Thank You! Thank You!
Delegate Roles in the Model United Nations
How to Succeed as an Advisor
Guidelines and Policies
Support Center
Other Resources
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
First of all we want you to all know that you're our heroes, not to mention the heroes of your very gifted students. That amount of time and energy it takes to be an advisor for a student program like this is phenomenal, and we can hardly find the words to let you know how much we appreciate everything you do. It is people like you that truly make a difference in children's lives. So, thank you.
Delegate Roles in MUN
Delegates will participate in MUN as either members of the General Assembly (GA), Security Council, Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), or International Court of Justice (ICJ). Much of the work of the MUN is done in the preparation phase, where delegates will research the countries they are representing and prepare background and position papers. Once they have developed these papers, and depending on the organ they choose to work with, delegates will present and debate resolutions, or hear court cases (called Memorials).
Papers and Resolutions
Background Papers – Once a delegation has been assigned their country(s), the delegates will fill out a Background Paper on their country. There may be several countries assigned to a delegation, so each delegation may be working on more than one country. Background Papers are designed to help delegates become familiar with the countries they are representing – its populations, economic situation, politics, history, culture, religions, its position on various topics, etc. These will be turned into the Youth & Government office.
Position Papers – A Position Paper is your country’s official position on a topic being addressed by the MUN during its session. The topics will be based on which General Assembly committees your delegation is assigned to. Your country(s) will submit a position paper for each topic in each committee. ECOSOC delegates will also prepare papers for the ECOSOC topics. Position papers are typed on an official form. They are one page and should be short, concise and thoughtful. Delegates should remember that they are representing a country and not necessarily a personal opinion.
Resolutions – Resolutions are the formal statements the U.N. makes to express its opinion, suggest a course of action, or commit its resources (money, peacekeeping forces, etc) to a specific activity. They are written during the MUN. When a consensus is reached on a topic being debated in a GA committee, the ECOSOC, or the Security Council, the body expresses its decision in the form of a Resolution. Resolutions may be general statements or directions for an organization, a condemnation of a country’s actions, or require military or economic sanctions (if from the Security Council). A great deal of negotiation occurs within a committee before a Resolution is written. Even though one person actually writes a resolution, there are no individual authors – the committee itself is considered the author.
Where do delegates get information for each of these papers?
Advisors and delegates will be provided with all forms and samples of the papers. In addition, a list of potential websites will be provided to delegations. During the MUN, delegates will be able to utilize the Secretariat (college-aged interns) as a resource for information about the various topics being heard.
Memorials
To present a case to the Model International Court of Justice (ICJ), an ICJ delegate must prepare and present a Memorial.
Memorials are from 1 – 3 pages in length and must include three elements: Claims of Fact, Assertions of Law, and Prayers for Relief. There is no official form. All nations sitting on the ICJ are required to write a memorial. ICJ participants will receive training on preparing memorials at the training conferences.
Debate and Caucusing
Delegates will spend a good portion of their time discussing and debating issues in committee, GA, ECOSOC, Security Council, etc., but a good part of negotiations also takes place during caucuses. In these sessions delegates meet informally to negotiate with nations from various blocks. In MUN, caucus groups are informally organized groups of nations who tend to vote together.
Role Playing
MUN is a simulation of the UN where the countries of the world send delegates to act as representatives of those country’s governments. A delegates primary role is to give your government’s views on the issues in front of the U.N. The key to doing this well is to get into the character of the country you are representing – almost like being in a play in some ways. Pay special attention to the economic, religious and educational issues of your country when you do your background paper – that will help you to understand how your country might respond to an issue. Caucuses will help you to do this as well.
How to Succeed as an Advisor
Our Model United Nations program is very new. This means we have a lot of ground yet to break. This also means, you might be feeling a little lost sometimes as to what you should do next. Well, if it's any consolation, we often feel the same way.
Over the next couple of MUN years, you will surely see drastic changes being made. We may come off as fickle, or it might get frustrating that the way things were last year isn't the way things are this year. It's all part of the learning process, though, and with your continual support, we can make this the most incredible experience these students will get in Junior High.
So, what's the secret to success? Keeping up with what's going on is the real key. We'll do our best to always keep you informed through a series of bulletins and forms. They will always be available here on our website by going to the forms section. These are the best way to get an idea of what changes are occurring, and it's our best way to communicate important information -- straight from Pam's mouth to your eyes.
We will all become more familiar with this program as it grows. By getting on board in these first few years, you'll soon be a tremendous resource for your delegations and the program as a whole.
Guidelines and Policies
It is very important that both you and your delegates are familiar with the Code of Conduct. Violations of the code can result in immediate dismissal from the program, advisors included. Please familiarize yourself with the Code of Conduct:
Code of Conduct (pdf)
Support Center
Without you, this program couldn't happen. You are all tremendously gracious and strong for giving so much to these students. However, we also realize that even superpeople have a breaking point. If you ever feel like you're reaching yours, feel free to contact us.
You can find a listing of staff members in our Staff section
Other Resources
The following websites have very useful education resources for Model United Nations delegations. For country research links, see the Research section.
United Nations Homepage
http://www.un.org
United Nations Association of the United States
http://www.unausa.org/
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