A Security Council debates clause by clause. There is one merged draft in front of the Council, and the Council takes the operative clauses in that draft one at a time.
This is the main thing that separates a Security Council from a General Assembly. In a General Assembly, the house debates a whole resolution and votes on it as a whole. Here, each clause is debated and voted on by itself, and the resolution is what is left standing at the end.
The merged draft arrives on the floor. It came out of lobbying, and it is one text.
The first operative clause is put to the Council. The chair sets a reading time, then debate time.
The Council debates that clause. Amendments to it are taken during that debate.
The Council votes on that clause.
The Council moves to the next operative clause and repeats.
Once every operative clause has been debated and voted on, further clauses may be added as
amendments.
The preambulatory clauses are debated as a whole and voted on as a bloc. See
Preambulatory clauses en bloc.
The Council votes on the resolution as a whole.
You can speak for it or against it. You can ask a point of information of the delegate speaking, if that delegate is taking points. You can submit an amendment to that clause.
An amendment of the first degree is taken against the clause being debated, and only that clause. An amendment aimed at a different clause is out of order while this one is on the floor.
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. See Amendment edge cases.
Closed debate is the norm for amendments. The chair sets time in favour and time against separately. See Time for and time against.
An amendment of the second degree may only be submitted during time against the first degree amendment. An amendment of the third degree is out of order. That is true in the Security Council as well as everywhere else. See Amendment of the second degree.
In MEDIMUN, amendments are submitted in MediBook. The chair does not have a choice about this. See Amendments in MediBook.
You cannot go back. Once the Council has voted on a clause, it does not return to that clause.
If you need more time on a clause, you have two routes, and both have to be taken before the vote.
Ask for the debate time on that clause to be extended.
Ask to table the clause until the end of debate on that issue.
See Security Council procedural edge cases.
If you are unsure. If you might still need the clause changed, say so before the vote is called. A delegate who realises during the vote that the clause is wrong has left it too late.
After every operative clause has been debated and voted on, the Council can add further clauses. They are added as amendments, and they are handled the same way any amendment is handled.
This is where a gap in the merged draft gets filled. If lobbying missed something, this is the point at which it can still be put in.
A clause added at this stage is still an amendment. It is debated and voted on like any other amendment, on a simple majority. See Security Council voting and thresholds.
Speak about the clause on the floor. A speech about the resolution in general does not help, because the resolution as a whole is not what is being voted on yet.
Say what you want changed and how. In this format an objection is only useful if it comes with an amendment behind it.
Keep track of where the Council is. Write down which clause is on the floor and whether the Council is debating the clause, a first degree amendment, or a second degree amendment. Losing track is the most common mistake in this format.
In MEDIMUN, the committee room has a projector screen showing the debate. Look up at it when you lose your place. See The committee projector.
SCREENSHOT: /medibook/sessions/22/committees/sc/live - the projector view with a clause on the floor and a speech running