How to research your country for Model UN

Four answers: what the topic means for your country, what the UN has done, what your country has said and how it voted, and who stands with it.

Together, the four answers give you your country's position, also called its stance. Beginners often skip the last one, the other countries in the room, but it tells you who will work with you.

For the topic, start with your committee's background guide (some conferences call it a study guide), then read the newest resolution on it. Its preambular paragraphs list the earlier resolutions and reports, and its operative paragraphs show what countries already agreed.

Ten lines on one page, from your country's region to its proposals, that you can read at a glance before you raise your placard.

Fill in each line as your research finds it, and keep this order, so you can find any line in the middle of a debate:

Note the source and the date of each line, and search again if your newest source is more than a year old. A line you worked out yourself, rather than read in a statement, gets the label “my reading” until you can confirm it.

For your country, start with Member States on the Record for what it said and the UN's voting data for how it voted.

An empty search is normal. Countries do not speak on every topic, and many resolutions pass without a vote, so when one source comes up empty, move to the next. If every source is empty, follow the steps for a country that has said nothing.

How to find your country's UN votes

1. 1Open the voting data and search for a keyword, such as climate, or a resolution's symbol, the code on every UN document, such as A/RES/80/138.
2. 2Open a result. Most countries' names have a letter in front: Y for yes, N for no and A for abstain.
3. 3Note the totals and the countries that voted like yours.

One vote tells you little, and a pattern over several years tells you much more. A country that abstains year after year often objects to part of the text, not all of it. If it gave an explanation of vote, a short speech saying why it voted as it did, the meeting record shows which part.

Yes, to find and summarise sources if your conference allows it, but never as the source itself.

AI chatbots invent votes, quotes and dates that look right, so treat what one tells you as a clue to check, not a fact. Ask it which resolutions and statements to read, then open each one on a UN site and take your facts from there.

Write your paper and speeches in your own words, and read your conference's AI rule before you start.

Build one from what your country has done: its votes, its group's statements, its treaties, its policy at home and its interests.

Small delegations cannot speak on every topic, but you still need a position. Work down this list until you have enough to defend one:

1. 1Votes on related resolutions. A vote is a position, even without a speech.
2. 2Group statements: what its regional or political group said on its behalf.
3. 3Treaties: whether it signed or ratified the treaties on the topic.
4. 4Law and policy at home: what its government does on the issue, and plans it files with the UN, such as a national climate plan.
5. 5Its interests: its economy, geography and neighbours, and what the policy would cost or gain it.

Be ready to say where your position comes from, because a sourced answer beats an invented one:

The countries in its regional and political groups and the ones that vote like it, all of which you can find in UN records.

Much of the negotiation at the UN happens between groups of countries. Your bloc, the group you work with in committee, often starts from one of these:

• Regional group: the countries yours stands with in UN elections, one of the UN's five regional groups.
• Political groups, such as the Group of 77 and China, which brings together developing countries, or the European Union.
• Regional organisations, such as ASEAN or the Arab League, whose joint positions your country helped agree.
• Voting partners: the countries that voted like yours on the most recent resolutions on the topic.

When a country speaks for a group, the meeting record says so, as in a statement on behalf of the African Group. Members agree it before it is read, so it is a fair guide to your country's view. A small country gets its weight from its group: offer to draft the paragraph the group agrees on.

Then look at the room. Get the conference's country list early, because your natural partners may not be there. Look up who voted against your country too, since those delegates will ask the hardest questions.

Argue your government's position anyway, and know where it can give way and what it will never sign.

You speak for your country's government, not for yourself, and defending a view you do not share is part of what Model UN teaches. Keep your own opinion for after the conference.

Your position can still move within limits. Find the points where your country could give way, such as a paragraph it could accept if someone else pays, and know its red lines. Then you can negotiate in the unmoderated caucus without giving up what matters.

Prepare for the question nobody expected. Write down three to five principles your country applies to every topic, such as the right to development. When a new question comes up, ask which principle answers it.

Turn Kenya's record into two proposals in five minutes, then fill in the profile for your own country.

When every line of your own profile is filled in, turn it into your position paper.