NationStates Jolt Archive

The current prostitution UN resolution is yet another resolution on a topic that should be decided on a local level.

I don't know why the resolution drafters insist on making local issues an International affair.

Issues like the environment, nuclear weapons, international crime, and international trade are things that cross borders, whereas I seriously doubt that prostitutes are are exceptionally international in nature.

Unless the issue is of international concern, for example if the resolution was addresing the plight of prostitutes who are unfortunately captured, smuggled, bought and sold through international organized crime rings (which, sadly, this resolution does not address) issues such as prostitution should be on the national NOT the UN's international agenda.

The current prostitution UN resolution is yet another resolution on a topic that should be decided on a local level.

I don't know why the resolution drafters insist on making local issues an International affair.

Issues like the environment, nuclear weapons, international crime, and international trade are things that cross borders, whereas I seriously doubt that prostitutes are are exceptionally international in nature.

Unless the issue is of international concern, for example if the resolution was addresing the plight of prostitutes who are unfortunately captured, smuggled, bought and sold through international organized crime rings (which, sadly, this resolution does not address) issues such as prostitution should be on the national NOT the UN's international agenda.

National borders are arbitrary, but the right to life is universal. I think it's clear that this is an issue of human rights, and therefore an international issue.

The Lone Star Republic wholeheartedly supports the movement to differentiate what constitutes national and international issues. In this regard, we are working with other nations to found a nation's rights coalition. Please consider adding your voice to the 10,000 members wanted for this massive undertaking. All we wish is that the UN be balanced by adding weight to the idea that national sovereignty is being compromised by some issues. See our poll in this forum for more details.

To you and the UN:
Peace and prosperity.

The Lone Star Republic Parliament

National borders are arbitrary, but the right to life is universal. I think it's clear that this is an issue of human rights, and therefore an international issue.

The prostitution resolution is NOT clear "on its face" to be addressing a "human rights" issue of international significance. Whereas mass killings are generally recognized as a violation of "right to life", the right to sell oneself in the sex trade is largely debatable as a "right to life" issue. Remember, the UN is an International Body. The UN should try to create, and submit for debate, resolutions that can be more Internationally applicable. The prostitution resolution is proposing to decriminalize a statutory crime that may or may not be a crime in every nation.

Maybe we should require the UN resolutions to justify their International significance.

I am, however, not all that interested in just this particular issue's International/National nature but more concerned that the many of the UN resolutions being submitted for debate are more appropriately decided at the local level. On the other hand, more obviously international issues such as "biological warfare" and "over-fishing of our world's oceans" are contining to go unaddressed by the International Community.

The right to life means the right to your body. Any issue regarding this is therefore of international significance.

Jeeze, talk about defining The Body Politic....

The current prostitution UN resolution is yet another resolution on a topic that should be decided on a local level.

I don't know why the resolution drafters insist on making local issues an International affair.

Issues like the environment, nuclear weapons, international crime, and international trade are things that cross borders, whereas I seriously doubt that prostitutes are are exceptionally international in nature.

Unless the issue is of international concern, for example if the resolution was addresing the plight of prostitutes who are unfortunately captured, smuggled, bought and sold through international organized crime rings (which, sadly, this resolution does not address) issues such as prostitution should be on the national NOT the UN's international agenda.



I agree completely this should have also applied to the Euthanasia proposal :twisted:

The right to life means the right to your body. Any issue regarding this is therefore of international significance.

Well if "right to life" is about the body, then ALL our criminal laws (especially ones that punish by imprisoning people) are human rights issues and must necessarilly be of international in concern. I, for one, doubt that international "habeus corpus" laws were what the UN and its declaration of human rights had in mind. At a certian point this definition of "right to life" becomes ridiculously broad. I assume that "right to life" is just that, people should have a right to live... that doesn't necessarilly mean to live well or be able to live WHATEVER way they want, but those sorts of things should be covered by other rights or prohibtions, not the "right to life".

Again, my argument, however, is not in particular about prostitution but more in general about the aparent lack of resolutions that address issues that affect the world in a more International way. The legalization of prostitution in say, Thailand or Japan (indeed most developing nations as well) would be moot as they already allow prostitution or at least do not have laws forbidding it. You see, if there were a general International statute already making prostitution a crime then the "legalize prostitution" resolution would Internationally make sense to be an issue for debate. Since, however, there is not uniform criminalization of the action, legalizing it would be a relatively moot point for many members involved.

Now if the resolution proposed that a) prostitution should be legal b) All nations must make laws to regulate the industry c) Tax the industry and d) make counseling, and health care available to all registered sex workers... then we would have something that would impose actual international duties on nations that would actually be improving "life" for all prostitutes...

This current resolution, however, does nothing but attempt to repeal the laws of SOME of the member nations who happen to make prostitution a crime... without imposing a duty for any real "human rights" advancement.

this current prostitution proposal is nothing more than a tinpot idiot, being supported by more tinpot idiots who have absolutely no idea on the concept of national independence.

Prositution is not within the remit of the UN to legislate upon.

The UN can legislate on anything it wants :!: :twisted: Nothing limits its power :!: :twisted:

That's probably one reason why I'm not in it.

The current prostitution UN resolution is yet another resolution on a topic that should be decided on a local level.

I don't know why the resolution drafters insist on making local issues an International affair.

Issues like the environment, nuclear weapons, international crime, and international trade are things that cross borders, whereas I seriously doubt that prostitutes are are exceptionally international in nature.

Unless the issue is of international concern, for example if the resolution was addresing the plight of prostitutes who are unfortunately captured, smuggled, bought and sold through international organized crime rings (which, sadly, this resolution does not address) issues such as prostitution should be on the national NOT the UN's international agenda.

The Confederacy of Mikitivity voted "other" but our vote should be considered yes with rights. We completely agree that there has been a recent trend for nations to use the UN to push forth their ideals on other sovreign member states, however, we also believe that the number of issues that do not respect borders include much more than environment, crime, and warfare.

One issue dear to CoM is the massive and unequal distribution of natural resources. Our point isn't to simply add to a growing list of acceptable topics, but rather to reaffirm that the UN should strive to get member states to work together *while* recognizing that many issues that seem like they do not cross borders may in fact do so. Perhaps the burden of proof would lie on the advocate of a proposal, but CoM is against not allowing propopents of resolutions to get a chance to share to this community the nature of the problem and a chance to show us how their problem can impact us all.

Wow, an actual, honest to goodness, outright International issue is now up for resolution! The delegates got it right this time!

Cheers ring out across the land of Phunny Woks

encouragingly, the next two proposals to have reached quorum also appear to be international in nature (although check out the spelling on the second one....obviously not all member states have been providing education of a sufficent quality to their populace.....)
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http://www.nationstates.net/images/flags/uploads/hirota.jpgThe Democratic States of Hirota (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/target=display_nation/nation=hirota)

I wish there was some way to keep this poll near the top of the forum group. It is terribly difficult to get a good sample of people to respond if they don't know it exists.

encouragingly, the next two proposals to have reached quorum also appear to be international in nature (although check out the spelling on the second one....obviously not all member states have been providing education of a sufficent quality to their populace.....)


It should be obvious, not all of us are native English speakers. And some of us that are, speak different versions of it.

Is there an official language in NationStates?

I wish there was some way to keep this poll near the top of the forum group. It is terribly difficult to get a good sample of people to respond if they don't know it exists.

Well, replying to a post bumps it up in the queue! ;)

Wow, replying bumps a post up to the top of the queue? *blinks innocently*

It should be obvious, not all of us are native English speakers. And some of us that are, speak different versions of it.

Is there an official language in NationStates?

As far as I can tell English is the official language. Variations are acceptable (US English and UK English, for example) but all proposals are expected to use correct spelling and grammar, and to follow the rules of written English. Although some mistakes are unavoidable most people expect proposals to be spellchecked, at least.

For more information see ‘Resolution 245A Proper Grammar’


Desdemona,
UN representative,
The Back New World

Despite the fact that NationStates is an international game (by virtue of being on the Internet), the generally used language appears to be English. I am not so much bothered by comments in forums, telegrams, etc. being linguistically flawed but find it somewhat disturbing when it goes uncorrected in Issues and UN resolutions as I assume there are game administrators that review/edit these things before they reach the general game. This being the case, you would think gramatical/spelling errors would be remedied in the same process.

This, aparently, is not the case.

Of course, I would also think that the various systems of review for resolutions and issues would have people who would say, "Wow, that's a good topic in the resolution but that should be a national issue," and then toss it over to the national pile. Similarly, issues that get proposed may turn out to be of international importance and therefore could be sent to "resolutions" to get modified into the proper form.

I'm not saying that topics like prostitution are not of human importance. Indeed legalization of prostitution and its affects are important to discuss. It is, however, misplaced in the International arena because prostitution and it's criminalization affects people in a more local (national) way than it does in an International way.

More than 45 people (out of the thousands that play here) have to have an opinion about the International nature of UN proposals

but find it somewhat disturbing when it goes uncorrected in Issues and UN resolutions as I assume there are game administrators that review/edit these things before they reach the general game.
?Resolution 245A Proper Grammar? is an unenforceable bit of game mechanics, and Enodia has publicly stated multiple times that it is not used to judge the worthiness of proposals. In fact, the only thing mods are supposed to do is eliminate game mechanics and other inappropriate proposals. It's been an apparently long standing policy that poor spelling and dumb ideas do not automatically constitute 'inappropriate'.

I happen to agree with that. It's our UN. The nations control it, and we should be held responsible for letting some of this crap through. While there is a certain visceral glee in watching horrid proposals being modbombed, I don't particularly want Enodia to act as the paternalistic Pappy State, protecting us from ourselves.

Many have joined, and most of the long-term players have moved on from active roles in setting UN policies. I suspect that many of them stay UN members only for the Regional control issues. Look at the join dates of the UN posters - most of us are under two months old. It's not easy to stay and post the same arguments over and over again.

Nibbleton and others have the right idea with their proactive telegram campaign (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=124196) idea, but they need more support. If you really want to see the UN change, you need to hang around and participate. I don't know if it'll do any good, but I'm going to try.

Balast Water resolution looks like it is a good and Internationally concerned resolution. The delegates and/or the resolution writers seem to be on the right path for now. Sadly, I haven't any endorsements so I just have to take the proposed resolutions as they come I suppose.