A Draft Resolution is a formal document which wants to be a Resolution when it grows up. It becomes a Resolution if it is submitted to a vote and approved. If this happens, the job is done: if there are no more topics in the agenda, delegates can pack and go home. Precisely because of this, Draft Resolutions are usually only introduced at the last scheduled session (or halfway through the conference, if the committee has two topics to debate). Draft Resolutions follow a very specific format, with three sections: the heading, preambulatory clauses, and operative clauses.

Headings indicate the committee’s name, date of submission, and the original language in which the text was written. There are often a few other details: look at an approved real-life resolution from the committee you are simulating to make sure. Be careful to use the proper heading: if you are in a General Assembly committee, for instance, the text starts with "The General Assembly," and not with "the [X] Committee..."

Preambulatory clauses are sentences starting in the gerund (considering, welcoming, reaffirming, reiterating), which try to express what the committee talked about, why the topic is relevant, how serious the problem is and what progress has been made so far. Invariably, there will be a couple of preambulatory clauses recalling past Resolutions and the relevant chapters of the UN Charter, or the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights. It is also traditional to recall the Millennium Development Goals and other relevant international agreements, such as the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Be careful with these, though, because preambulatory clauses usually cannot be amended, that is, they cannot be altered after the Draft Resolution is formally introduced. Preambulatory clauses can be quite decisive, and are more substantive than people usually realize.

Finally, operative clauses are sentences in the present tense (decides, requests, authorizes, urges, invites) which put forward plans to advance the solution of the problem. However, they can also work on how serious the problem is and on what progress has been made so far (reaffirms, welcomes, emphasizes). The best way to learn how to write them is to read actual Resolutions.

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