Watch our animation made by Max Watkins for CamMUN!

What is MUN?

A student-led simulation of a United Nations conference. There are multiple committees, eg UNEP, DISEC, WTO, UNICEF. These committees debate and vote on a range of economic, social and political issues.

How do such simulated UN debates work?

When a potential delegate signs up to an MUN they are assigned a country to represent. Together, delegates from the same country form a delegation. Each delegate from every delegation represents the country’s position in one committee.

Each committee is run by a Chair and a Deputy Chair. They lead the debates.

There are debates on various topics and delegates vote for or against a resolution.

By the end of the debates each committee draws up a final resolution and presents it at the General Assembly. These resolutions, coming from all the different committees, are voted on by everyone.

Here is the format our debates follow.

Key terms

Delegate – a participant of the MUN conference that represents a specific country

Committee – a group of delegates, together forming a body that debates issues of a similar nature, like the environment or global trade

Resolution – a written agreement between countries

General Assembly – “the principle deliberative body of the UN in which each member nation is represented and has one vote” (UN official definition)

Position paper – a written paper written by a delegate describing the position of the country they represent on a specific topic