NationStates Jolt Archive

Among my list of proposals to revive is the fair treatment of the mentally ill, proudly made by a now defunct nation. Therefore it is the responsibility of me to ensure the mentally ill remain treated fairly.

Just for a retrospective, let's look back at the original resolution:


UN Resolution 44:
Fair Treatment of Mentally-Ill

A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights.
Category: Human Rights, Strength: Strong, Proposed by: Faybian

Description: Humane Treatment of the Mentally-Ill

Resolved, all countries that are members of UN be required to treat citizens who are mentally-ill humanely.

A mental illness is defined as a psychiatric disorder that results in a disruption in a person's thinking, feeling, moods, and ability to relate to others.

This proposal would include a ban on physical abuse, forcing mentally-ill citizens to perform inhumane tasks, or forcing mentally-ill citizens to live and/or work in inhumane conditions.

Basic services should be offered to all citizens who are mentally-ill.

Votes For: 17,036
Votes Against: 2,975


It was simple, but with an amazing majority of 14,061, it therefore convinces me to seriously consider this resolution for revival under the relaunched WA. Hopefully you, and even the veterans of NationStates will agree that mental illness is a fact, and not just a real-life condition.

So, here is my proposed revival:


WA Proposal, Revision 2
Equality for the Mentally Ill

A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights.

Category: Human Rights, Strength: Strong, Proposed by: Charlotte Ryberg

Description: DEFINES mental illness as a psychiatric disorder that disrupts a person’s ability to think, feel, express moods or relate to others properly;

ANGERED that mentally-ill people are sometimes inhumanely treated, perhaps humiliated, or worse excluded from normal society;

CONVINCED that mental illness should not be counted as a sole justifiable reason for mistreatment of anyone;

BE IT RESOLVED that all member nations shall treat mentally-ill people with the same respect with equality, humanity and with dignity as with other people, and therefore;

1) PROHIBITS:
a) Member nations from unjustified use of physical abuse and/or humiliation against mentally-ill people, simply on the grounds of their condition;
b) Member nations from forcing mentally-ill people to perform inhumane tasks, or forcing such people to live in and/or work in inhumane conditions, without any satisfactorily justifiable grounds;
c) Member nations from unjustly depriving mentally-ill people from civil and political rights, provision of government services, access to political office, and so on; except where the nature of the mental incapacity precludes the functional exercise of such rights.

2) IN THE CASE:
a) That a mentally-ill person poses a real danger to society, a member nation may restrict their freedom, but ONLY in order to subdue the danger that person poses to society, and nothing else;

If a mentally-ill person does not satisfy the two conditions then Article 2 shall not be applicable.

THEREFORE, unjustified discrimination against people on the grounds of mental illness shall be rendered illegal;

URGES member nations to provide reasonable care for the mentally ill, and to continue providing basic services and necessities to such people.


(OOC: I love the phrase ‘Be it resolved’. It brings back memories of when I visited the real UN in NYC in 2003. That phrase echoed around me when I looked at all the flags of member nations)

Let's see...

Equality for the Mentally Ill
A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights.

Category: Human Rights, Strength: Strong, Proposed by: Charlotte Ryberg

Description: DEFINES mental illness as a psychiatric disorder that disrupts a person’s ability to think, feel, express moods or relate to others properly;

ANGERED that people with mental illness are inhumanely treated, perhaps humiliated, or worse excluded from normal society;
I think that the word "sometimes" should be inserted before the "inhumanely".

CONVINCED that mental illness is not a reason for mistreatment of anyone;
"should not be counted as a good reason", rather than "is not a reason"?

BE IT RESOLVED that all member nations shall treat all people who are mentally-ill humanely and with dignity, and therefore;
Some nations don't treat people who are mentally healthy "humanely and with dignity", so this would actually give the mentally ill more rights than people in general possess.

PROHIBITS:
1) Member nations from use of physical abuse on people, simply because they are mentally ill;
"they" being the people abused, rather than the Member nations? ;)

2) Member nations from forcing people with mental illness to perform inhumane tasks, or forcing such people to live in live and/or work in inhumane conditions;
Some nations force people who are mentally healthy to perform such tasks, and/or to live or work in such conditions. Again, you would actually be giving the mentally ill more rights than people in general possess.

3) Member nations from discriminating people on grounds of mental illness.
Insert "against" before "discriminating", and "unfairly" afterwards... Otherwise you're also banning both discrimination in their favour (which your other clauses, as currently written, would -- as I've already pointed out -- do) and reasonable discrimination against them (such as restricting the freedom of those whose illnesses make them a danger to society, or barring those who are certified as insane from the right to vote).

THERFORE, discrimination of people on grounds of mental illness shall be rendered illegal!
"THEREFORE, unfair discrimination against people on the grounds of mental illness shall be rendered illegal."

URGES member nations to provide reasonable care for the mentally ill, and to continue providing basic services and necessities to such people.
Provisionally okay, as it only 'URGES'.

I have understood your ideas, sir.

I don't see why selectional clauses can't be used, as long it is clearly indicated. A bit like IF and ELSE statements in Visual Basic 6.


WA Proposal, Revision 2
Equality for the Mentally Ill

A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights.

Category: Human Rights, Strength: Strong, Proposed by: Charlotte Ryberg

Description: DEFINES mental illness as a psychiatric disorder that disrupts a person’s ability to think, feel, express moods or relate to others properly;

ANGERED that mentally-ill people are sometimes inhumanely treated, perhaps humiliated, or worse excluded from normal society;

CONVINCED that mental illness should not be counted as a sole justifiable reason for mistreatment of anyone;

BE IT RESOLVED that all member nations shall treat mentally-ill people with the same respect with equality, humanity and with dignity as with other people, and therefore;

1) PROHIBITS:
a) Member nations from unjustified use of physical abuse and/or humiliation against mentally-ill people, simply on the grounds of their condition;
b) Member nations from forcing mentally-ill people to perform inhumane tasks, or forcing such people to live in and/or work in inhumane conditions, without any satisfactorily justifiable grounds;
c) Member nations from unfairly discriminating against a person on grounds of mental illness, unless:
- That person poses a danger to society, or;
- They are certified as Insane or equivalent.

In the case that at least one conditions are satisfied, see Article 2.

2) IN THE CASE:
a) That a mentally-ill person poses a real danger to society, a member nation may restrict their freedom, but ONLY in order to subdue the danger that person poses to society, and nothing else;
b) Of a country who holds elections, they may bar a mentally-ill person from voting, ONLY if they are certified as Insane, or equivalent.

If a mentally-ill person does not satisfy the two conditions then Article 2 shall not be applicable.

THEREFORE, unjustified discrimination against people on the grounds of mental illness shall be rendered illegal;

URGES member nations to provide reasonable care for the mentally ill, and to continue providing basic services and necessities to such people.

The following explanation deserves a post of it's own, because in this draft I am (as a computer student) trying out a new kind of operational clauses, based on computer programming, that is only triggered if a specific condition is satisfied.

Let's look at article 2 again:


2) IN THE CASE:
a) That a mentally-ill person poses a real danger to society, a member nation may restrict their freedom, but ONLY in order to subdue the danger that person poses to society, and nothing else;
b) Of a country who holds elections, they may bar a mentally-ill person from voting, ONLY if they are certified as Insane, or equivalent.

If a mentally-ill person does not satisfy the two conditions then Article 2 shall not be applicable.

This is saying that:


In part a) If a mentally-ill person poses a danger to society then the a member nation is allowed to restrict their freedom, which is okay when protecting people from harm, and only affecting a person who actually poses danger; but only in order to subdue the danger that person poses to society, and nothing else, meaning that the government can't unfairly torture a person without good justifiable reason, even if they are dangerous. That also mean they can't execute them unless they actually committed murder or something like that.

And in part b) If a country holds elections, meaning it applies only to countries that hold elections like mine; they may bar a mentally-ill person from voting, ONLY if they are certified as Insane, or equivalent, meaning that this person has to be really certified as insane or equivalent to the value of insanity to be banned from voting.

And if a mentally-ill person does not satisfy those conditions, then it is disregarded.


If you write it in Visual Basic 6 code, then it might be rendered like this:


If Person = "Dangerous to Society" Then
Print "Restrict freedoms, but only to protect people, i.e: do not torture without justifiable grounds"
ElseIf Person = "Certified Insane" Then
Print "Disallow Person from voting"
ElseIf Person = "Dangerous to Society and Certified Insane" Then
Print "Restrict freedoms, but only to protect people, i.e: do not torture without justifiable grounds; and disallow Person from voting"
Else: Print "Person does not satisfy above, disregard it. I mean it."
EndIf


I have written this down because I want to understand how selection clauses, similar to selection statements in computer code works.

We'll come back to this topic another time, as it's interesting, but to start off with, there is no point discussing elections. Nations can prohibit from voting for being:
- female
- black
- a communist
- non-human
- human
- alive

Or they can prohibit voting altogether. This isn't really any fairer; plus, it's a political consideration, so Furtherment of Democracy/Political Stability, whereas this is a Human Rights proposal.

We fear you have misspelled 'requires' in the final clause.

-- Samantha Benson

We'll come back to this topic another time, as it's interesting, but to start off with, there is no point discussing elections. Nations can prohibit from voting for being:
- female
- black
- a communist
- non-human
- human
- alive

Or they can prohibit voting altogether. This isn't really any fairer; plus, it's a political consideration, so Furtherment of Democracy/Political Stability, whereas this is a Human Rights proposal.

We fear you have misspelled 'requires' in the final clause.

-- Samantha Benson


WA Proposal, Revision 2
Equality for the Mentally Ill

A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights.

Category: Human Rights, Strength: Strong, Proposed by: Charlotte Ryberg

Description: DEFINES mental illness as a psychiatric disorder that disrupts a person’s ability to think, feel, express moods or relate to others properly;

ANGERED that mentally-ill people are sometimes inhumanely treated, perhaps humiliated, or worse excluded from normal society;

CONVINCED that mental illness should not be counted as a sole justifiable reason for mistreatment of anyone;

BE IT RESOLVED that all member nations shall treat mentally-ill people with the same respect with equality, humanity and with dignity as with other people, and therefore;

1) PROHIBITS:
a) Member nations from unjustified use of physical abuse and/or humiliation against mentally-ill people, simply on the grounds of their condition;
b) Member nations from forcing mentally-ill people to perform inhumane tasks, or forcing such people to live in and/or work in inhumane conditions, without any satisfactorily justifiable grounds;
c) Member nations from unfairly discriminating against a person on grounds of mental illness, unless:
- That person poses a danger to society, or;
- They are certified as Insane or equivalent.

In the case that at least one conditions are satisfied, see Article 2.

2) IN THE CASE:
a) That a mentally-ill person poses a real danger to society, a member nation may restrict their freedom, but ONLY in order to subdue the danger that person poses to society, and nothing else;
b) Of a country who holds elections, they may bar a mentally-ill person from voting, ONLY if they are certified as Insane, or equivalent.

If a mentally-ill person does not satisfy the two conditions then Article 2 shall not be applicable.

THEREFORE, unjustified discrimination against people on the grounds of mental illness shall be rendered illegal;

URGES member nations to provide reasonable care for the mentally ill, and to continue providing basic services and necessities to such people.


In the clause marked red, should it be struck off completely then?

Well, in the latter case, yes. Perhaps you could incorporate it into a more general anti-discrimination clause: prohibit governments from discriminating civil and political rights, provision of government services, access to political office, and so on, except where the nature of the mental incapacity precludes the functional exercise of such rights.

-- Samantha Benson

1) Member nations from use of physical abuse on people, simply because they are mentally ill;We prohit physical abuse on any person so this is not a problem here.
2) Member nations from forcing people with mental illness to perform inhumane tasks, or forcing such people to live in live and/or work in inhumane conditions;If they earn citizenship then they are free to go about their daily duties with full respect of others. Should they not be able to meet citizenship requirements then they become wards of their family who keep them harming themselves and others. Families that fail to care for their own become criminals here.. Once criminals they are no longer citizens and must work to support the family they committed crimes against..... this nation and it's people...
3) Member nations from discriminating people on grounds of mental illness. believe you left out 'against' between 'discriminating people'... other wise this makes no sense to me..

WA Proposal, Revision 2
Equality for the Mentally Ill

A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights.

Category: Human Rights, Strength: Strong, Proposed by: Charlotte Ryberg

Description: DEFINES mental illness as a psychiatric disorder that disrupts a person’s ability to think, feel, express moods or relate to others properly;

ANGERED that mentally-ill people are sometimes inhumanely treated, perhaps humiliated, or worse excluded from normal society;

CONVINCED that mental illness should not be counted as a sole justifiable reason for mistreatment of anyone;

BE IT RESOLVED that all member nations shall treat mentally-ill people with the same respect with equality, humanity and with dignity as with other people, and therefore;

1) PROHIBITS:
a) Member nations from unjustified use of physical abuse and/or humiliation against mentally-ill people, simply on the grounds of their condition;
b) Member nations from forcing mentally-ill people to perform inhumane tasks, or forcing such people to live in and/or work in inhumane conditions, without any satisfactorily justifiable grounds;
c) Member nations from unjustly depriving mentally-ill people from civil and political rights, provision of government services, access to political office, and so on; except where the nature of the mental incapacity precludes the functional exercise of such rights.

2) IN THE CASE:
a) That a mentally-ill person poses a real danger to society, a member nation may restrict their freedom, but ONLY in order to subdue the danger that person poses to society, and nothing else;

If a mentally-ill person does not satisfy the two conditions then Article 2 shall not be applicable.

THEREFORE, unjustified discrimination against people on the grounds of mental illness shall be rendered illegal;

URGES member nations to provide reasonable care for the mentally ill, and to continue providing basic services and necessities to such people.


(OOC: I love the phrase ‘Be it resolved’. It brings back memories of when I visited the real UN in NYC in 2003. That phrase echoed around me when I looked at all the flags of member nations)

Cavirra: You were looking an older version: the latest incarnation is in post #9; but for convenience, I have also updated post #1. ~ Charlotte Ryberg

OOC: it's conventional to edit the original post, which is why Cavirra looked there I imagine.

IC: does this cover people who are mentally impaired through physical accident or disease? I'm not inclined to think so, and that's a problem. They are probably more in need of protection, after all.

--
Cerys Coch, Permanent Undersecretary

Why should one who is not capable of human thinking be treated as one?