent many years working in the military. His experience ranges from the Navy to the Dutch Ministry of Defense, where he has learned much about terrorism and its combating. His knowledge of this issue will be the topic of his speech at our conference. We hope that delegates learn quite a bit from this informative speech.

Guest speaker UNODC

Marco Hennis

We will be welcoming Mr. Hennis in the UNODC on Saterday in the afternoon

Marco Hennis has a very impressive diplomatic career, having represented the Netherlands in the United Nations IAEA as well as the UNODC. He has also worked as both the current king and former queen's chief of staff, as well as being the Dutch Ambassador in Vienna. He has additionally also worked in Istanbul. Having all this experience makes it go without saying that Marco Hennis is an impressive individual with a great extent of experience. We are honored to welcome him at HMUN this year, where he will be speaking to the UNODC on his expertise.

Guest speaker ICJ

Suhong Yang

We will be welcoming Ms. Yang on Friday at 10.30

Suhong Yang has a broad range of expertise regarding international law. She is the Secretary of the American Society of International Law Women in International Law Interest Group, and has worked as a legal intern at the High Commissioner for Human Rights. She has published works with Cambridge and Oxford, as well as possessing a great amount of knowledge on hybrid courts. As our theme is aimed at the innovation of systems, her speech can be especially interesting for the innovation of legal systems. At the moment, she is working for the International Court of Justice in the Hague, the same committee she will be speaking to. We look forward to having our delegates learn from someone with so much knowledge of International law!

Guest speaker SPC2

Maarten de Ruijter,

Speaker for the Second Special Conference

We will be welcoming Mr. de Ruijter on Friday at 10.30

Maarten de Ruijter is currently active at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, where he works with the innovation of medical technology and medicine. He works in the sector the SPC2 will be debating on, making him the perfect guest speaker for this committee. Before working at the Ministry, he fulfilled roles managing both COVID-19 and healthcare investigations. We look forward to hearing from him at our conference.

Guest Speaker HRC

Hans Hoebeke

We will be welcoming Mr. Hoebeke on Saturday

Hans Hoebeke worked as a Senior Analyst on the DR Congo at the Crisis Group for several years, before becoming a self-employed consultant. He has worked at the Belgium Ministry for Foreign Affairs as well as their Ministry of Defense, both in African Affairs. He has spent many years researching African Peace and Security, enhancing his knowledge to a great extent. We are very excited to have him speak on the human rights situation in Congo regarding their mining industry and look forward to hearing from such an expert on this topic.

Guest Speaker SC

Shawintala Banwarie

We will be welcoming Ms. Banwarie on Saterday at 14.30

Shawintala Banwarie is a journalist at Volzin and De Kanttekening. She mainly writes on hinduïsm and interreligious dialogue, two subjects incredibly important in the issue of the Kashmir crisis. She has written many articles on political and humanitarian crises, such as the one taking place in Kashmir. As a journalist, she has gained lots of insight in the issue and expanded her expertise on the topic greatly. We look forward to learning from her.

Guest Speaker G20

Arnoud Boot

We will be welcoming Mr. Boot on Friday at 16.00

Arnoud Boot is a Dutch economist who currently serves as the chairman of the European Finance Association and the Sustainable Finance Lab. He is also a research fellow and council member of several other economy-related organizations and has multiple published books to his name. He has an in-depth understanding of various economic phenomena, currently with a focus on corporate finance and governance. He, however, also knows a fair share about financial institutions. We have invited him to speak on the issue regarding tax havens, something he has been invited to speak on in the media a few times already.

Guest Speaker GA4

Jeroen Fröhlich

We will be welcoming Mr. Fröhlich on Friday at 10.00

Jereon Fröhlich is an expert on the field of damage claims and the current CEO of Sedgwick. He has a lot of knowledge on insurances in the changing world we currently inhabit and is a very good speaker as well. He has researched the peaceful use of outer space especially to give a speech to our delegates, something we are very grateful for. We look forward to hearing from him!

Guest Speaker NATO

Davis Ellison

We will be welcoming Mr. Ellison on Saturday at 14.00

Davis Ellison is currently a strategic analyst at the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, where he specializes in security and defense affairs. Before this, he worked at the NATO Allied Command Transformation, also as a strategist. He is particularly educated on political-military affairs and international organizations, both very relevant for participants in the HMUN NATO. We have invited him to speak to NATO about his experience in the real-life organization and the strategic field, and are very curious to see what we can learn from him.

Guest Speaker SPC1

Sytze Hiemstra

We will be welcoming Mr. Hiemstra on Friday at 11.30

Sytze Hiemstra is a lawyer specialized in civil and criminal law. He works in many fields, varying from minors being placed out of their home and labor law. He is currently writing a book with three others about fake news and the spread of misinformation, topics which will be debated upon by our delegates in the Second Special Conference. We have invited him to speak on his findings while writing the book and help our delegates understand these multi-faceted issues.

Guest Speaker EXCOM

Samuël Kruizinga

We will be welcoming Mr. Kruizinga on Friday at 11.00

Samuël Kruizinga has received his doctorate at the University of Amsterdam, having studied contemporary and military history at Leiden, Paris and Oxford. He is an expert on conflict and conflict resolution and crises in Modern Europe, as well as having published several works on European history. His knowledge of European political history is very relevant to the ExCom's issue, the Treaty of Versailles (1919), as it has shaped Europe and the world as we know it today. We are wondering about the insights he has gained over the years and hope our delegates learn a lot from him.

Guest Speaker UNHCR

Amelia Todd

We will be welcoming Ms. Todd on Saturday at 15.00

Amelia Todd currently works at the Internationa Justice Mission, a global organization looking to end modern slavery. The organization works with other groups all over the world. Their means vary from strengthening justice systems to rescuing and restoring victims from modern slavery and abuse. Refugees are people who are easily caught up in problems like these, considering their weaker state in today's world. We look forward to having an expert's opinion and insights on an issue like this!

Guest Speaker BRICS

Catarina Vieiria

We will be welcoming Ms. Vieiria on Saturday at 16.00

Catarina Vieira is affiliated with the Dutch political party Groenlinks-PvdA, where she is a candidate for the European parliament. Having moved to the Netherlands only 7 years ago from Portugal, she has a good view of the world on an international level, as well as being very knowledgeable on subjects regarding Europe and international politics. Additionally, she advocates for more youthful influence in political organizations, making her the perfect candidate to speak at HMUN, for a group of young people interested in politics.

Guest Speaker ASEAN

Andres Solari

We will be welcoming Mr. Solari on Friday at 10.00

Andres Solari has a Phd in international and in european law from the university of Maastricht , and is currently finishing his thesis about international humanitarian law. He represents Ukrainian families against the Russian Federation (pro bono) at the European Court of Human rights, on top of having published works on genocides. He is a former combat veteran and holds a Master's in International Affairs, specifically in Southeast Asia, making him the perfect person to speak to our Asean+ on the South-China Sea conflict.

Guest Speaker HSC

John Kegel

We will be welcoming Mr. Kegel on Friday at 10.15

John Kegel is a research staff member at Leiden University, where he specializes in African military and economic history from 1850 onwards. His PhD is written on the Rwandan struggle for Liberation consists of both research and interviews with veterans. This makes him the perfect candidate to speak to our Historic Security Council, as it is exactly what that committee will be debating.

Guest Speaker UNICEF

Sabine Hannema

We will be welcoming Ms. Hannema on Friday at 10:30

Sabine Hannema works in the UMC hospital in Amsterdam. She helps children, teens and parents with questions about growth, puberty or disorders of the thyroid or adrenal glands. She also works in the team for children and young people with a variation/disorder of gender development and at the Knowledge and Care Center for gender dysphoria. As she has a wide knowledge about hormones and gender incongruence, we think the delegates can learn a lot from her. We are inspired by Sabine’s work and excited to have her at our conference!

Guest Speaker CSW

Alex van Hellemond

We will be welcoming Ms. Hellemond on Friday

Prior to her second arrival in the Netherlands, Alex van Hellemond has worked in Switzerland, the USA and China. She is an experienced, published educator with a demonstrated history of working in the secondary education industry. As a Science Research educator, she has received fellowships from Columbia University Partners in Science Program and the Woodrow Wilson Institute at Princeton University. Alex is a lifelong educator with a passion for learning. She loves to be with students, hearing their voices and supporting them on their learning journeys. Her knowledge of the educational world and the position of women in it is what we have invited her to speak on to the CSW at HMUN.

Guest Speaker AUPSC

Arda Gerkens

Arda Gerkens was a member of both the House of Representatives and the Senate of the Dutch government, on behalf of the Socialist Party. She was also the director of the Hotline for Child Pornography on the Internet, and is currently Chairman of the Board of the Authority for Online Terrorist and Child Pornographic Material. Besides this, she also worked a few months as a teacher. She also worked as the first Vice-Chairman of the Senate. In addition to all this experience, she is an expert on the area of terrorism, which is what we have invited her to speak about at HMUN.