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General Assembly
 
The General Assembly is one of the principal organs of the United Nations system where all of the members of the United Nations are equal and represented. The best part is the fact that it allows every member state to partake in finding the best solutions to world problems. The General Assembly consists of six committees that debate different aspects of world problems and concerns. In MUN conferences these committees gather on the last day of the conference to debate the resolutions that have passed in the committees. In JMUN, the six committees of the General Assembly are:

1st Committee: Disarmament
2nd Committee: Economics
3rd Committee: Environmental
4th Committee: Humanitarian
5th Committee: Political
6th Committee: Legal


In JMUN, the best clauses of the passed resolutions will be selected by the delegates in the respective committees and sent to the General Assembly Plenary Session. These clauses form one big resolution related to the theme of the conference which will be debated and voted at the plenary session.


 
Special Assembly

The Special Assembly is one of the principal organs at most MUN conferences and just like the General Assembly all of the members of the United Nations are equal and represented. The Special Assembly debates issues directly connected to the theme of the conference. At JMUN, it consists of six committees that debate different aspects of world problems directly related to the theme. In JMUN, these committees gather at the last day of the conference to debate the passed resolutions. The six committees of the Special Assembly are:

1st Committee: Drugs and Crime
2nd Committee: Education
3rd Committee: Health
4th Committee: Sustainability
5th Committee: Urbanization
6th Committee: Gender Affairs

As, in the case in the General Assembly, in JMUN, the best clauses of the passed resolutions will be selected by the delegates in the respective committees of the Special Assembly and sent to the Special Assembly Plenary Session. These clauses form one big resolution on the theme, which will be debated and voted at the plenary session.



Security Council

The Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations system and has the highest authority in the United Nations as well as MUN. It is responsible for maintaining international peace and security. The council debates complicated, challenging and controversial issues and has the authority to establish peacekeeping operations, authorize international sanctions and military action. It consists of 15 members of which 5 are permanent members (P5) who can strike out any clause or resolution without question or use their veto power. P5 countries are:

French Republic
People’s Republic of China
Russian Federation
United Kingdom
United States of America

The other 10 members of the Security Council are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms.
When the Security Council is debating a topic directly concerning a member country that is not represented in the Security Council, they may call in the ambassador of such country as a guest to provide insight and enrich the debate. The ambassador only serves as an observer and has no voting rights. They can participate in the debate and present their view to the Security Council.




Human Rights Council

The Human Rights Commission is a United Nations bounded committee. It is in compliance with the International Covenant on Civil Political Rights and is responsible for overseeing the implementation of a particular treaty. It is assisted by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights(UNHCHR). It is the UN's principal mechanism and international forum concerned with the promotion and protection of human rights.




Advisory Panel

The Advisory Panel is an organ that focuses on one regional question during the entire conference. At the end of the conference, they present their resolution to the General Assembly to be debated and voted on. The General Assembly will elect to accept (in part or fully) the plan of action proposed by the Advisory Panel at its plenary session. It has both countries and organizations that are relevant to the issue at hand. Advisory Panel experts debate clause by clause, just like the Security Council and instead of lobbying for resolutions, they create one together. No one has veto power in the Advisory Panel. This panel is designed for experienced MUN students from participating schools.




Historical Joint Crisis Committees

The Historical committee is a unique and challenging committee that is designed solely for experienced high school students. The Historical committee entertains one topic throughout the entire conference and delegates represent historical individuals relevant to the topic at hand as opposed to countries or Non Governmental Organizations. Similarly to the Security Council and the Advisory Panel, clauses are debated and voted on one by one. Much like any other committee, open debate is the norm and rules of procedure of Model United Nations are adhered to throughout debate sessions.

This year, we have expanded our Historical Committee into two joint crisis committees, which will be working in coordination with each other.


 
International Court of Justice

As the principal court, it’s the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) deals with legal conflicts between two states. The ICJ may judge disputes concerning international peace and security, even though these disputes may be the same as those heard in the Security Council and the General Assembly. The role of the ICJ is to deal with the legal aspects of such disputes.

During the course of the conference, the ICJ participants (judges, registrar, president) try to understand and resolve the conflict between the states after examining the evidence presented by the advocates for each state. They can call upon other United Nations organs for advisory opinion to better understand the case. Moreover, the Security Council and the General Assembly may ask the court to give an opinion on any legal question. The court follows the International Court of Justice Statue and the Rules of Court, which explain the ICJ procedure.

The ICJ is a civil, not a criminal court, and it concentrates on disputes between states. It has no authority over individual criminals. Therefore, it cannot try people such as war criminals. This is the task of special criminal tribunals established by the United Nations.


Historical Security Council

The Historical Security Council is a unique committee that merges the Security Council (SC) and the Historical Committee. 

HSC entertains a historical time period in which the delegates debate upon complicated and challenging international conflicts that threaten global peace. Delegates can propose peacekeeping operations, military action, sanctions and more. A quality that is not present in the SC but is present in the HSC is that the committee is furthered by crises, similar to the Historical Committee. After crises, delegates will receive newspapers that explain the consequences of their decisions. 


HSC follows the procedure of the SC, and consists of 15 members. 5 of those members are the permanent members (P5) who have the right to veto or strike out clauses or resolutions without further explanation. The P5 countries remain the same and consist of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, People's Republic of China, and Russian Federation (or USSR depending on the time period). The other 10 members are selected by the General Assembly for two year terms. In the HSC, the other 10 members may not exactly be completely accurate as the committee deals with events happening throughout a decade. 

The committee follows the procedure of the SC going clause-by-clause to form a whole resolution. If a topic that concerns a member not currently in the Security Council is discussed, the Council may call an ambassador of that state as a guest to answer questions and prov
ide insight. The ambassador cannot vote and is merely an observer.

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