MUN’S: ALL THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW!

It’s everyone’s worst nightmare. Walking into a conference, a brand new experience, and having absolutely no idea what to do.

You’ve probably been told it’s easy, “Model UN can be learned during a conference” they say. It's true to an extent but in reality, if you want to start off your MUN career with a bang, it’s important to come to your first conference prepared.

Model United Nations is an academic simulation of the United Nations where students play the role of delegates from different countries and attempt to solve real-world issues with the policies and perspectives of their assigned country.

The first time doing Model United Nations may seem confusing. Delegates may be using all sorts of terms that are unfamiliar to you and it may almost seem like they are speaking another language. Fortunately, surviving committee is pretty easy if you know what the most important and commonly used terms, aka, ROP’S.

So, let’s start from scratch.

You and your partner(s) who represent a country or branch of the organization is known as delegation, formally known as delegates of a country. The delegates are there to represent the different countries in the committee, and the country’s views and opinions and not their own. For example, a delegate of the United Kingdom will have to solve global topics such as nuclear non-proliferation or climate change from the policies and perspectives of the United Kingdom.

Now, as mentioned before, it’s very important for a delegate to know the ROPs before attending the sessions. For example, walking into your first committee session can be confusing, because people aren’t going to be using pronouns like I or my. Instead, they’ll be following Parliamentary Procedure.

The Rules of Procedures (RoP) basically represent a code of conduct and working regulations of the conference and are not subject to change. They shall be considered as adopted at the beginning of the MUN conference. They are hence utilized by most Model UN conferences to maintain order a decorum by deciding who speaks, on what and when.

The parliamentary procedure also includes Points which are as follows:

• Points of Inquiry. These are used if you have a question about an aspect of the committee you don’t understand.
• Points of Personal Privilege. These are used if you experience some sort of discomfort such as the inability to hear a delegate, you would kindly bring this up to the chair.
• Points of Order. These are used if you believe there was a mistake made in the rules of procedure.
• Motions. Motions are used mainly to transition between stages of the committee. For example, motions are used to move into a moderated caucus or to move into voting procedure. They can also be used to open and suspend debate and various other things that vary from conference to conference.

Before the actual committee starts, a roll call takes place. Here the Executive Board reads aloud the names of each member state in the committee. When a delegate’s country’s name is called, he or she may respond “present” or “present and voting”. A delegate responding “present and voting” may not abstain on a substantive vote or voting on the Draft Resolution.

There should be a minimum number of delegates present for a committee to meet. This is called a Quorum. In the General Assembly, a quorum consists of one-third of the members to begin debate, and a majority of members to pass a resolution. In the Security Council, no quorum exists for the body to debate, but nine members must be present to pass a resolution.

The roll call is followed by the committee session.

The first duty of a committee is usually to set the agenda. The agenda is the order in which the issues before a committee will be discussed

Once the Committee begins it gets split up into four main phases, they are:

• Speakers List. A list that determines the order in which delegates will speak. Whenever a new topic is opened for discussion, the Chair will create a speakers’ list by asking all delegates wishing to speak to raise their placards and calling on them one at a time. During the debate, a delegate may indicate that he or she wishes to be added to the speakers’ list by sending a note to the dais.
• Moderated Caucuses. Moderated caucuses usually immediately follow Speakers Lists, and encourage more back and forth debate. Here, delegates talk about a specific issue which is usually related to the main agenda. During these, the delegate should be arguing as to why his/her country policy/ solutions should be carried forward with.
• Un-moderated Caucuses (Unmods). Unmods are used to form blocks and write working papers. Most of the time, motions for unmods take place after a few moderated caucuses when clear opinions have already been stated. During these, you should either be convincing others to work with your bloc, negotiating mergers or writing your working papers.
• Voting. The voting procedure is typically the last portion of the committee and is invoked by a motion. Working papers become draft resolutions when introduced, and then, if passed, become resolutions. To add on, countries like China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States have veto power, that is, they can prevent any draft resolution in the Security Council from passing by voting no. Also, nobody can enter or leave the committee during the voting procedure.

Voting in progress

There are mainly 2 types of debates during a session

1.Formal Debate:

The formal debate is what that consists of the speaker’s list. Delegates can be added or re-added at any time to the speaker’s list, usually by passing a note to the dais. Once a speaker is recognized, they may speak in front of the committee for an allocated time.

After the delegate speaks, they may yield to points, another delegate, or the chair. Typically, there are three types of yields:

1. Yield to the Chair; meaning you give up the rest of your time to Executive Board. The delegate may or may not entertain questions from the EB.
2. Yield to another delegate; meaning you give up the rest of your time to another delegate
3. Yield to questions from other delegates or Yield to comments; to your speech by other delegates. Questions are also called Points of Information.

A formal debate in progress

2.Informal Debate:

The informal debate is separated into moderated and unmoderated caucuses. Moderated caucuses are those overseen by the dais, while the unmoderated caucuses are not.

A typical Un- Mod

The ultimate purpose of a committee session is to pass a resolution.

A resolution is a document that has been passed by an organ of the UN that aims to address a particular problem or issue. All the speeches, debate, negotiation, and teamwork is supposed to lead up to a resolution which contains all the proposed solutions to the issue. The resolution that the majority of the committee agrees upon will be passed during voting and the sponsors will be commended for building consensus on good ideas. Most conferences allow multiple resolutions to pass as long as they do not contradict each other, but a few conferences allow only one resolution to pass.

So summing up, MUN’s may seem intimidating at first. There will be an influx of power delegates competing for awards. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself! There is nothing more rewarding than finishing your first Mun with a wealth of information that will help improve you as a delegate and further increase your chances at success in the future. It’s also a great platform to socialize and build your own circuits. So why wait, come explore the amazing world of MUNs!!

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Discuss. Deliberate. Debate.