Delegate Guides
Background papers will soon be available on our committee specific pages which can be navigated to by following the links on the left-hand side. Please also check out our blogs for research links and peruse the guides below. Our position paper guideline page also has a list of research links you will find helpful when looking for specific countries' foreign policy.
Being an Effective Delegate in Committee
The brunt of your time at HSMUN will be spent in session with your committee: Security Council, a General Assembly committee, or a specialized agency. In committee, you must apply your research in order to advance your country's foreign policy.
Communication in Committee
At the conference, one of your biggest responsibilities is to communicate with other delegations in order to convey your position and convince other groups. At HSMUN, you have many ways of doing this. All committees start off with a speaker's list format: each delegation on the list is allotted time to speak in turn according to a list maintained by the dais. In these speeches, you will want to emphasize how you feel about different aspects of the issue, working papers or draft resolutions on the floor. Always try to say things that you think will be important for other countries to know, or that might change the course of the committee's action; no-one cares how much your government opposes terrorism in the abstract. It is also a good idea to phrase your comments in a way that doesn't alienate other delegations. If you disagree with another delegation, point out which prescribed actions you disagree with, without belittling them or becoming adversarial. You will likely need their support later on in some other area.
Delegates can motion for a moderated caucus, which generally has a more refined focus than the speaker's list. The chair recognizes speakers that raise their placards, rather than those next on the list. Moderated caucuses are an excellent tool for shifting debate to issues that you consider important. Specific implementations, policies, clauses, problems and points of contention are all good fodder for discussion. Again, pleasing other delegations is important.
Unmoderated caucuses are motioned in a similar way. They temporarily suspend the formal discussion of the session, and allow delegates to move around the room to discuss informally and review resolutions. This is an excellent opportunity to question or convince your fellow delegates about substantive matters. However, they are not the best time for resolution writing! Write while others speak so that you can discuss and collaborate during when you have the opportunity.
An often-overlooked communication approach is note-passing. Post-It notes are ideal for secure transmission, but any scrap of paper will do. Questions or comments for the dais or other delegates are quicker and less intrusive on paper than waiting for an unmoderated caucus. You can easily poll the committee on a particular issue by sending around a sheet for comments. When you are passed a note, try to answer it quickly to keep things moving.
Resolution-building
The primary goal of a committee is to produce and approve a resolution to take forward for implementation. Your task in committee is to try to shape the resolution to best serve your country's foreign policy. As the committee moves towards a completed resolution, you will have many opportunities to this end.
Working Paper
Working papers are very early plans of what their writers would like to see come out of the committee. They are informal-they do not use the UN's clause format-and address how proposed resolutions might deal with different aspects of the question at hand. Working papers are effective tools for finding out what other delegations think about different aspects of the issue. At this stage, you will want to try to read as many Papers as possible, and perhaps create your own if needed. Feel free to write comments on the documents as they go around.
Draft Resolution
Once a delegation writes up the principles and plans expressed in working papers into a formal, UN-style draft resolution, they can introduce the draft to the committee for discussion (see the resolutions section in your HSMUN guidebook for specifics regarding the procedure and format). When writing resolutions, try to appeal to as many other delegations as possible. One way of doing this is to involve many delegates in writing: people are less likely to oppose something that they had a hand in. For this reason, resolutions prepared ahead of time are frowned upon at HSMUN: resolutions should be produced at the conference, based on input from Working Papers.
Resolution
Only one resolution can emerge from the committees on each topic. For this reason, there is often intense competition between various draft resolutions to reach this stage. You can try to amend draft resolutions to make them more palatable to the committee, or to advance your own policies. When multiple resolutions are put forward with similar aims, you should try to compromise between the resolutions to make sure that one with your policies moves forward. Arguing down an opposing resolution just because you weren't involved in its creation will not earn you favour in the best-delegate competition. Ensuring that your foreign policy is advanced, regardless of whose resolution is ultimately approved, is a much better strategy.
Questions?
Email your dais staff at the following addresses:
Security Council - hsmun.sc@gmail.com
World Health Organization - hsmun.who@gmail.com
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime - hsmun.unodc@gmail.com
United Nations Children's Fund - hsmun.unicef@gmail.com
GA I (DISEC) - hsmun.disec@gmail.com
GA II (ECOFIN) - hsmun.ecofin@gmail.com