MODULE 1: RULES OF PROCEDURE

Module 1: Rules of Procedure

Before we start with understanding rules of procedure here are a few things you should know
about MUNs
● Everything happens here democratically i.e. everything is proposed to the committee
through the statements called MOTIONS and then it's voted upon.
● At the end of the committee there is a final committee document that's made which may
or may not require voting.

Roll call

It's like the attendance it has 2 purposes

1. To mark your presence.
2. To clarify your stance on whether or not you plan to confirm your vote on the document
at the very beginning of the committee.

Answer/reply to roll call: A) Present B) Present and voting

● Present: you are present in the committee, you might or might not vote for committee's
final document (Favour, Against or Abstain)

● Present and Voting: You mark your presence and assure that you'll vote for the end
document (In Favour or Against)

Note:
a) If it's a multiple day long conference, you can change your stance from present to present
and Voting, but you can't change it from present and Voting to present.
b) You can't give your Roll call as Present and voting if you aren't a member nation.
c) even if you have said present you still can't abstain in a procedural motion (A motion related
to procedures)
Setting up the Agenda

In MUNs you are often allocated different committees for e.g. The World Health Organization
now WHO discusses health which comprises physical, social and psychological well-being. Now
in any given session WHO can discuss either one of them or any two of them, so that would be
its agenda for that session i.e. what will be discussed in that particular conference out of all
the things it can discuss.

For e.g. Your Science teacher can teach you any of the 12 chapters in her class if she decides to
teach Chapter 6, Chapter 6 Becomes your agenda for the class. Before starting the class everyone
is informed about what will be done today. Similarly, we set an agenda to decide what will be
discussed today or in the current session.

Motion to Set up the Agenda:

Delegate of ________ (your country) wishes to raise a motion to set up the Agenda to
_________ (your agenda)

Debate

There are two types of debate in MUNs

1. Formal Debate: It includes General Speakers list
2. Informal Debate: This includes Moderated Caucus and Unmoderated caucus.

Formal Debate

General Speakers list: general speakers list allows a delegate to deliver a statement on the
agenda and stance on it which does not put them under an obligation to cater to any specific
part of it. For instance, if the agenda is 'party' you can talk about any type of party, or advantages
of it or requirements of it. you are not obligated to talk about only birthday parties or pool parties
or any other specific part of it.

GSL allows you to cover any part of the agenda in your speech that seems important to you
or present your country's stance or balance the two.
Characteristics of GSL:
1. It is for by default time of 90 seconds.
2. It is an inexhaustible list i.e. it can't end till the committee goes on, if it ends the
committee has to directly move on to the voting process of the end document.

Note: As GSL is inexhaustible, so, we switch between GSL and Informal Debate.

Motion for GSL

Delegate of _______ wishes to raise a motion to establish general speakers list for individual
time being 90 seconds

Yields
Individual time for GSL is by default 90 seconds but if a delegate gets done with their speech in
lesser time they can utilize it through yields. Yields is basically how you use your remaining time
left in your GSL speech

Types of yields

1. Yield to the chair/floor: Giving your remaining time to your executive board/judges to
use it further.
2. Yield to Another Delegate: Giving your remaining time to another delegate. They can
accept the yield and speak for more time.
3. Yield to Points of Information: In this yield other delegates can ask you questions.

Informal Debate

Informal Debate has two parts: Moderated Caucus and Unmoderated Caucus.

● Moderated Caucus
As the agenda is very broad and we can't discuss it as a whole so for making it convenient and
systematic we divide the main-agenda into sub-agenda and then debate on it. Just like in your
textbooks the first page of the Chapter mentions what all it covers, to make it convenient for you
to understand. For e.g. if your agenda is "Child Marriage" so your Moderated Caucus topics can
be
1. Cultural reasons behind child marriage.
 2. Educational backlash due to child marriage.
3. Reproductive health of women in child marriage.

In nutshell, Moderated Caucus is a speech on any sub part of the agenda which is
supervised by executive board/ Chair/ judges/ dias.

Motion for Moderated Caucus

Delegate of _________ wishes to raise a motion to suspend the Formal Debate and move into a
Moderated Caucus on the topic ____________ for total time being _____ and individual time
being _____

Note:Maximum individual time can be equal to or less than GSL time.

Total time can be of minimum 5 minutes and maximum 20 minutes.

● Unmoderated Caucus

Whenever there are disagreements or lack of a final solution we discuss, consider alternatives
and then come up with a final conclusion. For e.g. your teacher tells you that there can either be a
trip to a hill station or a beach. Now some of your classmates want to go to the beach, others for
mountains, looking at the argument your teacher tells you to decide amongst yourselves and
inform her. So you make a circle around, get up from your seats and discuss and finally come to
a solution. This is exactly what is done in unmoderated caucus. When there is a lack of
consensus delegates negotiate and discuss in a group discussion format rather than just
giving speeches.

Motion for Unmoderated Caucus

Delegate of _________ wishes to raise a motion to suspend the Formal Debate and move into a
Unmoderated Caucus for total time being _____

Note:Total time can be of minimum 5 minutes and maximum 20 minutes.

Points
Points are used to raise individualistic concerns, inquiries or questions. There are 4 types of
points:
 1. Point of Enquiry: If you have doubt regarding anything, your speech, timings of your
speech, break or anything else you can ask it from the executive board.
2. Point of Personal Privilege: If you feel discomfort or you require some assistance, you
can raise a point of personal privilege.
3. Point of Order: When something is not in correct order i.e. if in case there's a mistake by
executive board be it in correct order of speech, or correct order of motions then you can
highlight that mistake and raise a point of order. Earlier points of orders were also taken
on factual inaccuracies, when other delegate states the wrong facts point of order could
be raised.
4. Point of Information: This means you are simply seeking more information by asking
questions on the already existing information in a speech. Point of information can be
used as another word for questions.

Note: All points are valid during formal Debate only, except for Point of personal privilege
that's valid during informal Debate as well.

Documentation

At the end the entire discussion is concluded with a document that notes committee proceedings,
future plans and discussed solutions. Documents are of different types like draft resolution,
Recommendation Paper, Press Release etc.

The most formal form of documentation is Draft Resolution (refer to module 4 to know how it's
made) which has a very elaborate procedure for discussion after delegates are done making it. It
involves:

1. Introduction of the Draft Resolution

The draft resolution is introduced to the committee that means the committee is informed
about who has made the Draft Resolution(Sponsors), Who all are in favor of its
discussion (signatories), what the resolution deals with and a basic reading is done of the
resolution.

Motion: Delegate of _____ wishes to raise a motion to table the debate and introduce the
draft resolution __
 Table the debate: It means the delegate wants to temporarily suspend the discussion on
ongoing issues and list upcoming items.

2. Discussion of the Draft Resolution:

After the draft resolution is introduced in the committee it is discussed among the
delegates in different ways like
● Clausing: Each operative clause is read and discussed in the committee in a clause
by clause manner
● Points of Information: Questions can be asked on clauses in the draft resolution.
● Speeches: by giving speeches on the draft resolution the points can be highlighted
for e.g. having a moderated caucus to discuss the draft resolution.

Motion: Delegate of ___ wishes to raise a motion to discuss draft resolution ____

3. Amendments: Amendments refers to changes or processes of bringing changes in the

draft resolution. Amendments can be done on 2 basis

● Nature of Change: On the basis of what kind of change an amendment brings to the
resolution it is classified as
a. Addition amendment: Through this amendment delegates can add something to
a resolution be it a clause or additional part to an existing clause
b. Deletion Amendment: This is the amendment that helps in deleting a part of the
resolution. For e.g. A clause or part of a Clause.
c. Modification Amendment: Using this amendment delegates can bring a change
in the resolution by modifying existing clauses.

● Implementation of the Change: After the addition/deletion/Modification amendments

are proposed to decide whether or not It will be implemented, amendments are further
classified into Two types:
a. Friendly Amendments: If the sponsor (The one who makes the draft Resolution)
agrees to implement the change directly it is a friendly Amendment and it doesn't
require voting
b. Unfriendly Amendment: If all the sponsors of the resolution denies the
implementation of the change proposed through addition/ deletion/ modification
amendment it is called Unfriendly amendment. Once an amendment is termed as
 unfriendly, it is voted upon and it's implemented only if it passes in the committee
with ⅔ of votes.
Note: Amendments can only be made to operative clauses (refer to module 4 )

4. Voting on the Draft Resolution: Once a draft resolution is discussed it is voted upon.
The voting process followed is a "roll call vote" which means instead of voting by
raising placards/hands each country will be individually called out and then they
announce their vote. The resolution passed only if it gained ⅔ of votes i.e. a special
majority.

Advanced Rules of Procedure

1. Right of Reply: If a delegate feels their country has been insulted they can request for a
right of Reply by verbally seeking permission, or seeking permission in writing. If the
right of reply is granted, the delegate can rebuttal the statement that insulted them or their
nation.
2. Order of disruption: When multiple motions are raised for informal Debate, the motion
that is most disrupted is voted upon first irrespective of the order. In this case
unmoderated Caucus with more time are voted upon first followed by Moderated Caucus
that gives a chance to more speakers.
3. Order of precedence: In case of 2 motions being equally disruptive, the motion that is
raised first is voted upon first.

Things you must Also know:

1. Voting: Voting is of two types- Substantive voting and procedural voting. We do

procedural voting to vote for procedures for e.g. A moderated caucus, GSL, break,
adjournment etc. It requires 50%+1 vote to pass it. Substantive Voting is done when
there is a motion that would be leading to a crucial step for the committee. For e.g. A
draft resolution, Amendments, changes in the procedures etc.
Note: In roll call we clarify our stance on substantive voting, it's mandatory to vote in
procedural voting.

2. Breach of Mandate: every body of the United Nations has a specific work to do which is
called its mandate for e.g. the math department in your school has a mandate to teach
 math only. If any body of the United Nations tries to do what another body is supposed to
do, it's called a breach of mandate. For e.g. if a math teacher starts teaching English they
are not doing their own job that is a breach of mandate.

3. Substantive Intervention: If delegates fail to discuss what is needed to be discussed or

make a breach, the executive board interferes to show them a direction.

4. Membership: Some bodies in the United Nations have all the countries as members, that
is known as a universal membership, some bodies in the United Nations have only a
few countries as members so they have Elected or selected members.

5. Nations: It is another word for countries. Nations that are part of a body of the UN called
its member nations. Other nations who join the discussion of that body just for
observing are known as observer nations. For e.g. if you study in 7-B and your senior
from 10-D comes to observe your class, he will be called an observer, where as you will
be a member of 7-B

Contact us on
Email: [email protected]

Website: www.thenovices.co.in