A committee runs on formality. The formality is not decoration. It is what lets a room of delegates disagree strongly and still get through an agenda.
The rules below apply from the moment the chair opens the session.
Speakers address each other in the third person. Say "the honourable delegate" or "fellow delegates". Never say "you" or "I".
Address the chair and the house before your speech.
Use accepted terms. Say "Less Economically Developed Countries". Do not say "Third World Countries".
You yield the floor when the chair tells you to. Not a sentence later.
See Parliamentary language and decorum.
If you are unsure whether a phrase is parliamentary. Do not use it. There is always a way to say the same thing about a policy instead of about a person.
Nobody insults any member of the house, any guest, any member of staff, or the secretariat.
You argue against a country's policy. You do not argue against the delegate representing it.
Criticising a country's position, however strongly, is not a personal insult. Saying that a delegation's policy has failed is debate. Saying something about the delegate is not.
A public apology is only expected when a delegate has insulted another person directly. An insult aimed at a political position is not a personal insult. Where an apology is needed, the chair handles it privately or in writing. It is never staged in front of the house.
Keep your placard down until the chair asks for it. Do not raise it straight after a speech ends.
Eating and drinking during debate is not in order. Water is the exception.
Ask the chair's permission before leaving the room during debate.
Clapping is only in order when a resolution as a whole passes. Not after an amendment, and not
when a resolution fails.
Breaks are announced as a time, not a length. If the chair says the house will meet again at
12.30, be in your seat at 12.30.
In MEDIMUN, ordering food is not allowed.
In MEDIMUN, anyone caught smoking is removed and banned from all future MEDIMUN conferences immediately.
Do not talk and do not move seats during a vote. All points are out of order except a point of order about the conduct of the vote itself. See Voting as a delegate.
Everything you submit has to be your own. Copying clauses from previous resolutions is plagiarism. So is rephrasing something found in a book or online. So is having an artificial intelligence tool write a whole clause or a whole resolution for you. See Plagiarism.
Common clauses are the exception. The standard opening and closing wording is shared by every resolution and does not need to be reinvented.
Quoting a source is fine when you cite it. Rephrasing it and presenting it as your own is not.
Artificial intelligence may be used as a tool to help, where your own school allows it. It is not a source, and everything it produces has to be checked. Writing a full clause or a full resolution with it is plagiarism.
Conduct is not separate from the rest of the conference. It decides what you are eligible for at the end of it.
In MEDIMUN, a delegate who breaks the code of conduct cannot receive an award. See Awards eligibility policy.
In MEDIMUN, a delegate who submits a position paper late cannot receive an award either. That is a deadline rather than a conduct rule, and it has the same effect. See Position paper rules.
The code of conduct and the dress code apply for the whole conference, not only during debate. See Conduct and Dress code.
If a chair treats you badly. Chairs are held to their own set of rules, which are stricter than these in places. A chair who speaks down to a delegate, or who says whether a resolution is good or bad, is in the wrong. See Chair role and responsibilities.
If you are uncomfortable, unwell, or cannot hear the debate, raise a point of personal privilege. That is what it is for, and it needs no second. See Point of personal privilege.
For anything more serious than that, tell a member of staff outside the debate rather than raising it on the floor. See Conduct.