Honourable Members of this Most Hallowed Chamber;
I rise today to present you with the Delegation's Initial Submission in anticipation of a vote which will begin in 20 hours' time. I am not campaigning for or against this resolution, as I have already done so. The Initial Submission sets out our Delegation's finalised viewpoint on this Resolution in its final form. It also serves as a Submission wherein we can collate our disparate opinions on the Resolution. Dependant on our timezone and the projected time when a Proposal is due to come to vote, we normally submit our Initial Submissions within the 24 hours directly preceding the Resolution coming to vote. I would now, therefore, like to take the pleasure in doing so.
Ladies and Gentlemen of this Chamber, the Delegation first wishes to congratulate the Qualeshian ambassador for his efforts on legislation regarding habeas corpus. We admire the intention and ideals propogated by the learned sponsor, but, sadly, as we have previously noted, there are issues with this Proposal which we cannot support. As I have stated, we are not campaigning for change in the text, as this Resolution has progressed too far for that to be viable. We are merely giving our opinion. I will now present the material elements of our Submission.
As have been previously highlighted, we believe that the following clause:
Periods of time in which the authorities responsible for formally charging the individual with a crime are not available to do so may be added to the aforementioned 36 hour time limit, to a maximum of 96 additional hours;
is open to abuse, because the judicial authorities may not be "available" for quite some time. When a person is bailed because of the 96-hour limit, he would be promptly rearrested for the same crime, and the vicious cycle shall begin anew. We were not, and still are not, satisfied by the Sponsor's response, and we still stand opposed to this Clause.
We further raise concern with this clause
3. Multiple separate detentions on suspicion of the same criminal charges shall cumulatively count towards the time limit in clause 2;
which seems to bolster and encourage the abuse which we feared from the clause mentioned in the above paragraph.
Finally, we take issue with this clause
4. Member states shall not detain any individual who has been formally charged with a crime, but who has not been convicted of that crime, for any longer than is necessary to provide that individual with a speedy trial in accordance with international law;
which has not been properly defined, and thus the test is subjective. A police chief who detains someone for 3 months may believe that said time is "necessary" to provide that individual with a speedy trial, even though the detainee may not think so.
Your Honours, for the reasons stated above, we cannot support such admiral intentions from the Lead Sponsor of Qualesh, and the Co-Sponsor of Connopolis. We declare, however, that they should be congratulated for their efforts.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Ambassadors, Regional Delegates and fellow Observers, I thank you for your time and patience. I now yield the floor to await the Response Submissions of the Lead Sponsor and the Co-Sponsor respectively.
Klause Uliyan
etc