Model UN can be overwhelming with its formal language, rules, and procedures — if you’re unsure about writing draft resolutions, this article is here to lend a helping hand!
The Writing Process
Since technology is not allowed to be used during the conference except for during unmoderated caucuses, all the writing of Draft Resolutions will take place during these unmods. Note that delegates are not allowed to arrive at the conference with a pre-prepared Draft Resolution before debate has even started!
Unmoderated caucuses will be scattered throughout the days of the conference but they will most likely take place more often from the afternoon of the second day, once the majority of speeches have been made. By listening to the speeches of other delegates, you can discern who is likely to want to form a bloc with your state and then, through note-passing and unmoderated caucuses, you can form alliances to subsequently write a Draft Resolution together.
Once your Draft Resolution is formatted correctly and is sufficient in its content, the Chair of the committee will approve it and give it a number (e.g. Draft Resolution 1.1) to make it easier to reference during committee sessions.
Sponsors and Signatories
For a Draft Resolution to be introduced, it must have one-fifth of the Member States represented as signatories. Being a signatory – that is, signing the Draft Resolution – signifies that you would like to see the Draft Resolution discussed, but it does not mean that you necessarily agree with everything it says.
There can be no more than five sponsors of the Draft Resolution (these five count towards the total number of signatories). To be a sponsor, one must agree with all its contents and be willing to fully support the Draft Resolution in discussions. Once a Draft Resolution has been introduced, any of the Sponsors can motion for a Panel of Authors in which the Sponsors may answer clarifying questions on their resolution for a maximum of ten minutes.
NOTE: Sponsors and Signatories should be written in alphabetical order on a Draft Resolution.
Amendments
But, I hear you asking, what if my bloc’s Draft Resolution is introduced and either us or a non-Sponsor want to change something about it? That is where amendments come in. These can be friendly or unfriendly and, through them, the content of a resolution can be amended.
Friendly amendment: Approved by all the sponsors of the resolution being changed and submitted in writing to the Chair along with the signatures of all the Sponsors. This requires a vote with two-thirds majority in order to pass.
Unfriendly amendment: Does not need to be approved by all the Sponsors of the resolution but does require the signatures of one-eighth of the member states present. Like a friendly amendment, it must be submitted with these signatures in writing to the Chair and requires a vote with two-thirds majority in order to pass. Unlike a friendly amendment, it is often accompanied by a short debate before voting proceeds.
Both amendments may only have one Sponsor (the state who is proposing the amendment) and the Sponsor may motion to introduce the amendment once it is approved by the Chair.
This may be a lot to get your head around, but this is truly the exciting part of a MUN conference! Being able to express your solutions to real-world problems in your very own Draft Resolution should be an enjoyable and rewarding experience – we hope this blog post has helped iron out any practical concerns about the writing and amending of Draft Resolutions.