Delegate Assignment Policy

Northwest Model United Nations conferences are successful because of the quality of our participating delegations. We respect that delegations have different methods of assigning countries, using systems incorporating elements of delegate choice, assignment by student or faculty leadership, rotation, chance, seniority, and/or other factors. However, over the course of this conference's history, NWMUN has observed best practices and identified the conference's needs with regards to the choice made by delegations in assigning specific country-committee combinations to individual delegates. As a result, we have developed this policy for schools to follow in making assignments. If you have any questions, please contact us for more information.

If you are interested in viewing the policy used by NWMUN-Portland in assigning countries to registering delegations, please view our Country Assignment Policy.

1) Delegations should avoid assigning any positions on the Security Council to individuals without prior experience as a delegate in at least one collegiate Model United Nations conference.

2) Delegations should place their most experienced delegates on the countries which are most integral to the overall functioning of the committee they are in. Examples include permanent members of the Security Council; States under Review (SuR) as part of the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review process; countries who are direct parties to an issue under discussion in that committee (such as Israel and Palestine on the General Assembly if the General Assembly is discussing "the Question of Palestine"); countries whose influence on an issue is large enough to necessitate their involvement in committee discussions; and delegations on the General Assembly who are likely to be called to other committees (this refers to countries who are not on the SC, but who are being discussed in the SC).

3) Delegations should notify those delegates who are taking on countries that may be called to other committees of this possibility, as the Secretariat is allowed, under NWMUN Rules of Procedure, to require two potential types/groups of delegates to move committees during the conference and delegates should be prepared for such a possibility. These two groups are: first, the aforementioned delegates representing countries on the General Assembly who are not represented, but are being discussed, in the SC; and secondly, delegates representing countries on the GA or other committees who also have a seat on the SC, in the situation when that seat is vacant. (For example, if the United States' seat in the Security Council is vacant for any reason, the Secretariat will move the United States' delegate at the GA to fill this seat.)

4) In addition to the experience guidelines stated above, delegations should assign individuals that they trust to follow the standards of delegate conduct and to attend all sessions of the conference to each of the country-committee combinations referenced above. While no school will ever be penalized from year to year for issues related to experience, quality level, or level of activity, NWMUN does use delegate/delegation absences and disruptive or inappropriate conduct to determine country assignments in future years, especially when absences or misconduct were committed by delegates assigned to the high-priority country-committee combinations referenced above. (For more information on this, please reference our Country Assignment Policy.)

5) Schools are assigned countries by the conference's Secretariat exclusively; no school may assign its countries or any part of its countries to another school, or delegates from another school. In the event that delegations are unable to fill all of their countries, remaining country assignments need to be officially yielded back to the NWMUN - Portland Secretariat for reassignment to other schools.

6) No delegation may assign an individual who has ever previously served on the staff for any NWMUN conference to serve as a delegate in committee without written approval in advance from the Secretary-General (of the conference in the year they wish to assign a former staffer as a delegate). Delegations may name former NWMUN staff members as head delegates (not representing a country) or as advisers at the conference without prior authorization.