A Beginner’s Guide to MUN

Produced by Oxford University United Nations Association

What is MUN?

MUN (Model United Nations) is a simulation of the United Nations where participants represent
countries in various committees in the UN and negotiate solutions to real world issues through
debate and diplomacy. It is not necessarily a competition – though you can certainly treat it as
one, with “best delegate” awards being presented at the end of each conference. MUN is a
great way to build an understanding of complex issues while developing your public speaking
and debating abilities: skills that will help you in most any setting!

This guide is intended to familiarise you with the basic rules of procedure of MUN debates.
However, first-hand experience will always be the most effective way to get comfortable with the
unique format of MUN, so in addition to producing this guide, OUUNA also organises weekly
debate simulations which you are encouraged to attend. Don’t worry if you have no related
experience – these sessions are intended for beginners to gain experience with MUN-style
debates, and experienced OUUNA committee members are always willing to help new
delegates learn. For more information on our debate sessions, contact ​debating@ouuna.co.uk​.

Before the debate

At the start of every committee session, the Chairs will call on each member of the committee in
alphabetical order to determine their attendance. To respond, simply state either “present and
voting”, or just “present” if you are representing a non-voting entity such as Palestine, the Holy
See, or an NGO.

Since most committees debate multiple topics over the course of the conference, the next step
is to set the agenda – in other words, determine which topic the committee will debate first. An
example of how this is done is shown below.

Delegate 1: Motion to set the agenda to topic A.

Chair: Are there any other motions on the floor?
Delegate 2: Motion to set the agenda to topic B.

This is an example of a motion. Motions are requests for the committee to carry out a certain
action, and are typically used to transition between phases of the committee and guide the flow
of debate. To make a motion, raise your placard and wait for the chair to call on you. In the
example above, two delegates have each proposed opposing motions, and only one of the two
can pass. The committee would then proceed to discuss whether topic A or topic B should be
debated first, and then vote on which motion to pass.

Speaker’s List and Moderated Caucuses

Debate has now begun! The chairs will begin by establishing a speaker’s list for anyone who
wishes to speak on the topic being debated. The speaker’s list is for anything related to the
agenda, such as explaining your country’s position, elaborating on a particular aspect of the
issue, or addressing a draft resolution on the floor. To add yourself to the list, send a written
note to the chair, or raise your placard whenever the chair asks if anyone wishes to be added to
the list. Even if you don’t have a speech ready to go, you should add yourself to the speaker’s
list whenever possible; you can always improvise a speech on the fly, but if you wait until you’ve
prepared a speech to join the speaker’s list, you may find that by the time it’s your turn to speak,
the point you wanted to make has become irrelevant.

When giving a speech, remember to only refer to yourself in the 3​rd​ person. For example,
instead of saying “I believe we must work together to achieve x”, you can say, “this delegate
believes that the committee must work together to achieve x”. Also, try and keep your speech
concise! You usually have only 60-90 seconds so make your point clearly. You can have the
most amazing arguments, but if the chairs have to cut you off for exceeding the time limit at the
end, that will be all anyone remembers about your speech. Speeches in MUN deserve an entire
guide of their own – however the best way to learn and improve is to give speeches of your
own, so don’t be afraid to participate every chance you get.

If you have time remaining after your speech, the chairs will ask you how you wish to yield the
floor. In this case, you have 3 options:

1. Yield the floor back to the chairs, giving up your excess time.
2. Yield the floor to points of information, meaning other delegates in the room get to ask you
questions about your speech. Though this may seem intimidating, opening yourself to points
of information shows that your points can stand up to scrutiny, not to mention it will make a
good impression on the chairs.
3. Yield the floor to another delegate, giving them your excess time to speak. In some cases,
experienced delegates may use this option, giving a joint speech with an allied delegate to
make their point more effective. However, in most cases your ally is probably better off
waiting for his turn on the speaker’s list rather than sharing a single slot with another
delegate, so this option is usually not recommended, especially if you’re new to MUN.

Sometimes, you may wish to focus the debate onto a specific aspect of the issue, especially if it
is particularly relevant to your country. To do this, you can motion for a moderated caucus by
specifying the topic you want to debate, a time limit for the caucus, and a time limit for individual
speeches: “Motion for a moderated caucus of __ minutes with an individual speaking time of __
seconds to discuss ____.” Moderated caucuses are for delegates to speak on a set topic, and
encourages more back and forth debate. During a moderated caucus, the speaker’s list is not
used – instead the chairs will call on delegates to take the floor, with the delegate who originally
motioned for the caucus being the first to speak.

Unmoderated Caucuses and Working Papers

After a few rounds of moderated caucuses, the different country policies and ideas in the room
should be clear to you, and you’ll want to have some time to form your blocs and start proposing
solutions. This is done during an unmoderated caucus, where you can get out of your seat and
lobby with fellow delegates. This time is also for you to start writing working papers, which is
typically a precursor to the draft resolution and is an informal document containing proposed
solutions to the question being debated. In OUUNA’s weekly debate sessions, we will be
skipping over working papers and moving directly into resolution writing in order to save time,
but in conferences, working papers are a great way to get feedback on your proposals before
you submit a draft resolution. This can be done once the unmoderated caucus is over by
submitting your working paper to the chairs and making a motion to introduce it (in the same
way that one would motion for a moderated caucus).

Writing Resolutions

Eventually, you’ll be collaborating on a draft resolution, which is a formal document containing

what exactly you want the UN to do to resolve the issue. Resolutions have a fixed format with
three parts: heading, pre-ambulatory clauses, and operative clauses. Below is an example of a
typical resolution heading.

Sponsors: Greece, Jordan, Mexico, Rwanda, Pakistan, Uganda

Signatories: Chad, Czech Republic, DRC, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Poland
Topic: Designing a fair and economically feasible refugee resettlement system for global
application
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees,

The heading must include four things: a list of sponsors (those who helped to write the
resolution), a list of signatories (those who want to see this resolution debated), the topic, and
the committee name. Most conferences will require draft resolutions to have a minimum number
of signatories and a maximum number of sponsors to encourage healthy debate. Note that
being a signatory does not require you to support the resolution – it simply means you want to
see it debated by the committee.

The next section contains pre-ambulatory clauses. Pre-ambulatory clauses do not call for any
specific actions, but are used to provide context for the solutions you’ll eventually propose in the
operative clauses, such as by citing statistics, referring to past actions on the issue, stressing
the significance of the topic, and many more. Pre-ambulatory clauses start with an underlined
verb, and should not contain or end in a period. Some examples are shown below:

Reaffirming ​the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees and the importance of defining the term of
refugees and its further protocol of 1969,
Recalling​ the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in persons and the Protocol
against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air,
Recognising ​the efforts that the international community has made to solve the issue,
Noting with concern​ the insufficient protection of human rights as well as the high rate of sexual
and physical abuse in refugee camps,

Though pre-ambulatory clauses come before operative clauses in a resolution, many delegates
actually write the operative clauses first, before justifying them with pre-ambulatory clauses
afterwards. Operative clauses contain the concrete actions that the sponsors of the resolution
want the UN to take, and are always the focus of debate. Operative clauses are numbered, and
often contain sub-clauses (and in some cases, sub-sub-clauses!) for further elaboration. They
should start with an underlined verb and end in a semicolon, except for the last one, which ends
in a full stop (as the resolution itself is formatted as a single sentence). An example of an
operative clause is shown below.

1. Encourages​ UNHCR-led initiatives that prioritize the voluntary repatriation of refugees such
as but not limited to:
a. Implementing sustainable development projects in the refugee’s home nations,
b. Calling on member states to adopt policies that encourage political stability in
refugees’ home nations,
c. Providing education and skills training for refugee youths in order to enable them to
compete in their home countries labor market,
d. Adopting any and all means necessary to encourage refugees to voluntarily return
to their home countries such as but not limited to:
​i. Providing safe passage back to their country of origin,
​ii. Educating refugees on economic opportunities available in their
home country,
e. Resorting to integration of refugees into the local community only if the above
measures fail;

A note of caution: when proposing solutions, it’s important to be aware of what your committee
is and isn’t allowed to do. In most UN committees (with the exception of the Security Council),
resolutions are non-binding, which means you cannot force a member state to do something
against their will. Your operative clauses are recommendations, not laws, so it’s important to use
verbs such as “encourages”, “recommends” or “calls for” when you want member states to do
something. You also cannot authorise a UN peacekeeping mission (or any use of force) as a
solution or directly violate national sovereignty (the right of a country to govern itself without
outside intervention), though you can recommend that the question be brought up to the
Security Council, which has a different mandate.

Getting used to writing in the strict format of a UN resolution is a difficult skill for a beginner
delegate to master, but with enough practice and feedback, you’ll quickly get used to translating
ideasinto pre-ambulatory and operative clauses. Showing your ability to write in proper
resolution format is an easy way to establish yourself as the leader of your bloc, especially in
beginner committees, which will give you a big advantage at conferences.

Debating the Resolution

We’re now moving into the final stages of debate. You’ve presented your country’s position,
negotiated your way into an alliance, and written a draft resolution, and now the last step is to
get it passed. Debate on a resolution sometimes starts with a Panel of Authors, which is a short
period during which delegates in the room can ask the sponsors for further details about their
resolution. The panel of authors is meant to clarify the content of the resolution rather than to
debate its principles, however, more experienced delegates in the opposition may sometimes
use it as a way to identify or point out the weaknesses of the resolution before they argue
against it for real. After the panel of authors is over, the committee will move into hearing
speeches both in favour of and against the resolution, before moving into voting.

Sometimes you may find that you oppose a resolution mostly due to a single operative clause or
a small but significant detail, and that you would be able to support it if only that detail were
changed. Rather than rejecting the resolution entirely, you may find it more useful to submit an
amendment, which is a proposed change to a resolution. You can use an amendment to strike a
clause, amend the wording of a sentence, or add new clauses. An amendment can be friendly
or unfriendly, depending on whether it has the support of all sponsors of the draft resolution. To
submit an amendment, send it to the chairs (usually through a note) and then motion to
introduce an amendment. If it is unfriendly, debate on the draft resolution will be suspended and
the committee will proceed to debate and vote on the amendment instead. If it is a friendly
amendment, the committee will move straight into voting on the amendment without debating it.
You can also amend another delegate’s amendment (as long as it is still being debated), though
this is uncommon – this is called an amendment to the second degree.

Finally, it’s time to move into voting procedures! This section is pretty self-explanatory – voting
works in exactly the way one would expect, with three options: for, against, or abstaining.
However, there are three motions that can come into play during the voting phase that it might
be helpful to know.

1. Motion to Reorder the Proposal: If there are multiple draft resolutions on the floor, this
motion changes the order in which they are voted on. You can use this strategically – since
only one resolution per question can pass, if the first one passes, the second resolution is
 automatically discarded, so in some cases you may find it more advantageous to have the
committee vote on your resolution first.
2. Motion to Divide the Question: This motion splits the draft resolution into multiple parts to be
voted on individually rather than as a whole, so that the committee may end up passing
some parts of a resolution and rejecting others. This can be useful if you feel that some
operative clauses in a resolution are particularly contentious (and for some reason were not
able to amend it).
3. Motion to Divide the House: This motion is made after voting has already occurred. If it
passes, the previous result is nullified and the committee votes on the resolution again, this
time with no abstentions. The chairs will typically grant this motion if a resolution has failed
and the number of abstainees is greater than the difference between the number of votes for
and against the resolution, so if the vote doesn’t turn out the way you hoped, you can make
this motion as a last resort to swing the result in your favour.

This guide only explains the rules of procedure necessary to participate in our weekly debating
sessions. However, there are many aspects of MUN that this guide has not covered, such as
country research, writing position papers, and pre-conference preparation. Some more
advanced committees such as the Security Council, International Court of Justice, and crisis
committees even have different rules of procedure. Though it may seem overwhelming at first,
building your skills as a delegate is an extremely rewarding process, and you will find that the
more MUN debates you participate in, the easier it gets to remember the rules.