Rules of Procedure

How to MUN
Some Key terms
1. Delegate : A participant acting as a representative of a member state in an
MUN committee
2. Agenda: The main/ broad topic of discussion under the consideration of the
committee. Example: The Western Sahara economic Crisis
3. Chairperson: A member of the dias, who moderates the debate, keeps time,
rules upon decisions and and enforces rules of procedure
4. Vice Chairperson : The Second in command to the Chairperson, responsible
for maintaining Verbatim, marking and assisting the Chairperson
5. Rapporteur : A member of the dias, whose duties are taking roll call, going
through chits passed and administrative duties in committee.
The Chairperson, Vice- Chairperson and the Rapporteur together form the
Executive Board.
Some Key Terms
6.Placard: A piece of Cardstock with the country/portfolios name and insignia that a
delegate uses for recognition by the Executive board by raising it in the air.
7. Member State : A country that has ratified the Charter of the United Nations, and
whose application to join has been accepted by the General Assembly and the Security
Council. There are 193 Member states.
8.Observer State : A state, national organization, regional organization, or
non-governmental organization that is not a member of the UN but participates in its
debates. Observers can vote on procedural matters but not substantive matters.
9.Formal debate: The "standard" type of debate at a Model UN conference, in which
delegates speak for a certain time in an order based on a speakers' list.
10. Informal Debate: In debate consists of sessions called caucuses, there are two
types of caucuses; moderated caucuses and unmoderated caucuses.
Some Key Terms
Informal Debate is of two types:

1. Moderated caucus : These sessions, rather than consisting of general

debate, are highly specific and have a specified time limit and topic. They are
moderated by the Chairperson.
2. Unmoderated caucus: In these sessions delegates can get up and freely
discuss things with other delegates and work on speeches, resolutions etc.

11. Chits: Small pieces of paper delegates may send to each other or the EB to
raise points or communication.
Recognition
A delegate may not speak whenever they intend to. All delegates need to be
recognised by the Chairperson/ Executive board before speaking. To be
recognised, one may simply raise their placard. The Chairperson will thus call out
your country’s name and may ask you about the point to which you rise.

If the chairperson deems your request appropriate, you may follow with the
appropriate action, else sit down and continue working.
Roll Call
The first order of business in a Model UN committee is the roll call. During the roll
call, Rapporteur 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.

Ideally, a country which is directly involved in the situation at hand should respond
by "present and voting'.
The General Speaker’s list
An essential part of conventional committees, the General Speaker's List is a list
of speakers wishing to speak on any aspect of the agenda. The GSL is initiated at
the very beginning of the committee, and speakers can be periodically added. As
soon as the GSL gets exhausted, the committee is deemed to be over.

Procedure: "With prior permission from the Executive Board, the delegate of
________ would like to establish the General Speaker's List."
Default Time:The default individual speaker's time for the GSL is 60 seconds. It
can be extended or reduced (min - 45 secs, max - 90 secs) by majority vote.
Provisional Speaker’s list
An essential part of unconventional committees, the Provisional Speaker's List is a
list of speakers wishing to speak on a specific aspect of the agenda. In a PSL
there are usually 4 delegates: two speaking in favour and two against a given
proposal or topic. The total and individual speaker’s time is chosen by the
chairperson.

Procedure: "With prior permission from the Executive Board, the delegate of would
like to establish the Positional Speaker's List, on topic________"
Round Robin
A round robin usually takes place in an unconventional committee. In a round
robin, all the delegates are obligated to speak in a particular order(usually
depending on how they sit) on a topic that is specified at the introduction of the
round robin.

Procedure: "With prior permission from the Executive Board, the delegate of would
like to establish a round robin with the agenda”_____” and individual speaker’s
time being ” ________” for the total time being “”
Moderated Caucus
The other form of debate in a committee is through Moderated Caucuses. It is a type of
caucus in which delegates remain seated and the Chair callson them one at a time to
speak for a short period of time, enabling a freer exchange of opinions than would be
possible in formal debate. Moderated caucuses have a set total time and a fixed topic
which is related to the agenda at hand.

Procedure: Raise placard and when recognized, say "with the prior permission of the
EB/Chair, the Delegate of ________would like to suspend formal debate and move into a
moderated caucus on topic_________with the total time being (Minimum 10 mins,
maximum 30 mins) and individual speaker's time being (Minimum 30 secs, maximum 90
secs).''
Unmoderated Caucus
The second form of informal debate, this is a type of caucus in which delegates
can leave their seats to mingle and speak freely. Enables the free sharing of ideas
to an extent not possible in formal debate or even a moderated caucus. Frequently
used to sort countries into blocs and to write working papers and draft resolutions.

Procedure Raise placard and when recognized, say 'With the prior permission of
the EB , the Delegate of________would like to suspend formal debate and move
into an unmoderated caucus with total time being________.
Points in an MUN
Points are generally requests raised by a delegate for information or for an action relating
to that delegate. There are four points, namely, points of order, points of information,
points of parliamentary inquiry, and points of personal privilege.
1. Point of Order: Points of order can be raised by Member States at any point in the
meeting. If a delegate believes that the Chairman is not following the Rules of
Procedure or not being sufficiently active in ensuring others do so, he/she may raise
a point of order. It is also used to point out factual inaccuracies made by another
delegate in committee.
Procedure: “The Delegate of _________ claimed _______. However the correct
statement is ___________________.” Be sure to quote the delegate in verbatim.
2.Point of Information : A delegate may These points are used to ask questions
from other delegates pertaining their speeches. Points of information can only be
asked verbally if the floor is open for them, otherwise they are to be sent via chit.

3. Point of Personal Privilege : A point of personal privilege is raised when a

delegate is experiencing physical discomfort. For example, a point of personal
privilege can be raised when one feels to hot/cold or when he/she is having
audibilty issues. This is the only point which can be raised in the midst of a
delegate's speech. The floor is always open for this point.
4.Point of Parliamentary Enquiry: This point is raised in order to ask any
procedural question from the Executive Board. For Example if you want to inquire
about the number of votes, quorum, status of GSL etc.

In order of higher to lower precedence, the points are as follows- Point of

Personal Privilege > Point of Parliamentary Enquiry >Point of Order > Point of
Information.
Resolution
A resolution is a document that contains all the issues that the committee wants to
solve and the proposed solutions to that issue.Technically, the resolution should
be called a draft resolution before it is voted upon and then called a resolution
after it is successfully passed during voting bloc.
Any delegate in the committee can write a resolution (although in rare instances
an observer state is not allowed to directly write a resolution). The author of a
resolution is called a sponsor. Most resolutions have multiple sponsors because it
takes a group of countries to share good ideas and to come to a consensus.
Delegates who are interested for a resolution to be discussed are called
signatories.
Clauses in a Resolution
Preambulatory Clauses: These clauses form the Preamble of the draft Resolution.

It states the reason for writing the Resolution, and highlights previous action on
the topic. Preambulatory clauses include:

● References to the UN Charter

● Citations of past UN resolutions or treaties on the topic under consideration
● Mentions of statements made by the Secretary General on the topic.
● Statement of impact of topic in consideration etc
The General Assembly,
Reminding all nations of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes the inherent dignity, equality and
inalienable rights of all global citizens, [use commas to separate preambulatory clauses]
Reaffirming its Resolution 33/1996 of 25 July 1996, which encourages
Governments to work with UN bodies aimed at improving the coordination and
effectiveness of humanitarian assistance,
Noting with satisfaction the past efforts of various relevant UN bodies and
nongovernmental organizations,
Stressing the fact that the United Nations faces significant financial obstacles
and is in need of reform, particularly in the humanitarian realm,
Clauses in a Resolution
Operative clauses: Operative clauses offer solutions to the agenda which the
committee discussed. Usually these include the suggestions made in the
speeches of various delegate made over the conference.

1. Calls upon the Red Cross to provide low-cost medicines to …..

2.Encourages all Latin american countries to make new….

3. Mandates the use of non-armoured vehicles ….

Plan Of Action
A plan of action does not follow as strict a format as a Resolution. You may not
use preambulatory clauses or underline them. Sometimes you might not need to
use operative clauses as well.

However a Plan of Action must be well detailed on what the committee/bloc

intends on doing. Every single detail of an operation being undertaken must be
mentioned, and every last detail covered.
Usually the executive board will inform you about the format in your briefing before
committee.
Directives
Directives are like special updates that may be introduced by a portfolio in a
committee. Directives detail out how your particular portfolio is going to handle the
crisis at hand.
For example if you are the Director of RAW in the Indian Cabinet, you may
introduce a directive about certain intelligence info gathered in pulwama about
militants or a potential bomb blast etc.

Please make sure your directives remain within the powers of your portfolio and
use them sparingly and sensibly.
Chits
Chits may be used for delegates to communicate with each other officially when
the committee is in session. You may write anything you want : you use chits to
lobby, provide others with your research, send the EB your views on a subject and
so on.

Chits may also be used to raise a point without having to disturb the entire
committee. A chit may be marked as ‘VIA EB’ this means that the message would
first go to the EB for review and then be sent to its recipient.
To : Russia

Via : EB / China

From: India

I have started to work on the draft resolution. I was wondering if Russia and China
would like to provide military aid to India in undertaking this huge operation.

This is just for example, this is not a case you ever need.
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