An amendment changes the resolution being debated. It is how a delegate improves a text they did not write, or removes something their country cannot accept.
Every amendment is put to a vote, even a change of one word.
Amendments may only be submitted during open debate time on the resolution.
That is why the reading time matters. Read the text, decide what you want changed, and write the amendment while the resolution is still in open debate. See Reading time.
In MEDIMUN, amendments are submitted in MediBook. This is not something a chair chooses. See Amendments in MediBook.
SCREENSHOT: /medibook/sessions/22/committees/ga1/debate - the amendment form with a clause selected and the amended text written out
One amendment covers one clause at most.
An amendment can add a clause, strike a clause, or change the wording of a clause. Say which of those you are doing, and give the clause number.
If your change affects more than one clause. An amendment may cover more than one clause when the change has to be made in several places to make sense. Renaming a body that appears in four clauses is the standard example. Changing two unrelated clauses in one amendment is not.
An amendment about spelling or grammar is not debated. The chair makes the change directly and tells the house.
Write the amendment as the text you want the clause to end up saying. A chair reading it should be able to see the finished clause without guessing.
Constructive amendments are the ones that get debated. Adding a clause that fills a gap, tightening vague wording, or fixing an operative clause that the committee has no mandate for are all constructive. Striking a clause because your country dislikes the resolution is destructive, and the chair is entitled to prefer something else. See Which amendments a chair entertains.
Prepare a short speech in favour before you submit. If your amendment is taken, you will be asked to speak on it.
The chair decides which amendments are debated.
Closed debate is the norm for an amendment. The chair announces the entry into closed debate and sets time in favour and time against separately. See Debate modes.
Once a delegate has moved an amendment, the chair cannot stop it being debated, unless there is a procedural mistake with it. Referring to more than one clause is the usual one.
If a clause has already been amended. It can be amended again, but only in two situations. The first is where the new amendment touches something the house has not yet discussed. The second is where it is needed to make the clause fit a later change. See Amending an already amended clause.
Where the chair believes the amendment corrects an obvious error, it may be put to a vote with no debate. The chair asks whether there are objections first. It is never adopted without a vote.
On an amendment, you vote for or against. There is no division of the house on an amendment. See Voting as a delegate.
Clapping is not in order after an amendment passes. It is only in order when a resolution as a whole passes.
An amendment of the second degree is an amendment to an amendment.
It may only be submitted during time against the first degree amendment.
Debate on it does not count against the time for the first degree amendment.
The procedure is the same as for a normal amendment.
Abstentions are in order on a second degree amendment.
If it passes, the first degree amendment passes with it, automatically. The two are then counted
as one.
If it fails, debate on the first degree amendment resumes where it stopped.
See Amendment of the second degree.
If you have done MEDIMUN before. This changed. The older rule allowed second degree amendments only in the Security Council. They are now allowed generally.
A third degree amendment is out of order. That is true in the Security Council as well.
There are no friendly amendments. A motion to adopt something without a vote is out of order, because it is not democratic. Every amendment goes to the house. See Motions out of order.
The Security Council debates clause by clause. An amendment of the first degree is taken against the clause being debated, and only that clause. See Clause by clause debate.
In the Security Council, amendments to clauses pass on a simple majority. The higher threshold applies to the resolution as a whole, not to the amendments. The reason for the lower threshold is to avoid mistaken vetoes and veto threats on amendments. See Voting and thresholds in the Security Council.
If you are in the Security Council. Once the Council has voted on a clause it does not return to that clause. If you need more time, ask for the debate time to be extended. You can also ask for the clause to be tabled until the end of debate on that issue. See Security Council procedural edge cases.