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How to Write a Model UN Resolution, Line by Line

Resolution writing is where Model UN stops being a speaking contest. Speeches persuade, but the text is what the committee votes on, and the delegates who can produce clean, specific clauses under time pressure end up holding the pen for their whole bloc. This guide shows the anatomy once, briefly, then does what most guides skip: a complete draft resolution, reproduced as live text, annotated line by line.

The shape, in sixty seconds

A resolution is one long sentence. It opens with the body's name as the subject, runs through unnumbered preambulatory clauses that each end with a comma, then numbered operative clauses that each end with a semicolon, and takes its only period after the final clause. Preambulatory clauses justify; operative clauses act. Every clause opens with a phrase from a fixed menu, which lives in our clause phrase bank, and the printable resolution template holds the full format spec. Now the example.

A complete draft, annotated

This draft grows out of the strong position paper in our position paper guide: Kenya's proposals on refugee access to education, now merged with a bloc and formatted for the dais. It is an original teaching example, not a real UN document.

Committee: Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee (SOCHUM)

Topic: Ensuring Refugee Access to Education

Sponsors: Kenya, Uganda, Canada

Signatories: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Germany, Jordan, Mexico, Norway, Pakistan, Türkiye

The heading is administrative, and the dais checks it first. Sponsors wrote the text; signatories only agreed it deserves debate. Nine signatories here would satisfy a typical one-fifth-of-committee requirement in a mid-size room.

The General Assembly,

The subject of the entire one-sentence resolution. Everything that follows, comma after comma, semicolon after semicolon, hangs off these three words.

Guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child,

Recalling the 2018 Global Compact on Refugees and Sustainable Development Goal 4 on inclusive and equitable quality education,

Noting with concern that refugee children enroll in school at rates far below global averages, with the gap widening at the secondary level,

Welcoming the efforts of host states that have integrated refugee learners into national education systems,

Four preambs, each load-bearing: legal foundation, then the two instruments the operatives will build on, then the problem, then credit to the host states whose votes this draft needs. Nothing controversial lives here, because preambs cannot be amended and an attackable preamb cannot be defended.

1. Recommends the establishment of a Host-State Education Compact, under which member states that include refugee learners in national school systems receive predictable multi-year support, comprising:

(a) per-student funding administered through the existing education programming of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),

(b) technical assistance for teacher training and curriculum capacity in refugee-hosting districts;

The flagship clause: one mechanism, defined before anything else references it. The sub-clauses each carry one element, and the funding runs through an existing agency rather than a new body, which deflects the "who runs this?" attack in advance.

2. Invites member states, international financial institutions, and private donors to contribute to the Compact on a voluntary basis, with pledges reviewed at an annual conference convened by UNHCR;

The wallet clause. The GA cannot compel spending, so the honest verb is Invites with a review mechanism that creates pressure without pretending to bind anyone.

3. Calls upon the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to develop, in consultation with host states, a common framework for recognizing the prior learning and examination credentials of displaced students across borders;

The second proposal from the position paper, now a clause with a named implementing agency. "In consultation with host states" was added as a friendly amendment during drafting; more on that below.

4. Encourages member states to remove administrative barriers, including documentation requirements, that prevent refugee children from enrolling in national schools;

5. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its next session on the implementation of the present resolution;

6. Decides to remain seized of the matter.

The closing ladder: a norms clause, a reporting clause that gives the resolution a future, and the traditional closer. Note the punctuation across the whole draft: semicolons throughout, period only at the very end. And this Decides is the GA managing its own agenda, which it may do; deciding what member states must do is Security Council territory.

How this draft changes on the floor

Two amendments, one of each kind, show the full workflow:

  • Friendly: during drafting, Jordan asked that clause 3 read "in consultation with host states". All three sponsors agreed, so the change was incorporated without a vote, and Jordan moved from skeptic to supporter. That is what friendly amendments are for: buying votes with words you can live with.
  • Unfriendly: a rival bloc submits an amendment striking clause 1(a)'s per-student funding and replacing it with "voluntary contributions as appropriate". The sponsors refuse, so the amendment collects its required signatures, gets debated, and is voted on during voting procedure before the draft as a whole. If it passes, the gutted draft still belongs to its sponsors, which is why experienced blocs count votes before closure instead of after.

The motions that drive all of this, introduction, closure, and division of the question, are on the points and motions cheat sheet.

The failure gallery

Five clause mistakes chairs see every conference, with the repair:

  • The vague verb. "Encourages countries to work together on refugee education;" proposes nothing. Repair: name the mechanism, the actor, and the object, as in clause 1 above.
  • The unfunded mandate. A program clause with no money clause anywhere in the draft. Repair: every mechanism gets a wallet, even if the wallet is voluntary contributions.
  • The GA that thinks it is the Security Council. "Demands that all member states..." in a GA committee draft. Repair: Calls upon or Urges. Binding language is reserved, by convention, for the Council.
  • The mega-clause. One operative containing a fund, three programs, and a reporting requirement. It cannot be amended surgically or voted on separately, so allies who like most of it vote against all of it. Repair: one action per clause, sub-clauses for components.
  • The acting preamble. "Recalling that a new fund should be established," hides an action where no one can amend it, and the dais will bounce it. Repair: actions go in operatives, always.

Writing it under real conditions

In committee you will write this during unmoderated caucuses, on a shared document, with six people talking. The order that works: agree on the mechanism first, assign clause drafting in pairs, keep one person as format editor against the template, and decide early which clause you are willing to trade away in merging. Blocs that argue about preambs first run out of time; blocs that build the define, fund, implement, monitor ladder first walk into voting procedure with a draft that survives amendments.

If you are new to committee flow itself, start with Model UN Rules of Procedure, Explained in Plain English, then come back to the drafting.

Common questions

How many clauses should a Model UN resolution have?

Three to six preambulatory clauses and five to ten operative clauses is a healthy range for a student draft. Merged committee-wide drafts run longer, but length is not a virtue: chairs and voters reward drafts where every clause does identifiable work.

What is the difference between a sponsor and a signatory?

Sponsors are the authors: they control friendly amendments and defend the draft. Signatories only want the draft debated; signing implies no support at all. Conferences typically require signatories equal to roughly a fifth of the committee before a draft can be introduced.

Can preambulatory clauses be amended?

No. In standard procedure amendments touch operative clauses only, which is why anything you might need to change or defend belongs in the operatives, and the preamble stays uncontroversial.

What vote does a draft resolution need to pass?

A simple majority of those voting at most US conferences, with abstentions not counted. Some conferences use two-thirds for special cases, NMUN defaults to adoption by consensus, and a simulated Security Council needs nine of fifteen with no permanent-member veto.

Can more than one resolution pass on the same topic?

Usually only one. Once a draft passes, remaining drafts on that topic typically fall away, which is why blocs merge papers and fight over whose draft gets voted first.