Position Papers

When you get placement for a MSUMUN committee, you are given a position (country or character), issues to attend to, and a background guide for overview over the committee. For a General Assembly you will likely want to start researching information regarding topics presented in the background guide, your country’s perspective on those topics, and potential solutions to the issues provided based on your country's perspective. All of this research and planning should culminate into a document called a position paper. What makes up a position paper will be covered below, however it is critical for preparing for a MSUMUN General Assembly committee!

Once you write your position paper, please submit it to your MSUMUN committee’s email. Committee email’s can be found by clicking the contact button of your Chair/Crisis-Director on your committee pages, you can access those here

As you prepare for the conference, you will research the topics that are discussed in your committee’s Background Guide. You will use your research to write your position paper discussing each of the topics, and within each topic, you will: describe the issue and its context, explain what has been done about the issue in the past, and then give specific proposals on how to address the topic going forward. Each question should be answered in your position paper while also explaining the work of the international community and the positions of your country. 

Example of a position paper where a delegate is representing the Netherlands in the World Intellectual Property Organization

MSUMUN GA/Specialized Position Paper Requirements:

When writing your position paper, make sure that you follow these guidelines:

  • Heading at the top of the page including your name, the country or position you are representing, the name of the committee, and your school

  • 1.5 line spacing, 12 pt font

  • As a general guideline, try and answer these 3 questions in their own paragraphs:

    • What is the issue and how does it affect your country or position?

    • What has been done about this issue in the past by your country?

    • What can your country do to address this issue?

  • Citations for all sources used, this includes both facts and statistics and any background information gathered from websites

  • No more than one page for each topic 

Please submit one position paper with different sections for each topic in the same word document