A Model United Nations is a simulation of the United Nations, run for students. Each student is given a country to represent. They research that country, debate real world problems with the other students in the room, and try to agree on a written text.
The short form is MUN. A student taking part is called a delegate.
A delegate speaks and writes on behalf of a country, not on behalf of themselves. Their own opinion does not come into it. The question a delegate answers is always the same. What would this country say?
That means the work starts long before the conference. A delegate reads about the country, reads about the topic, and works out the position the country would take.
If you disagree with your country's policy. You will often be given a country you disagree with. That is normal and it is part of the exercise. Representing a position well is a skill. It is not agreement.
A committee is a room of delegates working on the same set of topics. Each committee copies a real United Nations body, such as a General Assembly committee or the Security Council.
One country holds one seat in a committee. The students who run the room are called chairs. See Who is who at a conference.
In MEDIMUN, a session has seven or eight committees. They are a mix of General Assemblies, Security Councils and Special Committees. See What is MEDIMUN.
Lobbying. Delegates talk to each other, find the delegates who want the same thing, and merge their ideas into a single draft text. Lobbying is the most important part of a conference. Good lobbying produces good debate. See The lobbying process.
Debate. The committee takes one text at a time. Delegates speak for it and against it. They ask each other questions. They propose changes to the wording, which are called amendments.
Voting. The committee votes on the text. A text that passes is adopted. A text that fails is not adopted, and the committee moves on.
Each text is debated on its own. If one text passes on a topic, that does not weaken another text on the same topic. Both can pass.
The written text a committee produces is called a resolution. It has two halves.
Preambulatory clauses set out the background. They say why the problem matters and what has
already been done about it.
Operative clauses say what should happen next. They are the actions the committee is asking
for.
A resolution needs one delegate to put it forward, called the main submitter, and a group of other delegates who back it, called co-submitters.
Debate follows a written set of rules called the Rules of Procedure. They control who may speak, for how long, what may be asked, and how a vote is taken. They exist so that a room of a hundred people can hold an orderly argument.
Nobody is expected to know them on day one. The chair announces what is happening at every stage.
If you are unsure. Wait for the chair to ask for points, raise your placard, and ask. A question to the chair about the rules is itself part of the rules. It is called a point of parliamentary inquiry. See Points.
Students run most of a Model United Nations. The chairs in each committee are students. The team leading the whole conference is made up of students. Teachers oversee the conference and are responsible for it, but the day to day running of it is student work.
In MEDIMUN, around 100 students run the conference alongside the roughly 400 delegates who attend it. See What is staff.
A delegate leaves a conference able to research a topic quickly and hold a position under pressure. They have also spoken in front of a large room and written to a fixed format. Those skills carry over into everything else.
Read How a conference works next.