Welfare of Wartime Orphans
Social Justice | Mild
Lamenting that the cruelties of war are often unavoidable, despite the best efforts of this august body;
Anguished over the shattering of families during war, even where nations take utmost precautions;
Asserting that the jurisdictional uncertainty of conflict areas combined with the extreme risk to children during and following periods of conflict justify additional distinction within extant policies; and
Opining that the World Assembly must think of the children, trite turn of phrase notwithstanding;
The World Assembly enacts the following:
- Member states must take necessary measures to ensure that children under the age of majority who are orphaned or separated from their families during an armed conflict to which the member state is party are not left to their own resources. Thus, member states must provide for the maintenance, health, sustenance, shelter, education, and eventual reunification of any child so affected who falls into their jurisdiction.
- Member states will ensure wherever possible that an adult of similar cultural or ethnic tradition continue the education of the child subject to these provisions until the child is either reunited with their kin or placed permanently in the care of a legal guardian. Placements with legal guardians pursuant to this clause will immediately confer upon the child all the domestic rights and protections given to children placed with legal guardians in the member state’s jurisdiction.
- Member states will ensure that children not yet placed with a permanent guardian are given adequate, livable quarters. Such children must be roomed separate from adults.
- Member states will endeavor to record the identity, place of origin, medically relevant information, discernible family information, and current location of any child subject to these provisions, to facilitate reunification with their kin.
- Member states may not modify or destroy the records of any child subject to these provisions except to update with new information or to correct clerical errors. Notwithstanding the above, member states may destroy records of children subject to these provisions:
- Upon reaching the age of majority, the child gives explicit permission, in writing, to do so; or
- Twenty years following the death of the child.
- Member states will consider what is in the best interests of the child for all decisions regarding health, education, and care.
- Member states will hold the custodial rights of the child’s natural parents as superior to those of the legal guardian, unless the natural parents’ rights were legally terminated for reasons unconnected to the armed conflict that caused the initial separation.
- Member states may, if it is in the child's best interest, transfer stewardship to the child's nation of origin when that nation's government is capable of meeting the obligations contained within this resolution. However, in no case may member states refuse to transfer stewardship to the child's nation of origin unless doing so is manifestly counter to the child's best interests and there is an objectively compelling and practical purpose for that refusal.
- Member states will attempt to reunify any children subject to these provisions with their kin in the location their kin currently reside or, as circumstances require, in neutral territory.
- Member states will create and adequately fund a national trust, with independent trustees, tasked with disbursing funds for the care and maintenance of any children subject to these provisions. Member states may allow charitable organizations to contribute to the aforementioned trust.
- Member states may delegate the maintenance and care of children subject to these provisions to nongovernmental organizations only if those organizations:
- are equipped, staffed, and funded adequately to care and maintain those children to the extent of the authority delegated;
- are lawfully able to engage in the delegated activity;
- are charitable in nature, insofar as no members of the organization gain an equitable interest in the organization or derive pecuniary benefit from the organization’s efforts beyond reasonable compensation; and
- do not indoctrinate children with any belief inconsistent with a proper education otherwise provided by the member state.
- All member states will cooperate with any World Assembly entity involved in the care and reunification of children subject to these provisions, and will cooperate with other member states to reunify those children.
- Member states must interpret the language of this resolution liberally to effectuate the policy goals of promoting the maintenance, health, sustenance, shelter, education, and eventual reunification of children covered by Clause 1.
- Nothing in this resolution alters or contradicts the rights of orphans and separated children entirely within a member state’s territorial jurisdiction.
OOC: I am aware of Rights of the Orphaned Child. I maintain, as with most of my drafts regarding conflict, that the question of jurisdiction over conflict zones is muddy, and any resolutions addressing them fall under the exception to the Duplication rule.
