Country Assignment Policy

This is the draft Country Assignment Policy for NWMUN-Portland 2018.

Northwest Model United Nations seeks to balance the interest of schools or delegations  in securing the country assignments they have requested and the interests of the educational quality of the conference and other delegations who may not have registered yet. To this end, NWMUN has developed guidelines that are used in determining countries for assignment to registering delegations. These are not inflexible rules, and often two or more may be in conflict; additionally, special circumstances may dictate taking actions that contradict one or more of the guidelines. However, all of the items listed below are considered by the registration team in assigning countries and are thus publicized here for head delegates and faculty advisers to consider when they make their requests. Other factors not listed here may also be used in determining the country assignments, and as always, the final decisions on country assignments are made by the Secretary-General in partnership with the parent organization of NWMUN, the Northwest Association for Global Affairs.

If you are interested in viewing our policy for delegations to use, once they have been assigned countries by NWMUN - Portland, when they assign each individual spot to individual members of their delegation, please view our Delegate Assignment Policy.

1) Delegations will not be assigned more than two countries on the Security Council. Delegations will not be assigned more than one permanent member of the Security Council, and delegations are not assigned a permanent member of the Security Council their first year in attendance at an NWMUN conference. No delegation will be assigned a permanent member of the Security Council if they have had a permanent member in the two immediately preceding years of NWMUN-Portland.

2) Delegations will not be assigned more than one State under Review on the Human Rights Council - Universal Periodic Review. Delegations will not be assigned a State under Review on the HRC-UPR their first year in attendance at an NWMUN conference. No delegation will be assigned a State under Review on the HRC-UPR if they have represented a State under Review in the two immediately preceding years of NWMUN-Portland.

3) NWMUN-Portland will strive to ensure that delegates from a given delegation are evenly distributed throughout the committees of the conference, and that each delegation has a reasonable balance of regions represented in their assigned countries. NWMUN-Portland will strive to ensure a reasonable balance of countries by size of delegation, with no delegation solely having multi-delegate (2+) countries and no delegation having solely single-delegate (GA-only) countries.

4) No two countries in historical, current, or potential conflict will be assigned to the same delegation. Neighboring countries without significant history or potential of conflict are unlikely to be assigned to the same delegation. Countries with a relationship in which one dominates or is perceived to dominate the other's foreign policy on an issue under consideration will not be assigned to the same delegation. Finally, regional players in the same region will not be assigned to the same delegation.

5) NWMUN-Portland will endeavor not to assign the same countries to a delegation in consecutive years, especially in the context of permanent Council members. Additionally, the experience of the conference with a given delegation in previous years (at all NWMUN conferences, not exclusively NWMUN - Portland) will be used to determine the assignment of countries which must be filled for the committees they are assigned in to run properly; in this context, a delegation's previous disruptive conduct or early departure will affect their likelihood of being assigned permanent Security Council members in subsequent years (for example).