Model United Nations: A Popular Extra-curricular Activity

What is Model United Nations

Model United Nations (MUN), is an extracurricular activity in which students usually represent the original United Nations and imitate the committees of the United Nations and the charters drawn up by them. This activity is held at the MUN conference, which is usually organized by the MUN club of a high school or college or university. At the end of most conferences, delegates of each committee are recognized and given an award or testimonial.

The history of the Model United Nations

Literally, the real United Nations has been formed from the concept of the Model United Nations. In 1921, the first Model United Nations was formed at Oxford University. The first American Model United Nations was then formed at Harvard University, and in 1945 it became the United Nations. In the 1990s, the Model United Nations concept began to spread to Europe and Asia.

The procedure of the Model United Nations

If you have seen any of the activities of the United Nations, be aware that the way in which they approach or follow the policy of the United Nations may be largely in conflict with the Model United Nations. The reason is practical. At a UN model conference, each committee has an agenda that they need to adopt and discuss in a short period of time to find a solution. The Model United Nations is a combination of the basic functioning of the UN and the rules of the “Robert’s Order” (Robert’s rules are ideal for the convenience of negotiation and party decision-making). In a real UN, they can drag things out for months or even years before they come up with a solution (or no solution at all). The actual UN rules of procedures are more than 100 pages long. In order to conduct a conference in a timely and structured manner, the adaptive MUN must follow the rules of the UN system, which is called the Rules of Procedure (ROP).
Different MUN officials can follow different ROPs. But in many cases, the UNA-USA ROP is followed.

Committee Introduction:
1. The executive committee or dias (chair) starts with a roll call
2. Delegates may respond "present" or "present and vote"
3. After that, Dias wants to hear any motion
4. If there is no motion on the floor, Dias will recognize the next speaker
from the list of speakers of the previous session
5. In the first committee session, a representative has to take steps to open a list of speakers, called General Speakers List (GSL).
6. The agenda will also have to be set during the first committee session

List of speakers:
1. A country delegate can only appear on the list once at a specified time
2. When Dias asks, the representatives raise their placards and want to speak
3. The speaking time will be determined by the delegate who tries to open the list of speakers, but a delegate may change the speaking time

4. If the list of speakers is exhausted and no other delegates want to be added, the committee immediately goes to the voting system about any draft resolutions that have been introduced.
5. When there is still time for a delegate to finish his / her speech, he/she must give his / her time to Dias or other delegates.

Moderated Caucus and Unmoderated Caucus:
1. If the list of speakers is open, a delegate may introduce a motion for a moderated caucus, to debate a particular subdivision of the subject or agenda. This is a less formal debate format. Here the speaker determines the personal time including the total time of all the speakers

2. When the list of speakers is open, a delegate may introduce a motion for an irregular or unmodified caucus. Delegates can move around the house/hall and talk freely with each other on draft resolutions or discuss various issues.

Resolution:

A resolution is a document that contains all the issues that the committee wants to resolve and the proposed solutions to those issues. It is called a resolution because the UN calls it documents by that name. The resolution includes two types of clauses, one is Preambulatory Clauses and the other is Operative Clauses. These documents include:
1. Working Paper
2. Draft Resolution
3. Plan of Action
All these documents are made by the representatives and are amended and refined by them, it is called Ammendments.

Points:
Delegates can summon various points throughout the conference. E.g.
1. Point of information
2. Point of order
3. Point of parliamentary inquiry
4. Point of personal privilege

A MUN conference

Why one should do the Model United Nations

Thousands of students from schools, colleges and universities across the country and around the world attend the MUN every year. This extra-curricular activity includes a student’s substantial research, speech, debate, and writing skills within the UN, as well as critical thinking, teamwork, and leadership skills. Each of these qualities is created inside of a student by participating in the MUN. Wondering how? Let's see:

1. One of the main issues in the MUN is research. Research on what? Research on whom? Why this research? Suppose you are a delegate to the United Arab Emirates under the auspices of the WHO. The agenda of the committee was fixed on the activities of different countries regarding corona virus. As a representative you must have a deep knowledge of your country. According to the committee, you must do research on those issues in your country, in this case, such as the country's health sector needs to do extensive research. You need to do research on how your country is ahead of other countries, how it is lagging behind, its position or acceptance to the world, its position in the international arena, etc. It is also important to know where the shortcomings are in other countries.

2.We have learned through the ROP that a representative at the MUN will present his statement from the beginning according to the General Speaker’s List. You also need to speak for the moderated caucus or the unmodified caucus, taking notes if necessary. Behind all this, the skill of writing is very important and with it the skill of debating and speaking is also very important. Public speaking in English, in today’s world there is a lot of importance of this quality. And public speaking through the MUN is bound to get into your midst.

3. It is also important to know how to criticize another country as a representative of one country. In this case, the skill of constructive criticism or negotiation is created. Other countries’ political issues or international issues are criticized in the MUN.
4. As a representative, leadership qualities are developed among the students. As such you can exercise your authority over other representatives. Through this, the issue of diplomatic use comes under the control of you.

Model United Nations basically helps a student to develop different qualities. If you are a student at the school, college or university, you can join the MUN community if you want.