WRITING A RESOLUTION

What is a “resolution”? A resolution is a formal expression of an opinion or intention, expressed by

PREPARING YOUR RESOLUTION

1 – Show the reality of the issue and the need to act

After having first defined the issue, do your research. Make a list of actions already taken and
existing laws and resolutions; inform yourselves on the position of different countries and political
parties, and particularly on your position, concerning the issue.

2 – Propose your solution

It is important to develop an action plan, consistent with the policies of the party you represent and
the interests of your country. Ideally, it must be acceptable by the majority of UN delegations.
While preparing it, consider it from different perspectives: economic, political, military, social or
environmental.

3 – Justify your action plan

Be prepared to defend your action plan point by point through figures and arguments. To do this
well, you must anticipate criticism and prepare your counter-arguments.

WRITING YOUR RESOLUTION

Most resolutions are formal recommendations of UN bodies and are the focal point of committee
and General Assembly debates. The resolutions may state an opinion or recommend that actions be
taken by a UN body or an affiliated organisation. The resolutions may have several areas of focus.
In preparing resolutions you must think of the following points.

• Once a UN body passes a resolution, that resolution determines its policy. Although most
resolutions are not political declarations, it is possible that a resolution includes a treaty,
declaration or convention in its entirety. Resolutions can be general declarations or specific
directives towards a UN or country's body or organism.

• Resolutions may condemn actions taken by states, may call for collective action or, in when
adopted by the Security Council, can impose economic or military sanctions.

• Be a sponsor of a resolution means that you only want the resolution to be discussed. You
can be against the resolution but sponsor it. On the oher hand, be a author of a resolution
means that you agree with the resolution and you will support it during the debate.

• When writing a resolution, delegates must keep in mind that the wording of a resolution will
influence the assembly’s understanding of it. For this reason, the resolution must be clear,
precise, and brief.
 • Vague resolutions that do not propose any specific plans of action will be severely criticized
during the debate. The content of a resolution must therefore reflect thorough research
beforehand, as well as the foreign policy of the delegation(s) submitting it.

• A resolution is a very long sentence, punctuated by commas and semicolons to separate

1. Heading

The heading provides precise information on the resolution, including its title, the committee it is
presented to, and the delegations sponsoring it.

2. Preambulatory clauses

The preamble of the resolution briefly presents the resolution’s reasons, that it properly falls within
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned, and the main justification for the propositions that
follow. The focus and expression of the preambulatory clauses should center upon the problem at
hand in its current context.

The preambulatory clauses should refer to relevant UN resolutions, precedents in international law,
and points of the UN Charter or other pertinent documents. The preamble may also include
altruistic appeals to common sense or to humanitarian motivations of the parties, referring to the
UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or even specific situations.

Every preambulatory clause starts with a participle in italics, and ends with a comma.

Depending on the particular issue, preambulatory clauses may seem unnecessary—and at times
indeed, little more than a formality. But it is up to the delegates to use them wisely, in order to
situate the problem they want to discuss and to express their perspective on the issue in a more
general way.

3. Operatives clauses

Unlike preambulatory clauses, operative clauses list recommendations for action, or express a
favorable or unfavorable perspective on particular aspects of the issue. These clauses may call for
Member States, the Secretariat or a UN agency or body to take action, which may be either of a
broad nature, like denouncing a situation or a calling for negotiation, or more precise, like calling
for a ceasefire or a financial commitment to a specific project.

Remember that only resolutions of the Security Council are binding on Member States. The General
Assembly can only make recommendations.

Operative clauses form the core of the resolution. They present the solutions proposed by the
authors of the resolution to the problems raised in the preambulatory clauses.

Operative clauses begin with an active verb in the present and are ended by a semicolon. The first
word of each operative clause should be underlined (see table below). Each clause is numbered and
can be divided into several sub-ideas (a, b, c, d, etc.).

Each operative clause presents an action, which may be more or less precise, may call the UN
Member States to concrete actions, or simply express an opinion or a will without incorporating
practical solutions. However, it is important to stress that, even when adopted by the various
committees, these clauses or actions serve only as recommendations and may or may not be applied
by the different States concerned.

It is important to not try to present comprehensive solutions to all problems in your resolutions. It is
likely that you will have discovered in your research solutions that have failed, but with a little
imagination and research, your fellow delegates and you will be able to develop new solutions to
problems that sometimes seem hopeless. The key to diplomatic relations is compromise, but do not
lose sight of your country's position on the subject.

Before adhering to a resolution, each delegate should ensure that he is acting in accordance with his
country's political will. Indeed, although a Cuban delegate could theoretically support a resolution
aimed at strengthening the Cuban embargo, doing so would be acting against the interests of his or
her country. So such an act would be contrary to the role that he or she had taken on through
representing Cuba in the United Nations.

Formatting rules for resolutions

Page number and number of pages at the top right, eg: Page 1 of 2
The session at the top left
Committee name at the top left
The issue at the top left
the authors at the top left
The name of the sponsor(s) of the resolution at the top left
The UN organism, e.g: The General Assembly

Then the preambulatory clauses, which present the issue or recalls past efforts, each starting with
the words cited below, in italics. These clauses are indented and separated by commas.

Then the operative clauses, which pr opose solutions, each starting with words like those cited
below and underlined. These clauses must specify who does what, within what timeframe, and
indicate who will fund the project. These clauses are offset, numbered and separated by semicolons.
The last one ends with a full stop.

Source : FerMUN
Source : FerMUN
EXEMPLE OF A RESOLUTION

Page 1 of 1
5th session of the NUMAD
commitee : Health committee
authors : China, New-Zealand
Sponsors: Germany, Angola, Pakistan, Tunisia, Qatar, Brazil, USA

GLOBAL HEALTH AND OBESITY AWARENESS

General assembly,

Recognizing obesity as a global health threat,

Noting with deep concern that the global issue is not being handled effectively,

Alarmed by the raise of obesity around the world these past decades,

Affirming that multinational corporations are contributing significantly to this controversial

1. Encourages all the countries in this council to join forces against obesity;

2. Emphasizes that the best way to tackle this issue is through education by creating a nutrition
subject at school;

3. Further recommends to introduce dietary help into public health in order to improve the
lifestyles of populations already suffering from obesity; Source : FerMUN

4. Hopes to raise global awareness through advertising campaigns by: billboards, TV adverts
and Social Media;

5. Further requests to introduce taxes on high-fat content foods, as well as high-sugar content
foods in order to finance all of mentioned campaigns;

6. Encourages fast-food chains to reduce their usage of fat in their products or to use healthy
fats like fish oil, nut butter, olive oil, avocado fat, etc, in order to maintain the human health;

7. Recommends to increase the number and effectiveness of the public service announcements
to inform people about obesity and nourishment;

8. Asks for a mandatory training from UN countries for future parents about child nourishment
and child health;

9. Promotes physical activity through: In first place, campaigns that show the benefits of sport;
secondly, events that would take place regularly (once a year) and be opened to anyone(such
as: sport activities in groups, competitions and more physical activity at school);

10. Encourages the development of healthy fast food chains through advertising campaigns, by
considering them superior to other fast food chains with extra financial state aid;