Position Papers

Please email your position papers to CharlestonModelUN@gmail.com by October 30, 2019

Position Paper Guidelines

Each delegate must submit a position paper that addresses his/her committee topic. 

The objective of the position paper is to briefly explain your delegation’s plan for approaching the topic, provide a brief insight into your Member State’s history on the topic, and express your Member State’s desired goals and actions regarding the committee topic. It is intended to help you organize your ideas and bring a focus for your work at the CofC Model United Nations. Position papers should be well researched and true to the historical foreign policy of the delegation.

Examples of position papers 

1) Ensuring Access to Political Processes in Conflict Situations and 2) Strengthening and Expanding Arab Economies: Encouragement of International Trade Relations 

3) Population Policies: Advancing Access to Sanitation and 4) Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration into Civil Society of Ex-Combatants

Each position paper should consist of three sections

1) Paragraph One: Issue and your country’s position

Use this paragraph to clearly outline the main problems associated with your topic. The point of the paragraph is to provide a basic foundation as to the current situation associated with your topic. After generally describing the issue, give your country’s policy regarding the issue, and state specifically why your country supports that policy. Policy statements can often be as short as stating your country supports a certain action followed by a detailed qualification regarding this policy decision. This section of your position paper should not exceed five to six sentences.

2) Paragraph Two: Your country’s history relating to the issue

This paragraph is an opportunity for you to show the depth of your knowledge about the past and current situations regard your topic. Be sure to discuss:

  • Why did the problem arise? Why is this issue an international concern?
  • What are previous actions taken to solve the problem? Success/failure?
  • Problems that continue to exist or ones that have not yet been addressed

3) Paragraph Three: Your country’s proposed solutions and recommendations

Use this paragraph to list your solutions to all the problems you listed above.

  • Specific proposals regarding how to solve specific issues
  • How each individual proposal will be implemented, including the feasibility and cost
  • Global impact of solving the problem or implementing these solutions

These papers should be brief but clear, and only one page in length. Keep in mind, these papers are here so that you know what you are trying to accomplish in your committees.

Position Paper Format

  • NO LONGER THAN 1 PAGE FOR EACH COMMITTEE TOPIC, Single-spaced
  • Text in 11 or 12 point Times New Roman Font
  • 1 inch margins
  • Indent each new paragraph and do not skip lines between paragraphs.
  • Citations are optional; if citations are provided follow MLA Guidelines
  • Title Heading
    • 11 or 12 point Times New Roman Font, Centered
    • The first line: Country Name
    • The second line: “Positions for (insert name of committee)”

You can download these Position paper guilelines as a PDF. 

Where to find information on my country’s position?

  • CIA Factbook. 
  • Wikipedia
  • The UN Charter
  • The Universal Declaration on Human Rights
  • UN Millennium Development Goals
  • Treaties and declarations 
  • Statements by politicians from your country
  • Op-Ed and Blog Articles (Specifically, look for op-eds by heads of states (presidents and prime ministers) of your countries)
  • Academic Papers (scholar.google.com)