RULES GOVERNING SUBSTANTIVE DOCUMENTS

Rule #1 - Procedural Voting

Procedural Voting encompasses all voting procedures during sessions except voting for draft resolutions or substantive amendments. All delegates need to cast their votes in favour or against procedural voting. No abstention is allowed. If a delegate does not raise his/her placard during procedural voting, the Committee Board should remind the committee of this article and shall re-take the vote until everyone’s vote is taken. All procedural voting procedures will be implemented by asking delegates to raise their placards to indicate their vote. Any other procedure of voting may be recommended by a delegate for procedural matters. The Committee Board may decide to take a voice vote as a potential substitute to the abovementioned procedural voting procedure. For the motions necessitating a simple majority, first, the Committee Board shall ask for “seconds” (votes in favour), then delegates in favour of the respective motion shall respond by saying “second” immediately after the Committee Director’s call. The sponsor of the motion is deprived of the right to second his/her motion vocally. If the Committee hears no second from the delegates, the motion shall directly fail. If the Committee hears some seconds, the Committee Board shall ask for objections. If the Committee hears some objections, the Committee will move to the procedural voting procedure which will be implemented by raising placards, If the Committee does not hear any objection, the motion shall automatically pass. For the motions necessitating a two-thirds majority, first, the Committee Board shall ask for “seconds” (votes in favour), then delegates in favour of the respective motion shall respond by saying “second” immediately after the Committee Director’s call. The sponsor of the motion is deprived of the right to second his/her motion vocally. If the Committee hears no second from the delegates, the motion shall directly fail. If the Committee hears some seconds, the Committee Board shall ask for objections three times. If the Committee hears some objections in one of the three rounds, the Committee will move to the procedural voting procedure which will be implemented through raising placards, if the Committee does not hear any objection in all three rounds, the motion shall automatically pass. For procedural voting procedures necessitating simple and two-thirds majorities, if the sponsor of the motion cast a vote against his/her motion, the respective motion shall be considered withdrawn and, thus, failed. Note passing is automatically suspended during procedural voting procedures. Any motions and any points except points of personal privilege and points of order are out of order during procedural voting procedures. For the procedural voting procedures requiring a simple majority, a tie will lead to the failure of the motion since a tie means that a majority is not reached.

Rule #2 - Substantive Voting

Substantive voting procedures encompass the voting on the final documents of the Committees, in these Rules of Procedure referred to as a resolution, and on amendments and the recombined segments of a draft resolution. A substantive voting procedure is to be implemented after the closure of the debate on a substantive document. Before the substantive voting procedure, the floor is open only for the motions for “the Division of the House”, “Division of the Question” and, “a Roll Call Vote” and for the points of personal privilege, order, and parliamentary inquiry shall be in order. Each delegate shall have one vote which may be a “yes”, “no”, or “abstain”. However, delegates who have stated their presence as “present and voting” during the roll call do not have the right to cast an “abstain” vote. All substantive voting procedures required will be implemented by raising placards unless otherwise is requested by a delegate. For every abstention, one vote in favour and one vote against shall be added as an extra, this way, the abstentions will not damage consensus. All substantive voting procedures require a simple majority unless otherwise stated in the Handbooks of respective Committees. A tie means that a majority is not reached, thereupon, a tie will lead to the failure of a substantive document. Note passing is automatically suspended during substantive voting procedures. To move to substantive voting, at least the majority of all members of the Committee shall be present before the procedure.

Rule #3 - Division of the House

Once the debate is closed on a draft resolution, a delegate may raise a motion to divide the House. A motion for the division of the House can only be introduced before the voting procedure of a draft resolution, not an amendment. This motion requires a two-thirds majority to pass, and if it passes, all abstentions will be out of order on the respective draft resolutions, even delegates who have stated their presence as “present” will have to cast their vote only against or in favour.

Rule #4 - Division of the Question

Once the debate is closed on a draft resolution a delegate may raise a motion to divide the question. This motion is an apparatus to divide the substantive document into segments and to vote these segments separately. Only operative clauses may be utilised in this motion. Pre-ambulatory clauses may not be subjected to a division of the question. The proposer of this motion shall clearly state how he/she would like to divide the document into parts. The document may be divided into two or more than two parts and it is not mandatory for the following clauses be in the same segment, clauses from different parts of the document may also constitute a segment. However, the proposer of this motion should constitute all of the clauses in his/her proposal for the division. If the Committee proposed more than one division of the question, these proposals will be voted with the order of disruptiveness, that is, the most segmented proposal will be voted first. If one proposal passes, the others will be automatically discarded. This motion requires a simple majority and may be debated on the extent of two speakers for and two speakers against. If this motion passes, the draft resolution will be divided accordingly. Firstly the proposed segments will be voted on one by one. These voting procedures shall be procedural and shall necessitate a simple majority. After all of the segments are voted individually, the approved segments will constitute the final version of the draft resolution and the final voting which requires a simple majority should be implemented for the adoption of the draft resolution. This final voting shall be substantive. If it fails, the whole document will fail; if it passes, the final version of the draft resolution will be adopted as a resolution. If the Committee decides not to approve any segment of the draft resolution in the first procedural voting procedures, the whole document will be considered as failed.

Rule #4 - Roll Call Voting

Once the debate is closed on a draft resolution or an amendment, a delegate may request a roll call vote by raising a motion for a roll call vote. The Committee Director may decide not to accept this motion and this decision is not appealable. If this motion passes, the Committee Director shall call all countries in attendance in alphabetical order. The Committee Director may also decide to start with a randomly selected member; however, he/she must continue in alphabetical order. The roll call vote shall comprise two sequences. In the first sequence, delegates may vote “yes,” “no,” “abstain,” “pass,” “yes with rights,” or “no with rights.”. By voting “yes with rights” or “no with rights”, delegates request the right of explanation. A delegate may only request this right if his/her vote may contradict his/her country’s policies and he/she would like to explain this vote. The Committee Board will grant 30 seconds to these delegates for an explanation after all delegates will vote in the second sequence. Delegates who have stated their presence as “present and voting” shall not vote “abstain” in the first or the second sequence of the voting. The delegates who have said “pass” in the first sequence will cast their votes in the second sequence. They will not have the right to vote “abstain,” “yes with rights,” or “no with rights.” They may not request a right to explain, they may just vote “yes” or “no.” After the Committee hears the delegates requested rights of explanation, the Committee Board will announce the outcome of the vote. In roll call voting procedures, the Committee Board is responsible to deposit every delegate’s vote in writing.

Rule #5 - Amendments

Correcting grammar mistakes is not considered a substantive amendment. These kinds of amendments can be noted in a message paper and sent to the Committee Board. There is no need for the approval of the Secretariat, the Committee Board may directly approve these types of amendments and implement their procedural voting which requires a simple majority. A delegate may amend any draft resolution after its introduction. Amendments may be given to adding new clauses or partially/completely deleting or changing some existing clauses on the approved document. Pre-ambulatory clauses cannot be amended, only the operative clauses of a draft resolution may be amended. The delegate willing to introduce his/her amendment shall specifically indicate the part of the document that the delegate wishes to amend with its exact location and its exact wording. These may be written on a message paper and this message paper should be sent to the Committee Board or the amendment may also be sent to the Committee Board electronically. For an amendment to be approved, it should contain at least the one-eight number of present delegates’ signatories and then should be approved by the Committee Board and the Secretariat. There are no official sponsors or submitters of an amendment. Any time before the voting procedure of the amendment, signatory delegates may withdraw their signatures from the amendment. If the documents lose enough signatures to reduce the number of signatories below the required percentage, the discussion on the documents will be automatically postponed. The same amendment may be re-introduced during the discussion of the draft resolution when it provides the necessary percentage. Once an amendment is approved, a signatory delegate may raise a motion to introduce the amendment when the floor is open. Before putting the motion for the introduction to a vote, the Committee Director shall read the contents of the amendment, then the motion should be put to a vote. This motion requires a simple majority to pass. After this motion passes, two Speakers’ Lists will be established to the extent of two speakers against and two speakers in favour. However, the Committee Board may decide to entertain more speakers for this purpose but the numbers of in favour and against speakers should be equal. If no delegate wants to be a speaker in favour or against, no closure of the debate is required and the Committee may directly move to the voting procedure. If delegates would like to speak, these lists will be established and after these lists expire, a motion to close the debate is in order, to move to the voting procedure of the amendment. Amendments necessitate a simple majority to pass and the voting procedure of an amendment is substantive which enables delegates to consider an amendment through different procedural apparatuses. An amendment to an amendment is not possible; however, amended parts of a draft resolution can be further amended. After an amendment is passed or rejected, the Committee will move to the previous General Speakers’ List established for the draft resolution.