[Re-Draft] Promotion of Child Welfare

[West Angola]

Promotion of Child Welfare

Category: Social Justice
Strength: Mild

The World Assembly,

APPLAUDING the strides many nations have made in promoting child placement services within member nations,

DISMAYED by the fact that many nations still lack such services,

RECOGNIZING that many children are in need of these services,

NOTING that providing parental care to all children from one or more persons willing and able to provide such is a desirable goal,

BELIEVING that promoting child placement services in all nations is the best way to do this,

DEFINING a “child in need of placement” as the underage offspring of a sapient species which provides parental care, the traditional care-giving relatives of which are unwilling or unable to provide care,

FURTHER DEFINING “child placement services” as agencies and institutions which place children who lack parental care with those willing to provide such,

REQUIRES that all nations whose residents include species who provide parental care provide child placement services,

MANDATES that these services be funded with sufficient resources to fulfill their purpose, and to fulfill the individual need within member nations,

HEREBY ESTABLISHES the World Assembly Child Welfare Committee to review adoptive services in individual nations to determine their adequacy and assist nations in ensuring their services are sufficient,

EMPOWERS this committee to appropriate funds from the General Fund to assist nations in improving their adoptive services if deemed necessary.

Promotion of Child Welfare

Category: Social Justice
Strength: Mild

The World Assembly,

APPLAUDING the strides many nations have made in promoting child placement services within member nations,

DISMAYED by the fact that many nations still lack such services,

RECOGNIZING that many children are in need of these services,

NOTING that providing parental care to all children from one or more persons willing and able to provide such is a desirable goal,

BELIEVING that promoting child placement services in all nations is the best way to do this,

DEFINING a “child in need of placement” as the underage offspring of a sapient species which characteristically provides parental care, the progenitors or other traditional care-giving relatives of which are unwilling or unable to provide said care for various reasons,

FURTHER DEFINING “child placement services” as agencies and institutions which place children who lack parental care with those willing to provide such,

REQUIRES that all nations whose residents include species who provide parental care provide child placement services,

MANDATES that these services be funded with sufficient resources to fulfill their purpose as defined above, and to fulfill the individual need for such within member nations,

HEREBY ESTABLISHES the World Assembly Child Welfare Committee to review adoptive services in individual nations to determine their adequacy and assist nations in ensuring their services are sufficient,

PROHIBITS adoptions from being denied on the basis of race or species unless it is determined that the differences make the potential parent(s) unsuitable to raise the particular child.

Promotion of Adoption Services

Category: Social Justice
Strength: Mild

The World Assembly,

APPLAUDING the strides which many nations have already made in promoting adoptive services both within their own nations and in others,

DISMAYED by the fact that many other nations lack such services

RECOGNIZING that many children are in need of adoptive services

NOTING that placing children in need of adoptive services with one or more persons willing and able to provide care for them is a desirable goal, and that promoting adoptive services in all nations is the best way to do this,

DEFINING a “child in need of adoptive services” as the underage offspring of a species which characteristically provides parental care, the progenitors or other traditional care-giving relatives of which are unwilling or unable to provide said care for various reasons,

FURTHER DEFINING “adoptive services” as agencies and institutions, either international or domestic, which exist in order to place children who lack parental care with those willing to provide such,

REQUIRES that all nations whose residents include species who provide parental care provide adoptive services,

MANDATES that these services be funded with sufficient resources to fulfill their purpose as defined above, and in order to fulfill the individual need for such within member nations,

HEREBY ESTABLISHES the World Assembly Child Welfare Committee to review adoptive services in individual nations to determine their adequacy and assist nations in ensuring their services are sufficient,

PROHIBITS adoptions from being denied on the basis of race or species unless it is determined that the differences in species make the potential parent or parents unsuitable to raise a particular child.

Promotion of Adoption Services

Category: Social Justice
Strength: Mild

The World Assembly,

APPLAUDING the strides which many nations have already made in promoting adoptive services both within their own nations and in others,

DISMAYED by the fact that many other nations lack such services

RECOGNIZING that many children are in need of adoptive services

NOTING that placing children in need of adoptive services with one or more persons willing and able to provide care for them is a desirable goal, and that promoting adoptive services in all nations is the best way to do this,

DEFINING a “child in need of adoptive services” as the underage offspring of a species which characteristically provides parental care, the progenitors of which are unwilling or unable to provide said care for various reasons,

FURTHER DEFINING “adoptive services” as agencies and institutions, either international or domestic, which exist in order to place children who lack parental care with those willing to provide such,

REQUIRES that all nations whose residents include species who provide parental care provide adoptive services,

MANDATES that these services be funded with sufficient resources to fulfill their purpose as defined above, and that they be made easily accessible to all,

HEREBY ESTABLISHES the World Assembly Child Welfare Committee to review adoptive services in individual nations to determine their adequacy and assist nations in ensuring their services are sufficient,

PROHIBITS adoptions from being denied on the basis of race or species unless it is determined that the differences in species make the potential parent or parents unsuitable to raise a particular child.

Promotion of Adoption Services

Category: Social Justice
Strength: Mild

The World Assembly,

APPLAUDING the strides which many nations have already made in promoting adoptive services both within their own nations and in others,

DISMAYED by the fact that many other nations lack such services

RECOGNIZING that many children are in need of adoptive services

NOTING that placing children in need of adoptive services with one or more persons willing and able to provide care for them is a desirable goal, and that promoting adoptive services in all nations is the best way to do this,

DEFINING a “child in need of adoptive services” as the offspring of a species which characteristically provides parental care, the progenitors of which are unwilling or unable to provide said care for various reasons,

FURTHER DEFINING “adoptive services” as agencies and institutions, either international or domestic, which exist in order to place children who lack parental care with those willing to provide such,

REQUIRES that all nations whose residents include species who provide parental care provide adoptive services,

MANDATES that these services be funded publicly, privately, or through some combination of the two, with sufficient resources to fulfill their purpose as defined above,

HEREBY ESTABLISHES the World Assembly Child Welfare Committee to review adoptive services in individual nations to determine their adequacy and assist nations in ensuring their services are sufficient,

PROHIBITS adoptions from being denied on the basis of race or species unless it is determined that the differences in species make the potential parent or parents unsuitable to raise a particular child.

Promotion of Adoption Services

Category: Human Rights
Strength: Strong

The World Assembly,

DEFINING a “child in need of adoptive services” as the offspring of two members of a species which characteristically provides parental care, the progenitors of which are unwilling or unable to provide said care for various reasons,

FURTHER DEFINING “adoptive services” as agencies and institutions, either international or domestic, which exist in order to place children who lack parental care with those willing to provide such,

APPLAUDING the strides which many nations have already made in promoting adoptive services both within their own nations and in others,

DISMAYED by the fact that many other nations lack such services, either through the inability to establish them or the unwillingness to do so,

RECOGNIZING that many children are in need of adoptive services, and lack access to them as a result,

NOTING that placing children in need of adoptive services with persons willing and able to provide care for them is a desirable goal, and that promoting adoptive services in all nations is the best way to do this,

REQUIRES that all nations whose residents include species who provide parental care provide adoptive services,

MANDATES that these adoptive services must be funded, either publicly, privately, or through some combination of the two, with sufficient funding to fulfill their purpose as defined above,

HEREBY ESTABLISHES the World Assembly Adoptive Committee to review adoptive services in individual nations to determine their adequacy and assist nations in ensuring their services are sufficient,

ASSURES nations which already possess adoptive services that their current systems shall not be affected if they are found to be adequate

ESTABLISHES the initial minimum level for adequacy as the ability for a nation’s adoptive services to carry out its purpose as defined above in a manner which is freely available to all residents of a nation,

NOTES this level is subject to be raised by the Committee in the future if necessary,

ENCOURAGES all nations to attempt to raise the level of their adoptive services beyond this minimum.

[Araraukar]

Psst, your box code lacks the opening bit.

I'll comment properly on it after some sleep. Right now seeing double all on my own. Noticed the species-neutral language though, a nice touch.

[Slafstopia]

Psst, your box code lacks the opening bit.

I'll comment properly on it after some sleep. Right now seeing double all on my own. Noticed the species-neutral language though, a nice touch.

Uh oh. Araraukar posted in this thread. You better make sure your proposal covers plants.

[Abacathea]

Psst, your box code lacks the opening bit.

I'll comment properly on it after some sleep. Right now seeing double all on my own. Noticed the species-neutral language though, a nice touch.

Uh oh. Araraukar posted in this thread. You better make sure your proposal covers plants.

As Ara pointed out, it's species neutral in its language

[Slafstopia]

Uh oh. Araraukar posted in this thread. You better make sure your proposal covers plants.

As Ara pointed out, it's species neutral in its language

Yeah, kudos to the author. I can just tell that Ara's going to go on Potted Plants United and write a paragraph about how adoption is incompatible with plant life though

Overall, I like the proposal. Good work, it has my support.

[Grays Harbor]

This may have potential. Let me allow my staff to peruse this draft a bit closer and then we will be able to more cogently reply to this.

[Araraukar]

Yeah, kudos to the author. I can just tell that Ara's going to go on Potted Plants United and write a paragraph about how adoption is incompatible with plant life though

OOC: The plants will probably have a comment on this, but most likely not in the way you're expecting.

Now, more ICly, let's take a look at the proposal at hand.

Category: Human Rights

I don't think that's an appropriate category.

From Proposal Rules, Categories
Human Rights - A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights.
Social Justice - A resolution to reduce income inequality and increase basic welfare.

I would make the case that this would definitely be part of "increase basic welfare", thus more Social Justice.

Strength: Strong

Also pretty sure it's not a strong one. Significant, maybe, but not strong.

DEFINING a “child in need of adoptive services” as the offspring of two members of a species which characteristically provides parental care, the progenitors of which are unwilling or unable to provide said care for various reasons,

Pretty good one, the only thing I can think of to complain about is the "offspring of two members of a species" - I'm sure there are hermaphrodites and/or cloning around in the WA (or, as usually is the case, there will be, once it's been pointed out). Maybe drop the two members bit off completely? It works as "offspring of a species which".

FURTHER DEFINING “adoptive services” as agencies and institutions, either international or domestic, which exist in order to place children who lack parental care with those willing to provide such,

Is this de facto legalizing international adoption? (Not forcing it as such, but saying it's okay and can happen.) And, since someone will bring this up, interspecies adoption (where safely possible)?

DISMAYED by the fact that many other nations lack such services, either through the inability to establish them or the unwillingness to do so,

This is a bit strange statement, since if a nation is unable to establish one, how would they be able to comply with this resolution? Maybe just drop everything after the word "services".

RECOGNIZING that many children are in need of adoptive services, and lack access to them as a result,

The "lack access to them as a result" doesn't make any sense to me.

NOTING that placing children in need of adoptive services with persons willing and able to provide care for them is a desirable goal, and that promoting adoptive services in all nations is the best way to do this,

I would make that "one or more persons", since single person can be a good parent, especially if the child wouldn't have a parent figure at all otherwise. But additionally this seems to view only family placement/adoption as an "adoptive service", while I would define "adoptive service" to include social workers, foster homes and possibly institutionalized facilities (orphanages, for example). These would be part of the services, even if being adopted into a family setting was the ultimate goal.

MANDATES that these adoptive services must be funded, either publicly, privately, or through some combination of the two, with sufficient funding to fulfill their purpose as defined above,

To make the purpose clearer to the reader, I'd move the preamble clauses around so that you start with the general statements of "applauding", "recognizing", "noting" and "dismayed" (not necessarily in that order), then putting in the definitions, after which come the mandated bits.

HEREBY ESTABLISHES the World Assembly Adoptive Committee to review adoptive services in individual nations to determine their adequacy and assist nations in ensuring their services are sufficient,

I'm not a terrible fan of new, single-purpose committees. Isn't there one whose mandate you could expand? Or make this one more useful for possible later resolutions by making it something like World Assembly Childcare Committee (I'm bad with these names, ask anyone).

ESTABLISHES the initial minimum level for adequacy as the ability for a nation’s adoptive services to carry out its purpose as defined above in a manner which is freely available to all residents of a nation,

I think this is unnecessary as per the "establishes a minimum level of adequacy", since you've already made a committee to check in on things. As for the "freely available", does that mean "available to all" or "available at no cost"? (If nothing else, there's going to be paperwork to be done by the would-be adoptive parents, and someone's gotta pay for it.)

NOTES this level is subject to be raised by the Committee in the future if necessary,

ENCOURAGES all nations to attempt to raise the level of their adoptive services beyond this minimum.

As above, the notion of levels of adequacy is moot after the committee's given oversight of it. Drop these altogether.

[Christian Democrats]

This proposal has potential. I think it could be shorter.

MANDATES that these adoptive services must be funded, either publicly, privately, or through some combination of the two, with sufficient funding to fulfill their purpose as defined above

The word "must" isn't necessary, and I would remove the word "either."

You might consider rewriting this whole clause altogether.

[West Angola]

Thanks everyone for their input, I'll be implementing these changes today I hope,I've got some RL stuff going on so I may not get to it til tomorrow.

EDIT: Draft 2 is up.

[Weemike]

I'm liking what I see so far. Take what people have said into account and you could have something great here. APPROVED

[The Lorians]

We recommend talking to Three Weasels. His current draft of a proposal includes a section that would create a wide-reaching mandate for adoptive services in WA states. These can be merged quite nicely.

[Wheeled States of Bifid]

I'm really liking this and have the intention of approving it when it gets submitted.

[West Angola]

Going to bump this, as it has slipped off the first page and I'm hoping for more feedback.

[Saveyou Island]

I like what I see.
Approved

[The Eternal Kawaii]

In the Name of the Eternal Kawaii, may the Cute One be praised

While we understand the good motives behind this legislation, we cannot support it, as it goes against Kawaiian religious teachings. Kawaiians do not practice adoption. According to the teachings of the Kawaiian faith, one's ancestors intercede for one with the Eternal Kawaii. It is considered blasphemous, however, for someone not descendant from a particular ancestor to seek that ancestor's intercession. Therefore, an adopted children could not participate in the family religious rites central to the Kawaiian culture, and thus not be a full member of the family as required by our faith.

Orphaned Kawaiians are not neglected, we might add; the Church runs orphanages for those children lacking parents. But we cannot support legislation mandating that the Church provide adoption services in violation of our beliefs.

[The Scientific States]

It looks pretty good to me.

People are pointing out a few problems, but if you get those fixed I'm confident the proposal will do well.

[West Angola]

In the Name of the Eternal Kawaii, may the Cute One be praised

While we understand the good motives behind this legislation, we cannot support it, as it goes against Kawaiian religious teachings. Kawaiians do not practice adoption. According to the teachings of the Kawaiian faith, one's ancestors intercede for one with the Eternal Kawaii. It is considered blasphemous, however, for someone not descendant from a particular ancestor to seek that ancestor's intercession. Therefore, an adopted children could not participate in the family religious rites central to the Kawaiian culture, and thus not be a full member of the family as required by our faith.

Orphaned Kawaiians are not neglected, we might add; the Church runs orphanages for those children lacking parents. But we cannot support legislation mandating that the Church provide adoption services in violation of our beliefs.

West Angola would like to point out that under the definition of adoption services, these church-run orphanages qualify as those willing to provide parental care, therefore the children within them do not require adoption under this resolution.

[Potted Plants United]

A large potted plant in a big plantpot with wheels suddenly comes to life, revealing a large leaf curled up to form a cone, from which a somewhat hissing voice can be heard:

"We would like to apologize it has taken us this long to tackle this particular proposal, but we have recently been busy with certain structural arrangements to ensure our nation's careful growth."

DEFINING a “child in need of adoptive services” as the offspring of a species which characteristically provides parental care, the progenitors of which are unwilling or unable to provide said care for various reasons,

"We cannot help but notice that the concept of "child" is left undefined. As "child in need of adoptive services" is currently defined, that individual could well be adult whose natural parents have died. Perhaps the addition of "underage" would solve this? And then leave it for nations to define their own "underage" category, since it may vary widely."

REQUIRES that all nations whose residents include species who provide parental care provide adoptive services,

"If we had hands, we would applaud the careful wording of this clause to take into account the various sapient beings residing in the WA nations."

MANDATES that these services be funded publicly, privately, or through some combination of the two, with sufficient resources to fulfill their purpose as defined above,

"As others have pointed out, this is worded clumsily and could use some cleaning up."

PROHIBITS adoptions from being denied on the basis of race or species unless it is determined that the differences in species make the potential parent or parents unsuitable to raise a particular child.

"Again, you have our respect for wording this in a species-neutral manner. With little work, this looks like a good proposal. Of course, there is a certain religious propaganda suggestion in queue right now, so you might choose to wait to see what happens with this one, before further edits."

[Icamera]

This looks good, but I see a loophole which could be exploited quite easily by nations desiring to diminish the importance of adoptive services in the name of government spending cuts.

Consider how "Promotion of Adoptive Services" would impact a state with only a few adoptive services available; perhaps a couple of small, yet adequately-funded orphanages in a sparsely-populated rural area.

REQUIRES that all nations whose residents include species who provide parental care provide adoptive services,

So far, that nation meets the criteria imposed upon it by this resolution; it has provided adoptive services in the form of two orphanages. Yet, the millions of citizens populating the nation's cities will need to go far out of their way to reach those facilities.

MANDATES that these services be funded with sufficient resources to fulfill their purpose as defined above ("to place children who lack parental care with those willing to provide such")

Technically, the nation may continue to severely underfund its overall adoptive services network so long as it continues to provide sufficient resources for those two orphanages to place children in the care of adoptive parents.

HEREBY ESTABLISHES the World Assembly Child Welfare Committee to review adoptive services in individual nations to determine their adequacy and assist nations in ensuring their services are sufficient

Fortunately, this clause does a decent job of spreading knowledge of such practices by the nation, but what will happen after the gnomes report its horrendous system? Will the WACWC "assist [the nation] in ensuring [its] services are sufficient" by organizing hundreds of orphanages, foster homes, social workers, and the like by dipping into the WA General Fund?

While the hypothetical scenario may be extreme, hundreds of nations with more reasonable, yet nonetheless inadequate adoptive services for their populations' needs will meet the criteria even more easily. In the end, little to no progress will be made.

Now, a proposal with as admirable goals as this one deserves to achieve them. To patch up the loopholes, you've got a few options; you can grant broader powers to the WACWC, so that harsh penalties may be issued to nations receiving low scores in the reviews; you can tweak the definition or language of the REQUIRES and MANDATES to tie the extent of adoptive services to the needs of each nation; or you can try some other ideas of your own.

Good luck!

Head Diplomat Colin Thilnray
Icameran Office of WA Affairs

[West Angola]

[shameless bump]Third draft up![/shameless bump]

[Charlotte Ryberg]

Ms. Harper prefers that a resolution, if not already done, should help parents to look after their children if they seek to do so. As a secular country, I will not be swayed by opposition to adoption solely on religious grounds, because every child should be entitled to a guardian that is as caring as possible, but a better approach is to help willing parents look after children.

[Parilisa]

The Parilisan government wishes to add its voice to the support given for this excellent motion.

[Icamera]

REQUIRES that all nations whose residents include species who provide parental care provide adoptive services sufficiently meeting national need thereof,

*ahem*

I like the "easily accessible" change, but how about this? (Or the same gist, with a different wording)

It's looking very good in this third draft, though!

[Praesul]

We, the Republic of Praesul approves the third draft of this proposal. Both the government and our citizens believe this will be a wonderful thing for our country and its future.

[Bears Armed]

DEFINING a “child in need of adoptive services” as the underage offspring of a species which characteristically provides parental care, the progenitors of which are unwilling or unable to provide said care for various reasons,

Could you make that "progenitors and other relatives", to allow for cultures in which other members of extended families stepping in to do the job when the child's actual parents can't care for it is the norm?