NationStates Jolt Archive


UN Geographic Survey

Free Liberal America
15-09-2007, 15:13
This is my first ever proposal in the United Nations. I look forward to your opinion on it. The proposal is only two days old, but 26 people have already supported it.

UN Geographic Survey

Category: Education and Creativity

Area of Effect: Educational

THE United Nations,

APPLAUDING UN Resolution #217, “Environmental Science” for creating an international organization that is dedicated to assessing the state of the world’s environment through scientific study,

NOTING that the United Nations Environmental Agency as established in Resolution #217 has the power to “conduct, on a annual basis, surveys of the state of the natural environment… conduct, where requested by the authority with jurisdiction over the particular area, further environmental surveys directed at more specific details… [and] conduct, on a regular basis, such surveys over areas under UN jurisdiction or identified as international or non-national territory,”

NOTING that this organization needs an up-to-date and reliable source of environmental maps in order to conduct their research of the environment, for example topographic maps of a certain area and for a certain time, including maps for average rainfall or snowfall in a certain area, maps of ice sheet and glacier sizes, and maps for river estuaries or the ocean floor

NOTING, as well, that the UNEA, as it tasked with liaising with other international, local, and regional environmental bodies, writing the International Environmental Audit Yearbook, and working towards solving environmental problems with other scientists, and as such the people who work there are extremely busy, the United Nations Environmental Agency may be hard-pressed to create environmental maps for its scientists and other scientists as well

HEREBY establishes a committee of the UNEA, to be named the UN Geographic Survey, to manage the scientific tasks mentioned above, in order to make the work of the UNEA more efficient. This organization shall consist of a group of scientists who are world leaders in this particular field, and any assistants that they hire, who are selected by the heads of the UNEA each year for the express purpose of:

-Creating geological and geographic maps of any detail of any area of the world that the UNEA requests, to be made yearly along with the other surveys sponsored by the UNEA

-Submitting these maps or copies of these maps to the UNEA which shall distribute them to scientists and other environmental organizations according to UNEA guidelines

-Keeping a database of past UN Geographic Survey maps in special buildings set aside specifically for their preservation, and maintaining a website as well, where these maps shall be posted under copyright for public viewing, and information about this organization shall be kept

THE United Nations also states that the UN Geographic Survey shall comply with all the rules and procedures currently governing the UNEA, as set in Resolution #217.

IN the event that Resolution #217 is repealed for any reason, the UN Geographic Survey shall conduct its research and manage its organization independent of any other UN body, and assume the tasks of copying and distributing its maps, and liaising with all environmental organizations, be they local, national, regional, international, or UN-owned, independently as well.
Omigodtheykilledkenny
15-09-2007, 15:37
House of Cards = you can't rely so heavily on a past resolution for the implementation of yours; resolutions must be able to stand on their own. Interesting you should add:

"In the event Resolution #217 is repealed ..." (which by the way is another MetaGaming violation)

... because if #217 being repealed is one of your concerns, why not just write a resolution that can stand on its own and omit any reference to #217 altogether?

Although tasking an existing committee (UNEA) is entirely within bounds.
Kelssek
15-09-2007, 15:56
With the problem pointed out by the Kennyite delegation fixed, we could find ourselves wholeheartedly supporting this initiative.

Erin Caswell
First Seceretary of the Permanent Mission to the UN
Quintessence of Dust
16-09-2007, 11:12
Rather than just 'environmental maps', why not extend it to maps in general? By making it so subservient to the UNEA, I'm worried you'll either run afoul of rules, or simply be legislating things the UNEA could probably conduct on their own anyway, absent a UN mandate. And there are clearly areas where having an international survey would prove beneficial: for example, a proposal to set territorial waters might find it useful, particularly if it allocated oversight of international waters to the UN.

-- Samantha Benson
Author of UN Resolution #217, "Environmental Science"
Acting Chair, The Green Think Tank (http://s13.invisionfree.com/Green_Think_Tank)
Free Liberal America
16-09-2007, 20:14
Yes, I will certainly change the proposal to your ideas. However, I will have to get the proposal revoked by the moderators at the end of the three days' vote on Monday, and then revise and reinstate the proposal as the independent "UN Cartographic Organization."