How to write a MUN resolution (format, clauses and a full example)

A resolution states what a committee thinks about a problem and what it wants done, all in one long sentence.

Of the main bodies of the United Nations (UN), three adopt resolutions: the General Assembly (GA), the Security Council (SC) and the Economic and Social Council. In MUN, most committees write them. Crisis committees usually write directives instead.

After the heading, most resolutions have two parts. The preamble explains why the committee acts. The operative part sets out what should happen and who should do it.

In committee, you write it with your bloc, mostly in unmoderated caucuses, when formal debate pauses and you negotiate freely. At conferences that follow The Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN), this happens during lobbying.

Start from your position paper. Its part on past UN action gives you ideas for the preamble, and its proposed solutions become your first operative clauses. The position paper guide takes you through all five parts.

It depends on your conference: some expect you to bring a draft you wrote at home, and others ban pre-written drafts.

Check your conference's rules before you write anything. If they say nothing, ask the organizers.

• A draft from home. THIMUN-style conferences expect you to write one or two draft resolutions on your committee's topics before you arrive. In lobbying, expect to merge yours with similar drafts from other delegates.
• No pre-written drafts. At Harvard Model United Nations (HMUN) and National Model United Nations (NMUN), you write every draft in committee. At HMUN, pre-written work can cost you your awards, or your place at the conference.

Your bloc's ideas start as a working paper, become a draft resolution, and become a resolution only if the committee adopts them.

Your text changes its name twice on the way to a vote:

1. 1Working paper. Your bloc's first written ideas, in any format. To share it with the committee, you usually need a few sponsors and signatories.
2. 2Draft resolution. The working paper, rewritten in resolution format. Before you can introduce it, it usually needs a minimum number of sponsors and signatories. It also needs the approval of the dais. The committee then debates and amends it.
3. 3Resolution. If the committee adopts the draft in a vote, it becomes a resolution.

Bring clause ideas of your own, so you help write the draft instead of only signing it.

1. 1Bring two or three clause ideas in your notes. Then you can add wording to the draft, not only your signature.
2. 2Offer them in the first unmoderated caucus. Read them out, then listen to what the others need.
3. 3Add what your bloc agrees on. Type the agreed clauses into your bloc's working paper yourself.
4. 4Keep the dais informed. Tell them your ideas and how your talks are going.
5. 5Ask to be a sponsor. If your clauses are in the draft, you are one of its authors.

If your bloc ignores you, or no bloc fits your position, move from group to group and listen. Then offer to work with the delegates on the edges of each group.

Blocs often merge similar working papers, and the dais may ask your bloc to merge. Before a merge, decide which clause your country cannot give up, and which ones it can trade.

Sponsors write a draft resolution, while signatories only agree that the committee should debate it.

As the authors, sponsors present their text when it is introduced, answer questions about it and argue for it.

Signatories want the committee to debate the draft. Signing does not mean you agree with it, so you can sign a draft and still vote against it.

Your conference sets how many sponsors and signatories a draft needs. Under some rules, sponsors also count as signatories.

THIMUN conferences use other names. The lead author is the main submitter, and the countries that join the draft are co-submitters. At THIMUN The Hague, when debate on a draft opens, the chair asks the main submitter to read out the draft's operative clauses, or some of them.

A resolution is one long sentence: a heading, then preambular paragraphs, then numbered operative paragraphs.

The three parts always come in this order:

1. 1The heading. The name of the body, for example “The General Assembly,”. A MUN draft also has a header above it with the committee, the topic, the sponsors and the signatories.
2. 2The preamble. Preambular paragraphs (PP) that give the reasons for acting.
3. 3The operative part. Numbered operative paragraphs (OP) that say what should happen.

The UN Editorial Manual sets the format of every UN resolution. These are the rules you need:

• Italics, not underlining. The UN prints the opening words of every paragraph in italics, and the name of the body too. Many MUN guides underline them instead. Use italics, unless your conference asks for underlining.
• Participles or adjectives. Each preambular paragraph opens with a participle, such as “Recalling” or “Having considered”, or with an adjective, such as “Aware”. Many guides call these openers “gerunds”, but the UN rule names participles and adjectives.
• Commas in the preamble. You do not number preambular paragraphs, and each one ends with a comma.
• Numbers and semicolons in the operative part. Each operative paragraph opens with a verb in the present tense, such as “Decides”. You number them 1, 2, 3, and each one ends with a semicolon. Only the opening verb is in italics.
• Subparagraphs. A colon introduces them. You letter them (a), (b), (c), and a second level uses (i), (ii). Each starts with a capital letter, and in the operative part each one ends with a semicolon.
• One full stop. The final operative paragraph ends with a full stop. It is the only full stop in the whole resolution.
• Also and further. When paragraphs in a row open with the same word, add “also” to the second and “further” to the third, as in “Recognizing also”. In a General Assembly operative paragraph, the word goes first: “Also requests”. The Security Council writes “Decides also”.
• No abbreviations. Write every name in full the first time it appears in the preamble, and again in the operative part.

Preambulatory clauses give the reasons for your resolution: the problem, the facts and what has already been done.

Preambulatory clauses recall earlier resolutions and treaties and explain why the committee acts. The actions themselves belong in the operative part.

UN drafting practice puts them in this order: the Charter of the United Nations first, then earlier resolutions, then general facts about the problem. A report of the UN Secretary-General, who leads the UN's staff, comes last.

Both lists use the UN's own opening words and spelling. Most come from its list of common opening words (PDF).

Two pairs are easy to mix up. “Taking note of” is for a report or a statement, while “Noting” means you observe a fact. For your committee's own earlier resolutions, use “Recalling” or “Reaffirming”, never “Welcoming” or “Taking note of”.

Operative clauses are the actions: each one opens with a verb and sets out what should happen.

The verb is in the present tense, and each clause asks for, decides or recommends one action. Operative clauses are the core of your resolution. The committee can amend each one, and can even vote on some of them separately through division of the question.

Verbs differ in strength. “Requests” is the most common and the most neutral. “Calls upon” is stronger, “Urges” is stronger still, and “Demands” is the strongest and rarely used. When a General Assembly text asks the Security Council to act, use “Recommends” or “Invites”.

A strong operative clause names who acts, what they do, how, by when and who pays.

Strong means specific. Check each clause you write against these five questions:

• Who acts? Name the actor: Member States, a UN body or the Secretary-General.
• What do they do? Give one clear action.
• How? Name the method, for example a fund, a programme or a law.
• By when? Set a date or a deadline.
• Who pays? Say where the money comes from.

Compare two clauses on the same idea:

• Weak: “Encourages countries to improve water in schools;”. It is vague about who acts, and it names no method, no date and no money.
• Strong: “Calls upon all Member States to build safe drinking water points in every public school by 2035, through their national school building programmes and funded from their education budgets;”. It answers all five questions.

Write one action per clause. When one action has several steps, use sub-clauses. The documents lesson of the Model UN Masterclass has a clause-writing exercise for you to try.

General Assembly resolutions mostly recommend, while Security Council decisions bind every UN member.

Article 10 of the UN Charter lets the General Assembly make recommendations to Member States and to the Security Council. The Assembly does decide on its own work, such as its budget or a new international day: “Decides to proclaim 20 March the International Day of Happiness”.

Security Council decisions are different. Under Article 25 of the Charter, all UN members “agree to accept and carry out” them.

Many conferences teach that only the Security Council may “condemn” or “demand”. That is a conference rule, not a UN rule. In resolution ES-11/1 of 2 March 2022, the General Assembly opens five paragraphs with “Demands” or “Also demands” and one with “Condemns”. The text is still a recommendation. In the General Assembly, a strong verb does not make a text binding. If your conference has the rule, follow it.

After debate closes, the committee votes on amendments first and then on each draft resolution.

During debate, you can propose an amendment to a draft. Many conferences let you amend only operative clauses. A friendly amendment goes in without a vote, while the committee votes on an unfriendly amendment.

Once your committee passes a motion for closure of debate, voting begins. Votes on amendments and drafts are substantive votes, and you may vote yes, no or abstain. A draft usually passes with a simple majority.

In the Security Council, a draft needs nine votes and no veto from a permanent member. At the real UN, most General Assembly resolutions pass by consensus.

For amendments, roll-call votes, two-thirds majorities and voting on a draft in parts, read the amendments and voting sections of the rules of procedure guide.

General Assembly resolution 66/281 shows the full format in under 250 words.

The Assembly adopted it on 28 June 2012 and created the International Day of Happiness. Here is the full text, with the informal PP and OP labels:

What to notice:

• PP1 recalls an earlier resolution, near the start of the preamble.
• OP1 uses “Decides” for something the Assembly can do itself: create an international day.
• OP2 and OP3 ask others to act. “Invites” is polite, and “Requests” is the usual verb for the Secretary-General.

A short, invented practice draft shows the MUN header and the format in committee style.

No committee has debated it. Most conferences ask for a header like the one below. Under it, the text follows UN format:

Draft resolution 1.1. Committee: General Assembly. Topic: Safe drinking water in schools. Sponsors: Ghana, Peru and Viet Nam. Signatories: Canada, Egypt, Fiji, Germany, India, Jordan, Mexico and Norway.

Back your own clauses with real facts, as PP3 does with the UN's data on Sustainable Development Goal 6.

Most errors in MUN resolutions are format slips, vague clauses and abbreviations.

• Underlining the opening words. The UN uses italics. Underline only if your conference asks for it.
• A full stop after every clause. Preambulatory clauses end with commas and operative clauses with semicolons. Only the last clause ends with a full stop.
• Commas after sub-clauses. In the operative part, sub-clauses end with semicolons too.
• Joining clauses with “and”. Each clause stands on its own. UN resolutions do not link two with “and”.
• Abbreviations. Write “World Health Organization” in full, not “WHO”.
• Clauses with no actor. “Encourages action on water” asks no one to do anything. Say who acts.
• “This resolution”. Write “the present resolution”, as the UN does.
• Copying clauses, or letting AI write them. NMUN and THIMUN reject text copied from earlier resolutions, apart from a little standard wording. Some conferences also ban drafts written by AI. Write your own clauses.
• Forgetting your conference's rules. Some conferences want underlining or their own header. Their rules come first.