Friendly amendment

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title: "Friendly amendment" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["motions-(parliamentary-procedure)"] description: "Concept in parliamentary procedure" topic_path: "general/motions-parliamentary-procedure" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendly_amendment" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Concept in parliamentary procedure ::

In parliamentary procedure, a friendly amendment is an amendment to a motion under debate that is perceived by all parties as an enhancement to the original motion, often only as clarification of intent. Friendly amendments are treated like other amendments.

Explanation

Friendly amendments are often allowed by the chair after consent by the original mover of the motion. According to Robert's Rules of Order, a friendly amendment should not be handled any differently from any other amendment: the entire assembly must consent to the amendment, either by majority vote or through unanimous consent.

Other uses

In Model United Nations, a "friendly amendment" is a change to a resolution that everyone is in favor of, while an "unfriendly amendment" is one that does not have everyone's support.

References

References

1. Robert III, Henry M.. (2011). "Frequently Asked Questions about RONR (Question 8)". The Robert's Rules Association.
2. "Friendly and Unfriendly Amendments".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::