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 CommonsFrontier Partnerships: Space, Sea, Minerals and AI

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

In partnership with the U.S. Mission in Morocco at Dar America Casablanca.

Applications closed

Applications are closed. Preselection is complete. The external jury makes the final selection on 8 October 2026.

Decisions are outCheck your status with your reference

The conference

Four days of partnership across four frontiers

Contested Commons is a Model UN conference held at Dar America Casablanca, in partnership with the U.S. Mission in Morocco, under the theme Frontier Partnerships: Space, Sea, Minerals and AI. Over four days, fifty two delegates selected on merit from all twelve regions of the Kingdom sit as ministers and heads of delegation in four ministerial meetings, and work in English towards shared outcomes on civil space cooperation, maritime security, seabed exploration and critical minerals, and AI governance. Each meeting is chaired by two chairs acting as the host foreign ministry, follows formal rules of procedure, and aims for a ministerial resolution by consensus. Delegates leave the meeting room for a day of direct engagement with diplomatic missions 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 work on

Each committee is a ministerial meeting. Delegates sit as the ministers or heads of delegation of their states. Two chairs act as the host foreign ministry: they set the agenda, run the meeting and steer the outcome text. Debate follows formal rules of procedure, and each meeting works towards a ministerial resolution, by consensus where possible and by a recorded vote only as a fallback. You rank your preferences when you apply, and your assignment arrives with your selection letter.

Civil space

Ministerial Meeting on Civil Space Cooperation

Peaceful, safe, sustainable and responsible civil space activities

Ministers and heads of delegation work towards a shared approach to peaceful, safe, sustainable and responsible civil space activities, including how the Artemis Accords are implemented alongside existing space-law obligations.

The agenda covers debris mitigation, transparency and confidence-building measures, space situational awareness, and the opportunities for the private sector in space research and commerce.

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 put forward.

Maritime security

Ministerial Meeting on Maritime Security

Secure and resilient sea lanes

Delegates work on the security and resilience of strategic chokepoints and sea lanes, and on freedom of navigation as the basis of trade between partners.

The agenda includes countering illicit maritime activity and sanctions evasion, improving maritime domain awareness, and protecting trade and critical infrastructure.

Seabed and minerals

Ministerial Meeting on Seabed Exploration and Critical Minerals

Reliable supply chains and responsible exploration

Delegates discuss the exploration and development of seabed mineral resources, and how partners can build reliable and secure supply chains for the critical minerals that modern technology depends on.

The agenda covers transparent regulatory approaches, and cooperation for economic security and innovation.

Artificial intelligence

AI Governance and Pax Silica

Trusted AI and secure technology supply chains

Delegates work towards trusted and secure artificial intelligence: innovation and adoption, technical standards and interoperability, and reliable, controllable systems.

The agenda also covers protecting advanced technology and supply chains, compute resilience, and the economic and national security implications of AI.

This is the meeting for delegates who want to help shape rules that are still being written.

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 diplomats at diplomatic missions, committee by committee, to put the questions they are working on to the people who deal with them in practice.

CASCasablancaDar America

Morning

Return · evening

RBARabatInstitutions

Formal dress all day

A day of direct engagement

Visits to diplomatic missions in Rabat. Each committee is received by a mission working on the questions it is addressing. The missions receiving each committee are confirmed to selected delegates before the conference.

DIPDiplomatic missions in Rabat

Practical

Delegates go to Rabat after the morning pre-brief and return to Casablanca the same evening. Formal dress applies for the whole day.

The four days

The shape of the conference

Six committee sessions, a pre-brief and a debrief, 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 three committee sessions.

Friday23

23 October 2026

Rabat

A pre-brief in the morning at Dar America, then Parallel Diplomacy Day in Rabat, and a debrief on return in the evening.

Saturday24

24 October 2026

The long day

Three committee sessions.

Sunday25

25 October 2026

Closing

Voting on the ministerial resolutions, 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 14 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, held by 11 October 2026 at the latest. The venue admits no one without it.
7
One application per person.

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 held in partnership with the U.S. Mission in Morocco at Dar America Casablanca. What is included, and what is 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
Certificate of participation

Funded

For the farthest regions

Return travel to Casablanca
Accommodation for the nights of the conference

Support is offered to delegates from the farthest regions, within the funding available. Which delegates 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.

Applications are closed.

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

The rules of procedure, the flow of a ministerial meeting, 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 support is offered by distance from Casablanca, within the funding available, and concerns the farthest regions. Delegates from the 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

Applications close

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

30 September 2026

Preselection announced

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

4 to 7 October 2026

Four online workshops

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

8 October 2026

Final selection

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

12 October 2026

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

Parallel Diplomacy Day

Rabat.

25 October 2026

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 with the writing you produce live in the workshops. Where declared work and live work diverge, the divergence is recorded and weighed in the assessment, and undeclared use is referred under the conference code of conduct. It is not resolved automatically.

Questions

Asked before, answered here

Yes. There is no application fee and no participation fee. Meals during the day and materials are included for every delegate. Delegates from the farthest regions may also have their travel and accommodation supported, within the funding available, as set out in the selection letter. 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 diplomacy: each participant sits as the minister or head of delegation of a state, researches its real position, and works with the others towards an outcome they can all accept. Here each committee is a ministerial meeting that aims for a resolution by consensus. 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.
Your email address: The address you enter on the form is recorded as soon as you type it, so that one reminder can be sent if you start the application without finishing it. It is also used to send you your results and practical information, and Moroccan Youth Diplomats may use it to tell you about its future programmes. It stays within MYD, is never shared or sold, and every message carries a one-click unsubscribe link. Unfinished-application records are deleted after the application deadline.
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.

In partnership with the U.S. Mission in Morocco at Dar America Casablanca.

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