UN History

Objectives
✗ Understanding the United Nations is key to
modelling it
✗ Introduce key concepts in international
relations and the UN to understand how they
are interconnected

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The United Nations
outline

Position Description

Topic The global problem you will try to solve.

Country You represent the views of a country – not your personal views.

Committee The part of the UN you are simulating.

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Why the un? (1/2)
✗ Countries have been fighting wars with each other
throughout history to solve problems. This included
World War I.
✗ The League of Nations was created to discuss problems
that could lead to war. But for many reasons, it failed to
solve the global problems that led to World War II.
✗ 51 countries signed the UN Charter in 1945 to create the
United Nations to solve global problems.

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Why the un? (2/2)
✗ They are committed to maintaining international peace and
security, developing friendly relations among nations, and
promoting social progress, better living standards and human
rights
✗ Purposes and principles of the UN is outlined in the UN
Charter
✗ Today, the UN debates global problems that require global
solutions.

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topics
✗ The UN works on many global problems

✗ Political and security problems: War, weapons, terrorism, drugs, crime

✗ Economic problems: Poverty, hunger, refugees, healthcare, education

✗ Social problems: Human rights, women's rights, child labor, discrimination

✗ UN relies entirely on voluntary contributions from UN Member States,

multilateral organizations, private sector and other sources, in the form of
unrestricted regular resources (core), and contributions earmarked for a specific
theme, programme or project.

✗ In Model UN, you represent different countries trying to solve these global problems

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Countries (1/2)
✗ There are 193 countries in the UN. Countries are called Member
States.

✗ Every Member State has national sovereignty

✗ This is the right to govern your own country without outside

interference

✗ The UN and other countries cannot tell your country what to do

✗ You also cannot tell other countries what to do, but you can
make recommendations to others in the UN

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Countries (2/2)
✗ Delegates represent your Member State government's point of view
(not your personal views)

✗ Government: The group that has official authority over a

country -- President, King, Prime Minister, other government
officials

✗ Each government has a different point of view on how to solve

global problems

✗ This point of view is called foreign policy or country policy. Your

government is sending you to the UN to promote country policy.

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Official Languages of the United Nations
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Principal Organs of the United Nations
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work of the United Nations
The work of the United Nations covers five main areas:
✗ Maintain International Peace and Security
✗ Protect Human Rights
✗ Deliver Humanitarian Aid
✗ Support Sustainable Development and Climate
Action
✗ Uphold International Law

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Un documentations
✗ Resolutions are formal expressions of the opinion or will of UN
organs
✗ When consensus on the text is reached, all of the Member
States agree to adopt the draft resolution without taking a vote
✗ Treaty is the agreement between two or more parties to solve an
issue that affects the parties signing the treaty
✗ Convention is the set of rules for the parties agreeing to the
convention to solve an issue that affects larger part of the world.

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Binding vs. non-binding
✗ A non-binding resolution is a written statement adopted by a
deliberative body that cannot progress into a law
✗ This type of resolution is often used to express the body's
approval or disapproval of something that they cannot
otherwise vote on, due to the matter being handled by
another jurisdiction, or being protected by a constitution.
✗ Binding means you're legally bound to something

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General assembly
General assembly
✗ Delegates promote their country policy primarily in the UN General
Assembly

✗ All 193 Member States are represented

✗ Each Member States gets one equal vote

✗ GA resolutions to the global problems are just recommendations -- it

cannot enforce its resolutions

✗ The work of the GA follows a cycle of debate, negotiation, decision,

implementation and reporting. Model UN simulations focus exclusively
on the first three phases of the cycle.

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Un security council
✗ The UN Security Council is a different committee
that resolves urgent issues of international peace
and security
✗ 5 Permanent Members with veto (China, France,
Russia, UK, USA) and 10 rotating elected Members
✗ Can authorize military force, place sanctions, send
peacekeepers, and enforce its resolutions

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Other committees
✗ The UN has many other committees. The UN is led
by the Secretary-General, who is currently António
Guterres.
✗ This club will focus on Model UN in the context of
General Assemblies

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How Decisions are Made at the UN
introduction
✗ The work of the GA follows a cycle of debate, negotiation, decision,
implementation and reporting.

✗ Model UN simulations focus exclusively on the first three

phases of the cycle.

✗ This section will provide an overview of these three phases and

highlight what aspects are important to include in Model UN
simulations.

✗ In addition, it will highlight what gets lost in most MUN

simulations when the implementation phase is neglected.

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Setting the GA agenda (1/2)
✗ At the beginning of each new session of the General Assembly, the
GA plenary and its six Main Committees are allocated agenda items
to consider.

✗ The items on the UN agenda represent the UN’s priority issues.

✗ The main goal of each GA session is to take action on each agenda

item that has been allocated to the GA for its consideration.
✗ “Considering” an agenda item involves first discussing the item and
then adopting one or more resolutions on that item.

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Setting the GA agenda (2/2)
✗ Resolutions adopted by the GA on agenda
items are considered to be recommendations
and are not legally binding on the Member
States.
✗ The only resolutions that have the potential to
be legally binding are those that are adopted by
the Security Council.

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Why consensus is important (1/6)
✗ Member States consider it so important to adopt a resolution that has the
widest possible agreement among Member States.
✗ Before taking action on a draft resolution, they spend hours discussing
every word in the resolution in the hope of reaching agreement on the
text.
✗ When consensus on the text is reached, all of the Member States agree
to adopt the draft resolution without taking a vote. Adopting a draft
without a vote is the most basic definition of what consensus means.
✗ If 192 Member States agreed on the text but there is just one Member
State that requests a vote, then consensus is not reached.

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Why consensus is important (2/6)
✗ If a GA resolution is not legally binding, then the best way
to encourage all Member States to implement the
recommendations expressed in a resolution is to get all of
them to agree on the same text.
✗ When a resolution is adopted by a simple majority, those
that did not vote in favour of a resolution on a particular
agenda item will be less likely to implement the actions
on an agenda item that are recommended in a resolution.

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Why consensus is important (3/6)
✗ When the UN was created in 1945, there were
only 51 Member States and resolutions were
adopted by a vote.
✗ Today, in contrast, there are 193 Member States
and roughly 80% of the General Assembly
resolutions are adopted by consensus, that is,
without taking a vote.

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Why consensus is important (4/6)
✗ When you adopt resolutions by a vote, you only need to get a simple
majority to agree on the text of a resolution.
✗ You don’t need to care about or try to understand the
perspectives of the minority who disagree.
✗ This process is divisive.
✗ When you adopt resolutions by consensus, you have to be concerned
about the viewpoint of everyone and engage in negotiations that
often result in compromises so that different points of view are taken
into consideration.
✗ This process is inclusive.

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Why consensus is important (5/6)
✗ Given the dramatic increase in Member States over
time, reaching the widest possible agreement is more
vital today than ever.
✗ Because the General Assembly resolutions are
recommendations and not legally binding on Member
States, reaching consensus has evolved as a way to
ensure the widest possible implementation of GA
decisions.

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Why consensus is important (6/6)
✗ In Model UN simulations, delegates do not even consider implementation and
therefore have not learned the value of reaching consensus over voting.
✗ Most resolutions at a MUN conference are adopted by a vote.
✗ This way of operating is stuck in the past and does not reflect how the
UN has changed.
✗ Moreover, by valuing voting over reaching consensus, most simulations
do not model the negotiation process that is required in order reach
consensus.
✗ You cannot truly understand the UN as an institution without understanding
the decision-making process as it has evolved at the UN since 1945.

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More about consensus (1/2)
✗ Reaching consensus is not the same thing as being unanimous.
✗ It is important to note that consensus does not mean that all Member
States agree on every word or even every paragraph in the draft
resolution.
✗ Member States can agree to adopt a draft resolution without a
vote but still have reservations about certain parts of the
resolution.
✗ The important point is that there is nothing in the resolution
that is so disagreeable to any Member State that they feel it
must be put to a vote.

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More about consensus (2/2)
✗ When Member States have interests on elements of a draft
resolution that they have agreed to adopt by consensus,
those who are not sponsors of the resolution have the
opportunity to explain their position either before action is
taken or after action is taken on the resolution.
✗ When Member States know that their interests can be
included in the public record of a Committee’s deliberations
on an agenda item, it sometimes makes it easier to agree to
consensus.

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