1. These Rules of Procedure of the Security Council (hereinafter - the “Rules of Procedure”, “Rules”) relating to the work of the Model UN Security Council (hereinafter - the Council), shall be approved by the Secretariat before the Model UN starts. Only the Model UN Secretariat may amend rules of Procedure.
2. The Right for interpretation of any provision of the Rules of Procedure belongs to the President.
RULE 2
Languages
English is considered to be the committee’s only official and working language.
All the official documents of the Council shall be written in English.
RULE 3
Delegates
1. Each member of the Council shall be represented at the meetings of the
Security Council by one accredited Delegate.
2. Delegates have the right to speak and vote on all issues, if their rights and credentials are not changed in accordance with Rule 5.
3. If a Delegate addresses the committee without permission, exceeds the allowed time for the speech, makes irrelevant or offensive statements, or violates the present Rules in any other way, the President may call him/her to order.
4. Credentials of Delegates may be revoked by Model UN Secretariat in the event of gross and repeated violations of the Rules of Procedure, disrespectful treatment of the President and other Delegates, Model UN or the United Nations.
RULE 4
Observers
Any Member of the United Nations not a member of the Council and any State not a Member of the United Nations, if invited to participate in a meeting or meetings of the Council, shall have the same rights as other Delegates, except
- the right to vote,
- to be Sponsor of Draft Resolutions,
- to sign Draft Resolutions.
RULE 5
Credentials
1. The credentials of Delegates and Observers shall be certified by the Model UN Secretariat before the meetings start, as well as during the registration of delegates. Only the President of the Council and (or) the Secretary General of the Model UN may change the rights and powers of Delegates.
2. Delegates shall not abuse these rules, as well as other rights granted to them.
RULE 6
Presidency
1. The President shall preside over the meetings of the Security Council and, under the authority of the Security Council, shall represent it in its capacity as an organ of the United Nations.
2. The President shall:
- declare the opening and closing of each meeting of the committee;
- direct its discussions, ensure observance of the rules of procedure;
- accord the right to speak;
- put questions and announce decisions;
- rule out points of order;
- have complete control of the proceedings at any meeting and over the
maintenance of order thereat.
3. The President may, in the course of the discussion of an item, propose to the committee the limitation of the time to be allowed to speakers, the closure of the list of speakers, or the closure of the debate. The President may also propose the suspension or adjournment of the meeting or the adjournment of debate on the item under discussion.
4. The President shall rule on matters that the Rules of Procedure leave to his discretion, as well as on any matters relating to the meetings and not regulated by these Rules.
5. The President shall remain impartial. The President shall abstain from making statements on substantive issues under discussion, except in cases where such a discussion may cause serious harm to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
RULE 7
Secretariat
1. The Secretary-General shall act in that capacity in all meetings of the
Security Council. The Secretary-General may authorize a deputy to act in his place at meetings of the Security Council.
2. The Secretary-General, or his deputy acting on his behalf, may make either oral or written statements to the Security Council concerning any question under consideration by it.
3. The Secretary-General shall provide the staff required by the Security Council. The Expert and the Secretary shall present this staff. The Presidium of the Council consists of the Expert, the Secretary, and the President.
4. The Secretary shall be responsible for the preparation of documents required by the Security Council and shall, except in urgent circumstances, distribute them in advance of the meeting at which they are to be considered.
5. The Expert counsels on account of all the draft resolutions, working papers, amendments, the form of the document, the observance of the international law and accordance with the previous decisions of the Security Council. The decision of the expert is not a subject to appeal. The President or a Delegate may at any time introduce a Question to the Expert on factual or legal points.
RULE 8
Speakers’ List
1. If not decided upon differently, formal debate rules apply. The President
shall keep a Speakers’ List, which determines the order of speeches.
2. A Delegate may request to have the name of his/her delegation added to the
Speakers’ List by raising his/her placard.
RULE 9
Point of Personal Privilege
1. A Delegate may introduce at any time a Point of Personal Privilege in order to remove a personal discomfort, which impairs his/her ability to participate in the proceedings. The Delegate when called by the President shall explain his/her grievance. The President may rule out a Point of Personal Privilege.
The decision of the President is not subject to appeal.
RULE 10
Point of Order
1. A Delegate may at any time, except during the execution of another Point of Order introduce a Point of Order to complain about improper parliamentary procedure. The Delegate when called by the President shall explain the grievance. The President may rule out a Point of Order. The decision of the President is not subject to appeal.
RULE 11
Right of Reply
1. A Delegate whose personal or national integrity has been impugned by another Delegate may, at the end of the latter’s speech, request the Right of Reply. The President shall decide upon the request immediately. The decision of the President is not subject to appeal. If the Right of Reply is granted, the wronged Delegate may speak during one (1) minute.
2. A Right of Reply to a Right of Reply is not in order.
RULE 12
Motion for Adjournment of the Debate
1. The Motion for Adjournment of the Debate temporarily closes the Debate without final voting.
2. A Delegate may at any time when the floor is open, but not during speeches, introduce a Motion for Adjournment of the Debate. The Motion requires the support of a second Delegate. The President may rule out the Motion for Adjournment of the Debate. The decision of the President is subject to appeal and can be ruled out by two thirds of Delegates present.
3. The Motion for Adjournment of the Debate is a debatable motion. At least one statement in favor and one against are required.
4. The votes of the two thirds Delegates present are required for the Motion for Adjournment of the Debate to pass.
RULE 13
Motion for Closure of the Debate
1. The Motion for Closure of the Debate immediately terminates all discussions on a particular item of the Agenda and brings all Resolutions on the floor or matters under consideration to vote.
2. A Delegate may at any time when the floor is open, but not during speeches, introduce a Motion for Closure of the Debate. The Motion requires the support of a second Delegate. The President may rule out the Motion for Closure of the Debate. The decision of the President is subject to appeal and can be ruled out by two thirds of Delegates present.
3. The Motion for Closure of the Debate is non debatable.
4. The votes of the two thirds Delegates present are required for the Motion for Closure of the Debate to pass.
RULE 14
Draft Resolutions
1. The President approves a document if it has the required format and the required number of Sponsors and Signatories. An approved document is referred to as a Draft Resolution and may be introduced to the committee.
2. Sponsors are recognized as the writers of the Draft Resolution.
3. Signatories are recognized as the supporters of the Draft Resolution and do not have further obligations. One quarter of the Delegates present must be either Sponsors or Signatories of the Draft Resolution for it to be introduced to the committee. A Delegate may not at the same time be a Sponsor as well as a Signatory of a given Draft Resolution.
4. Delegates may add their name to the list of Signatories at any time during the debate. This request should be submitted in written form to the President for approval.
5. More than one Draft Resolution may be on the floor at any time.
RULE 15
Introducing Resolutions
1. If a Draft Resolution has been approved by the President and the Expert, the Secretariat assigns it a number and distributes the Draft Resolution to all the Delegates. A Sponsor of the Draft Resolution may introduce the Resolution when he/she has the floor.
2. The introduction of the Draft Resolution shall not be limited to reading it out. Subsequently, the Sponsor will answer questions of clarification regarding the Draft Resolution.
3. When the Draft Resolution is adopted by the Council, it becomes a Working Paper.
RULE 16
Withdrawal of Resolutions
A Draft Resolution may be withdrawn by its Sponsors at any time before voting on it has commenced. This request should be submitted in written form to the
President. A Draft Resolution may not be withdrawn if an Unfriendly Amendment to it is on the floor.
CHAPTER 2. AMENDMENTS
RULE 17
Amendments
1. An Amendment is a motion that just adds something to a Working Paper, excludes something from it, or alters its part.
2. Amendments are to be presented to the Expert in the written form. They are estimated to correspond with the International Law and previous UN resolutions. After that they are handed on to the President of the Council.
Each Amendment should be written or typed on a separate paper and include an exact direction to which part of Working Paper it refers and which country proposes it.
3. Amendments to the pre-ambulatory clauses are not in order.
4. Grammatical, spelling and formatting errors in Working Papers will be corrected without a vote. The final decisions on corrections are at the discretion of the President.
5. Amendments to Amendments to Amendments are not in order.
RULE 18
Introducing Amendments
1. When an Amendment is moved to a Working Paper, the Amendments shall be introduced by the Sponsor and voted on.
2. If two or more Amendments to a Working Paper are proposed, the President shall determine the order in which they are voted upon. The committee shall first vote on the Amendment furthest removed in substance from the Working Paper and then on the Amendment next furthest removed until all Amendments have been put to the vote. However, where the adoption of one Amendment necessarily implies the rejection of another Amendment, the latter shall not be put to the vote. The committee will consider a Working Paper including all Amendments adopted by the committee.
3. Prior to the vote on an Amendment, the President shall consider at least one (1) speaker in favor and one (1) speaker opposed to each Amendment and shall give each of them one (1) minute to present their position to the committee.
RULE 19
Amendments to Amendments
1. An Amendment to Amendment is a motion that just adds something to an Amendment, excludes something from it, or alters its part.
2. An Amendment to Amendment is presented orally during the discussion of the main Amendment.
3. A Delegate who proposes it must formulate the motion clearly. Besides the Debate over the Amendment to Amendment is going beyond the time limit set for the Debates over the main Amendment.
4. Submitting an Amendment to Amendment after voting on the main Amendment is not allowed.
5. Several Amendments to the same Amendment are being debate over in the chronological order.
6. After voting on Amendment to Amendment the Council returns to the debates over the main Amendment.
RULE 20
Withdrawal of Amendments
Its Sponsors may withdraw an Amendment at any time before voting on it has commenced.
CHAPTER 3. VOTING
RULE 21
Voting
1. Each member of the Security Council shall have one vote.
2. Decisions of the Security Council on procedural matters shall be made by an affirmative vote of a simple majority (50%+1) of the members.
3. Decisions of the Security Council on substantive matters shall be made by an affirmative vote of two thirds members including the concurring votes of the permanent members, provided that a party to a dispute shall abstain from voting.
4. On procedural matters Delegates must not abstain from voting. Delegates recognized prior to the opening of the meeting as ‘present and voting’ must not abstain from voting on any kind of matters.
5. The voting procedure must not be interrupted except to raise a Point of Order or a Point of Personal Privilege.
RULE 22
Use of the Veto
A Permanent Member using its veto should explain the reason for doing so orally to the Security Council immediately after the voting procedure.
RULE 23
Modes of Voting
1. If not decided upon differently, Delegates vote by raising their placards.
2. For substantive matters, a Delegate may request a roll-call vote. This request is automatically accepted unless ruled out by the President. The decision of the President is not subject to appeal.
3. A roll-call vote takes place according to the English alphabetical order of the names of the States represented in the committee, beginning with the State whose name is drawn by lot by the President. The name of each State shall subsequently be called by the President. The Delegates shall reply “Yes”,
“No” or “Abstain” (in the event if Delegate is only present).
4. In roll-call vote, a State may pass once, but then must vote in the affirmative or negative.
RULE 24
Order of Voting
If two or more Draft Resolutions relate to the same question, they shall be voted on in the order they were submitted.
MOTIONS AND POINT OF ORDER
Motion
Debatable/Non
-debatable
Voting Procedure
Description
Point of Personal
Privilege
Non-debatable
No
A Delegate may at any
time introduce a Point of
Personal Privilege in
order to remove a
personal discomfort,
which impairs his/her
ability to participate in
the proceedings: he/she
does not hear the
speaker, or feels
cold/hot.
Question to the Speaker
Non-debatable
No
A Delegate may ask the
speaker if he/she has
finished the speech and
is ready to answer, and
doesn’t yield the floor to
the President or other
Delegate.
Question to the Expert
Non-debatable
No
A Delegate may at any
time when the floor is
open, but not during
speeches ask the Expert
to clarify the essence and
details of the matter
under consideration, to
explain the legitimacy of
the Draft points,
amendments, and their
compliance with the
international public law.
Right of Reply
Non-debatable
No
A Delegate whose
personal or national
integrity has been
impugned by another
Delegate may, at the end
of the latter’s speech,
request the Right of
Reply. The President
should decide upon the
request immediately. If
the Right of Reply is
granted, the wronged
Delegate may
immediately speak
during 1 minute. A Right
of Reply to a Right of
Reply is not in order.
Motion to Set the
Speaking Time
Non-debatable
Simple
Majority
The Motion is used in
order to define the
speaking time for each
Delegate, taking the
floor during formal
Debate or Moderated
Caucus. These time
limits include the time
allotted for Questions to
the Speaker.
Motion to Moderate the
Speaking Time
Non-debatable
Simple
Majority
The Motion is used in
order to limit/prolong
the speaking time for the
Delegate, taking the
floor.
Motion to Moderate the
Time of the Debate
Debatable
Simple
Majority
The Motion is used to
limit/prolong the time
allotted for formal
Debate or informal
Debate (Caucus)