How to research your country for Model UN

Your country decides what you say for the whole conference, so the research behind it matters more than any single speech. You need answers to four questions: what the topic means for your country, what the UN has already done, what your country has said and how it voted, and which countries stand with it. This guide shows you where the UN publishes each answer and how to fit them on one page you can use in committee.

Start with your committee's background guide, which sets out the questions the chairs want answered, then work through the sources below. If this is your first conference, read your first MUN conference as well.

What to find out before the conference

The four questions your research must answer, and what each answer looks like.

The UN's own advice to Model UN delegates splits research into four parts: the topic, your country's background, your country's policy on the topic and the policies of the other countries in the room. Beginners tend to skip the last part, yet it is the part that tells you who will agree with you.

The four questions and what you are looking for
QuestionWhat you are looking for
What does the topic mean for my country?Numbers that show how the problem touches its economy, its land and its people.
What has the UN already done?The resolutions, treaties and reports on the topic, and what they asked countries to do.
What has my country said, and how did it vote?Its statements in UN meetings, the drafts it sponsored and its votes.
Which countries stand with it?Its regional group, the political groups it belongs to and the countries that vote the same way.

Check what your committee can do, too. The General Assembly can only make recommendations, while the Security Council can take decisions every UN member must carry out, so the same idea is worded differently in each.

Keep facts and opinions apart in your notes, and write down the best arguments of the countries that disagree with yours, so you have an answer ready.

Where to look: the UN's records and your government's

The sources that record what your country said, signed and voted for, starting with two.

If this is your first conference, start with the first two rows and add the others when you need more.

Sources for your country's record
SourceWhat it tells you
Member States on the RecordDocuments that show your country's views at the UN, with links to its statements and the drafts it sponsored.
UN Digital Library voting dataHow your country voted on each recorded General Assembly and Security Council resolution.
General Debate statementsThe speech your country gives to the General Assembly each September, with its priorities for the year.
Your country's permanent mission to the UN and its foreign ministryRecent statements and policy papers on their own websites, often newer than the UN's records. The permanent mission is your country's embassy to the UN.
UN Treaty CollectionWhich of the treaties held by the UN Secretary-General your country has signed and ratified. For disarmament treaties such as the Non-Proliferation Treaty, use the treaties database of the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs.
UNdata country profilesPopulation, economy, environment and other figures for your country.
UN global issues pagesAn overview of many topics on the UN agenda and the UN bodies working on them.

An empty search is normal. Countries do not state a position on every topic, and the General Assembly adopts many of its resolutions without a vote, so there is no vote to look up. The UN library's guide to finding a country's position has more search tips. When one source comes up empty, move to the next, and if every source is empty, follow the steps for a country that has said nothing.

News sites and encyclopaedias help with the background: follow their references to the original statement, vote or treaty, and quote that. The UN's research resources for Model UN list more sources.

How to read a voting record

Find a resolution in the voting data and read your country's Y, N or A.

  1. Open the voting data and type a keyword, such as plastic, into the search box. You can also search for a resolution's document symbol, the code every UN document carries: a General Assembly resolution's starts with A/RES/.
  2. Open a result. Most countries' names have a letter in front of them: Y for yes, N for no and A for abstain.
  3. A country with no letter did not vote on that resolution.
  4. Note the totals and the countries that voted like yours.

One vote tells you little; a pattern over several years tells you much more. A country that abstains year after year often objects to part of the text without opposing all of it. If it gave an explanation of vote, the meeting record tells you which part.

Exercise

What does a missing letter mean?

You are reading the voting record of a General Assembly resolution. Most countries have a Y, N or A in front of their name, but your country's name has no letter at all. What does that tell you?

  1. A Your country voted yes
  2. B Your country abstained
  3. C Your country did not vote
  4. D The resolution was adopted without a vote
Hint 1

Which letter would an abstention carry?

Show the model answer
  1. A Your country voted yes Wrong A yes vote is marked with a Y.
  2. B Your country abstained Wrong An abstention is marked with an A, so your country would have a letter.
  3. C Your country did not vote Right The record leaves the letter out for a country that cast no vote on the resolution.
  4. D The resolution was adopted without a vote Wrong Then there would be no recorded vote at all, and no other country would have a letter either.

Your country did not vote. Not voting is different from abstaining: an abstention is a choice the record shows with an A. Before you quote the vote, check the meeting record to see whether your country was absent, chose to stay out of the vote or had lost its right to vote because it had not paid its UN membership fees, under Article 19 of the UN Charter.

Check your answer

Your one-page country profile

Fit the essentials on one page you can read in committee: facts, record, allies and proposals.

Research only helps you if you can find it in the middle of a debate. Put the essentials on one page, in the same order every time, so a glance before you raise your placard is enough.

The country profile, line by line
  1. CountryIts region, population and form of government
  2. GroupsIts UN regional group and the political groups it belongs to
  3. The topicHow the problem affects it, with one or two numbers
  4. RecordIts statements, sponsored drafts, votes and treaties on the topic, with dates
  5. PositionIts view, in one sentence
  6. AlliesThe countries most likely to agree, and why
  7. OpponentsThe countries most likely to disagree, and their best argument
  8. Red linesWhat it will not sign
  9. ProposalsTwo or three ideas it wants in the resolution, each written as an operative clause

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

A weak Position line and a strong one
  1. WeakKenya cares about the environment.
  2. StrongKenya supports a legally binding treaty on plastic pollution (President Ruto, Nairobi, November 2023) and points to its own ban on plastic bags as proof that bans work (my reading).

Exercise

Fill in a country profile for Kenya

You are Kenya in a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) committee on plastic pollution. Fill in the Groups, Record, Position and Proposals lines of the profile, and mark which lines are facts with a source and which are your own reading of them. This one takes an evening, not five minutes.

Hint 1

Start with the UN's list of regional groups.

Hint 2

Search UNEP's news for Kenya and plastic bags, and for the treaty talks held in Nairobi.

Hint 3

Then check the newest round of talks: has anything changed since 2023?

Show the model answer
  1. GroupsAfrican States group at the UN; a member of the African Union and the Group of 77. (Fact)
  2. RecordAnnounced a ban on the use, manufacture and import of plastic bags in March 2017, to take effect six months later. Hosted the third round of talks on a plastics treaty in Nairobi, 13 to 19 November 2023, which President Ruto opened by calling the treaty “the first domino in this change”. (Fact)
  3. PositionSupports a legally binding treaty on plastic pollution, still under negotiation after the 2024 and 2025 rounds ended without agreement. (Fact) Points to its own ban as proof that bans work. (My reading: confirm it in Kenya's statements at the latest session.)
  4. ProposalsA fund that helps developing countries pay for alternatives when they ban plastic bags; shared rules that phase out the most common single-use plastic items over five years. (My proposals, built on Kenya's record)

The record comes from UNEP's story on the ban, its press release on the Nairobi talks and its page on the session; the state of the talks from UNEP's report on the 2025 round in Geneva; the regional group from the UN's list of regional groups, and the memberships from the member lists of the Group of 77 and the African Union. Before you quote the Record line, read the Earth Negotiations Bulletin's report on the newest session, which lists what each country said. The second half of the Position line keeps its “my reading” label until a Kenyan statement confirms it.

Check your answer

Now fill in the same nine lines for your own country, on one page you can take into committee.

Find your bloc and your allies

Regional groups, political groups and the countries that vote like yours.

Much of the negotiation at the UN happens between groups of countries rather than single delegations. Research the main political groups too, such as the Group of 77 and China, the Non-Aligned Movement, the European Union and the African Union. Your bloc, the group of countries you work with in committee, often starts from one of them.

The UN also sorts its members into five regional groups: African States, Asia-Pacific States, Eastern European States, Latin American and Caribbean States, and Western European and other States. The groups follow politics as well as geography: Türkiye takes part in two of them, and the United States belongs to none, although it counts as part of the Western European group in elections.

  • Regional group: the countries yours stands with in UN elections.
  • Political groups, such as the Group of 77 and China or the European Union, which often speak for all their members in one statement.
  • Regional organisations, such as ASEAN or the Arab League, whose joint positions your country has 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: look for statements made on behalf of a group, such as the African Group. The Group of 77 and China speaks mainly on development and the economy; on disarmament and security, look for the Non-Aligned Movement. The members agree a group statement before it is read, so it is a fair guide to your country's view when it has not spoken alone.

When your country has said nothing

Five places to look, in order, when you cannot find a statement on your topic.

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

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

Be ready to say where your position comes from. “Our government has not spoken on this, but it voted for the last three resolutions on the topic” is a stronger answer than a position you invented.

Exercise

Your country has said nothing: where do you look first?

You represent a small island state in the Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC). You cannot find a single statement by it on the topic. Which do you check first?

  1. A News articles about the topic
  2. B Its votes on the most recent resolutions on the topic
  3. C What its largest neighbour said
  4. D Nothing: invent a bold position that will stand out
Hint 1

Which source records a position even when nobody gave a speech?

Show the model answer
  1. A News articles about the topic Wrong They explain the topic, but they rarely say what a small state thinks about it.
  2. B Its votes on the most recent resolutions on the topic Right A vote stays on the record even when the country never spoke, and it points you to the countries it votes with.
  3. C What its largest neighbour said Wrong Neighbours often disagree; a neighbour's view is a guess until a vote or a group statement backs it up.
  4. D Nothing: invent a bold position that will stand out Wrong Delegates will ask where it comes from, and an invented position fails at the first question.

Start with its votes. A vote is a position on the record, and the countries that voted the same way point you to its group. On disarmament that is often the Non-Aligned Movement: look for its statements in the UN's meetings coverage and in Reaching Critical Will's reports on the First Committee, where DISEC's topics are debated. Then look at the treaties it has joined.

Check your answer

Going further: what experienced delegates read

Secretary-General reports, meeting summaries and specialist trackers, and how to prepare for surprises.

  • Secretary-General reports. Many agenda items have a yearly report by the Secretary-General with data, what countries reported and recommendations. The recommendations often turn into the next resolution's operative clauses.
  • The last two resolutions, side by side. The newest resolution on a topic is usually the previous one with changes. Mark the paragraphs that changed: that is where countries disagree.
  • Meeting summaries. The UN's meetings coverage summarises each meeting on the day it happens, including who spoke for which group and their explanations of vote. For many topics those come in one of the General Assembly's main committees, such as DISEC, weeks before the final vote, so search those meetings too.
  • Specialist trackers. The Earth Negotiations Bulletin reports environmental talks country by country, Reaching Critical Will follows disarmament, and Security Council Report follows the Security Council.

Prepare for the sub-topic nobody expected. Write down three to five principles your country applies everywhere, such as non-interference in other countries' affairs, the right to development or help for poorer countries to meet shared targets, and use them to work out its view when a new question comes up. Get the conference's country list as well: your country's natural partners may not be in the room.

Argue your country's line, not your own

Speak for your government even when you disagree, and know where it can compromise.

You speak for your country's government, not for yourself. If you would vote differently, keep that for after the conference. Conferences weigh this differently: many judge how well you represent your country, others reward leadership and drafting more, but a speech that contradicts your country's votes stands out anywhere.

Your position can still move within limits. Find the points where your country could compromise: a clause it could accept if someone else pays, or a deadline it could live with if it is longer. Knowing your red lines and how far you can compromise lets you negotiate in the unmoderated caucus, or in lobbying at conferences with THIMUN-style rules, without giving up what matters to your country.

In your position paper, which some conferences call a policy statement, write as your country, never as yourself: “Kenya believes” or “our government believes”, not “I believe”. Back the position with the agreements your country has ratified and quotes from its leaders.

Using AI and search tools

Use them to find sources, never as the source, and follow your conference's rule.

AI chatbots can summarise a topic and suggest where to look, but they also invent statements, votes and quotes that seem correct but are not. Treat anything a chatbot tells you as a clue to check, not a fact: find the original statement, vote or treaty on a UN site before it goes into your profile or your paper.

Conferences set their own rules. Some ask you to disclose any AI use in your position paper, and some ban it for the paper, so read your conference's policy before you start writing. Text copied from a source or another delegate without credit is plagiarism under any rule.

Your country research checklist

Everything to find before the conference, on one page you can print.

The topic

  • The questions the background guide asks
  • The most recent resolutions on the topic, and what changed in the last one
  • The Secretary-General's latest report on the topic
  • Two or three numbers that show how big the problem is

Your one-page profile

  • Country: its region, population and form of government
  • Groups: its regional group and political groups
  • Record: its statements, sponsored drafts, votes and treaties, with dates
  • Position: one sentence, with a source
  • Red lines, and where it can compromise
  • Proposals: two or three, each written as an operative clause

The room

  • The conference's country list
  • The countries likely to agree, and why
  • The countries likely to disagree, and their best argument
  • Which proposals you will offer first in the resolution

Questions and answers

How much research do I need for my first conference?

Enough to fill in the one-page country profile: your country's position in one sentence, its record on the topic, its allies and two or three proposals. Your committee's background guide gives you the depth on the topic itself.

What if I disagree with my country's position?

Represent it anyway: you speak for your government, not for yourself, and defending a view you do not share is part of what Model UN teaches. A hard role never excuses hateful remarks, even in character.

How do I research a character for a crisis committee?

Your sources change: read biographies and memoirs, the law that sets out what the office can do, and newspapers and documents up to the committee's start date, and note who your character owes and who owes them. The guide to crisis committees shows how to turn that into powers you can use.