Every committee has topics on its agenda. You research each one separately. The aim is not to know everything. The aim is to know enough to argue your case. You also need enough to answer a question you did not expect, and to tell a good proposal from a bad one.
Do this after you have researched your country. See Researching your country.
The research report is written for your committee and for your topic. It sets out the background, the definitions and the questions the committee is expected to answer. Read it first, and read all of it.
In MEDIMUN, chairs write one research report for each topic. The secretariat reviews it and it is published to delegates in MediBook. See Reading a research report.
A research report is where your research starts. It is not where it ends. Every delegate in the room has read the same document. A speech built only on it says nothing the house does not already know.
Answer these in writing for each topic.
1. What is the problem? State it in two sentences. If you cannot, you do not understand it yet.
2. Who is affected, and how? Which regions. Which groups of people. Which states carry the cost and which do not.
3. What has already been done? Past resolutions. Treaties and conventions. United Nations agencies and programmes working on it now. Funding that exists already.
4. Why has that not solved it? This is the most useful question of the six. A committee that does not know why the last attempt failed will propose it again.
5. Where does my country stand? What it has said, how it has voted, what it has signed and what it has refused. What it does at home about the same problem.
6. Who agrees with my country, and who does not? Name the countries and the blocs on each side. These are the delegates you will look for during lobbying.
Debate moves quickly. Anything you cannot find in a few seconds you will not use.
Keep a single page for each topic. Put on it the numbers you intend to quote and the resolutions and treaties you intend to name. Add three or four questions you can ask other delegations as points of information. Write the source next to each number. You will be asked where it came from.
If you are unsure. When two sources disagree, keep both and note which one is official. Say what the disagreement is if it comes up. A delegate who can explain why the figures differ is in a stronger position than one who quotes a single number and is contradicted.
Artificial intelligence may be used as a tool where your own school allows it. It is not a source, and it cannot be cited. Using it to write a full clause or a full resolution is plagiarism. See Plagiarism.
Research the mandate of your committee alongside the topic. A General Assembly cannot impose sanctions or deploy troops. A proposal that asks it to do so is out of order however good the idea is. A delegate can move to refer the resolution to another forum because of it.
Knowing this early saves a resolution later. See Motion to refer to another forum and Developing a policy.
If a resolution on your topic already exists. It may have passed at the United Nations and never been carried out. That is worth finding. A clause that repeats an obligation states have already accepted achieves nothing, and saying so is a strong argument against it.
If your country has said nothing about the topic. Work from its interests rather than guessing. Its region, its economy, its alliances and its votes on related topics will tell you where it would stand.
If you are unsure about something in the report. Ask your chairs. In MediBook, open the Chats tab and use your committee chat.
Next, turn the research into a position. See Developing a policy.