MUN

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Middle School
CCA 3&4
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Overview of the next two
sessions
• What is MUN?
• Keywords and Rules of MUN
• How to write a Position Paper
• How to write an Opening Speech
• How to write a resolution
• Procedures of a conference
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What is MUN?
MUN is a simulation of the real UN, where
delegates representing countries join together in
their respective committees to find resolutions to
globally-significant issues.
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What does an MUN conference
look like?
Before the conference:
• Get assigned a country
• Do research
• Write a position paper/draft resolution and opening speech
During the conference:
• Opening speech
• Divided into teams based on your prepared topic
• Lobbying - Draft resolutions with your teammates
• Speaker list
• Voting on Resolutions -> POIs, Amendments, etc.
• Repeat
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Rules and procedures
Rising to Points and Interruption of Speeches
• Point of Order- Procedural matters
• Point of Information (POIs) - MUST be formulated as
a question
• Point of Personal Privilege - refer to the comfort and
well being of the delegate

Limited time
For speaking and answering POIs
Yielding the floor
-> to a delegate
-> to the chair
At the end of speeches, state if you’re open to POIs
or not (and how many if you are)
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Rules and procedures
• Remember in MUN: You are not representing your
personal views
⚬ So NO use of personal pronouns including: I, He,
She, Him, Her, Our etc.
• After the President/Chair has announced the start of
voting procedures, no interruptions are allowed except
for points of order connected with the actual conduct of
the voting.
 1. Access to Safe Drinking Water as a Fundamental Human Right
According to the United Nations (UN) World Health Organization (WHO), over 1 billion people
throughout
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Position Paper
the world lack access to clean drinking water. WHO and the UN Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF)
Joint
7 Monitoring Programme (JMP) for Water Supply and Sanitation has stated that the water that
1.8 billion
people drink exhibits fecal contamination. The deprivation of the fundamental right to safe
drinking water

• What is it particularly afflicts the most marginalized members of global society, including women,
displaced persons,
persons with disabilities, the impoverished, and children. Those without access to safe

⚬ Organize your train of drinking water often

also suffer from economic and social disadvantages, including medical conditions, lack of
access to

thoughts education, and lack of employment. The Republic of Poland is dedicated to aiding Member
States and to
improving infrastructure for the promotion and protection of the right to safe drinking water.
• What suits you the best Access to safe drinking water as a basic human right has been discussed extensively on the
international
level. While the foundational Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948 does not
explicitly
discuss water, it established “the right to life, liberty and security of persons” and the right
to “a standard of
living adequate for the health and well-being” of individuals. In 1977, the Mar del Plata
Action Plan from the
UN Water Conference held in Argentina first recognized water as a human right. In 2010, the
UN General
Assembly (GA) acknowledged the human right to water in resolution 64/292, which also
discussed the
connection between access to safe drinking water and the achievement of all other human
rights. The
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation. Poland
supports
HRC resolution 15/9, which stressed the importance of Member State support of human
rights programs
pertaining to access to safe drinking water. Poland also applauds the adoption of HRC
resolution 18/1,
which called for transparency, diligent analysis, and prioritized action for populations most in
need. Poland
upholds the continued work of the Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking
water and
sanitation, as well as the UN Inter-Agency Mechanism on all Freshwater Related Issues,
Including
Sanitation (UN-Water). Regionally, the European Union (EU) has emphasized that effective
water
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7 Position Paper
• Heading
• Committee: [Your Committee Title]
• Topic: [Your Topic]
• Country: [Your Country]
• School: [Your School]
• Topic Background
⚬ What is the definition of the topic?
⚬ Where does the topic take place? Who is involved?
⚬ How many people does it affect? Where, and in what ways?
• Why is this topic important?
• Past International Action
⚬ Have there been any interesting statements by UN officials on this topic? Try to find a quote.
⚬ What are the most important UN resolutions and treaties on this topic?
⚬ Do any major Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) work on this topic?
• Country Policy
⚬ How has this topic impacted your country?
⚬ What has your country tried to do about this topic?
⚬ What types of policies would your country want the UN to adopt (or not adopt) on this topic?
• Possible Solutions
⚬ What specific plans would your country like the UN to undertake to address this issue?
⚬ What specific plans would your country like Members States to undertake in their own
countries?
⚬ Why would your ideas work? Give specific plans.
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Opening speech structure
1.Thank the presiding official
2.Begin by providing a brief history background on the issue
and how does it relate to your country
3.(Optional) Include a quote that relates with the issue
4.Provide your country’s position on the issue
5.Give an explanation of how your country’s position relates to
the positions of other member states
6.Include some of the past actions taken by the UN, member
states and NGOs
7.Indicate to the committee members whether your country is
willing to negotiate
8.Present possible ideas for the resolution
 Amendment
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An amendment is a change in the text of a draft resolution

designed to modify the content. An amendment can be made on
any resolution, even your own.
Draft the change on the clause you wish to make by note and
wait till it gets approved by the chair.

How does it work?

Once approved by the chair, make a speech on the amendment
you wish to make when the floor is open
Ideally, persuade people to vote for your amendment so that it
passes
 Amendment
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How to write a
resolution
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What is a resolution?
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• Resolution is your country’s position on the issue.

• Its a draft document which ultimately will be
merged with other nations
• It is the main document used for formal debate at
the conference.
• It contains several parts and explains the actions
your country thinks will solve the question if
addressed.
• Resolutions are usually amended when presented
to a committee as countries seek to ensure their
national interests are maintained.
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What a resolution is made

of
• Header

• Preambulatory Clauses
• Operative Clauses
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Preambulatory Clauses
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Preambulatory clauses are the introduction of

the resolution. It contains the background and
the argumentation to the issue.

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How to write preambulatory
clauses?
• Write your references to former UN
resolutions, ratified conventions, or
declarations
• Provide official figures, the most recent
ones possible, to illustrate the issue
• Emphasise the difficulties that have been
encountered in the past
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Preambulatory Phrases
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Example:
Realising the threat posed by biological
weapons is a pressing global concern and
significantly impacts international peace and
security, these weapons, ranging from disease-
causing agents to genetically modified
organisms, possess immense destructive
power and the potential to inflict widespread
casualties,
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Operative Clauses
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• The operative clauses contain SOLUTIONS

• The clauses should be clear and detailed
• They present what the UN should do or what
attitude it should adopt

Note: Rather than just

borrowing/copying clauses from UN
M o r e
resolutions or resolutions from
r t a n t
previous conferences, you will be in a imp o
much better position to defend and !
argue during the conference if you
write your own operative clauses from
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How to write operative
clauses?
• You must ensure that your proposals are actually
workable/feasible and that they fully reflect the
existing policies of the country that you represent.
• You may propose or welcome all new situations.
• You may support, congratulate or refuse new
proposals.
• You may confirm or regret what it is already
existing.
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Operative Phrases
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Example:
7. Further recommends raising awareness amongst
researchers as well as citizens about the consequences
of BTWs, using ways such as but not limited to:
a. Developing Public Service Announcements (PSAs)
with information confirmed by countries and neutral
parties,
b. Conducting education on this issue in various
educational facilities using UN approved curricula,
c. Spreading information regarding the biological
harms of BTWs in case of exposure on various media
platforms, with the information verified by the UN.
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Rules in a resolution
1.In operative clauses, you can only write till sub-sub
clauses. (There are clauses, sub clauses, an sub-sub
clauses)
2.Operative clauses are numbered in 1, 2, 3, sub
clauses are numbered as a, b, c, and sub-sub clauses
are numbered as i, ii, iii.
3.You never put a period until your resolution is
finished. You put commas after a preambulatory clause
is finished and a semi-colon when an operative clause
is finished.
4.Preambulatory phrases are written in italics and
operative phrases are underlined.
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Procedures of a
conference
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Introductions and roll call

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Once the time set to start debating has begun, the

chair will most likely do a casual self introduction

Then the chair will bang the gavel to announce the

‘house in order’, meaning official debate has begun.
Then they will proceed to roll call. You will answer with
‘present and voting’ or simply ‘present’
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Opening speech session

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The chair will then go to opening speeches/opening

statements. Most conferences allows the delegates to
choose whether they want to make a speech or not.

Chair:
‘We will now proceed with opening speeches. Delegates
will be called up to make their speeches within an
allocated time of 1 minute’
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Lobbying and Merging

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• Then the chair will move to lobbying and merging where an

‘unmoderated caucus’ occurs. This is when individual
delegates go around looking for people who wrote a
resolution on the same topics them and merge their
resolution into a final resolution
• The main-submitter will bring the resolution to be approved
by the Chair and then the Chair will send it to the approval
panel (a group of, normally, teachers who will check once
again the formatting and your final resolution to check for
small errors)
• Once the approval panel finishes, you bring your final
resolution back to your committee and wait until all other
final resolutions from other groups are done as well.
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Next
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• After lobbying is done, the chair will once again bang the
gavel and say ‘may the house please come to order’
• The chair will announce the number of the resolution you
are debating on, and will first let the house read over it.
• Then the main-submitter will go on the floor and read the
operative clauses of the resolution and make a speech on it
(time will be mentioned by chair before main-sub is called.
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Open debate
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• 3-4 resolutions in total, time debated on each depends on

the time
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Yielding
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The main submitter can choose to yield back to the chair or to

another
delegate, normally when a main submitter yields to a co-
submitter of their team, it is so that the co-submitter can then
make a speech that supports their resolution. (No second
degree yielding)
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Open debate
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After the main submitter has yielded back to the chair, the
chair will then go to the open debate portion of the resolution,
meaning that anyone in the house who is ‘for’ the resolution
can speak
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In a speech:
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Try to make a point and urge the house to some point ‘this
delegate urges the house to vote (for, against)’ or voice your
concern or hopes for amendment.
You can bring your notes or laptop on to the floor so you can
prepare and write for it however you like.
You should provide evidence (statistics, proof) that supports
your argument, and make points on why the resolution is
good/bad
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POI’s
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POI’s
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• You will be asked if you want to entertain POI’s

• If you wish to entertain: state how many: any and all or a
number
• If no: yield back to the chair after they ask
• Yielding is also allowed
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Amendments
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• Obviously, a resolution is never perfect, so you as a

delegate can submit amendments to add/change/strike
parts of a clause
• You will typically get pieces of paper called amendments
papers to write out your specific amendment, it will ask you
specify which clause you're amending and whether you
want to add/change/strike.
• Once you write an amendment give it to the chair (there will
be admins to pass your notes around)
• After submission, wait for approval from chair
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How to put it in play?

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• Once the floor is open, raise your placard and state ‘The
delegate of _______ has submitted an amendment’
• Wait for the chair to double check and say ‘That is in order’
before you go up to the podium and make your speech on
the amendment you made
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Amendments to the second

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degree
• An amendment made by another delegate to modify the
first amendment
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Voting
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Admins
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• You are allowed to pass notes between countries during the

debate, as you can’t really shout across the room (you will
be provided with small slips) on slips, just write your country
name (from) and who it is to (country to) and write your
message
• Then you just raise your hand up high in the air without
saying anything, and admins will come and collect it and
give it to the other country, and you may receive responses
as well that will be given to you from other countries by
admins
• You also do the same with amendment slips
• If you have any personal requests to the chair, you can do
the same as well
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Conclusion
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• After all resolutions are debated and voted on, you are
technically done with the conference
• The chair will announce ‘the house is dismissed’ to inform
delegates that they are free to go