General Assembly Position Papers

Conferences will usually require some variation of the following heading in the top left corner of your paper as well as the title of the topic that is being address in this paper. 

Country Name

Committee Name

Names of the Delegates

Topic #: What the topic is

Here's an example.

Country: The Democratic Republic of the Congo

Committee: World Health Organization (WHO)

Delegates: Teri Dactyl and Paige Turner

Topic 1: Healthcare and Aging Populations

What is it?

The topic description shows your understanding of the topic, how your committee is relevant to it, and the perspective of your delegation. While writing this section, you should include the bias and perspective of your delegation (for example, downplaying one of the issues or completely ignoring it). An effective position paper will outline enough background that someone with no previous knowledge on the topic would be able to get a good understanding of it. You want to make sure that you include more information that what was said in the background guide so your chairs know you did research!

What should I cover?

• Historical Background: Outline the key events and developments that led to the evolution of the topic. This will also help you get a better understanding of the different systems/stakeholders involved in the topic, which will allow for more comprehensive solutions.

• Current Situation: Restate the relevant parts of the current situation that your delegation will address and regards as important. This is a great way to show the bias of your delegation by excluding or including different elements. 

• Key Issues: The key issues that are mentioned and describe give the chairs an idea of what issues you are going to address in your proposed solutions and what you are going to bring up during the conference. This is also another important section to consider the bias/perspective of your committee.

In general assembly committees there are two options for how most position papers are outlined:

1. They have one section dedicated to either past United Nations action or past international action

2. They have two sections: past United Nations action and country policy.

For past United Nations action, you want to highlight different resolutions that have been passed as well as actions they have endorsed. This could be specifically in your committee or related to the topic you are focusing on. Past international action is quite similar except you want to look at the history of the issue from a global perspective not just from the view of the United Nations; as such, you would look at global initiatives as well as United Nations' resolutions.

Past country policy focuses only on actions your country has endorsed or initiatives they have implemented. Oftentimes this includes figuring out the perspective of your country through speeches, voting logs, government websites, and local news. It is important to try to get good understanding of the bias of your country as well as a breadth of information.

This should be a majority of your research paper and usually is around twice as long as your other sections. While it can be tempting to list a lot of solutions that you have learned from your research, you want to focus on a few good ones (4 or so) in your plan and try to make sure they intertwine. Try to stay away from solutions that have already been implemented or are in the process of being implemented, as your chairs like to hear creativity and see that you have done a lot of detailed research.

One aspect that is often forgotten but is VERY essential to include in this section is funding! You want to be as detailed as possible in how you carry out these solutions and that includes laying a foundation for these ideas to happen.

This section is one of the more rare ones and isn't always included in every conference but can be a great way to see what your chairs are hoping you will discuss. Oftentimes, this section includes a list of 4 questions that are related to the topic and you have to answer 2 of them, or a list of questions that you don't have to write about but should keep in mind.

These questions are often leading and relate to subtopics they want delegates to bring up in committee. As such, try to be as detailed as possible when answering them and keep them in mind when you are preparing for committee. Generally, these questions are used to show your research on your country's perspective rather than just what you have researched overall, so make sure what you bring up is something your country acknowledges.

Where do I cite?

This references section (that is always at the end of your paper) should have a list of all of the sources that you use. But you should also cite where you mention information that you got from a source, whether that's through footnotes or in line citations.

What type of citations do I use?

There are a few ways to determine the citation types they want you to use:

1. It is stated on the position paper guide on their website.

2. It is stated in the background guide.

3. If it isn't stated anywhere, use the same type of citations that the background guide uses.

4. Email your chairs as they will often provide an email in the background guide.

Usually, conferences use MLA formatting.

Important Reminders

• Cite all of the external sources of information you use including statistics, past resolutions, and maps!

• Make sure all of your citations are consistent!

• Avoid fluff! Everything you put in your position paper should communicate your delegation's perspective effectively and directly. Try to avoid convoluted language as well as irrelevant sentences.

• Keep it organized! Use paragraph breaks to your advantage. Make sure you have relevant topic sentences for each paragraph. Try to make sure each idea and section of your proposals are in their own paragraph. 

• Always double check! Remember to leave time to double check your citations, grammar, and structure before you turn it in.

• Use the paper as a speech! During debate, a good position paper will also help you to stick to your country's policies. You can easily use it to give speeches especially if you organize the paper effectively.

• Emphasize bias! Make sure the paper reflects the bias of your delegation by including/excluding specific subtopics and solutions. For example, if your country really doesn’t like nuclear energy, spend more time talking about potential environmental consequences than its benefits.