Description: WA General Assembly Resolution #74: Medical Blockade Restriction (Category: Free Trade; Strength: Strong) shall be struck out and rendered null and void.

Argument: The General Assembly,

LAUDING the intent of GAR#74 - that being, to allow medical supplies and personnel to freely pass through blockades in order to ensure that individuals are not harmed as a result of political conflict,

WHOLLY AGREEING with the assertion that "[L]ife is fundamentally more important than political or international affairs,"

YET ASTUTELY AWARE that no amount of meritorious intent can compensate for the flaws of any text,

ACKNOWLEDGING that GAR#74 stated, in relevant part:

"REQUIRES any blocking force or forces to grant vessels carrying medical supplies and personnel passage."

APPALLED that such a provision effectively negates the purpose of a blockade, in the sense that any vessel, regardless of its intended content, can be granted free passage through a blockade, so long as it contains medical supplies and personnel.

PERPLEXED by how a World Assembly Statue can be used to guide the searching of delivery vessels, and further contending that such searches are ineffective given that passage cannot be prevented as long as the vessel contains medical supplies and/or personnel, regardless of its other contents.

DESIROUS of a resolution that effectively ensures the transportation of necessities of sapient life, such as medical supplies, while simultaneously allowing nations to enforce their blockades.

Due to these enumerated reasons,

THE WORLD ASSEMBLY THEREFORE REPEALS GAR#74.

Votes For: 9,091
Votes Against: 2,429

Implemented: Sun Feb 5 2012

Description: Description: A proposal to encourage nations to fund renewable energy research.

ARGUMENT:

AWARE that the use of fossil fuels and fossil fuel related products depletes the limited reserves upon planets

UNDERSTANDS that the burning of fossil fuels such as coal to produce electricity releases the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide that contributes to global warming as well as other noxious compounds that can later cause acid rain as well as other environmental issues,

CONCERNED that this rapid depletion would leave no way to produce energy for future generations,

KNOWS that there are other ways to generate electricity without using fossil fuels. These include, but is not limited to, solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro,

HEREBY:

1) Instructs World Assembly nations to devote sufficient funding in order to make a meaningful and good faith effort towards researching renewable energy
2) Encourages nations to enact policies on fossil-fuel burning power plants to commit a minimum 5% from their expenditure to further renewable energy research and to develop ways to better utilize alternative energy sources
3) Urges nations to take into account and implement results from the renewable energy research

IN ORDER to allow future generations to produce electricity without further polluting the atmosphere.

Co-Authored By The Free Land of Individuality-ness

Votes For: 8,115
Votes Against: 3,499

Implemented: Mon Feb 20 2012

Description: The World Assembly,

NOTING the existence of persons who threaten the safety and/or life of other persons,

RECOGNISING that such threats may require those threatened or others to respond with force in order to protect themselves or others,

BELIEVING that those who use such force to protect themselves or others should not be punished for this,

ACKNOWLEDGING the possibility that forceful responses in the defense of self or others may be excessive,

Hereby

DEFINES "reasonable force" as an amount of force within a reasonable degree of the smallest amount of force necessary to protect one's self or others from an imminent threat to safety and/or health by another person or group of persons,

DECLARES that no person who uses reasonable force to defend themselves or others from another person or group of persons shall face persecution or prosecution for the use of this force,

PLACES the duty of ascertaining whether the force used in such situations was reasonable or not in the hands of the judiciary.

Votes For: 8,566
Votes Against: 3,185

Implemented: Fri Feb 24 2012

Description: WA General Assembly Resolution #67: Habeas Corpus (Category: Human Rights; Strength: Significant) shall be struck out and rendered null and void.

Argument: The Assembled Nations of the World,

CONVINCED of the right of individuals to be free from illegal or unjust detention;

APPLAUDING the intent of this body to uphold that right when it passed General Assembly Resolution #67, "Habeas Corpus;"

however, DEEPLY TROUBLED by several flaws in the aforementioned resolution that render it ineffective in several areas;

TERRIBLY VEXED that the aforementioned resolution explicitly allows double jeopardy, the practice of trying an individual more than once for the same offense;

FURTHER VEXED that the aforementioned resolution imposes minimal obstacles to the unfettered use of double jeopardy, merely requiring the approval of a person who is "duly authorised by the legal system" to grant a "full legal authorisation for a retrial," essentially allowing for indefinite retrials, continuing to detain the individual all the while, until the court hands down a verdict favorable to the state;

DISTURBED that the aforementioned resolution allows the arbitrary detention, with no suspicion of wrongdoing, of an individual for up to twenty-four hours in any week, with minimal restrictions and with nothing to prevent repeated arbitrary detention for twenty four hours during every week indefinitely as a form of harassment or extra-legal punishment;

STUNNED that the aforementioned resolution does absolutely nothing to prohibit the continued detention, possibly indefinitely, of an individual after an acquittal;

FLABBERGASTED that the aforementioned resolution does absolutely nothing to prohibit the continued detention, possibly indefinitely, of an individual after his or her criminal sentence has been completed;

NOTING WITH CONSTERNATION that the aforementioned resolution does not actually require member states to allow detained individuals to challenge their detention, much less set any standards for such challenges;

DESIROUS of a resolution that effectively grants the right of habeas corpus to every individual under World Assembly jurisdiction, but cognizant that such a resolution cannot be passed until GAR67 is repealed;

hereby REPEAL General Assembly Resolution #67, "Habeas Corpus."

Votes For: 8,419
Votes Against: 2,560

Implemented: Tue Feb 28 2012

Description: WA General Assembly Resolution #61: WA Copyright Charter (Category: Education and Creativity; Area of Effect: Artistic) shall be struck out and rendered null and void.

Argument: BELIEVING the people have a right to partake in their own culture

UNDERSTANDING that the primary purpose of copyright is to promote the creation of new works;

NOTING that it is very difficult to motivate people who have been dead for a quarter century;

PUZZLED why the World Assembly nonetheless insists upon this as the minimum term for copyright;

CONCERNED that the wording of the resolution forces a system of guilt until proven innocence in the case of fair use, which runs contrary to the legal systems of many member nations;

WHOLEHEARTEDLY BELIEVING that, other than the aforementioned flaws, the resolution is well written and strikes a decent balance between the rights of the people and the promotion of creativity;

HOPING a similar resolution will be promptly passed, with the aforementioned flaws addressed;

The World Assembly hereby repeals Resolution #61, “World Assembly Copyright Charter”.

Votes For: 8,880
Votes Against: 1,851

Implemented: Wed Mar 7 2012