DUMUN-ROP

Delhi University Model United Nations Rules of Procedure 2014

Delhi University Model United Nations Rules of Procedure was designed to be a reference resource for Model United Nations conferences in India. Both for first-timers, and veterans, this procedure is created to be a formal piece of writing of what is the conventional procedure followed in India. DUMUN Rules of Procedure borrows heavily from the widely popular UNA-USA, and Roberts Rules of Procedure, and represents the very diverse Indian Model United Nations circuit as best as one can. If the conference youre attending follows the DUMUNROP, then this document will serve for all purposes, as the chief governing rulebook of procedure.

The final version of the DUMUN-ROP will be inaugurated in the closing ceremony of DUMUN 2014. This particular document is the final draft, created for JMCMUN and YLGC training sessions, and for gathering feedback.

Part I Debate

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Quorum Introduction of Business What Precedes Debate Formal Debate Informal Debate Introduction of Documents

I. Quorum
1. In every council except the Security Council, the Quorum is defined by the presence of 1/3 rd of the members in the Roll Call, failing which the council cannot enter business. In the Security Council, the Quorum is defined by the presence of 9 members that must necessarily include the permanent members of the Security Council as stated by the Charter of the United Nations. The Executive Board of the council will conduct a Roll Call in the alphabetical order only, and a delegate may respond to the Roll Call in either Present, shall the delegate choose to retain rights of abstention in Substantive matters, or Present and Voting, shall the delegate choose not to abstain at all in substantive matters. The Quorum is always re-established in a council after such a motion as Motion to Table Agenda, or a Motion to Establish a Provisional Speakers List is passed. The Quorum is established every day at the beginning of the session before entering business, but a delegate cannot change his/her answer to the Roll Call unless a Motion to Table

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Agenda, or a Motion to Establish a Provisional Speakers List has been passed by the council. 6. Should a delegate decide that the failure of reaching Quorum impedes business between other parties present in the council, he/she may rise to a Motion to Appeal for Conditional Quorum, upon the passing of which with 2/3 rd majority, a Conditional Quorum will be established in the council. In a Security Council, a Conditional Quorum in the absence of a permanent representative will not warrant any substantive voting.

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II. Introduction of Business

1. Introduction of Business can only be carried out once Quorum (or Conditional Quorum) is established the council. The business of the meeting should be abiding the mandate of the council. A delegate may rise to a Motion to Set the Agenda or a Motion to Set the Order of the Agendas to introduce business in the council upon the request of the Executive Board, and only upon one of these motions passing with simple majority the agenda for the council will be decided. i) If the business of the meeting contains multiple agendas, and a Motion to Set the Order of the Agendas is not raised, the default order of the Agendas as mentioned in the Background Guide of the council will be pursued by the Executive Board. ii) If the business of the meeting contains multiple agendas, a Motion to Set the Agenda will be out of order as it would negate the other agendas in the business of the meeting.

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Only in the scenario arisen by Art 4 (i) above, will the Executive Board pursue the business of the meeting without consulting the simple majority of the council. If there are two or more Motions to Set the Order of the Agendas on table, the Executive Board will conduct multiple voting and the motion that would pass with maximum majority will decide the order of the agendas in the business, and there will be no further debate conducted.

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III. What Precedes Debate

1. No debate on the current agenda of the business will be conducted before establishing a General Speakers List, the continuity of which will represent formal debate and the end of which will represent exhaustion of all debate on the agenda. A delegate may rise to a Motion to Establish the General Speakers List on the Current Agenda once the current agenda is set in the business, in which case the motion will be viewed by the Executive Board as an initiation of formal debate on the agenda decided by the council while introducing the business. The Executive Board shall not ask for more motions if a Motion to Establish the General Speakers List on the Current Agenda is on table. If such a motion as in Art 3 above is passed by the council with simple majority, the Executive Board will initiate the process of creating a General Speakers List by requesting a Placard show for those wanting to be added to the General Speakers List.

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No delegate may be awaiting two turns in the General Speakers List at any given time during council session. Withstanding the prohibition of Art 5 above, a delegate may send a chit in writing to the Executive Board requesting to be added to the General Speakers List. Upon the establishment of a General Speakers List, a delegate may rise to a Motion to Change the Individual Speakers Time in the General Speakers List, whereupon bearing in mind that the only possible options of Individual Speakers time are in denominations of 30 seconds from the minimum of 60 seconds to the maximum of 120 seconds. If such a motion as in Art 7 above is not raised, the Executive Board will choose by default, 90 seconds as Individual Speakers Time for the General Speakers List. If more than one such motion as in Art 7 is on table, the Executive Board will conduct multiple voting and the motion that will pass with maximum majority will decide the Individual Speakers Time in the General Speakers List, and there will be no further debate conducted.

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IV. Formal Debate

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Withstanding the stipulations of Individual Speakers Time and the General Speakers List as established in Art 2 and Art 7 of Chapter II, the floor will be offered to the speakers one-byone by the Executive Board. A delegate may not rise to obtain the floor in any way before the first speaker in the General Speakers List has finished speaking, notwithstanding Points of Personal Privilege and Points of Order. The delegate currently appointed on the General Speakers List may yield a portion of his remaining time in a number of ways i) A delegate may choose to answer questions from other delegates by yielding to Points of Information. A delegate may choose to yield to another delegate, except the delegate who is next on the General Speakers List, for him to make a remark or a comment on his current speech. A delegate may choose to yield to the Executive Board in which neither of

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the two will occur and he/she will return the floor for next speaker. 4. No member of the Executive Board may object to any of the yields permitted under Art 3 unless it causes unnecessary disruption of council proceedings by surpassing the stipulated time of the speaker. No member of the Executive Board may object to ask the speaker any question relating to a substantive matter either during the speech, or upon him/her returning back the floor to the Executive Board. No member of the Executive Board may rephrase, object to, or add to the Points of Information asked by other delegates when such a yield as mentioned in Art 3 (i) is made by the speaker. i) A speaker may rise to obtain the floor by a Point of Order to a Point of Information if he/she realizes a factual error was committed in the phraseology of the Point of Information, either in its preamble or in its subject; however, such a privilege is not given to any other delegate than the delegate currently appointed on the General Speakers List.

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ii) Similarly, a Point of Order to an answer to the Point of Order may be raised by the delegate who raised the Point of Information if he/she realizes that a factual error was committed in the phraseology of the answer; however such a privilege is not given to any other delegate than the delegate who raised the Point of Information. 8. Should such a Point of Order to a Point of Information as raised in Art 7 is adjudicated to be in order by the Executive Board, the speaker will not answer the Point of Information. No more than five Points of Information can be entertained by the Executive Board per speaker in the General Speakers List.

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10. A delegate may rise to a Point of Order to the speech made by the appointed speaker in the General Speakers List if he/she realizes that a factual error was made in the speech, however no such Points of Order will be entertained once the speaker has completed his yield, or returned the floor back to the Executive Board. 11. After the first speaker has finished speaking in the General Speakers List, the restrictions imposed by Art 2 above will be revoked and any delegate may rise to obtain the floor by points or by a Motion to Suspend Formal Debate.
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12. If more than one such point as mentioned in Art 11 is raised at the same time, the Executive Board will follow the Order of Disruption of Points as mentioned in Chapter III, Part II of this rulebook. 13. If more than one Motion to Suspend Formal Debate as mentioned in Art 11 is on table, the Executive Board will follow the Order of Precedence of Motions as mentioned in Chapter II, Part II of this rulebook. 14. All suspensions of formal debate will be definite suspensions, and the council will revert back to formal debate once the disruption to formal debate, either in the form of lunch/tea or in the form of informal debate, is completed. 15. A Motion to Table Debate or a Motion to Adjourn Session will result in indefinite or permanent suspension of formal debate, therefore ending the General Speakers List and exhausting all debate.

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V. Informal Debate
1. A council may not enter informal debate unless at least one speech in the General Speakers List is made since the council session was last reverted back to formal debate, and a Motion to Suspend Formal Debate is passed with simple majority. All ways to obtain the floor except Points of Personal Privilege are out of order during informal debate as the floor is kept in assemblage by the council. A Motion to Suspend Formal Debate could be to enter informal debate in the form of a Moderated Caucus in which the Executive Board will volunteer recognition of speakers while keeping the floor in assemblage, or to enter an Unmoderated Caucus in which the Executive Board will leave the method of recognition up to the decision of delegates. If more than one Motion to Suspend Formal Debate is on table, the Executive Board will follow the Order of Precedence of Motions as outlined in Chapter II, Part II of this rulebook.

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Unmoderated Caucus
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5.

Upon a Motion to Suspend Formal Debate and Enter an Unmoderated Caucus for a stipulated time in denominations of 5 minutes, and no more than 20 minutes, is passed by the council with simple majority, the Executive Board returns the floor in assemblage to council for an Unmoderated discussion for that stipulated time. The Executive Board may withdraw the floor in assemblage from the Unmoderated Caucus in circumstances deemed extremely significant to the flow of debate, or the request of the Secretary-General. By the virtue of the Executive Board being the part of the same assemblage, they can also participate in the Unmoderated Caucus. Moderated Caucus

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Upon a Motion to Suspend Formal Debate and Enter a Moderated Caucus for a stipulated time in denominations of 5 minutes, and no more than 20 minutes, with individual speakers time in denominations of 15 seconds but between 30 and 90 seconds, with a stipulated agenda that is held by the judgment of Executive Board to fall within the mandate of the council and the umbrella of agenda set while introducing business (Chapter I) is passed by the council

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with simple majority, the Executive Board returns the floor in assemblage to the council for a moderated discussion on that stipulated agenda, withstanding the total speakers time, the individual speakers time and the number of speakers permitted by them. 9. The delegate who raised such a motion as in Art 8 above will be obliged to be the first speaker in the Moderated Caucus following which he will confer the ability to moderate the Caucus to one of the members of the Executive Board.

10. The member of the Executive Board to whom the responsibility of moderation is conferred, while recognizing that the floor is in assemblage and not with the bench, will moderate the discussion by requesting a Placard show to choose speakers, one-by-one. 11. By the virtue of the rest of the Executive Board also being the part of the same assemblage, they can also participate in the Moderated Caucus by partaking in the Placard show. 12. Unless a Motion to Extend the Time of the Unmoderated Caucus or the Moderated Caucus by the maximum stipulated time no more than half of the original time, and in denominations of 5 minutes is apparent, the council session will revert back to formal debate.
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13. With the exception of such a motion as mentioned in Art 12 above, no motion can be raised while the council session is in informal debate. 14. If the ongoing Moderated or Unmoderated Caucus is already an extension, no motion such as the one mentioned in Art 12 will be in order.

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VI. Introduction of Documents

1. Rules of Procedure only apply to documentation within the system of the United Nations i.e Draft Resolutions, and therefore i) Presidential Statements, either individual or joint, given by delegates and/or the Executive Board upon the consent of all parties mentioned as the authors of that statement, and in any number; press releases by the Executive Board only, which are authored by the Rapporteur or equivalent position on the bench; and reports of the council to some other organ or commission of the United Nations

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will not be governed by the specific instructions mentioned herein. 2. When the council is in formal session, a delegate may rise to a Motion to Suspend Formal Debate and Introduce Draft Resolution on Table, following which the Executive Board will study the Draft Resolution, and upon it

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being held by the judgment of the Executive Board to fulfil all necessities of a Draft Resolution such as it following the mandate of the council, and those that are imposed by the system of the United Nations including the presence of at least two sponsors and a minimum of 20 percent support of the council in the form of signatories, the Executive Board will call the motion in order. 3. The Motion to Suspend Formal Debate and Introduce a Draft Resolution shall be treated as incidental and passed without voting; however if there are two or more such motions on the table simultaneously, the Executive Board will establish a protocol to determine the order of Draft Resolutions as mentioned in Art 5, Chapter II, Part II of this rulebook, unless the Executive Board realizes that the Draft Resolutions in question are similar in their essence and can be merged, whereupon they can subjectively suspend formal debate for an Unmoderated Caucus. Introducing Debate on Draft Resolutions 4. Any debate on Draft Resolution now labelled Draft Resolution 1.0, by the virtue of the absence of any other Draft Resolutions or by the virtue of it deemed so by the protocol to determine the order of Draft Resolutions, will

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happen after the suspension of formal debate and establishment of a Reading Session. 5. A Reading Session marked by Sponsors reading out the Operative clauses of the entire Draft Resolution one-by-one shall procedurally form the part of an ensuing Moderated Caucus to discuss that Draft Resolution, with a stipulated time period of 20 minutes and individual speakers time of 90 seconds. The floor will be opened to written Amendments to Draft Resolution as soon as the Moderated Caucus such as the one in Art 5 above is commenced, and the floor will be withdrawn from written Amendments to Draft Resolution upon the conclusion of the Moderated Caucus, or its extension if there is any. Unless there are more Draft Resolutions on table, the floor shall be reverted back to formal debate, otherwise the procedure contained in Art 5 and Art 6 above shall be followed for each Draft Resolution individually. The council must summarise debate and solutions on the set agenda in the form of a Draft Resolution before adjourning the session, unless a Motion to Table Agenda has been

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passed with 2/3rd majority enabling any delegate to raise a Motion to Adjourn Session without the introduction of Draft Resolutions. 9. No debate can occur on the amendments to Draft Resolutions.

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Part II General Rules

1. 2. 3. 4.

Obtaining the Floor Order of Precedence of Motions Order of Disruption of Points Voting

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The language of communication within council session, either in formal or informal debate, for both written and floored communication will be English, with the exception of greetings and gratitude. Delegates must only maintain conversation with the Executive Board during formal debate, and refrain from using personal pronouns.

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I. Obtaining the Floor

1. A delegate may only request to obtain the floor after the first speaker on the General Speakers List has made his speech, by rising to a point. Nothing in the present rulebook will impede a delegate to rise to a Point of Personal Privilege when he/she wishes to obtain the floor to request a personal privilege of his/her position as a delegate, including but not limited to, physical discomfort caused by the temperature of the room, a need to leave the council session, or inaudibility of the speaker, except in circumstances when the Executive Board is adjudicating upon/answering to some other point and cannot attend to the Point of Personal Privilege.

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3.

A Point of Personal Privilege shall not be used to disrupt the council proceedings or to call for a repetition of the statement which could not be heard for some reason, or raised when an adjudication/answer to a point is pending. A delegate may rise to a Point of Order against the delegate, interrupting him if necessary, if a delegate has made a direct and verifiable factual error, the verification of which can be produced in documentation by the delegate, or to the Executive Board if they contravene any procedure established under this book. A delegate may rise to a Point of Parliamentary Enquiry to enquire from the Executive Board anything that related to parliamentary procedure, either relating to this book, or to the matter of the council, including but not limited to, the strength of the council, the established Quorum, the number of Motions on table or the topic of the current Moderated Caucus, but he may not interrupt a speaker. A delegate may rise to a Point of Information to enquire from anyone in the assemblage, including the Executive Board, of a substantive matter when the floor is invited to Points of Information but he may not interrupt a speaker.

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7.

Notwithstanding Art 7 (i) and (ii) of Chapter III, Part I of this rulebook, all Points can only be raised to speeches made in the General Speakers List, or for the Executive Board. No delegate can be denied the request to obtain the floor by rising to a Point unless it explicitly contravenes Art 7 above. A delegate may rise to a motion only when the floor is invited to motions and obtain the floor to present his motion only when the floor is given to him by the Executive Board.

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II. Order of Precedence of Motions

1. No motion shall enjoy precedence over Motion to Table Agenda, which will require 2/3rd majority to be passed. Motion to Adjourn Session can only be raised by a delegate if a Motion to Table Agenda has been passed by the council, and shall enjoy precedence over all other motions. Motion for Setting the Agenda, Setting the Order of Agenda, Establishment of General Speakers List, Changing the Individual Speakers Time of the General Speakers List and Extending the Time of a Moderated/Unmoderated Caucus are exclusive motions that do not necessitate a table of three motions to enter voting and hence have no precedents. Motion to Suspend Formal Debate enjoys the precedence in the following order i) Motion to Suspend Formal Debate for a definite period of time larger than 20 minutes will be precedent over other suspensions.

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Motion to Suspend Formal Debate for an Unmoderated Caucus will be precedent over all suspensions except those suspensions such as ones in Article 4(i) above Motion to Suspend Formal Debate for a Moderated Caucus will be the least precedent motion, in which again, those suspensions for the larger stipulated time will be precedent over those with smaller. Upon Suspensions such as ones in Art 4(iii) above having the same total speakers time, the precedent will be determined by the Motion having the largest individual speakers time.

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If more than one Motion to Suspend Formal Debate and Introduce Draft Resolution on Table is present at the table simultaneously, the protocol to determine the Order of Draft Resolution is established i) The Motion presenting the Draft Resolution with the maximum number of Operative Clauses shall be voted on first, followed by the others in that order.

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ii) The Executive Board shall record the total number of votes in favour of all motions, and establish the order of Draft Resolutions from 1.0 onward starting with the maximum number of votes. iii) The floor will be invited for Motions to change the Order of the Draft Resolution set by the Executive Board in Art 5 (ii) above, and upon voting on all three motions, the motion with the maximum votes will be passed and the Order will be reset. 6. Upon the conclusion of the Moderated Caucus such as one mentioned in Art 5 in Chapter VI, Part I of this rulebook, the floor will revert back to formal debate whereupon a delegate may rise to a Motion to Enter the Voting Process which will require a 2/3rd majority to pass. During the Voting Process, all forms of debate or communication between delegates either in writing or by obtaining the floor will be prohibited, and the General Speakers List will be permanently ended, representing exhaustion of all debate.

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III. Order of Disruption of Points

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Points of Personal Privilege are the most disruptive points in the order of obtaining the floor however no point, including that of Personal Privilege could disrupt a council if an Executive Board is involved in adjudication/answering towards another point as also reiterated in Art 2, Chapter I, Part II of this rulebook. Points of Order are the most disruptive points after Points of Personal Privilege, which is followed by Point of Information, which is followed by Point of Parliamentary Enquiry. A delegate may not raise a point to another point, notwithstanding Art 7 (i) and (ii) of Chapter I, Part I of this rulebook, or raise a point other than a Point of Information itself when a delegate has yielded to Points of Information. Adjudication on Points of Order

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All Points of Order are to be adjudicated by the Executive Board promptly and on the merit of the first presentation of that Point of Order, without causing further disruption to the council including asking for explanations or giving the speaker a chance to clarify or rephrase his statement.

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If the Executive Board finds themselves restricted by the resources available to them in confidently adjudicating on the Point of Order, the Executive Board must request time from the delegates instead of incorrectly adjudicating on the Point of Order, or not adjudicating at all. If a delegate thinks that the adjudication on the Point of Order is incorrect, he can request the Executive Board to reconsider the ruling by writing, or resort to an Appeal against the Chairs Decision as outlined in Chapter I, Part III of this rulebook.

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IV. Voting
Procedural or General Voting 1. Voting on Motions happen in the Order of Precedence of Motions as outlined in Chapter II, Part II of this rulebook, and follows Procedural or General Voting except for the Motion to Table Agenda, and Motion to Enter the Voting Process which require a 2/3rd majority to pass. Procedural or General Voting shall require a simple majority, defined by the presence of 50 percent plus one delegate in the council. All delegates and observer members that form the part of the assemblage, including the members of the Executive Board must vote either for, or against the motion and must not abstain from voting. Before the procedural voting, an Executive Board may ask for Seconds and Oppositions to determine the electability of the motion; if there are no Seconds, the motion will fail and if there are no oppositions, the motion will pass.

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5.

A delegate may not Second or Oppose his own motion, and participate only during procedural voting. Substantive Voting

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Draft Resolutions and Amendments to Draft Resolutions require a Substantive Voting to be passed in all councils, except General Assembly where, unless the agenda has been previously decided to be an Important Question under the system of the Charter of the United Nations, a simple majority will suffice to pass them. Substantive Voting requires a 2/3rd majority among the members of the council who have voted on the Draft Resolution or that Amendment, after excluding delegates who have abstained from voting. A delegate may not abstain from voting if he has answered his Roll Call in Present and Voting during the establishment of the most recent Quorum. For any kind of voting to occur, at least a 20 percent support must be demonstrated to ensure the electability of the Draft Resolution or Amendments by the strength of sponsors and signatories.

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10. In case of Amendments, if all sponsors vote in favour of the Amendment, it shall not be put through Substantive Voting but passed directly. 11. A Sponsor of the Draft Resolution who has authored the resolution may choose to vote as No with Rights in which case he shall be given floor at the end of the session to explain his change of vote. 12. Notwithstanding Art 11 above, Sponsors may only vote yes during Substantive Voting on their own Draft Resolution. 13. If there are multiple Draft Resolutions to be voted upon, they shall be voted in the order of Draft Resolution 1.0 onward determined by the provisions of Art 5, Chapter II, Part II of this rulebook, and upon any Draft Resolution accomplishing Substantive Majority, all other Draft Resolutions will be automatically discarded.

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Part III Subsidiary Debate

1. 2. 3. 4.

Appeal against the Chairs Decision Right to Reply Amendments to Draft Resolutions Provisional Speakers List

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I. Appeal against the Chairs Decision

1. A delegate may raise an Appeal against the Chairs Decision if he/she disputes the adjudication of the Executive Board upon a Point of Order. During an appeal, the Vice Chairperson or the equivalent position shall assume the responsibility of the Chairperson or the equivalent position and the Secretary-General of the conference is called. The Secretary-General of the conference may conduct a Placard vote to resolve the Appeal, or rule on the appeal himself/herself.

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II. Right to Reply

1. A Right to Reply is sent in writing to the Executive Board to point out a prominent attack in the speech of a fellow delegate upon the personal dignity of the delegate as a man/woman. Attacks on the national dignity of the delegate do not accord the delegate any right to send a Right to Reply.

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III. Amendments to Draft Resolutions

1. Amendments to Draft Resolutions are sent in writing by the delegate to the Executive Board when the floor is open to Amendments, and may involve either additional amendments, to add a clause to the list of operative clauses, deletion amendments, to delete a clause from the list of operative clauses or modification amendments, to modify a clause. The Executive Board shall explain to the council the exact format of these Amendments before beginning with any debate on Draft Resolutions. If more than 60 percent of the clauses in a Draft Resolution is amended and/or the nature of amendments is held by the judgment of the Executive Board to have completely and irreversibly changed the essence of the Draft Resolution, the Draft Resolution must be discarded by the Executive Board. An amended clause cannot be amended again.

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III. Provisional Speakers List

1. A Provisional Speakers List is established by the Executive Board upon the employment of the Provisional Rules of Procedure by the Executive Board. Such Provisional Rules of Procedure are employed at the request of the SecretaryGeneral if any recent situation that evinces significant relevance to the current debate requires a more diligent attention of the council. The Executive Board shall explain to the council the exact format of the Provisional Speakers List and Provisional Rules of Procedure that is applied on them.

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Currently, the DUMUN-ROP is in the middle of being created. A lot of experienced MUNERS from around the country are working on it for it to get ready by DUMUN 2014 where it will be inaugurated. At the moment, debates regarding various facets of procedure exist between even ourselves within the group working on the initiative. Our aim is to create a resource that is helpful for both first-timers and veterans, and your support and feedback will be instrumental in making this Rules of Procedure booklet represent you, and your circuit in the best, most transparent way possible. Yours Siddharth Soni Author, DUMUN-ROP Secretary-General DUMUN 2014

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