What is MUN exactly all about? At Model United Nations you take on the role of a foreign diplomat and debate, advocate and ultimately collaborate with other delegates over a certain topic of international politics in an effort to arrive at a solution that can actually be implemented. Thereby, you face the thrilling challenge of setting aside your own personal views on a specific topic, as you have to accurately represent the official policy of the country you represent. Representing and defending your country’s interest is a vital part of the simulation, however, in the spirit of the United Nations, you should also serve the notion of international cooperation in order to protect and promote such interests as global peace, security, and prosperity.
The different councils at a Model United Nations:
General Assembly – 192 member states
Economic and Social council – 54 members
International court of Justice- 15 judges
Security council- 5 permanent and 10 non permanent
The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations constitutes one of six principal organs of the United Nations responsible for the coordination of economic, social, and related work of 14 UN specialized agencies, its functional commissions and five regional commissions ECOSOC has 54 members and holds one substantive session each July for a duration of four weeks. The ECOSOC serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues, and for formulating policy recommendations addressed to Member States and the United Nations system y council- 5 permanent and 10 non permanent
The topic open for discussion: Improving the economic structure to reduce unemployment in LEDCs, specifically targeting persons with disabilities to enter and remain in the workplace.
Disability: A serious problem? Disability affects hundreds of millions of families in developing countries. Currently around 10 per cent of the total world’s population, or roughly 650 million people, live with a disability. In most of the OECD countries, females have higher rates of disability than males. Having a disability places you in the world’s largest minority group. As the population ages this figure is expected to increase. Eighty per cent of persons with disabilities live in developing countries, according to the UN Development Program (UNDP). The World Bank estimates that 20 per cent of the world’s poorest people have some kind of disability, and tend to be regarded in their own communities as the most disadvantaged. Statistics show a steady increase in these numbers.
The flow:
Roll call: (10 minutes) The Chairperson will announce each country’s name. After a delegate hears their country called, they should answer present.
Setting the Agenda:Â (10 minutes) The chair will call out the topic and hold a small discussion on the topic, through which the countries will get into a flow of the debate.
Caucus (Debate) (60 minutes) There will be a moderated caucus (a debate) where all delegates will be given a chance to speak and put forward their opinions on the country and can argue them out. The delegates are supposed to hold out their placards when they wish to speak or argue over a fact. The chair will announce the country’s name and thus the delegate will be allowed to put his views forward. This will be a formal debate where the delegates can keep on making notes and making draft resolutions based on the arguments in the session.
Informal Recess: (30 minutes) In the informal recess, the delegates are supposed to talk to the other country delegates and discuss their draft resolutions, the draft resolutions can be passed on to the chair if there is any problem, the chair will look into the matter and hand the resolution back. This is the time to find the signatories.
Caucus: (30 minutes) Once more a short debate will be held where the delegates can again put forward their viewpoints, now that they also have had an informal discussion with the other delegates. This debate will be followed in the exact manner as the former one.
Formal recess: (40 minutes) In the formal recess, the delegates should form their final resolution and get it signed by the signatories (other delegates). Each country can sign maximum 2 resolutions. No country can put themselves as a signatory. It is important to find good signatories to pass a resolution. The resolution should be in the format given below. The resolutions (final ones) will be given to the chair. The chair will choose the best resolutions and pass one of them in the Model United Nations.
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