What is Model UN?

By Simon Olavarria

Model United Nations (MUN) is a student stimulation of the yearly parliamentary debate sessions of the real United Nations. In those sessions, diplomats from 192 nations gather at the UN Headquarters in New York, Geneva, Vienna or Nairobi, to discuss the full spectrum of issues on the international agenda. MUN is an adaptation and simulation of those sessions for students, where they will play the part of the diplomats, ministers, presidents, judges and other notable figures that work in the UN system or the diplomatic world. They are generally referred to as delegates. Delegates convene in conferences, hosted by a school, college or university, that embodies the part of the UN Secretariat, including the Secretary General. Teams of Delegates from different schools or club teams are referred to as Delegations. MUN conferences can last anywhere between 1 and 5 days.

Months before each conference, students are trained in public speaking, negotiation, diplomacy, knowledge of international current events, investigative journalism and parliamentary debate, amongst other skills. Later, in coordination with the Secretariat or hosting school, they will opt for and be assigned a committee and a country. The committee is the representation of the real UN committee, organization or simulation that the delegate will participate in. The country is the actual UN member state that the delegate will represent as an actual diplomat from this country would do. This will narrow the focus of the delegate's preparation to a specific set of issues, and to the positions and policies of the assigned nation. This will also guarantee that each delegate's preparation will be different.


Committees

There are several types of committees, but for MUN purposes they are generally categorized in three parts:

  1. The General Assembly (GA) committees, in which all countries of the world have a voice and a vote, and which are challenging both for the complexity of topics as well as for the number of delegates debating those topics. There are six committees in the UN, but the ones generally found in MUN conferences are:

    1. Disarmament and International Security;
    2. Special Political and Decolonization;
    3. Legal;
    4. Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee.

  2. The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), is a conglomeration of committees, that, following its namesake, are dedicated to specific economic and social issues and in which member nations participate on a rotating basis. There are 54 UN member states that are elected by the GA, based on geographical representation. They are divided in Committees, Commissions, or Forums. These bodies can be divided by function, region, or specialty. In these commissions, for example, we can find:
    1. Commission on Crime and Prevention and Criminal Justice;
    2. Commission on Science and Technology for Development;
    3. Commission on the Status of Women;
    4. Commission on Population and Development;
    5. Economic and Social Commission for Asia nad the Pacific;
    6. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues;
    7. United Nations Forum on Forests.

  3. The Specialized Committees (a MUN - created category), refers to a loose association of committees that do not form part of the GA or ECOSOC, but that are nonetheless an integral part of the UN. Some form part of the UN system and some are different, regional bodies, or historical committees. Some fall outside the norm for regular parliamentary procedure, but the nature of the issues is always related to the diplomatic world. In this category we can find the following committees:
    1. The Security Council (considered on of the most difficult and challenging committees - a very coveted choice by many delegates);
    2. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) or the International Criminal Court (ICC);
    3. All UN programs and funds, such as;
      1. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR);
      2. United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF);
      3. United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP);
      4. United Nations Development Program (UNDP);
    4. Strictly economic organizations, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the Wordl Trade Organization (WTO);
    5. Regional organizations, such as the Organization of American States (OAS), the African Union (AU), the European Union (EU), or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO);
    6. Joint Ministerial Crisis Cabinet Meetings, in which delegates represent the minister of a country during a simulated crisis situation, and several cabinets from different nations act as a team and must negotiate with each other;
    7. Historical simulations, such as the debates of the League of Nations before WWII, or the debates of the General Estates before the French Revolution.

For each conference that the delegation (group of delegates formed in a team, under a school or club) assists, each delegate or delegate duo will represent one country, and participate in one committee. Exceptionally, the student might represent a minister of one country with other ministers from that same country, or a Judge from the International Court of Justice, who is not affiliated with the policies of any country, or a Non Governmental Organization (NGO).


What happens during committee sessions?

During each conference, each committee will have several sessions of debate, usually 2 per day, per each day of the conference. Each session lasts between 3 and 4 hours. During each session, the Rules of Parliamentary Procedure (ROP), are used by all delegates and enforced by the Chair. The Chair are the members of the Secretariat, or host school, that have prepared the debate topics to be discussed and that will direct that committee during the conference. They are generally well trained delegates with an acture knowledge of the rules and a considerable understanding of debate dynamics.

The Director, or head of the Chair of each committee, is the student that has composed a briefing for all participants months before each conference. This briefing, generally referred to as Background Guide or Debate Topics, is a description of the issues that the committee will discuss during the conference. This document is the starting point for the research the delegates of that committee will conduct. Therefore, the Director will monitor debate to ensure that it will be guided towards the solving of the issues posed before the committee.

Using the rules, each delegate will make numerous speeches that describe the policy of their country, how that country views the problem, how they plan to address it, what plan of action they propose and why, amongst many other possibilities. There are several types of speeches allowed in the ROP's, for every stage and instance of debate. As the solutions evolve into a negotiated resolution, the students will get closer to approving a certain action that will solve or help solve the problem posed before the committee.

The advantage of using the Rules of Parliamentary Procedure (ROP) is that it permits a large group of delegates to discuss, revise, and ultimately approve ideas on how to solve the issues or problems posed before the committee, in an organized and efficient manner. It encourages students to think quickly on their feet, shed fears of speaking in public and before an audience, negotiating and understanding each others position, as well as gain knowledge of many different countries in the process.


Preparation

MUN is, essentially, an academic, diplomatic and social activity. It is academic because the debates that delegates carry out are only possible after a certain amount of information about the issues, the committee, and the country that the student will represent and the ones that will participate in the committee has been researched and understood by the participants. The higher the level of academic preparation, the better chance of success for each debate. But that is not the only necessary ingredient. Delegates must be able to understand the pulls and tugs of politics, the dynamic that happens between people in an academic environment, and the basic tenets of successful negotiation. Finally, this is a social activity because students from different schools, states, countries, languages and backgrounds are grouped in the same committee for several days. They are there to work towards common goals, at times towards opposite goals, but always relating to each other to negotiate what solutions are best for the view of the world their country prescribes them. Like diplomats, to convince each other they do not count with bullets or tanks, but rather with words, ideas, arguments, charm and persuasion.

At the end of each conference, the Secretariat awards the most outstanding delegates from each committee, and the best Delegations.


Conclusion

The merits of MUN have been experienced by students for over 70 years. In fact, the idea of simulating high level debate predates the United Nations, since this activity began as a model for the League of Nations, the precursor of the UN that had a short life between the end of WWI and the beginning of WWII. It has taught thousands of students the intricacies and difficulties of real world issues, the roots of the problems their generations will face in the future, the correct way to carry out negotiations, how to address a crowd, practice the art of improvisation, how to address a crowd and how to convince them to do what you need them to do. It has spawned leadership abilities in some students and honed the ones that some already had. It creates a network of students with similar interests, from many corners of the world. It creates a student forum for the exposition of cultures, issues, positions and conflicts, and most importantly, a place where the novel ideas of future generations are starting to take form.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email us at directors@Lcmmun.org


Copyright Simon Olavarria 2009