NationStates Jolt Archive

Hello. I am the author of this piece of legislation and am looking to resubmit it for further authorization. There was overwhelming support though i contacted almost no one so i will be resubmitting it. This will act as the general discussion forum for this proposal. The legislation is written below.

UN Freedom of Information Act

A resolution to increase democratic freedoms.

Category: The Furtherment of Democracy

Strength: Strong

Proposed by: The Unity Labor Front

Description: This is an act to improve freedom of access to government documents within reason for interest of public transparency as well as preserving World Security.

ACKNOWLEDGING- the right of member nations to maintain National Security through Secret intelligence information

RECOGNIZING - the necessity of such acts and record keeping

ALSO RECOGNIZING - the necessity of governments to be transparent, or at least appear to be to their citizens

FURTHER RECOGNIZING - that national relative transparency can help to bolster international relations and thusly security

With the passing of this act UN Member nations:

WOULD BE: Required to publish annually all pertinent documents relating to Government operations and military actions that have come to a close or are no longer in operation without public request to be made available in ALL PUBLIC LIBRARIES and records houses.

ALLOWING - Member nations to define in their specific terms what is a "Record House"

ALLOWING - -Member nations to charge for personal copies of the documents in a action to help pay for the printing

REQUIRING - The recycling of the material of past reports that are no longer necessary to maintain

ALLOWING - Member nations to define when documents are no longer necessary to maintain after a period of 10 years upkeep, as long as a master copy is maintained at the federal level and is vaulted not to be changed by anyone and only accessed for purposes of copying while under state supervision to help prevent manipulation of documents as they relate to human history and damage to federal records

WOULD BE - Required to implement Freedom of Information Policies that would allow the public relative access to government reports and world missions

DEFINING - relative as having access to reports of government actions that have already been finished or closed, without judicial interference, or in the case of ongoing actions, allow judicial oversight of the records and a judicial decision on whether or not the records should be released along with a notice and statement to accompany their decision as to why the specific judicial action was taken.

RECOGNIZING - the right of member nations to work towards this ideal procedure for releasing information as a process in development, as long as constant improvement is show upon UN review

This act will help to improve world security by implementing more freedoms for the public access to government documents by helping to relieve some of the process and bureaucracy in the interest of public involvement in government.

We have to commend the author for tackling this issue. Freedom of information and information security are complicated and difficult subjects. Unfortunately, we would strongly oppose this proposal. There are a number of practical considerations involved. We'll just focus on one of them for the present.

WOULD BE: Required to publish annually all pertinent documents relating to Government operations and military actions that have come to a close or are no longer in operation without public request to be made available in ALL PUBLIC LIBRARIES and records houses.

We conduct a military operation; it's finished. But the documents concerning the operation can still reveal intelligence sources and methods used, readiness problems, troop strengths and equipment levels, deployment shortfalls, and a whole host of other items of information that, if released, could be used by an adversary against us. Now, we're to be required to publish the information? And, even worse, we're to provide it to "ALL PUBLIC LIBRARIES", even those in enemy nations?

Because an action or operation has ended does not in any way mean that all the information concerning it loses its sensitivity. Some would, but by no means all.

We'd suggest the author spend some time studying the freedom of information legislation in effect in many countries of the mythical world of Real Life. He'll find that every one of them that we're aware of (and we've read many of them) exempts certain types of information from release.

Travilia E. Thwerdock
Ambassador to the United Nations

This act will help to improve world security by implementing more freedoms for the public access to government documents by helping to relieve some of the process and bureaucracy in the interest of public involvement in government.How? when before this you stated this:
allow judicial oversight of the records and a judicial decision on whether or not the records should be released along with a notice and statement to accompany their decision as to why the specific judicial action was taken.I would believe that many would agrue that the legal system in any nation is burdened already with dealing with criminal elements.. Here you add the burden of deciding what documents/records/whatever folks have a right to view when they think they might want to view it. Then considering that the courts are one messed up bureaucracy.. apeal after apeal process before things ever get decided... how does this help.. or change that.


WOULD BE: Required to publish annually all pertinent documents relating to Government operations and military actions that have come to a close or are no longer in operation without public request to be made available in ALL PUBLIC LIBRARIES and records houses Who will provide the funding for this and do this.. Again as we did with the recent proposal on UNID offer our services at cost to provide such services

Valudid Monimaker,
Minister of Records Cavirra,
CEO, Blank Check Printing Company, INC.

I recognize and notice these issues. First off, it is not unnecessary to have all of these in print for as long as they are accessible in public libraries. Perhaps it would be of interest to limit certain types of information, though I feel that it is transparency that is most important. The real life freedom of information acts are pitiful and rarely result in full disclosure of documents. If documentation has connections with CURRENT troop deployments then it is not a closed issue. This of course could be challenged in court. I am not sure about other nations, but my courts are certainly not piled up with business as there is very little crime because I enact similar principles to this motion.If nations did more to provide for citizens they would have fewer issues with courts being backed up.