APPROVAL PANEL

1.   The Work of the Approval Panel 
 

• The main objective for delegates at the start of the conference is to pass resolutions

• Each committee will later debate the best resolutions, which will then either pass or fail, depending on how many votes they get from delegates

• For General Assembly Committees, a resolution that passes represents the shared opinion of a committee and all passed resolutions will be sent to the President of the Assembly who will choose which ones will be discussed in the full General Assembly on the last day of the conference

• We expect students to arrive at the conference with a lot of work already done on their resolutions – in other words, they are ready to present it to other countries and look for co-submitters

• The goal is then to get the quota of co-submitters (which is a minimum of 5 countries)

• Once a resolution is drafted, it must first of all be brought to the chair teams of the committee

• Chair teams check for errors and also whether the resolution is sufficiently debatable – they can recommend that the delegate work on it again to correct errors or make it more interesting to debate or they can accept it and send it forward to the approval panel, completing a form which shows they have given it permission to progress

• The form along with the resolution are now brought to the approval panel by administration staff

• The job of the approval panel starts now

• The Approval Panel checks that the grammar, spelling and layout are correct.

• Also, it is essential to check whether the content of the resolution is LEGAL and whether its proposals are WITHIN THE RULES OF THE UNITED NATIONS, see notes in Part 3 below.   

 
2.    Processing resolutions
 
The entire process for getting a resolution through is outlined below:
 

•  A delegate writes a resolution
• The delegate finds at least the requested minimum number of co-submitters (co-submitters are delegates who would like to debate the resolution, they are not necessarily fully in favour of the resolution)
•  The delegate takes the resolution to the chair, who will check if it for errors and also whether it is sufficiently debatable
•  If the chair points out any additional work to be done, the delegate must work on the resolution again if the chair   passes the resolution, the form to be sent to the approval panel must be completed and administration staff deliver the   resolution to the Approval Panel for consideration
•  The resolution is checked by the Approval Panel for the first time
•  If approved, administration staff return it to the chair who then informs the delegate that their resolution has passed   and is now in the resolution pile for consideration for committee debates and the process ends here/if not approved,   administration staff return it to the chair who returns it to the delegate to work on again according to the feedback   from the approval panel
•  The delegate gives the resolution to the chair to be sent to the approval panel a second time
•  If approved, administration staff return it to the chair who then informs the delegate that their resolution has passed   and is now in the resolution pile for consideration for committee debates and the process ends here/If any mistakes   are  found, the delegate will get one final chance to sort them out and submit the resolution to the Approval Panel for a third time. The resolution is returned to the chair to be returned to the delegate
•  The delegate works on the resolution again using the feedback from the approval panel
•  The delegate gives the resolution to the chair to be sent to the approval panel a third time
•  The Approval Panel either accepts or rejects the resolution.
•  If approved, administration staff return it to the chair who then informs the delegate that their resolution has passed   and is now in the resolution pile for consideration for committee debates and the process ends here/ If rejected, the   resolution will not be entertained any further

3. Rules of the Approval Panel
 

• A resolution cannot ask for a country to be thrown out of the United Nations, however, it can recommend to take this procedure into consideration

• No resolution should contain any clear budgetary information, meaning it cannot be debated how much costs will be exactly and where the funds will come from – financial investment or assistance can be suggested in general terms

• The General Assembly cannot make compulsory resolutions, meaning it cannot enforce any sanctions on countries not complying with a resolution – it can however contain a clause suggesting that the Security Council do so.

• The General Assembly cannot decide on any offensive military actions, it can only send peacekeeping forces.

• Only information from up to one week before the conference may be used in resolutions (in other words, the resolutions must be completely up to date)

• Limits for clauses are between 6-8 pre-ambulatory clauses and 7-9 operative clauses