NationStates Jolt Archive

Hi here is my two proposals. One repeals U.N. Resolution #76, entitled Good Samaritan Laws. The other takes the idea of the resolution and greatly expands on it.

Here is the revised proposal:


Good Samaritian Laws

A resolution to restrict civil freedoms in the interest of moral decency.


Category: Moral Decency


Strength: Significant


Proposed by: Toolrocks

Description: WHEREAS United Nations Resolution # 76, Entitled Good Samaritan Laws, greatly protected the efforts of nations providing relief to others nations;

RECALLING that Resolution # 76 called for the protection of said relief countries, it did not reach its full potential;

PROPOSING that U.N. Resolution # 76 be repealed and this Resolution adopted in its place;

AFFIRMING that individuals need protection from law suits filed against them when said individual is helping a victim who is injured whether it be from a crime or an accident;

1. CLARIFIES that the victim is the plaintiff in and such law suits and that the individual is the defendant;

2. RECALLS AND PROCLAIMS that U.N. Resolution # 76, Good Samaritan Laws, shall be fully included and read as follows:

********************************************************* The NationStates United Nations,

RECALLING its resolution, the IRCO, adopted Sep. 1, 2003, which established the voluntary funded International Red Cross Organization (IRCO) for United Nations members in order to be “the first response team to natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and any other events which threaten the lives of citizens”;

OBSERVING that in addition to medical and law enforcement personnel, that these first response teams include technical and engineering professionals who in many non-emergency situations may be highly regulated by domestic liability laws;

CONCERNED that international disaster assistance programs like the IRCO as well as volunteer disaster assistance teams sent by other nations are limited in their effectiveness to quickly respond to disasters and emergency situations due to the lack of pre-existing disaster assistance arrangements, such as arrangements concerning the liabilities associated with volunteer response and recovery teams carrying out emergency aid;

1. AFFIRMS the right of nations responding to offers of disaster assistance to decide which offers to accept and which offers to refuse;

2. PROCLAIMS that nations responding to offers of disaster assistance also have the right to refuse assistance from specific individuals and / or types of aid;

3. CALLS UPON all nations to develop domestic “Good Samaritan” laws granting volunteer based first responder teams, including technical and engineering professionals, some immunity to civil liability associated with work and professional judgments made while rendering disaster assistance provided that they do not act with reckless or intentional disregard of known dangers; and

4. DECLARES that the immunity to liability associated with rendering aid applies only to work associated in disaster or emergency assistance, and that all other normal domestic laws should apply to these individuals.

************************************************************

3. PROCLAIMS that individuals helping victims of injury will henceforth be provided immunity from law suits filed against them by said victims, or by the victim's family if said victim is deceased or permanently incapacitated, because of any harm that may or may not have occurred to said victim because of any rescue attempts and/or medical assistance rendered by the individual;

4. AFFIRMS that the individual must provide a written affidavit that he or she was not trying to intentionally cause harm with any such actions said individual might have taken on the victim, and that there is no evidence provided stating or showing the contrary.

Here is the repeal:

Repeal "Good Samaritan Laws"

A proposal to repeal a previously passed resolution


Category: Repeal


Resolution: #76


Proposed by: Toolrocks

Description: UN Resolution #76: Good Samaritan Laws (Category: Moral Decency; Strength: Mild) shall be struck out and rendered null and void.

Argument: WHEREAS U.N. Resolution # 76 provided great protection to nations providing relief efforts to nations in need;

DECLARING that the protection needs to be extended to individuals that provide help to victims of crime or of accidents to prevent lawsuits being filed against said individual by said victim, or by the victim's family if victim is deceased or permanently incapacitated;

DECLARING that U.N. Resolution # 76 be repealed and replaced by proposal entitled Good Samaritan Laws, which takes the original resolution, in it's entirety, and expands on its concepts by extending it's protection to private citizens.

You can't do two things in a repeal, Toolrocks. First you have let the UN vote to repeal the original resolution. Then, if you want to replace it, you put up your new version and let the UN vote on that.

it is under two different things i just put it up to see peoples reaction and get comments on any changes or anything and resubmit I'm trying to get groundwork done and refined so i don't have to do it later

First thing is do the proposal after the repeal has been done and forget 76 existed. As before you can submit a proposal on the same subject the other needs to be repealed thus is not there as a reference...

Simply state what the new proposal is doing or will not do and forget 76..

As you can't repeal one and add in it proposals or what will be done only repeal it.. thus you can't repeal it in the proposal that changes it.. nor can you submitt one that ammends one.. only one that replaces it once it repealed.

I understood that you had two separate pieces of legislation in mind. What I was referring to was the final clause of your repeal. It needs to lose this bit:

... and replaced by a proposal entitled Good Samaritan Laws, which takes the original resolution, in its entirety, and expands on its concepts by extending its protection to private citizens.

You can urge the UN to support a replacement -- that's what we had the multi-page argument about over the recent repeal -- but you can't say "and it must be this replacement, and it has to be called this".

You can't submit the replacement until the repeal has passed.

Bob Flibble
UN Representative

As Mr Flibble has said, you cannot submit the replacement until the repeal has passed. This in turn makes references to the original resolution tricky, since technically the original no longer exists to be referenced. It is better in general to reframe one's replacement to stand entirely alone; we suppose that the form of inclusion you propose is probably legal in that regard, but it is somewhat inelegant. The duplication of numbering certainly invites confusion.

We note also that despite the similarity of intent, Resolution #76 and the proposed extensions are only tangentially related. Resolution #76 applies to trained volunteers operating strictly in emergency or disaster relief situations. The extensions apply to individuals operating in any circumstances, with or without training, provided that they claim no intent to harm was present and that claim cannot be refuted. Further, the extensions are mandated immunity, while the original urges harmonisation, unless we read the word "CALLS UPON" incorrectly.

Under the circumstances, we are not at all convinced that a repeal of the Good Samaritan Laws is required; the proposed extensions could as easily stand alone, and more logically do so at present.