NationStates Jolt Archive

Some of you may remember a while back when the UN Resolution "UNEC", or United Nations Educational Committee, was passed. For those of you who don't, here it is again:


UN Educational Committee

A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights.

Category: Human Rights
Strength: Strong
Proposed by: Hersfold

Description:

NOTICING, that the condition of many educational facilities worldwide lack the ability to properly teach thier children, in that: Classrooms are falling into disrepair; Teachers are unable to properly educate their students due to poor training: And, schools do not have sufficent funds to purchase better equipment to replace old, broken and/or out-of-date materials;

SEEING that a student's mental welfare and self-esteem can be greatly improved through extra-curricular activities, which many schools can not afford or do not fund sufficently;

FINDING that the food served in many school cafeterias is not healthy, and tastes revolting besides;

SHOCKED by the fact that many school systems lack sufficent security systems to keep their students safe from dangerous trespassers and, in some cases, themselves;

HEARING that many countries cut the budget for education before anything else to aid funding for other programs;

HAVING PASSED the resolution "Free Education" on August 19th of the year 2003;

AND REALIZING that today's children are tommorrow's future, and without proper education of these children, our future will fail;

THE NATIONSTATES UNITED NATIONS shall form the United Nations Educational Committee, or UNEC, which shall resolve all of these problems in our nation's educational systems by providing funding to these systems, so they may repair unsafe schools, purchase security systems to protect our students from harm, provide extra-curricular activities to help our children's mental and physical state of being, provide them with healthier school lunches, provide a better learning environment for our children by training teachers and purchasing more up-to-date materials for the students, and overall ensuring our world's future to be a prosperous one.

Votes For: 11237

Votes Against: 7167

Implemented: Fri Apr 9 2004


It caused some considerable debate, particularly on one main issue: Where is the money coming from?

So, Mikitivity and I worked up a second draft, titled "Amendments to the UNEC" to be submitted and hopefully passed. However, the name of the proposal had to be changed due to the implications of the title. After that, other events prevented further pursuit of the issue.

Now, however, we wish to bring this back under an acceptable title to hopefully clarify many of the darker spots in the original document.

Please note that this is not an amendment of the former document. This proposal is designed to help clear up and define the purposes of the UNEC, it's funding, and inner workings. The proposal has been cleared by the NationStates Moderators as not interfering with game stats, so long as the title does not contain the word "Amendments".

Here is the new proposal:


Defining the UNEC

Resolution Type: Social Justice
Strength: Mild
Proposed By: Hersfold

The NationStates United Nations,

AWARE of the passage of its resolution, United Nations Education Committee, adopted April 9, 2004,

1. DEFINES the roll of the UNEC to include:
a) Providing educational grants to UN member states that request financial help for their education programs,
b) Providing supplies directly to public and/or private education institutions that have applied for supply grants to the UNEC,
c) Evaluating the level of need of all applicants for UNEC assistance, and
d) Monitoring the implementation of its grants and report its findings to this assembly when appropriate;

2. ESTABLISHES a United Nations Educational Trust Fund, which will be managed by the UNEC and funded through donations by international, national, and non-governmental sources;

3. FURTHER DEFINES the voting membership of the UNEC to include:
a) any UN member state which contributes to the United Nations Education Trust Fund, and
b) a number UN member states, not to exceed 100 seats, as elected by the UN General Assembly to serve one year terms;

4. RECOMMENDS two advisory panels to the UNEC, composed of:
a) up to two teachers from each UN member state, and
b) up to two students from each UN member state;

5. INSTRUCTS the voting membership of the UNEC to take into consideration all of the recommendations provided by the UNEC advisory panel;

6. AUTHORIZES the UNEC to base the decisions concerning the awarding and continuation of the United Nations Education Trust Fund grants on both the recommendations of the UNEC advisory panel as well as on information collected on the current status of overall quality of the programs that apply for financial aid;

7. SUGGESTS that the evaluation of the current status of the overall quality of educational programs includes a budget analysis of the educational program, student retention, school curriculum and program of study, educational goals of the society in question, and feedback from the students / teachers / administration and representatives of the country applying for the grant;

8. AFFIRMS that the grants provided by the UNEC will only be used for educational purposes, such that if the UNEC has reason to believe the funds or supplies it provides are being used for non-educational programs, the UNEC may vote to suspend the funds upon an investigation, as provided by its monitoring program described above;

9. ACKNOWLEDGES the inherent right of societies to determine what is best for their children, by taking into consideration the cultural and social needs of the members states and schools that apply to the UNEC;

10. REAFFIRMS that the financial resources provided by the UNEC should be given out on a need basis, with the nations most in need of assistance will be given a priority in the UNEC decision making process; and

11. EXPRESSES ITS HOPE that in time that nations will be able to supplement the aid provided by the UNEC and that the programs and institutions that apply for UNEC aid may become self-succient.


Please post any suggestions, ask any questions, and show any support you may have. Mikitivity and I will be more than happy to clear things up. I have not yet sent in this proposal, but will announce here when I have.



Mikitivity pointed out to me that if this passes, it will be the first time a resolution author successfully passed another resolution that followed up on the first. Just an interesting fact.

I will support this proposal, and will endorse it when it is submited.

Mikitivity pointed out to me that if this passes, it will be the first time a resolution author successfully passed another resolution that followed up on the first. Just an interesting fact.

Thanks Hersfold! And it is good to see your nation here as well. (Hersfold has been pretty active in the technical forum coming up with suggestions / ideas for the mods to consider ... another reason why we've delayed bringing this issue up.)

There was one other NS UN resolution that was not really a follow up, but a true amendement. Some time ago the Required Basic Healthcare (RBH) resolution was passed (by Austrivum) by 10,000+ to 7,000+ votes. My nation was not a part of the UN and I'm not sure what prompted Austrivum to suggest an amendment to his / her resolution, but a 'RBH' Replacement resolution was adopted by this body a few weeks after the passage of the original Rrequired Basic Healthcare resolution.

That was before amendments were not allowed. And that resolution was designed to replace, not build upon the principal / idea of an earlier resolution.

In any event, I apologize for the length of the proposal Hersfold and I are asking nation's endorse ... but this version represents our latest attempt in good faith to address the majority of the complaints against the original UNEC resolution.

NOTE: In case many of you haven't noticed. There are a few of us that actually do listen and take notes during resolution debates. When comments that we feel are more than standard rhetoric are raised, we often bring these comments back to our governments for use in drafting future resolutions. My government is also working to address negative comments concerning the Tracking Near Earth Objects and the Needle Sharing Prevention resolutions, by eventually (not now) bringing additional resolutions to this body.

In short: your comments make a difference. :)

So please post any thoughts here, both positive and negative. They all help, especially the negative ones, because they help us improve on what is already written.

Thanks for the support, Xerxes.

The proposal has not been submitted yet, so if you want to comment, please do so!!!

I think this is a well founded proposal that does not 'loophole' the mechanics, yet seems to address an issue that has been raised.

not to be nitpicky, but maybe you should outline rights that will be granted to the advisory panel?

Do you have any suggestions? I'm not quite sure what you mean...

There have been no other suggestions recently, and I haven't yet heard back from Pila, so the proposal remains as it is for the moment and is being submitted! Delegates, please look this over and approve it! I unfortunately am unable to provide a permanent link to the proposal because of the way they move around, but will try to keep updates here about what page it can be found on. Or, you can do it the easy way and just search for "Defining the UNEC"

Thanks for all the help!

The United Federation of Hersfold
Founder of the UNEC
UN Member
Founder, Part123
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Part123
Ambassador to The North Pacific

Any questions, post here or telegram me.

www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/target=display_nation/nation=Hersfold

Now on page 12. It earned 13 approvals overnight.

Page 8, up to 25.

Please note that this will be resubmitted as many times as is neccessary.

Bottom of Page 3, 29 approvals.

This proposal is being re-submitted. It recieved at least 33 approvals during the first round.

Currently in the center of page 12.

not to be nitpicky, but maybe you should outline rights that will be granted to the advisory panel?

Actually I think Article 1 defines the basic "rights" of the committee, but the advisory panels (student / teacher groups) are basically just advisory bodies. They have the right to be heard and their opinions should be considered.

Perhaps the best way to think of this is how some schools listen to PTA (Parent Teacher Associations). The resolutions mandates that the UNEC can't just blow these people off, but it isn't completely bound by their recommendations / opinions either.

I'd love to see more endorsements for this proposal ... but I won't have time to campaign until next week. :)

Anytime you get the chance is fine with me.

And thank you for clarifying that post - I wasn't quite sure what Pila meant.

2nd submission, page 8, 13 approvals overnight.

Personally I like it the way it is. Definitions and "Rules" need a certain length to them. And yet, reading other threads it is apparent that some people are not well prepared to reading long resolutions ...

With that in mind, it would be helpful to Hersfold and my nation if others would let us know if they feel the current proposal is too long.

If not, we'll be happy to continue to work on this issue. :)

I'd spport this proposal if for no other reason then that it would help a proposal my region and I've been trying to put together. I started a thread here looking for ideas, and while I got a lot of help, the thread eventually died. http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=344972&page=2 if you want to take a look at it.

Thanks for the suport, then. I have looked at your thread and posted there, hope it is of some help.

Well, no one has said it is too long, so so far it will remain as is for the next submission.

The proposal is currently in the best possible position, the first on page 1, and has 23 approvals.

Well, no one has said it is too long, so so far it will remain as is for the next submission.

The proposal is currently in the best possible position, the first on page 1, and has 23 approvals.

:( Though I like the proposal, consider dropping clause 11. Length should not be a factor in many Delegates minds, but the reality is it may be. Because I don't think we can get over 110 endorsements in a half day. A shame too, as I'm fond of this one.

Oops. I submitted it wthout checking here first. :headbang:

I will remove clause 11 at the next submission.

Clause 11:
11. EXPRESSES ITS HOPE that in time that nations will be able to supplement the aid provided by the UNEC and that the programs and institutions that apply for UNEC aid may become self-succient.


If there are any objections, speak up before I submit it next, in about 4 days, as I will not re-insert it.

Now on page 10.

Oops. I submitted it wthout checking here first. :headbang:

I will remove clause 11 at the next submission.


No worries. Personally I like it, but I'm also thinking we need to par it down based on the usual, "But it is too long" argument. *shrug*

Good news! Defining the UNEC has reached record levels of approvals!

Many thanks to the following Delegates:

Flibbleites, Pocomoke, Maxitron, Kiwipeso, Tzorsland, The Rainbow Tribe, Xerxes855, East Hackney, Cutez0r, Coolet, Callistine, Tramuntana, Atlantic Quays, Lord-General Drache, Kwazamarzians, Palteau, Order From Chaos, Novus Terra, Quox, Borylo, Jovianica, Tuesday Heights, Bynzekistan, Mattannia, North-West Europe, Thakan Dar, Duddridge, Candia, Moodgies, Painful intrusion, Tokarev, Virtillius, Windeveren, Orioni, Nekurzeme, Dragonama, Al-Zar, McNabsville, New Valley, Lost _City_Of_Atlantis, The Duke of Dust, Avei, Checkers McDog, Mike Tedesco, Montreve, The Jannelandia, Real Freedonia, Squatia, Fojiman, Feroni Troy, Fairyport, Argotan, Twickers

Sorry to anyone whose name is not here, you must have approved it after I posted.

As stated above, this will be submitted again, but without clause 11, which has been deemed unneccessary and makes the proposal too long. Please continue to support this. And everyone else, please support this to help it reach quorum! Thanks again to those above and to all who wish to support this. Live Long and Propser!

Ok, the proposal is being submitted again, without clause 11. Now looks like this:


The NationStates United Nations,

AWARE of the passage of its resolution, United Nations Education Committee, adopted April 9, 2004,

1. DEFINES the roll of the UNEC to include:
a) Providing educational grants to UN member states that request financial help for their education programs,
b) Providing supplies directly to public and/or private education institutions that have applied for supply grants to the UNEC,
c) Evaluating the level of need of all applicants for UNEC assistance, and
d) Monitoring the implementation of its grants and report its findings to this assembly when appropriate;

2. ESTABLISHES a United Nations Educational Trust Fund, which will be managed by the UNEC and funded through donations by international, national, and non-governmental sources;

3. FURTHER DEFINES the voting membership of the UNEC to include:
a) any UN member state which contributes to the United Nations Education Trust Fund, and
b) a number UN member states, not to exceed 100 seats, as elected by the UN General Assembly to serve one year terms;

4. RECOMMENDS two advisory panels to the UNEC, composed of:
a) up to two teachers from each UN member state, and
b) up to two students from each UN member state;

5. INSTRUCTS the voting membership of the UNEC to take into consideration all of the recommendations provided by the UNEC advisory panel;

6. AUTHORIZES the UNEC to base the decisions concerning the awarding and continuation of the United Nations Education Trust Fund grants on both the recommendations of the UNEC advisory panel as well as on information collected on the current status of overall quality of the programs that apply for financial aid;

7. SUGGESTS that the evaluation of the current status of the overall quality of educational programs includes a budget analysis of the educational program, student retention, school curriculum and program of study, educational goals of the society in question, and feedback from the students / teachers / administration and representatives of the country applying for the grant;

8. AFFIRMS that the grants provided by the UNEC will only be used for educational purposes, such that if the UNEC has reason to believe the funds or supplies it provides are being used for non-educational programs, the UNEC may vote to suspend the funds upon an investigation, as provided by its monitoring program described above;

9. ACKNOWLEDGES the inherent right of societies to determine what is best for their children, by taking into consideration the cultural and social needs of the members states and schools that apply to the UNEC;

10. REAFFIRMS that the financial resources provided by the UNEC should be given out on a need basis, with the nations most in need of assistance will be given a priority in the UNEC decision making process.


Here we go again...