„What are you doing this weekend?“
No matter which one of our delegates you would have asked this question, the answer would have been the same. Writing a Position Paper.
So while our friends and families enjoyed their weekend, did some Christmas Shopping, or simply stayed at home doing nothing, our delegates worked hard to finish their first drafts. To help us during the writing phase, we already did a lot of research beforehand on Bahrain’s opinion on certain topics and their national and international actions, including voting records at the UN, proposed laws, national campaigns, and statements by Bahraini officials. We collected all of this research in our „Landmark Documents“ two weeks prior to the Position Paper Writing. The Landmark Documents are an excellent way for us keep track of the points that are most essential to our preparations as delegates and list the most important resolutions and treaties, to which we can go back to if we need a quick reminder on what the international (or national Bahraini) position is right now.
A Note on Position Papers
A Position Paper is the first vital step towards the negotiations. It contains which treaties and resolutions a country has signed, which measures it has undertaken to match the goals proposed in the resolutions and its ideas for further improvement on these issues. And since the Position Papers will all be uploaded before the conference, writing a well-structured and easily comprehensible paper is vital for the upcoming negotiations – potential allies will read them and decide based on the presented positions whether to engage with this country in negotiations and resolution writing or not.
So even though the Position Paper Writing was a challenge in itself, it was helped by a thorough preparation and some mutual help and motivation within and outside of our respective committees. 🙂
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