[PASSED] Repeal "Humanitarian Aid Expansion Act"

[Imperium Anglorum]

Imperial Foreign Office
Category: Repeal

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The General Assembly,

Confident that humanitarian aid has already been expanded by passing such resolutions as 340 GA "Access to Humanitarian Aid" and 51 GA "Humanitarian Aid Coordination";

Concerned about a number of issues with the resolution that cause unintended consequences, most of which were not picked up due to the premature submission and passage of the target resolution;

Conceding that repeal is the only option, as it is impossible to amend legislation and patch these issues;

Worried about the incredible costs associated with:

1. forcing governments to expand their public sectors and subsidise rebuilding efforts when a nation may simply choose to move people out of harm's way via evacuation and
   
   
2. transportation to and fro for foreigners at the national expense;

Troubled by the possibility of using this resolution to bypass quarantine regulations, since the resolution fails to provide any clauses allowing nations to prevent aid workers from entering quarantine areas; and

Flabbergasted with the requirement in 380 GA § 6(b) of rewarding nations which are unwilling to help their own citizens by wasting World Assembly funds in paying private organisations to provide 'aid' without any necessary oversight to ensure that World Assembly contributions are not wasted, squandered, or used to commit crimes against the people which this resolution would ostensibly help; hereby

Repeals 380 GA "Humanitarian Aid Expansion Act".

Parsons, in military uniform, enters the WA headquarters for the first time in nearly two months of war. While a number of people in the Delegation want to hear about his experiences at the front fighting the Allemagnians, he remains silent on the matter, looking into the distance as the unquiet night stares back. He carries in his pocket his reassignment to the detachment of the Imperial Guard at the WAHQ, and takes back his old desk. More sombrely than before, he writes up a short text and posts it to the Conference Room Scheduling Committee.

[Araraukar]

He carries in his pocket his reassignment to the detachment of the Imperial Guard at the WAHQ, and takes back his old desk.

OOC: So is your ambassador now Parsons or North? I don't quite understand the reassignment to military detachment thing.

[Imperium Anglorum]

He carries in his pocket his reassignment to the detachment of the Imperial Guard at the WAHQ, and takes back his old desk.

OOC: So is your ambassador now Parsons or North? I don't quite understand the reassignment to military detachment thing.

OOC: Parsons is the Representative. He's also an active duty officer in the Imperial Army. Due to some plot points which I haven't yet written, he's been assigned back from the front, where he was the Colonel of his regiment, to the WAHQ, where he can also happen to do his normal job.

[Araraukar]

OOC: Parsons is the Representative. He's also an active duty officer in the Imperial Army. Due to some plot points which I haven't yet written, he's been assigned back from the front, where he was the Colonel of his regiment, to the WAHQ, where he can also happen to do his normal job.

OOC: I've never understood the difference between ambassador and representative either. And that explanation made me even more confused, but I assume you're trying to tell me the answer to my question is "Parsons"?

[Imperium Anglorum]

OOC: Parsons is the Representative. He's also an active duty officer in the Imperial Army. Due to some plot points which I haven't yet written, he's been assigned back from the front, where he was the Colonel of his regiment, to the WAHQ, where he can also happen to do his normal job.

OOC: I've never understood the difference between ambassador and representative either. And that explanation made me even more confused, but I assume you're trying to tell me the answer to my question is "Parsons"?

OOC: It's a question of hats. He has his officer hat, which he must wear, since there is a war on. He also has his diplomat hat. So, the government assigned him to a position where he can wear the officer hat and the diplomat hat at the same time. For the last two months (in-character time), he has been on active duty wearing his officer hat.

[Araraukar]

OOC: So, the government assigned him to a position where he can wear the officer hat and the diplomat hat at the same time.

OOC: ...I am now literally imagining him wearing two hats at once.

Sorry to derail the start of your thread with OOC questions, by the way. I'll see later if I can come up with something resembling IC comments.

[Black Livesalvania]

BLACK LIVES MATTER!!!

[Tinfect]

BLACK LIVES MATTER!!!

OOC:
ROBOTS ARE PEOPLE TOO!

See? I can shout pointless bumper-stickers as well. Now, do you actually have anything to say or did you just want to shout senselessly from the rooftops?

[Wrapper]

BLACK LIVES MATTER!!!

Do not spam topics with unrelated posts like this.

[Umeria]

Troubled by the possibility of using this resolution to bypass quarantine regulations, since the resolution is utterly silent on the question of disease and quarantine regulations

I assume this refers to national law, as there is no legislation adressing quarantine regulations in the WA(I'm glad there isn't, because otherwise my QR draft would be illegal).

Full support to this repeal.

[Separatist Peoples]

Troubled by the possibility of using this resolution to bypass quarantine regulations, since the resolution is utterly silent on the question of disease and quarantine regulations

I assume this refers to national law, as there is no legislation adressing quarantine regulations in the WA(I'm glad there isn't, because otherwise my QR draft would be illegal).

Full support to this repeal.

OOC: It refers to WA law, but its a repeal, so it won't block your draft in the least.

[Saveyou Island]

Nicely written, touches everything I didn't like about this resolution.

For.

[Imperium Anglorum]

This will be submitted in 19 minutes.

EDIT: This has been submitted. I sent a telegram off to one of my friends asking for them to campaign for it — they've got a free API key, we're recruiting in Europe, so a campaign is going to soon be on.

[Wallenburg]

In the interest of transparency, here is the campaign:

Hello, %NATION%,

We just passed some legislation. But in doing so, there was a significant error. Unfortunately, in the World Assembly, we cannot amend legislation or change it after it was submitted. But the author of the resolution we just passed refused to do any of the recommended changes. He refused to withdraw his resolution after people repeatedly spoke about the flaws in its formulation and execution. He charged on ahead, saddling the people of NationStates with one of the worst resolutions this Summer.

380 GA has a number of very important issues that necessitate its repeal:

1. It directly forces nations to spend money in rebuilding damaged infrastructure when a nation may simply choose to relocate its populace, something which is much more reasonable in the face of hurricanes and climate change than staying put and building taller and taller levees.

2. It also makes nations to expend money transporting foreigners around — not when the government deems it necessary, but when the foreigners deem it necessary. This means that any aid workers can simply claim that it is necessary for a military escort with a 21-gun salute... and the government must provide it.

3. It says that the job of aid workers cannot be impeded. Reasonable in most circumstances, but that is the most dangerous portion of this resolution. If a bunch of naïve aid workers travel to an epidemic zone — national forces cannot stop them. They can then return and spread diseases everywhere on the transportation which you are forced to provide.

4. The resolution finally also spends immense sums of World Assembly funds on buying off 'aid' organisations. It does so with no oversight, no accountability, and no restrictions on who is an 'aid' organisation. Basically, it says that the WA can hand money to anyone, without making sure that those people are actually going to do what they say they will do.

These issues were all picked up in the discussion of the resolution. But the author charged ahead, submitted it anyway, and refused to correct those issues. We have a responsibility to repeal the products of recklessness. I hope that you support and approve the repeal of this resolution at the link below.

http://www.nationstates.net/page=UN_vie ... 1468987860

Gratefully yours,

Transilia

[Europe and Oceania]

We opposed this.

[Separatist Peoples]

We opposed this.

"A truly insightful counterargument, ambassador."

[Araraukar]

We opposed this.

"A truly insightful counterargument, ambassador."

OOC: Does EaO ever offer anything more around here than "opposed" or "support"?

[Imperium Anglorum]

"A truly insightful counterargument, ambassador."

OOC: Does EaO ever offer anything more around here than "opposed" or "support"?

I haven't seen it ever, except when they attempted to chew out SP and myself for not being socialists, and therefore, obviously fascists.

[Keam]

We are Opposed to this proposition.

[Normlpeople]

OOC: Does EaO ever offer anything more around here than "opposed" or "support"?

I haven't seen it ever, except when they attempted to chew out SP and myself for not being socialists, and therefore, obviously fascists.

OOC: He hasn't seen much of Clover if he thinks you two are fascists.

IC: "There's way too many flaws to keep it on the books' Clover said. "For example, as its written, a humanitarian worker failing a security check can only be denied transport, not entry. Nuances of punctuation. Anyway, support offered, though id like to see a replacement."

[Araraukar]

OOC: He hasn't seen much of Clover if he thinks you two are fascists.

OOC: I don't think he's seen much of anything. That nation has very selective vision (or in IC hearing) around here. Also, wasn't he already mod-poked to "please make relevant contributions"?

[Draconae]

We voted against GA 380 because of the errors stated above, so this bill has our full support. We will vote for it when the time comes.

[Belmaria]

This is ridiculous. The original act ensured that national governments contribute to rebuilding communities and assisting all people, regardless of nationality, during a crisis. If the author of this proposal doesn't like governments doing their jobs after a disaster, perhaps they should get out of government.

[Separatist Peoples]

This is ridiculous. The original act ensured that national governments contribute to rebuilding communities and assisting all people, regardless of nationality, during a crisis. If the author of this proposal doesn't like governments doing their jobs after a disaster, perhaps they should get out of government.

"Or maybe we shouldn't have to rebuild something we didn't break? Maybe we would like to have nominal control of our borders, even when disaster strikes? The target resolution had terrible flaws."

[Belmaria]

This is ridiculous. The original act ensured that national governments contribute to rebuilding communities and assisting all people, regardless of nationality, during a crisis. If the author of this proposal doesn't like governments doing their jobs after a disaster, perhaps they should get out of government.

"Or maybe we shouldn't have to rebuild something we didn't break? Maybe we would like to have nominal control of our borders, even when disaster strikes? The target resolution had terrible flaws."

Oh, give me a break. If you don't want to allow the Red Cross or Red Crescent into your nation because of an irrational fear of foreigners who just want to help you, you're hurting your people, and the international community must intervene. As for governments "rebuilding something we didn't break" I can only respond with the absolute highest level of condemnation for that mindset. If your people are devastated by a natural disaster, and your government refuses to help rebuild, you deserve to be toppled from power for not serving your people. The original resolution was sensible, reasonable, and designed to protect people from governments like yours that have no sense of responsibility during a disaster whatsoever.