The Young World Parliament is the standing deliberative body of Young United World Leaders. It is independent of every government and every political party.

Membership of the Parliament is open to verified members of Young United World Leaders. The Parliament is built for the next generation of leaders, and its Roll is drawn mainly from students and young professionals. Each person holds one seat.

Delegates sit in five Regional Benches: Africa; the Americas; Asia-Pacific; Europe; and the Middle East & North Africa. Benches are not factions and take no collective positions.

The Parliament meets in Sessions of one year. A Sitting is a scheduled meeting with an Order Paper: an asynchronous voting window and, where convened, a live debate.

No Delegate speaks for a government. Delegates who hold or seek public office declare it on the Roll.

The Parliament takes no position on any candidate for public office or on any political party.

The Speaker presides over Sittings, rules on order and declares results. Two Deputy Speakers from different Benches assist the Speaker.

The Speaker and Deputy Speakers are elected by the Delegates at the opening of each Session by ranked secret ballot.

The Bureau (the Speaker, the Deputy Speakers and the Chairs of the Standing Committees) sets the Order Paper and refers Motions to Committees.

The Clerk of the Parliament is a non-voting officer of United World Leaders. The Clerk keeps the Roll, the Journal and the Register, and certifies every result.

Rulings of the Speaker and of the Clerk are published in the Journal with the Standing Order on which they rest.

Any Delegate may draft a Motion, with up to four co-authors. A Motion has preambular clauses and operative clauses.

A Motion is tabled when it has five co-sponsors from at least three Regional Benches. A Motion that does not reach this threshold within fourteen days lapses.

Co-sponsoring a Motion signifies that it deserves debate. It does not bind the co-sponsor to vote for it.

Each tabled Motion is open to Consultation by the whole Community for not less than ten days. Consultation takes the form of short statements to which participants respond agree, disagree or pass. There are no replies.

The Committee to which a Motion is referred considers the Consultation, may amend the text, and reports it to the floor by simple majority with a Rapporteur’s report.

During the Amendment Window, Delegates may file amendments. The mover declares each amendment friendly or contested. At the close of the window the text is frozen and may not be changed.

One Urgent Motion may be admitted in each Session, by two-thirds of votes cast.

Debate follows a fixed order: opening by the mover; speeches for and against, assigned by the Speaker and balanced across Benches; Counsel read into the record; the open floor in rounds; summation by the mover.

Every speech is time-limited. Speeches may be given live or submitted in writing.

Delegates address one another with courtesy. Personal remarks are out of order.

A Division is open for not less than forty-eight hours, so that Delegates in every time zone may vote. Each Delegate votes For, Against or Abstain, and may attach an Explanation of Vote of up to 280 characters.

While a Division is open, only turnout is shown. The tally is sealed until the close, so that no vote is cast to follow a crowd.

A Delegate may change a vote until the Division closes. Every change is entered in the Register.

Quorum is one-third of the Roll. Abstentions count towards quorum.

An ordinary Motion is adopted when more votes are cast for it than against it. A Declaration, an Urgent Motion or an amendment to these Standing Orders requires two-thirds of votes cast and the participation of a majority of the Roll.

At the close, the Speaker declares the result, the Clerk certifies it, and the Division List is published. Every recorded vote is public. Elections are held by secret ballot.

For seventy-two hours after a result is declared, one-fifth of Delegates may move that it be reconsidered.

The former Presidents and Prime Ministers of United World Leaders may serve as Senior Counsellors. They may publish written Counsel on a frozen text. They do not vote.

Adopted Resolutions are published in the Gazette and transmitted to United World Leaders. Where a Council of United World Leaders corresponds to the Committee, the Resolution is transmitted to that Council, which is asked to respond within sixty days.

The Declaration of a Session is presented to the Board of United World Leaders at its Summit.

The identity and age of each Delegate are verified by the Clerk and are not published. The Roll is frozen when notice of a Sitting is given.

The Register is an append-only record of every procedural act. Each entry is sealed with a hash of the entry before it.

Each Delegate receives a receipt for every vote, which may be checked against the published Division List.

The Parliament does not rank, score or reward Delegates. Participation is published as a civic record.

Until the Parliament is formally constituted, it operates as a Simulation Session to demonstrate its procedure.

In the Simulation Session, Delegates, Motions, votes and results are fictional. Portraits are generated engravings and depict no one. No Counsel is attributed to any real person.

Visitors may cast a vote in the Gallery. Gallery votes are recorded with a receipt in the visitor’s own browser and are never counted in a Division.