What is MUN?

(Model United Nations)

 MUN is a simulation of an actual United Nations Conference, where

students are tasked with solving a global issue through research,
drafting, lobbying & debate to pass a suitable resolution.
 Students take on the role of delegates, speakers, & chairs,
representing different countries & work together with other students
from different backgrounds to take part in discussions & reach a
solution for the agenda they are assigned.

Another full form of MUN:

 Manipulation
 Understanding
 Negotiation

Delegate: The delegate is the diplomat who represents the country in a

specific MUN committee.

Benefits of MUN

 Worldly knowledge
 Personality development
 Analytical & Problem-solving skills
 Art of diplomacy & leadership
 Effective communication & networking
 Writing Skills
 College applications & admissions

Terminologies of MUN

Terminologies are the terms or actual wordings in MUN.

 Pla Card
 Executive Board
 Agenda (problems in the world → the topic)
 Chits

Delegate: A participant at a MUN who represents a country in a specific

MUN committee. Delegates use speeches, lobbying, negotiation & writing
to get their country’s interest on a resolution.
Chits: In a MUN, delegates utilise chits to communicate through written
messages. They are passed through the organising council/logistics
members.

Executive Board

 The executive board of MUN is comprised of individuals who have

been selected after an extensive process of judging their merit &
skills, verifying their experience, calculating the dynamics of the
entire board with the requirements of the secretariat.
 The panel/group of people is entrusted with one of the biggest
tasks in making an MUN conference successful – to guide their
respective councils through debate on the agenda & throughout
the debate, to judge the delegates who put in a tremendous
effort to rise above the rest in all aspects of being a delegate.
 The executive board comprises of 3 persons:
1. Chairperson (Senior most) – keeps the debate running &
judges the delegates.
2. Vice Chairperson – supports the chairperson.
3. Rapporteur (Junior most) – takes attendance/roll call
(mostly procedural duties).

___________________________________________________________________________
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Roll Call

 Within MUN, the roll call is normally used to check, who is attending
& how many people are attending. Through this, the chairs are able
to calculate the majority which is required within procedural &
substantial voting.
 When you hear your countries name, you can simply reply with
“present”. If you want to declare how serious you are about the
topic that is being discussed, you can also say “present and voting”.
If you use this, you are not able to abstain during substantive votes,
meaning you have to truly have an opinion on a matter.

In MUN, committee proceedings are manged through points and motions.

Points: -

1. Point of personal privilege

It is used to express a personal request/discomfort. It can interrupt
the speaker, unlike other points or motions, and does not require a
vote.
Point of parliamentary enquiry
2. A point of parliamentary inquiry allows a delegate to direct a
question to the executive board or committee chairperson. It is
addressed to the dais and does not require a vote. Delegates may
only inquire about procedure/rules and not about the agenda or the
topic of discussion.
3. Point of order (court, uncourt)
A point of order is raised when there is an error with the chairs, a
rude comment by another delegate, or false information being
stated. It does not require a vote.
It is used to point out errors that the executive board may
have made during the debate proceedings, such as forgetting to call
for a vote or take attendance. Delegates typically use it to address
factual errors.
Format:
The delegate of XYZ country would like to raise a point of
order to the delegate of ABC country. The delegate said 'court'
[clarification] 'uncourt' [correction]."
4. Point of Information
It is used when a delegate wishes to ask a question to another
delegate after their speech. This must be phrased as a question
rather than a statement. These can only be used in a formal debate
at the end of a speaker’s speech and do not require a vote.

Motions
Motions are used to direct committee proceedings or to move from one
element to another in the flow of debate.

GSL
The speaker’s list is a physical list of the order to the speakers. Each of
the speaker is able to make a long uninterrupted speech about the
agenda as part of speaker’s list.

At the end of the speech the delegate may also be able to respond to
questions from the committee.

There is no motion required to enter into speaker’s list, as it’s the default
proceeding of the committee.

If there are no other motions on the floor, then the debate automatically
reverts the speaker’s list.

Usually, a speaker’s list speech is between 90s and 2 mins long.

The speech addresses the agenda as a whole and as the conference

proceeds, the speech is also used to comment on the committee
proceedings and to provide direction to the debate.

Format of GSL

 1st Para: Basic Introduction of the Agenda/topic by stating facts etc.

 2nd Para: What UN has done for it, what your country believes on
what your country stands for.
 3rd Para: Provide one/two solutions or you can also ask the countries
to come together for a solution if you don’t have one.

Yeilding Time

At the end of the speech, the delegate may choose to use their time to
answer questions, which is called a yield.

In case there is no time remaining the delegate will not be allowed to

yield.

Yields are only allowed during GSL; they are suspended during moderated
caucus.

Types of Yield

1. To the Executive Board

(means that we give the remaining time to the executive board.)
2. To another Delegate
(means we give up the rest of our time to another delegate for their
speech.)
3. POI
 (means giving our time to another delegates for asking questions.)
4. To Comment
(means giving our time to another delegates for commenting on our
speech.)

Chits
Chits refer to written notes or messages exchanged between
delegates during committee sessions. There are 3 types of chits:
1. To EB
2. To delegate & from delegate
3. Chits via EB

Motions

1. Moderated Caucus
Moderated Caucuses can be raised in the middle of GSL when the
chair asks if there are any motions on the floor. The delegation
putting it forward must include the duration of caucus, speakers
time & topic.
The way to raise this is, for example, assuming I am the delegate
of India, I will say:
“The delegate of India would like to raise a Moderated Caucus on
the topic of agricultural impact of climate change, total time 10
minutes, an individual speaker’s time 1 minute.”
When this is passed, the committee will temporarily depart from
the General Speaker’s list to discuss specific issues within the
broader topic of debate.
Unlike GSL speeches, which are more generic in nature,
speeches made in moderated caucus should closely relate it to
the topic & the purpose of the caucus.
Moderated Caucus topics deal with more specific topics
pertaining to the general direction & larger agenda of the debate
& to understand different country viewpoints more nuanced
topics that fall under the subcategories of the debate.
Moderated Caucus can be a good way to find out who your allies
can be & who would you like to create a bloc with. They are also
a good way to define & direct the debate in the way you would
like it to be.
 In general, a moderated caucus should not exceed 15 minutes
with a 1-minute speaking time.
2. Unmoderated Caucus
Another important motion is that of an Unmoderated Caucus. The
delegate proposing this motion should suggest a time & topic for
it; for eg: to discuss working papers.
When it’s passed, the committee will temporarily depart from the
GSL. Unlike Moderated Caucus, it is Unmoderated, meaning a
purpose is not required.
During an Unmoderated Caucus, no formal procedure is
needed to make a speech, in other words, delegates can move
around the room & speak with other delegates.
This time is usually used to lobby for bloc formations, discuss
working papers & work on draft resolutions.
3. Draft Resolutions & Working Paper
A working paper is the draft form of the resolution. A working
paper is a resolution that is still being written & developed by
delegates.
Once a working has been developed to the point that is fully
written & formatted correctly, it may be submitted to the chairs
for consideration as a draft resolution.
Once the motion to introduce draft resolution is made, it is
adopted automatically, & the resolution may now be debated &
referred to in formal debate by its assigned resolution number.

Background Guide in MUN

The Background Guides as papers written by the dias to serve as the basis
for delegates to understand the topics to be discussed in committee
session.

It guides delegates & debates and ensures that the delegates are aware of
the main implications of issues being discussed.

The Secretary General of the Un

 The Secretary General of the United Nations has the highest position
in MUN, the Chief administrative officer of the UN & the head of UN
Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of UN.
  The Secretary General is considered the Captain on Board, but their
work – the overall supervision of the conference is facilitated by the
rest of the members of the secretariat, namely the Deputy Secretary
General & the President of the General Assembly.

Draft Resolution (DR)

 A resolution is a written document that contains our caucus bloc’s

solution of the topic.
 Our goal in MUN is to work with our caucus bloc to write & pass a
resolution.

DR Format (• Heading, • Pre-ambulatory clauses, • Operative

clauses)

Resolution Papers should always be in Times New Roman and Font size
12.5.

Header: -

 Sponsors: The countries who contribute to the writing & ideation.

 Signatories: Countries who want the DR to be debated upon or
discussed.
 Committee: Whatever committee you are allotted to.
 Topic: The agenda.

The Header also contains the following: -

 Resolution Number (given by chair)

 Title of Resolution
 Main UN Committee that you’re proposing the solutions from, eg:
“The General Assembely,”

Preambulatory Clauses

 They are the existing solutions, policies on laws on a particular

agenda.
 The purpose of Preambulatory Clauses is to:
a. Identify problems you plan to solve.
b. Recall past international actions.
 Preambulatory Clauses formatting:
a. Firstly, describe a problem you want to solve in one complete
sentence.
 b. Add a Preambulatory Phrase at the beginning of that sentence
that describes how your country feels about the problem.
c. The first word of your Preambulatory Clause, i.e. the
Preambulatory Phrase should be Bold, Italics & Underlined.
d. End with a Comma (,)
 Preambulatory Clauses Examples:

Operative Clauses
 The purpose of Operative Clauses:
a. To recommend solutions to issues.
b. You should have more Operative Clauses than Preambulatory
Clauses – more solutions than problems.
 Operative Clauses formatting:
a. Firstly, describe a solution to the problem you choose in one
sentence.
b. Add an Operative Phrase at the beginning of that sentence
that describes what action needs to be done to implement the
solution.
c. Bold/Underline the operative phrase.
d. Number the operative clause.
e. End with a Semicolon (;)
 Operative Clauses Examples:

Sponsors: • Speaking Sponsors, • Writing Sponsors

How do we discuss a DR?

  Moderated Caucus
 Provisional Speaker’s List
 Clause by Clause

Amendments: a change made to a resolution during committee session.

Types of Amendments

 Modification
 Deletion
 Addition

The first motion is raised during GSL.

 With the prior permission of the executive board, the delegate of

_______ would like to raise a motion to start GSL.

GSL speech can be divided into 3 parts: -

1. Hook: Attention seeking lines; used to grab the attention of your

fellow delegates in the committee.
2. Point: Your country policy on the topic. Important Information in
your speech (atleast one point should be there).
3. Call to Action: Possible solutions on the topic, what you want the
whole world to do about your agenda.

If we follow this – Hook, Point, Action, it will really improve our public
speaking.

Documents (types)

1. Position Paper: Is your own research.

2. Working Paper: Is for solution
3. Daft Resolution: A written document; contains our caucus bloc’s
solution to the topic.

** A working paper can’t be referred to as “draft resolution” until the

committee has voted to introduce it. Unlike a DR, a working paper does
not need to take on any particular format.
MUN Resolution

1. Name of Committee
2. Sponsors
3. Signatories
4. Topic/Agenda
5. Resolution Number (provided by EB)
6. UN Committee that you’re proposing the resolution from.