General Assembly Proposals

The World Assembly,

Believing that further action is necessary to ensure that appropriate actions are taken proactively to ensure knowledge and containment of epidemic outbreaks,

Recognising that, even with the provisions of GA 53 "Epidemic Response Act", many governments still will downplay epidemics due to fears of harms to trade or general reputational damage,

Concerned that possible government action against healthcare workers harms the ability of international organisations to monitor and be truthfully informed of new epidemics, and

Hoping to cut through cover-ups, dissembling, and obfuscation by nations generally while ensuring that healthcare workers conveying truthful information or opinion are not penalised, hereby enacts as follows:

1. Inspection requirements. When a report is received by the World Health Authority (WHA) of an outbreak of disease or of the emergence of a novel pathogen under section 2 infra, the WHA may dispatch inspectors to investigate and report publicly on the origins of, response to, and make recommendations on the outbreak.

   1. All member nations must permit the entrance and exit of WHA inspectors (hereinafter Inspectors) and fully cooperate with such requests for access or information which Inspectors may deliver to member nation authorities, subject to the following subsection.

   2. Inspectors’ request for access to sensitive areas or sensitive information may be rejected by the local jurisdiction. Such rejections shall be reviewed by the Independent Adjudicative Office, which may overrule such rejections if the likely harm of release is less than the likely harm to international public health interests.

   3. No member nation may otherwise bar the access of Inspectors to medical personnel. Nor may any member nation retaliate against the provision of information by medical personnel to Inspectors.

2. Reporting requirements. Any novel pathogen with suggestive evidence of person-to-person transmission must be reported to the WHA forthwith. Member nations must collect statistics on transmission of pathogens in healthcare settings and report such statistics to the WHA in a timely manner.

3. Opt-in inspection authority. WHA inspectors may undertake a section 1 investigation and report in a non-member nation with the approval thereof. If after granting approval, that nation fails to comply with section 1 access and retaliation requirements as if it were a member nation, at the instigation of the WA Solicitors Office, the Independent Adjudicative Office may declare appropriate sanctions to be enforced by member nations against the nation or those persons responsible in that nation for such non-compliance.

4. WA healthcare. WHA inspectors shall take all necessary precautions to prevent their transmission of any disease they are investigating. The General Fund shall pay for healthcare costs, or insurance therefor, of WA employees. Nations opting in under the previous section, which do not regularly remit assessments to the WA General Fund, must consent to levies against their nation for healthcare costs incurred by WA employees operating under the auspices of this resolution.

The General Assembly,

Noting that the factory farming of animals is a method often used in agricultural settings to increase efficiency and lower the cost of production,

Resolved that factory farming:

• is almost universally considered cruel and inhumane, as it holds no regard for the welfare of animals, and also profits off of their abuse,

• has significant, demonstrably negative environmental effects on wildlife and flora,

• has been shown to increase the risk of infection and other health dangers to consumers,

• fosters anti-competitive practices and the cartelization of the farming industry, and

• often results in particularly egregious exploitation of laborers and the destruction of small-scale farming livelihoods,

Believing that any monetary cost savings that may be associated with factory farming do not outweigh the costs incurred by wildlife and flora, consumer health, the economy, and the inherent rights of farm animals as sentient beings,

Hereby:

1. Defines for the purposes of this resolution:

   1. "farm animal" as a sentient animal raised in an agricultural environment to produce commodities where said commodity is produced directly by or from said animals, and

   2. "factory farming" as an industrialized system of producing commodities from farm animals characterized by one or more of the following aspects:

      1. keeping farm animals in unhygienic or crowded spaces where they are unable to exercise their full range of motion, including but not limited to all use of battery cages, except when strictly necessary for the health and/or welfare of said farm animals, or

      2. the routine use of antibiotics or growth hormones on farm animals in attempts to alter their physical characteristics and/or mitigate the consequences of keeping farm animals in unhygienic conditions; where such use is not intended to cure an illness,

2. Bans all forms of factory farming, and

3. Gives member-states a period of no more than two years to become fully compliant with this resolution.

Co-authored by Greater Cesnica.

General Assembly Resolution #221 “On Multilateral Trade Talks” (Category: Free Trade; Strength: Mild) shall be struck out and rendered null and void.

Noting that Article 1 of GA#221 requires that the World Assembly organise "multilateral trade negotiations... with the mandate of reducing protectionist measures between all member nations" on a decadal basis, and that its Article 3 tasks members with deploying "at least one qualified delegate to these negotiations,"

Concluding that GA#221 not only fails to require members to actually subscribe to free trade agreements, but in fact allows member state delegates to its negotiations to attempt to reach such agreements about exceedingly minor categories of goods and services with other delegates, so long as they meet Article 4's requirement that they "make a good faith effort... to come to mutually beneficial agreements which are in the best interests of all national populations involved" in doing so,

Firmly refusing to applaud GA#221's goal of "reducing protectionist measures between [member]s," given that GA#26 "World Assembly Economic Union" - the third article of which had similar provisions to that of GA#221 - was repealed by GA#45 exactly because of the damage that the WA-sanctioned reduction of such measures can cause to the economies of the least developed members, and

Believing that individual members are more than capable of negotiating their own free trade agreements - comprehensive or otherwise - without having to be babysat by the WA in the process...

The General Assembly hereby repeals GA#221 "On Multilateral Trade Talks."

General Assembly Resolution #105 “Preparing for Disasters” (Category: International Security; Strength: Mild) shall be struck out and rendered null and void.

The General Assembly,

Acknowledging and appreciating the good intentions of Resolution 105, “Preparing For Disasters,” in its aid to international coordination in the leadup to natural and artificial disasters,

Aware that Resolution 105 does a reasonably good job in achieving its goal,

Concerned, however, at several potentially negative implications reaching beyond the scope of the resolution, such as:

1. Clause two mandating that the World Assembly Disaster Bureau provide “all the help that a nation requests in [inspections mandated],” regardless of the nation’s actual need of help, potentially opening the door for malicious states to drain the funds of the World Assembly General Fund by requesting unnecessary assistance that the Bureau is required to provide,

2. Clause seven requiring the World Assembly Disaster Bureau to share research regarding technologies used to assist in responding to disasters with all nations, regardless of the nation’s World Assembly member status or any other potential applications of the technology, meaning that any research found by the Bureau that may prove hazardous or otherwise dangerous if in the wrong hands must be shared with all nations, including malicious actors,

3. Clause eight instructing the World Assembly Disaster Bureau to work with all World Assembly organizations, regardless of relevance or necessity to the overarching goal of the Bureau, which could prove to be burdensome as the network of World Assembly organizations expands,

Believing that, regardless of whatever good Resolution 105 provides, the negative consequences that the language of the resolution allows necessitates repeal,

Hoping that, following the repeal of Resolution 105, a suitable replacement will be promptly passed, ultimately minimizing whatever negative effect will be felt by not having a resolution of this topic on the books,

Hereby repeals Resolution 105, “Preparing For Disasters.”