NationStates Jolt Archive

The Prime Ministerialship of Bazalonia has submitted the following proposal to the UN. We request all regional delegates support for this proposal. If you are not a regional delegate and you have one. Please make your support known to them. If you have any questions or queries Please don't hesitate to ask.

The proposal can be found here (http://www.nationstates.net/cgi-bin/index.cgi/page=UN_proposal1/match=Freedom)

Thank you.

Yours Sincerly, John MacKay
Ambassador to the UN

Freedom of Scientific Research

Category: Human Rights
Strength: Mild

RECOGNISING the many benefits of scientific research such as, medical drugs, procedures and practices, more environmentally friendly technologies, More efficient and effective time-saving devices,

BELIEVING that scientists should be able to research any legal topic without undue restrictions on the research or the results of that research,

UNDERSTANDING that scientific advances that are made for the betterment of the life of any persons should be available to all UN nations,

The United Nations General Assembly hereby,

1. DEFINES for the purpose of this resolution:
- 'home-grown scientific endeavour' as any scientific theory, procedure, law or any goods derived from scientific research within that UN Member nation, not including any weapons, weapon components, weapon systems, blueprints or technologies whose purpose is of a destructive nature.
- 'scientific research' as one or more experiments carried out under the methodology of the Scientific Method to gain data and test a hypothesis,
- 'scientific equipment' as any equipment used to aid in scientific research.
- 'areas of research' as any topic, methodology or practice that is to be researched or can be used during the research process,
- 'scientist' as any person performing scientific research in an honest and straightforward manner with both the government as well as any person taking part in the scientific research

2. ENCOURAGES nations to promote research into any legal area of research without placing unnecessesary restrictions on that research or any home-grown scientific endeavours resultant from such research;

3. MANDATES that governments take the following steps to facilitate scientific research by:
a. ensure that there are no uncessary restrictions for buildings where scientific research is performed, apart from restrictions that ensure safety of the building, the people in it and the environment around it.
b. ensure that obtaining adequate scientific equipment is not prohibited or excessively hampered by government regulations, excluding circumstances where there are specific and substantial safety issues involved,
c. reevaluate restrictions on materials used during scientific research and remove or loosen restrictions on as many materials as it is safe to do so;

4. STRONGLY ENCOURAGES governments to streamline policies and procedures for the legal exportation of home-grown scientific endeavours, taking into account international and national Intellectual Property laws;

5. MANDATES that any scientist wishing to conduct research in an area of research that is illegal in their home nation may relocate (as well as their Immediate family) to another UN Member nation that does not have bans on such scientific research and is willing to accept their family and them;

6. REITERATES governmental rights to determine whether certain areas of research are legal or illegal within their sovereign territory;

7. REITERATES governmental rights to regulate or prohibit distribution of explosives or other dangerous materials, such as radioactive isotopes, that may be used during scientific research;

Co-authored by: Ceorana

You just got your first approval. One hundred twenty-four to go...

Since the wording "legal research" and similar implications are used throughout, and left to be decided by the member nation, what exactly is the use of this act, apart from 5)?

The purpose of this act is to establish an international set of guidelines for scientific research freedoms. This is why its strength is "mild". Anything stronger would potentially infringe on the rights of member nations.

A. T. Stilgram
Caratian Ambassador to the United Nations

In my opinion it would be impossible to establish an international "Code of Ethics" as we find that there are many situations that either would not be covered and unrestricted even though should be and things that could restricted even though they shouldn't be. UN member nations are very diverse and It should be upto them to determine what is culturally and ethically acceptible. This is countered by the fact that if a nation is too restrictive according to the ethics and culture of the nation involved than that weill result in them loosing scientists to other nations that aren't so restrictive.

As for what else it does...

Clause 3 mandates that nations remove all uneccesary restrictions about buildings where scientific research, remove or loosening restrictions on being able to obtain scientific equipment and removing or loosening restrictions on obtaining material used for scientific research.

In addition Clause 2 & 4 this Encourages nations to put measure in palce to promote research into any of the areas that the nation deems legal, as well as to streamline procedures to export any technological developement within the country.

This is a mild proposal but not too mild that it has no teeth, just a proposal too help ensure that scientific research is not too hindered by governmental procedures and regulations which hopefully will encourage scientific research into areas that are legally allowed within the member nation.

We support this, and have no problems that it is "mild". Ethics are not universal, and pretending they are is not only wrong in principle, but liable to produce practical misfortune. This seems to us to strike a proper balance between promotion and protection of scientific research, without unduly upsetting national rights in contentious areas of research. We will be voting for this, should it reach the UN floor.

Well, I'm not certain about the ramifications of Article 3, and disgusted at the grammatical nightmare that is Article 5. Even so, I like the fact that this proposal gives wide latitude to member nations charged with enforcement to ensure that scientific research conducted in their own borders comports with certain national and societal values. Sure, the grammar's not the only thing I hate about Article 5, but even so, the Federal Republic will probably hold its nose and vote in favor. We'll lobby our delegate nation to approve.

Approved, again. :D

bump

Approved, again.