Common Terms in MUN

Delegate: A delegate is a participant at a MUN conference who represents a country

in a specific MUN committee. A committee can have anywhere from 15 to 400+
delegates. They can operate individually or in pairs. The goal of the delegate is to
get their policy ideas and countries interest on a draft resolution, hopefully, to pass
with a majority. Delegates do this through speeches and lobbying utilizing the tool
and skills needed to succeed at Model UN.
Delegation: A group of delegates who travel to a MUN conference together. They
are usually from the same Model UN club/institution.
Placard: The cardboard or paper sign with the country name written on it. Placards
are used to identify presence, vote, and signal to the chair.
Chair: Facilitate debate according to the Rules of Procedure. They are seated in the
front of the committee room and can call on delegates to speak, time speeches,
open the floor to motions and facilitate votes on motions offered by the delegates. At
the end of the conference, they choose the delegates to receive diplomacy awards.
They also often give feedback to the delegates.
Gavel: A small wooden hammer which the chair uses to keep order.
Position Paper: A summary of how a country sees the issue being discussed, their
connection and their policy proposals. Position Papers should be submitted to the
chairs before the conference.
Study Guide: A Background Guide with information about the topics to be discussed
at a MUN conference.
Decorum: A call to order. The chair will call for decorum if delegates get too loud or
disrespectful. When the chair called “Decorum delegates” it is best to be quiet and
go back to your seat. – Check out our full Introduction Guide to MUN Decorum
Motion: How you ask for something in MUN in the official request form. You can
motion for many different actions to guide the debate forward in a specific way.
Some examples of motions are motions for different types of caucuses (discussion),
to move to vote or end the committee session altogether.
Second: A second delegate agreeing with a motion that has been proposed. Most
motions require a second to be voted on by the entire committee. If there are no
seconds a motion automatically fails.
Objection: After a motion gets a second, the dias asks if there are objections. At
least one delegate needs to object for the motion to proceed to a vote by the entire
committee. If there is no objection the motion automatically passes.
Simple Majority: A vote that requires at least one over 50% of the vote to pass.
Most procedural votes require a simple majority.
On the Floor: When a motion, working paper or draft resolution is open to
discussion and voting. (The term floor is a legislative term meaning the part of a
legislative hall where debate and other business is conducted.)
Blocs: Groups of delegates who agree on certain principles. These blocs will work
together to write draft resolutions, which they later introduce and vote on. Blocs can
be formed based on any common interest. Some blocs are formed around regional,
cultural, or ideological interests but there are many more. Choosing who is in your
bloc should be done on a case-by-case basis depending on the topic.

Conference Roles

Secretariat: The team who organize Model United Nations conference.

Secretary-General: The head of the Secretariat. The role usually involved the
recruitment and management of the other secretariat roles.
Under-Secretary-General: The heads of each department at a MUN conference.
These can include academics, chairing, marketing, logistics,
Admin: A volunteer who functions as a communicator between delegates and also
helps with other tasks around the committee.

Points & Inquiries

Point of Parliamentary Inquiry: Also called a ‘Point of Inquiry’. A question from a

delegate to the chair about the Rules of Procedure (RoP) or anything else they don’t
understand in the committee.
Point of Information: When a delegate asks a question of another delegate. These
usually take place after a delegate completes a speech on the Speaker’s List. Some
conferences do not have Points of Information. Consult each conference rules to
understand how exactly they work.
Follow-Ups: A request to ask a second question after having already asked one as
a point of information.
Point of Personal Privilege: Can be called for when a delegate feels hindered by
something outside of the debate, which is not covered by the RoP. Examples can be
going to the bathroom, room temperature and inability to hear another speaker.
Point of Order: Called by a delegate on another delegate, or on the chair, when the
Rules of Procedure are not being followed. The specifics of a Point of Order varies
between conferences and the specific RoP should be Consulted.
Right of Reply: When a delegate feels their country was insulted during another
delegates GSL speech, the can ask for Right of Reply. If approved by the chair, the
insulted delegate gets a certain amount of time to respond to the insult There is no
Right of Reply to a Right of Reply.

Start of Session

Member State: A country that has ratified the charter of an international

organization, such as the United Nations but not limited to them. Member states
have voting rights in the committee.
Observer: A delegate who is not a natural member of the committee. They can be a
country who isn’t part of the organization (Portugal in the Africa Union), an
international organization, Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), national
organization or even an individual. Observers can only vote on procedural matters.
(For specifics, consult your conferences Rules of Procedure).
Roll Call: A procedure performed by the chairs at the beginning of each committee
session to know how many delegates are present in the room (for a simple majority
and 2/3rds majority voting) and to know who is ‘present’ and who is ‘present and
voting’.
Present: What a delegate says when they are present in the committee and want to
reserve the right to abstain on the final vote.
Present and Voting: What a delegate stays during roll call when they forgo their
right to abstain. This means they can only vote for or against the draft resolution.
This is usually done when they feel strongly about the topic.
Agenda Setting: Where the delegates in the committee choose which of the agenda
topics they wish to discuss first.

Debate
Speaker’s List: Speaker’s List, or General Speaker’s List, is the default format of
the committee. It contains a list of delegated who have been recognized to speak in
a specific order. The Speaker’s List is suspended when a motion for something else
(like a moderated caucus to move to voting procedure) is passed by the committee.
Informal Debate: When delegates motion to leave the Speaker’s List for a specific
purpose. That can be speaking about a specific topic, speaking in a format
moderated by delegates or lobbying and writing the draft resolutions. This is done
through a Moderated Caucus, Unmoderated Caucus and Consultation of the Whole.
Moderated Caucus: A less formal discussion on a subtopic within the general topic,
chosen by a delegate and passed by a majority. Delegates raise their placards to
offer Moderated Caucuses when the chair opens the floor to motions. Moderated
Caucuses need to offer overall time, individual speakers time and topic of
discussion. For example: “Venezuela motions for a 10 minute moderated caucus, 45
seconds speakers time on the topic of ‘Where should we put plastic waste cleaned
from the oceans’”.
Unmoderated Caucus: Lobbying time. When motioning for an Unmoderated
Caucus usually no topic is needed, only the general time requested for the
unmoderated caucus. Once passed, delegates get out of their seat and move freely
around the room. During this time they can lobby, negotiate with other delegates and
blocks and write draft resolutions.
Table: To suspend action or discussion until later.

Resolution Writing

Clause: A MUN clause is written instruction detailing the practical policy you want to
be implemented if the resolution passes.
Working Paper: The first draft of ideas in writing which is compiled by the different
blocs. They do not need to be written in resolution format but are often written as
complete clauses.
Draft Resolution: The final draft of a working paper where the blocs combined
policy ideas are properly formatted and approved by the chair for both content and
format. Once approved by the chair they can be discussed and, after debate closed,
voted upon.
Sponsors: Delegates who were major contributors to the draft resolution. They are
usually the ones who wrote the majority of the document but not always. The number
of sponsors is usually limited.
Signatories: Delegates who support a draft resolution, or at least want to see it
discussed. There is no limit on the number of signatories.
Pre-ambulatory Clause: Clauses that explain why you are implementing the
policies described in the Operative Clauses. They can provide a background to the
problem, legal precedent, and other supporting data. Pre-ambulatory Clauses are
usually italicized and not numbered.
Operative Clause: Clauses that detail the policies / explain what the draft resolution
is going to do. Operative clauses can go into detailed sub-clauses to properly convey
the idea. The first words are italicized are each clause is numbered.
Amendment: A written change made to an operative clause. Amendments can
change an existing clause, add the new one or delete a section, or an entire clause.
Friendly Amendment: A change to a clause approved by all the sponsors. These
get automatically added to the resolution.
Unfriendly Amendment: A change to a clause that at least one sponsor does not
agree to. These go to vote and are only added to the draft resolution is passed with a
majority in favour of the amendment.
Merging: When two or more draft resolutions are combined. This usually results in
the blocs merging as well to give themselves more voting power.

Voting

Close Debate: A motion for the committee to end debate and more into voting
procedure. If this passes, the speaker’s list is closed and the only motions allowed
are those that pertain to the voting procedure.
Voting procedure: The period at the end of a committee session. Once the debate
is closed, delegates will vote on amendments followed by draft resolutions. During
voting procedure, nobody may enter or leave the room.
Vote Clause by Clause: A motion to vote on each clause individually instead of all
together. This is commonly done to get some of the clauses to fail.
Vote by Roll Call: A Motion to have each country declare verbally if they are “For”,
“Against”, “Pass” or “Abstain.”
 For: When a delegate casts their vote in favour of the draft resolution.
 Against: When a delegate casts their vote against the draft resolution.
 Abstain: When a delegate formally declines to vote either for or against the draft
resolution.
Suspend / Table Debate: a motion to put the session on hold, generally for lunch or
coffee break.
Adjourn: A motion to completely end the committee session until the next
conference.