Rule 1: English shall be the official and working language of all committees during formal and informal debate.

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1 The rules and procedures apply to any assemblies, committees and councils unless otherwise stated. Security Council will follow the same procedure but adopting the exceptions mentioned on Page 5. Exceptions will only be in order if previously declared by the Secretary General and the respective committees presidency. I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS Rule 1: English shall be the official and working language of all committees during formal and informal debate. Rule 2: Decorum Delegates are to obey instruction given by UNA-USA MUN staff. Those who do not obey directions will be dismissed from the conference. II. SECRETARIAT Rule 3: The Secretary-General or his representative may make oral as well as written statements to any committee concerning any issue. Rule 4: The Chairperson shall declare the opening and closing of each meeting and may propose the adoption of any procedural motions to which there is no significant objection. The Chair, subject to these rules, shall have complete control of the proceedings at any meeting and shall moderate discussion, announce decisions, rule on points or motions, and ensure and enforce the observance of these rules. The Chair may temporarily transfer his or her duties to another member of the committee staff. All procedural matters in committee are subject to the discretion of the Chair. The Chair may undertake any action that is not covered in the Rules of Procedure in order to facilitate the flow of debate at the conference. III. OPENING THE DEBATE Setting The Agenda: Rule 5: The provisional agenda for the conference shall be drawn up by the Secretary General and communicated to all delegations two months before the start of the conference. Rule 6: The provisional agenda of the conference shall include: a) Reports on the themes selected for each conference; and, b) All items which the Secretary-General deems necessary to put before the delegations; c) The delegations that will be represented in the committee. Rule 7: At each conference, the provisional agenda shall be submitted to the meeting for approval during the opening session. 1

2 Rule 8: Every committee session begins with Roll Call. When your delegation s name is called upon, raise your placard high and say present or present and voting. Rule 9: The first order of business for the committee shall be the consideration of the agenda. The only motion in order at this time will be in the form of The nation of [country name] moves that [topic area x] be placed first on the agenda. The committee shall move into an immediate vote. A simple majority is required for the motion to pass. If the motion fails, then the other topic is set as the first item on the agenda. A motion to proceed to the second topic area is in order only after the committee has voted on resolutions regarding the first topic area or tabled the topic. IV. MODERATED CAUCUS Rule 10 : The Chairperson will ask all of those delegates who would like to make a speech and be on the speakers list to raise their placards. The Chairperson will then choose delegates to be placed on the speakers list. Rule 11 : A country can only appear on the speakers list once. After a country has spoken, they may be added to the speakers list again by sending a note to the Chairperson saying: the delegation of [country name] would like to be added to the speakers list. Rule 12 : Speaking time is decided by the Chairpersons. The default time is 90 seconds. When the committee is in formal debate all rules of procedure are enforced. Rule 13: The President/Chairperson may call out a speaker if his or her remarks are not relevant to the subject under discussion. V. YIELDING After a delegate finishes his/her speech, the Chair will ask: Delegate, how would you like to use your remaining time? Delegates are allowed to: 1. Yield time/ the floor back to the chair: This is the standard reply if delegates do not wish to do anything with their remaining time. 2. Yield time to questions: If the delegate yields his/her time to questions, other delegates in the committee room are allowed to ask him/her questions. VI. UNMODERATED CAUCUS Rule 14 : An un-moderated caucus is a temporary recess. Rules of procedure are suspended during caucusing. During this time, delegates can meet informally with each other and the 2

3 committee staff to discuss draft resolutions and other issues. Informal lobbying aims to improve later productivity during debate and can also be used to work on resolutions. Rule 15: The Presidency will at the beginning set time for the lobbying but may deviate from it at any time. Rule 16: Informal lobbying may be used at any point throughout committee sessions when requested by the Delegate (e.g. through a Motion to Move into Lobbying Time.) Rule 17: One member of the Presidency must still be present at all times and Delegates may not leave the committee unless otherwise stated by the Presidency. VII. PRESENTATION OF DRAFT RESOLUTION Draft resolutions are potential solutions to the issues on the agenda. The draft resolutions are proposed by Delegates through the use of Co-Submitters. Delegations work together to create resolutions. If two or more draft resolutions relate to the same question, the committee shall vote on the resolutions in the order in which they have been submitted. Rule 18: Motion to propose a Draft Resolution is raised to the committee by the sponsors of the document. Rule 19: Then, the entire committee will have a vote on this motion. If it passes, the document will be debated and shall be referred to as a draft resolution. Rule 20: When a Draft Resolution is first debated on, the main submitter must read out the operative clauses and give an opening speech to profile the primary goals of the resolution. Rule 21: Co-submitters are Delegates who are interested in having a resolution on table. This can be of positive and negative nature. The main submitter of a Draft Resolution may not be co-submitter of a different Draft Resolution. Delegates can co-submit multiple Draft Resolutions but only one per issue on the agenda. Rule 22: In order to be debated, a Draft Resolution should at least consist of: I. The five appropriate headings II. Five Preambulatory clauses III. Five Operative Clauses IV. Five Co-Submitters Rule 23: A Resolution must contain the following headings: I. Name of Committee/Council II. Issue on the agenda being addressed III. Main submitting Country IV. Co-Submitting Countries 3

4 VIII. CLOSED DEBATE FOR/ AGAINST THIS RESOLUTION Closed debate is defined as debate in which both sides, in favor and against, are entertained separately in a set amount of time. When moving into closed debate, time in favor will be entertained prior to time against. Rule 24: The Chairs will determine the time and number of speakers for and against for the draft resolution. IX. AMENDMENTS Rule 25: Both friendly and unfriendly amendments require the approval of the Chair. Rule 26: An amendment is considered friendly if all of the sponsors of the initial draft resolution are signatories of the amendment. Such an amendment is adopted automatically. Rule 27: Unfriendly amendments are a decision of the Committee. An unfriendly amendment must have the approval of the Director and the signatures of 50% of the committee. Amendments to amendments are out of order. Rule 28: The submitter of an unfriendly amendment will address the Committee and present its amendment. The amendment will then be voted. If 50% of the delegates vote for this amendment, it will be included in the draft resolution. X. VOTING ON A DRAFT RESOLUTION Rule 29: the Resolution will be sent to the Approval Panel to check if the format and grammar is correct. Rule 30: After the Chair has announced the beginning of voting, no representative may enter or leave the room, nor shall any representative interrupt the voting except on a Point of Personal Privilege, Point of Inquiry or a Point of Order in connection with the actual conduct of the voting. Rule 31: Communication between delegates is strictly forbidden. A member of the staff will secure the doors during voting procedure. Rule 32: Delegations may vote in favor of or against a proposal or may abstain from voting. The committee shall normally vote by show of placards, but any delegate may request a roll call vote on substantive matters. The roll call vote shall be taken in alphabetical order of the English names of the countries present. Rule 33: If a vote does not result in a simple majority* in favor, the resolution shall be regarded as rejected. A simple majority requires fifty percent of the members present during the last roll call, plus one. Example: 99 members present requires 49.5 (50%) + 1= 50.5=51 affirmative votes. 4

5 XI. POSITION PAPERS Rule 34: All Delegates are expected to perform the obligatory research to represent their countries as accurately as possible. Rule 35: Delegates must at all time represent their Delegations and respective countries views and opinion. Rule 36: All delegates must prepare a Position Paper on each Topic, in order to have a solid background and be prepared for the Moderated Caucus. What the position paper should include: a brief introduction and a comprehensive breakdown of the country s position on the topics being discussed in the committee. An excellent position paper includes: a clear statement of policy on each topic; the country s background on the topic, including: o political and/or foreign policy; o action taken by the government in relation to the topic; o actions the government has supported or not supported; o resolutions and declarations that the country supports; and o quotes taken from speeches made by heads of government; answers to the Questions to Consider from the background guide; and action that the country would support in a resolution. XII. EXCEPTIONS AT SECURITY COUNCIL You should make sure to know the ordinary rules of procedure above, but adopt the below exceptions plus all rules that concern adopting resolutions and amendments: As the Security Council needs a lot of debating, especially when permanent members need to be convinced of not using their veto-power, it is entirely up to the President to decide when to apply the rules strictly and when to have them make room for more active debate. Delegates do not stand when speaking, they do not address the house every time they give a speech, they can yield the floor more than once in a row depending on the President and there can be a dialogue on the floor. The Security Council needs a vote of at least 9 members in favour to pass amendments and resolutions. Permanent members (United States of America, the Russian Federation, China, the United Kingdom and France) can use their veto-power to make an amendment or resolution fail with one single vote. They can however, also vote against without using their veto-power. 5