<aside> 💡 When students first sign up for an MUN Conference within their school, they begin with the role of ‘delegates’. Schools are assigned either countries or organisations, where students must then hold the position of a delegate in a specific committee of either any of the countries or organisations their school was assigned.
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The role of a delegate is to act as their assigned delegation’s representative in that part of the United Nations System.
For instance, you may be representing the country of Japan in a specific committee, such as ‘the delegate of Japan’ in HRC.
The role of the delegate is to debate the topics of their committee, and to better the situation by the means of writing resolutions, explaining their delegations’ position, or by helping debates by writing amendments to amend a resolution that is being debated.
<aside> 🚨 The biggest mistake made by delegates in an MUN conference is that they separate themselves from their delegation; you must be aware that you are debating as a ‘representative’ of a country, rather than yourself as an individual. You must familiarise yourself with your delegation’s stance on the topics being debated, and must try your best to be consistent with the country’s stance throughout the debate, no matter what.
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As a delegate, you are assigned with the following tasks:
Resolutions… what are they?
In a country’s government, official documents are drafted, which aim to solve a specific situation. In the United Nations, similar documents are also drafted; these are called Resolution. Resolutions –in the UN and in MUN- are submitted by one member state, which is generally the largest contributor to the resolution and/or the most involved in the issue out of the merging group.
<aside> 📌 Within merging groups, you can either take on the role as the largest contributor/most involved, referred to as the ‘main submitter’, or contribute as a ‘co-submitter’.
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Resolutions are not written by one member state, but are a combined effort between different member states who’ve taken interest in that specific issue. Although a Main Submitter could contribute the most, that’s not to say that no one else can contribute, as every delegate has an equal opinion.
Successful resolutions are ones that can appeal to the majority of the parties (states) involved and doesn’t contradict. Resolutions, which only touch on the factors involved in the issue, are generally more vague and less likely to pass, however, those that aim to resolve many or most of the factors involved are more likely to pass as they offer incentives to the various problems, which contribute to the issue.