Moroccan Youth Diplomats · Model United Nations

MYD Dar America MUN

Name: Contested Commons: MYD Dar America MUN
Start: 2026-10-22
End: 2026-10-25
Location: Dar America

Contested CommonsGoverning What No One Owns

Dates: 22 October 2026 to 25 October 2026
Venue: Dar America, Casa Finance City, Casablanca
Language: English

With the support of the Public Diplomacy Section of the U.S. Mission to Morocco.

Apply

Applications close on 28 September 2026. Eight days remain.

The conference

Four days, four frontiers that no single state owns

Contested Commons is the first Model United Nations ever convened at Dar America, the cultural centre of the U.S. Mission to Morocco in Casablanca. Over four days, fifty two delegates selected on merit from all twelve regions of the Kingdom sit in four committees and negotiate, in English, the rules for the places that belong to everyone and to no one: the Moon and Earth orbit, the sea lanes that carry world trade, the deep seabed, and the systems that will govern artificial intelligence. Delegates are supported by eight chairs, leave the committee room for a day of direct engagement with diplomats in Rabat, and pay nothing to take part.

4Committees

52Delegates

8Chairs

12Regions

4Days

ENLanguage

0Participation fee

The committees

Where you will sit, and what you will argue about

Each delegate represents one state in one committee for the whole conference. You rank your preferences when you apply, and your assignment arrives with your selection letter.

Outer space

UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space

The lunar and orbital commons after the Artemis Accords

The Outer Space Treaty says no state may appropriate the Moon. The Artemis Accords, now signed by more than sixty nations, allow "safety zones" around lunar operations. Delegates decide whether those zones are prudent deconfliction or appropriation by another name.

They also confront the crowding of low Earth orbit by mega-constellations: how orbital slots and radio spectrum should be allocated, who pays to remove debris, who is liable when it strikes, and what each launching state owes the others in transparency.

Morocco signed the Artemis Accords in April 2026, the fifth African state to do so. Moroccan delegates arrive with a national position of their own to defend, or to question.

Maritime security

United Nations Security Council

Maritime chokepoints and freedom of navigation

Bab el-Mandeb, Hormuz, Suez and the Strait of Gibraltar carry a large share of world trade through waters that no single state controls. When commercial shipping is attacked in one of them, the Council must decide what it can authorise and what it cannot.

Delegates work through the line between escort, deterrence and enforcement, the rights of coastal states against the right of transit passage, and who bears the cost when a chokepoint closes. Morocco sits on one of the four, so the question is not abstract.

On the third day the Council is drawn into a joint session with another committee on an incident that is revealed only in the room.

Deep seabed

International Seabed Authority

The deep seabed and its critical minerals

The floor of the high seas is "the common heritage of mankind" in law, and the source of the cobalt, nickel and manganese that batteries need in practice. The Authority has spent a decade drafting a mining code and has not adopted one. Some states now propose to license mining on their own.

Delegates decide whether the code should be finalised or a moratorium held until environmental baselines exist, whether licensing stays multilateral or goes national, and how revenue from a resource owned by everyone is shared with states that will never mine.

The committee splits between those who want commercial development to begin and those who hold to common heritage. Neither side can win without the other.

Artificial intelligence

UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance

Standards, compute and security

The General Assembly created this body by consensus in 2025 and it met for the first time in Geneva in July 2026. It produces a co-chairs' summary rather than a resolution, so delegates learn to build text that everyone can live with, without the shelter of a vote.

The questions on the table: who writes international standards for artificial intelligence and whether they bind anyone; export controls on advanced semiconductors and frontier models; open models against restricted ones; what "compute sovereignty" means for a state that owns none; and the use of these systems in national security.

This is the committee for delegates who want to argue about something that has not been settled anywhere yet.

Parallel Diplomacy Day · 23 October 2026

Rabat. Not a simulation. A conversation.

On the second day, delegates leave the committee room and go to Rabat, where they meet ambassadors and policymakers by committee, to put the questions they are debating to the people who hold real positions on them.

CASCasablancaDar America

Coach · morning

Return · evening

RBARabatInstitutions

Transport included for everyoneFormal dress all day

A day of direct engagement

Embassy visits, multilateral organisations and governmental bodies. Each committee is received by institutions working on the very questions it is debating. The institutions receiving each committee are confirmed to selected delegates before the conference.

EMBEmbassiesINTMultilateral organisationsGOVGovernmental bodies

Practical

Delegates travel together by coach from Casablanca after a short morning session and return the same evening. Transport is included for everyone. Formal dress applies for the whole day.

The four days

The shape of the conference

Five committee sessions, one joint session, one day in Rabat and two ceremonies. The detailed programme, with times, is sent to selected delegates.

Thursday22

22 October 2026

Opening

Registration and security screening, the opening ceremony with addresses from the partners, and the first committee session.

Friday23

23 October 2026

Rabat

A short committee session in the morning at Dar America, then Parallel Diplomacy Day in Rabat. Return to Casablanca in the evening.

Saturday24

24 October 2026

The long day

Two full committee sessions, and the joint session held before the whole conference.

Sunday25

25 October 2026

Closing

The final session, voting on committee texts, the closing ceremony, certificates and awards.

Who can apply

Conditions

Every condition below must be met. If one is not, the application is not read.

1
Moroccan nationality, and resident in Morocco during the selection and the conference.
2
Aged 16 to 24 on 22 October 2026. Applicants under 18 on that date need a signed parental authorisation, requested at the selection stage.
3
Enrolled for 2026 to 2027 in a Moroccan secondary school or in higher education, public or private. Secondary and university students apply as delegates in the same pool and are assessed on the same criteria.
4
English at a working level: able to follow a debate, write a one-page position paper and speak for two minutes without notes. No certificate is required. The workshops assess this.
5
Available for all four days in Casablanca, from the morning of 22 October 2026 to the afternoon of 25 October 2026, and for the four online workshops.
6
A valid national identity card or passport in the name given on the application. The venue admits no one without it.
7
One application per person. A candidate may apply as a delegate or as a chair, not both.

Prior Model UN experience is not required. A share of places is reserved for first-time delegates, and a share for experienced ones.

What it costs

There is no participation fee

The conference is supported by the Public Diplomacy Section of the U.S. Mission to Morocco and hosted by Dar America. What that covers, and what it does not, is set out below so that no one has to ask.

0 MAD

To apply and to take part

No application fee, no delegate fee, no charge for materials, certificates or awards.

Included

For every delegate

Lunch on each of the four days, and refreshments during sessions
Printed materials: background guides, placards, stationery
Coach transport from Casablanca to Rabat and back on Parallel Diplomacy Day
Certificate of participation

Funded

For the farthest regions

Return travel to Casablanca
Accommodation for the nights of the conference

Which regions qualify is decided by distance from Casablanca, and the exact offer is written in the selection letter. It is decided after selection, by people who did not select you.

What is not covered

Delegates from regions within commuting distance of Casablanca, including Casablanca-Settat and Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, arrange and pay for their own travel to Dar America each day. Accommodation is not provided to delegates who can commute. Dinner is not provided on any day.

How selection works

Three stages, one external jury

We expect several hundred applications for fifty two places. The process is designed so that where you come from and what your family earns have no bearing on whether you are chosen.

Closes 28 September 2026

Preselection

Every file is anonymised before it is read. Two short essays and your academic and civic profile are scored by readers who do not see your name, your school or your city. Around 120 candidates are preselected and told by 30 September 2026.

4 October 2026 to 7 October 2026

Workshops

Four compulsory online sessions. Attendance, a position paper, a mock speech and a mock committee are all scored. They carry more weight than the essays, so a strong first-timer can overtake an experienced applicant here.

8 October 2026

Final selection

An external jury of university faculty, civil society figures and experienced Model UN practitioners holds the deciding vote. The association's officers prepare the files; they do not cast it. Selected delegates confirm within 24 hours.

Applications

Several hundred

Preselected

Around 120

Delegates

Deciding vote · external jury

Need-blind

Whether you need funding is never seen by the people judging you

The application asks whether you would need travel or accommodation funded. That answer is stored separately from the rest of your file, is visible only to the association's President, and is never seen by anyone judging the application. Readers, the workshop assessors and the external jury do not know who asked for support. Funding is decided after selection, not before it, and it does not affect it.

Your fileEssays · profile · workshops. Anonymised. Read by readers, assessors and jury.

Firewall

Funding questionPresident only. Opened after selection.

Apply

Applications close on 28 September 2026. The form takes about forty minutes; the two essays are 500 and 300 words.

The workshops

Four online sessions, all compulsory for the preselected pool

Each session is held live in the evening, online, and lasts about two hours. They are not recorded, because they are assessed. The dates below are planned and may shift by a day or two; preselected candidates are told the final dates with their preselection email. If you cannot keep four evenings free in the first week of October, do not apply this year.

Session 1Sunday 4 October 2026

How a committee works

Rules of procedure, the flow of debate, and what a chair expects. For first-timers this is where Model UN stops being mysterious.

Session 2Monday 5 October 2026

Research and the position paper

Reading a mandate, finding your state's real position, and writing one page that a chair will actually use. The paper is due before Session 3.

Session 3Tuesday 6 October 2026

Speaking and negotiating

Each participant delivers a timed speech and is coached on it. Bloc building and drafting are practised in small groups.

Session 4Wednesday 7 October 2026

Mock committee

Observed by the association's officers. This is the largest single component of the final score.

Largest single component of the score

Regional framework

Every region has a floor. No region has the room.

Each of the twelve regions of the Kingdom is guaranteed a minimum number of places, and each has a ceiling, so that Casablanca and Rabat cannot fill the conference on volume alone. Within each region, selection is on merit. The floors and ceilings are not published.

Tap a region on the map or in the list to read its name. All twelve are drawn to the same weight: every region has a floor.

Travel and accommodation are funded by distance from Casablanca. In practice, that means the southern, eastern and interior regions: Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab, Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra, Guelmim-Oued Noun, Souss-Massa, Drâa-Tafilalet, Oriental and Béni Mellal-Khénifra. Delegates from the northern and Atlantic regions within reach of Casablanca arrange their own travel. The exact offer is written in each selection letter.

Timeline

From the closing date to the closing ceremony

28 September 2026

Current stage

Applications close

At midnight, Morocco time. Late applications are not read.

30 September 2026

Current stage

Preselection announced

Every applicant is told, selected or not, by email.

4 to 7 October 2026

Current stage

Four online workshops

Compulsory for the preselected pool. Planned dates; they may shift by a day or two.

8 October 2026

Current stage

Final selection

Fifty two delegates and a reserve list. Selected delegates confirm within 24 hours.

12 October 2026

Current stage

Attendee list locked

Sent to the venue. No additions after this date.

22 October 2026

Current stage

Opening at Dar America

Casa Finance City, Casablanca.

23 October 2026

Current stage

Parallel Diplomacy Day

Rabat.

25 October 2026

Current stage

Closing ceremony

Voting, certificates and awards.

Commitment and conduct

What a place commits you to

Confirming your place

A selected delegate has 24 hours from the selection email to confirm. A place not confirmed in that window passes to the reserve list. Confirmation is a commitment to attend all four days.

Withdrawing

A confirmed delegate who withdraws without a serious, documented reason takes a funded place from someone on the reserve list who can no longer be admitted. Such a withdrawal is recorded and weighs against any future application to a Moroccan Youth Diplomats programme. Withdrawals after the attendee list is locked cannot be replaced at all.

The venue is a U.S. diplomatic facility

Every attendee is pre-cleared by the U.S. Consulate General in Casablanca and listed by name in advance. The list is locked on 12 October 2026, ten days before the conference, and nothing can be added to it afterwards. There are no walk-ins, no guests and no substitutions.

Attendees pass security screening each morning and must carry the identity document named on their application. A prohibited items list applies and is sent to selected delegates with the joining instructions. Delegates who do not respect it are not admitted that day.

On the use of AI

Declare it, and it is permitted

You may use a language tool to help draft, translate or polish your essays, your position paper or your speeches. The application asks whether you did. Declared use is permitted and is not penalised, because knowing how to use these tools well is part of the work this conference is about.

Undeclared use is a matter of integrity, not of skill. Essays are compared against the writing you produce live in the workshops. A candidate whose declared work and live work do not match is withdrawn from the process, at whatever stage it is discovered.

Questions

Asked before, answered here

Yes. There is no application fee and no participation fee. Meals during the day, materials and the coach to Rabat are included for every delegate. Delegates from the farthest regions also have their travel and accommodation funded. Delegates who can commute to Casablanca pay for their own daily travel, and no one is charged for anything else.

Yes. A Model UN is a simulation of a UN body: each participant represents a state, researches its real position, and negotiates with the others to reach a text they can all accept. Nobody expects you to know the procedure before the workshops, which exist to teach it. A share of places is reserved for first-time delegates, and the workshop scores, which reward preparation and effort, count for more than the essays.

No. Some places are reserved for experienced delegates and some for first-timers, so that neither group crowds out the other. Experience helps in the committee room; it does not help you get in.

Yes, in a single pool and on the same criteria, with the ceilings and floors by region applied to everyone. Age is not scored. Readers see anonymised files, so they do not know which you are.

Enough to follow a debate, write a one-page position paper, and speak for two minutes without notes. No certificate is asked for. The workshops assess this directly, so there is no point overstating it on the form.

You are told, by email, at each stage. Candidates preselected but not finally selected are placed on a reserve list in order and are called if a place opens before the attendee list is locked. Everyone who completes the four workshops receives a certificate for them. The association runs other programmes through the year and your application is a good introduction to them.

The identity document named on your application, every day. Formal dress: a suit or the equivalent. A laptop or tablet if you have one, though it is not required; printed materials are provided. The joining instructions sent to selected delegates list the items that cannot be brought into the venue.

Because the venue is a U.S. diplomatic facility. Every attendee is pre-cleared by name and checked against that name at the door each morning. If the name on your document does not match the name on the attendee list, you are not admitted, and the list cannot be changed after it is locked.

You rank the four committees in order of preference when you apply. Assignments balance preferences against the need to fill each committee with a range of profiles, and are announced with the selection results. Most delegates receive their first or second choice.

Write to mun@youthdiplomats.ma. The Head of Registrations and Admissions replies within two working days. Questions about your own application's assessment are not answered while selection is in progress.

Data and privacy

How your application data is handled

Moroccan Youth Diplomats, a registered association under Dahir n° 1-58-376, is the controller of the personal data collected through the application to this conference, in accordance with Law 09-08 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data, under the supervision of the Commission Nationale de contrôle de la protection des Données à caractère Personnel (CNDP).

What is collected and why: Identity and contact details, date of birth, identity document number, school or university, region of residence, the two essays, your committee preferences and, in a separate section, whether you would need travel or accommodation funded. The data is used to assess applications, to run the workshops, to organise the conference, and to meet the security requirements of the venue.
The need-blind separation: Answers to the funding question are stored apart from the rest of the application and are accessible only to the association's President. They are not shown to readers, workshop assessors or the external jury, and they play no part in selection.
Transmission to the venue: Because the conference is held in a U.S. diplomatic facility, the full name, date of birth and identity document number of every selected delegate, chair and staff member are transmitted to the Regional Security Officer of the U.S. Consulate General in Casablanca for pre-clearance, no later than ten days before the conference. That data is then handled under the Mission's own rules. Only selected attendees' data is transmitted; unsuccessful applicants' data never leaves the association.
Retention: Applications that do not lead to selection are deleted within six months of the end of the conference. Selected delegates' records are kept for the duration of their involvement with the association and deleted within twelve months of its end. Anonymised statistics may be retained indefinitely.
Your rights: You may ask to see, correct or delete your data, or object to its processing, by writing to mun@youthdiplomats.ma or to contact@youthdiplomats.ma. A request to delete data before the attendee list is locked is treated as a withdrawal from the process. The association's general privacy policy applies to everything not covered here.

Contact

Registrations and admissions

One address for everything about this conference. It reaches the Head of Registrations and Admissions directly.

MUNConferencemun@youthdiplomats.ma MYDGeneral enquiriescontact@youthdiplomats.ma

Moroccan Youth Diplomatsجمعية الدبلوماسية الموازية للشباب المغاربة

A registered association under Dahir n° 1-58-376 governing the right of association in the Kingdom of Morocco. 9 Bis, Rue Égypte, Tanger, Morocco.

With the support of the Public Diplomacy Section of the U.S. Mission to Morocco.

The views expressed during the conference are those of the participants and do not represent the U.S. Mission to Morocco or the U.S. Government.