NationStates Jolt Archive

Has anyone else ever noticed that every UN Resolution in the history of the game has passed. Not a single one has ever been rejected. Can anyone tell me why?

Because you're reading only the list of resolutions that have passed. The ones that failed were removed entirely.

Yes, it's true. Several resolutions that have gone to vote have failed. It is also true, however, that most of them pass. I attribute that to the fact that the necessary amount of delegate support required to bring a resolution to vote is large enough that chances are a majority will support any resolution that makes the cut.

The two notable failures were Ban the Death Penalty and Illegal Logging.

Legalise Euthanasia only passed by 80 votes.

Legalise Euthanasia only passed by 80 votes.

I believe you are off by a factor of 10. Or else you might be thinking of the 40 Hour Workweek - which, unless I'm mistaken, remains the most narrowly passed UN resolution in history with a margin of 111 votes. In fact, it very nearly did not pass but for some last minute votes and a delegate or two switching sides during the last half hour.

The Cato Acts also failed, as did that one that gave equal rights to all species (including bacteria and plants)

Wasn't there some ridiculous joke one about hippos that somehow managed to hit the floor?

Also, I remember the "Bill of No Rights".

There was one proposal that went like this: Come on you know what i mean. these things are the bane of our existence. If they were band, it would create world peace as everyone would walk around in a happy daze knowing that there internet surfing will be trouble free. How it reached quorum I'll never know. But it was defeated.

That one sounds good actually :p

Has anyone else ever noticed that every UN Resolution in the history of the game has passed. Not a single one has ever been rejected. Can anyone tell me why?

Since Feb. 2004 two resolutions failed:

- Space Defense Initiative
- Ban the Death Penalty

If anybody have the:

- Text
- Final Vote
- Date of Vote

For these or any other failed resolutions, if you could telegram me, I'm working with Tuesday Heights to build an off-site UN archieve.

Never recorded final vote, but... "The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

It violates the right to life.

It is irrevocable and can be inflicted on the innocent. It has never been shown to deter crime more effectively than other punishments."

- Amnesty International

The death penalty means the triumph of vengeance over justice and violates the first right of any human being, the right to life. Capital punishment has never prevented crime. It is an act of torture and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. A society that imposes the death penalty symbolically encourages violence. Every single society that respects the dignity of its people has to strive to abolish capital punishment.

We demand the universal abolition of the death penalty. In this respect, we call on citizens, states and international organizations to act so that:
• states ratify this UN Moratorium on an international and regional level.
• countries which have stopped executing people sentenced to death, remove the death penalty from their statute books.
• states which sentence to death persons who were juveniles at the time of the crime, end this blatant violation of the international law
• mentally disabled people cannot be sentenced to death
• no states having abolished or suspended executions extradite anyone to third countries still applying the death penalty, irrespective of guarantees that it would not be imposed.
RECOGNIZING, the calamitous consequences of an asteroid striking the Earth;

RECALLING, Asteroid 2004 FH, the 100 foot in diameter asteroid which, on 19 March 2004, passed perilously close to Earth;

RECOGNIZING, that the gravity of the harm of such an event justifies measured responsive action;

REAFFIRMING, the duty and obligation of the governments of all nations to defend its peoples;

REAFFIRMING, this council's resolution of 12 November 2002, "Fight the Axis of Evil," calling for an increase in defense spending;

REAFFIRMING, this council's resolution of 6 October 2003, "International Space Initiative", calling for international cooperation in the development and advancement of space based technology;

THE UNITED NATIONS, IN COUNCIL ASSEMBLED,

RESOLVES to undertake the research and development of an orbital defense platform designed to defend Earth from threatening interstellar objects;

URGES the development of proper equipment for said platform, possibly including, but not limited to, long range reconnaissance scanners, tractor beams and energy based cannons;

URGES but does not compel all nations to participate in this endeavor;

URGES each participating nation to contribute its maximum allowance in good faith;

RESOLVES that in order to prevent the orbital defense platform from improper application, each use and deployment of the platform be approved by full consensus of all participating nations;

DECIDES to remain seized of the matter

Equality For All

My nation is host to many different types of races and civilizations, all of whom live symbioticaly and respect eachother's cultures and right of existence. We ask that all member states of the UN adhere to that policy as well.

-All living beings no matter who or what they may be, have the inherent right of existence.

That they may live as they see fit as long as they do not cause harm to another. In simpler terms "Live and let live." If a nation employs slaves for labor for example, we submit that they must end the practice or leave the UN voluntarily.

That the aparthied inspired classification of sexual preference be erradicated from being used within the confines of government terminology.

We propose that all nations under the UN charter respect the very essence of life and vow to preserve and protect it, in all its many forms whether human, or otherwise.

7582 votes for
11888 votes against

This is exactly the type of info I need to fill in the gaps.

Final Votes,
Date of Vote Closing,
Original Text,
Original Author,
UN Category and SubCategory.

But I'm glad that you both have the formatting as well. I'll copy them as is into MS Word and send Tuesday Heights pdfs with these and the passed resolutions.

The reason so many resolutions pass while few fail is because those opposed to resolutions sit on their duff and do not campaign against them as much as those that campaign for them.

Did a bit of creative gravedigging looking for failed props:

UN Lottery Fund (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=309082). I seem to recall some controversy on this one - withdrawn by mods, maybe?
Passport Harmonisation (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=309461) - I thought this one passed - (Incomplete totals (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=310197))
CATO Acts (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=280608) - no vote totals obvious
Napster resolution (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=279335) - did this get voted on?
ISI - International Space Inititative (http://forums2.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=282084) - nobody posted the resolution, but there are pieces.

On "Equality For All": I can't remember the date of voting, I think its category was "Human Rights - Strong", and the spelling mistakes are copied directly from the U.N. voting page.

Also, the first line of my post ("Equality for All") was only the title of the resolution. The main text began "My nation is host to..."

OK, I've finished the passed Environmental and International Security resolutions (Tuesday Heights will be uploading the files when she has the time), and I've included the text of the Space Defense Initiative (which I recall was International Security).

If anybody has any leads on any failed resolutions, just keep posting them here, as I am going back and reconstructing these things.

I think failed resolutions and debates are just as important as the debates that passed. I noticed that Frisbeeteria recently added the vote outcome to the end of the Sustainble Energy Sources debate. If we follow his lead in capping the vote and quoting the entire resolution at least once in the text of the resolution, future players may have an easier time tracking down these things (though hopefully they won't have to). :)

I've been thinking of the general question of why so few UN resolutions fail, and I've gotten to the point where I can't see why this is a "bad" thing. In fact it might indicate a good thing, bad resolutions are simply not getting up to the floor to be voted on.

And there are a ton of bad resolutions. Many are outright violations of the rules. But they only get a dozen or so votes and fade away. Those resolutions that get approved, more often than not, have not only gone through the gauntlet of the approval process, they have gone through the gauntlet of the forums. By the time they make it that far, they at least seem somewhat reasonable, and thus tend to get voted on. Generally speaking you probably have to hate something to vote against it.

Of course considering that most of all the resolutions proposed are horrid, and really good resolutions are few and far between, mediocre proposals tend to be seen as the best things available at the time. If we had more good proposals and less horrid ones some of the mediocre ones might not get approved. IMHO.