Position Paper

A position paper is a document that contains the position and policies of a country regarding the topic being discussed. It should clarify the country’s stance on the topic at hand whilst considering its respective worldviews. The main purpose of the position papers is to supply the other delegates and the Chairs with information about your country’s position, thus facilitating preparations for the debate. It is also an incentive for delegates to research more thoroughly before the conference.

The due date for SMUNSP2022 position papers is December 9th, 23h59. The document should be emailed to both chairs. If a delegate fails to send its position paper on the deadline, they will no longer be able to run for best delegate. Exceptions can be made in cases such as but not limited to illnesses.

FORMAT

Font: Montserrat 12

Line spacing: 1.15

Alignment: justified

Margin: Normal

Title:

*The Chairs may also specify other formatting requirements.

CONTENT

1. Topic Background

The first part of the position paper should focus the background research explained in section 4.1 BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH. Introduce the situation and its historical background, identifying its causes, scope, and obstacles for solving it. However, don’t simply repeat what was written in the background guide; look at the topic through your country’s perspectives and biases, explaining your nation’s role in the issue. This is the part where you will explain how the problem affects your country (if it does). You can also use your general research about this country to mention what specific characteristics it has that may be relevant to the topic. It’s always positive to support your statements with statistics and data.

2. Past Actions

Next, describe what has been done to address this issue, both nationally and internationally, always taking your country’s perspective into consideration. You can mention past actions taken by the UN and other international bodies, such as conventions and resolutions that your country has supported or opposed. Outline the internal policies and programs implemented inside your country, by the states, regional bodies or NGOs. Explore both failures and successes. For actions that didn’t work well, judge what went wrong and how to avoid that in the future. For successful measures, analyze how they could be effectively applied in other places. Again, using statistics and specific examples of documents, laws and agreements to back you up will improve the quality position paper.

3. Suggested solutions

Finally, you can build on the preceding parts, where you analyzed which measures were effective and ineffective, to propose your own solutions to the problem. Disclose what your country is willing and able to do to help, as well as what they want other countries (and the UN) to do. Anticipate what you expect from your resolutions. You can be creative and suggest possible policies to address the issue, but remaining realistic, specific, and inside the limits of what your committee can do. To close up the position paper, talk about your expectations for the other nations and for the debate.

This is a basic structure, which may vary depending on the topic and committee (whether it is a conflict, an international issue or a problem of a specific country) and depending on your role (whether your country is very involved or neutral). The PDF below is a sample Position Paper.