[GA - Failed] Forensics Accord

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Forensics Accord
Category: Health | Area of Effect: Research
Proposed by: Clydeith | Onsite Topic​
The World Assembly,

Mindful that swift progress of science and its technological uses must be examined not only in the light of due respect for a being’s dignity,

Hereby,

1. Defines, for the purposes of this resolution...
A. Forensics - scientific tests or techniques used in connection with the detection of crime.
B. Impunity - exemption from punishment or freedom from the injurious consequences of an action.
2. Encourages States to use forensic genetics to contribute to the identification of the remains of victims of serious violations of sentient rights international law, and to address the issue of impunity;
3. Encourages States to use forensic genetics to contribute to the restoration of identity to those persons who were separated from their families, including those taken away from their relatives when they were children and in of violations of international sentient law;
4. Encourages States to use forensic genetics to be applied pursuant to the international standards accepted by the scientific community in relation to quality assurance and control, and to ensure, where appropriate, the utmost respect for the principles of protection and confidentiality of the information and restricted access to such information, and recognizes that many States have domestic legislation in place designed to protect the privacy of individuals;
5. Welcomes the increasing use of forensic genetics in the investigations of serious violations of sentient rights, and calls for further cooperation between States, intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations in planning and conducting such investigations consistent with applicable domestic and international law;
6. Emphasizes the importance of providing the results of the investigations of forensic genetics to national authorities, in particular, where appropriate, to competent judicial authorities;
Click to expand...
Voting Instructions:
  • Vote For if you want the Delegate to vote For the resolution.
  • Vote Against if you want the Delegate to vote Against the resolution.
  • Vote Abstain if you want the Delegate to abstain from voting on this resolution.
  • Vote Present if you are personally abstaining from this vote.

Detailed opinions with your vote are appreciated and encouraged!
 
IFV
Forensics Accord is a poorly-written proposal that was submitted with virtually no drafting. Firstly, its title is misleading as it suggests the proposal is about forensics in general, when it exclusively covers "forensic genetics". Another major flaw of the proposal is that it does not mandate any action from nations, as its clauses only "encourage", "welcome" or "emphasize" certain things, meaning it is essentially useless and arguably has no area of effect. Its category of health is also arguably incorrect, as it does not fit the description. Furthermore, the proposal is ironically full of both vague undefined terms and unnecessary definitions. It defines the word "forensics", which is not used at all in the rest of the text, while its other definition is for "impunity", a word used only once. The vague term "forensic genetics", which is used multiple times, is undefined, while other terms such as "international sentient law" or "sentient rights international law" are unclear and/or grammatically incorrect.
For the above reasons, the ministry urges a vote Against this proposal.
 
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While the proposal seemingly tries to do something about genetics, in reality, it does absolutely nothing. It "encourages" member states to do something about the issue, which makes this proposal effectively a null proposal because there is no significant action that needs to be taken on the side of the member states. Besides, the author made little drafting on the forums, and many people are pushing for the author to withdraw it before the update. Hopefully it can be withdrawn, if not this is clearly a Against from me.
 
Very much against. I’ll likely do an analysis either later today or tomorrow.

EDIT:
So, I have a few issues with this proposal. Perhaps the first that comes to mind is that the title does not actually accurately represent the contents of the proposal. When one reads the title, their mind does not automatically go to "the use of genetics in forensic cases," it goes to broader, overarching legislation on the field of forensics. Additionally, I feel the actual category is wrong (and if it looks like it'll pass, I'll submit a legality challenge on those grounds). I feel it would be better put into Regulation: Legal Reform, Social Justice: Mild, or even Civil Rights/Moral Decency: Mild. Health: Research just doesn't tick all the boxes with me.

But now, onto the bulk of the proposal. My immediate impression is the distinctive lack of definition for "forensic genetics," a term used throughout the proposal - while it does have a definition for simply "forensics," a term that, by my count, occurs a grand total of 0 times in the proposal. I assume "forensic genetics" means the use of genetics in order to help with the detection of criminal activity, but, without any actual definition in the proposal, its impossible to know that for certain.

There's also the issue of the continued use of the "encourages" operative clause throughout this proposal. It's my understanding that, as it is seen as enough to deem a "mild" proposal legal, it's enough to be seen as an effective mandate, which doesn't seem to be the intent of the author. If this is not true, however, then this proposal does literally nothing. Having useless legislation is not a good look for the General Assembly, in my opinion. While I'm not opposed to having a resolution on the books that does apply some standards towards forensic investigations, I'd prefer it actually to hold nations accountable, to an extent.

Assuming that my assumed definition of "forensic genetics" is right, and that we're interpreting "encourages" as a soft mandate, the entire proposal is completely ignorant of pre-modern tech nations. While this may be true of many resolutions, this completely leaves primitive nations in the dust, as it completely negates non-genetic forensics work that can be done. Oftentimes, other forensics work would be much preferable to genetics work, and genetics is just overkill in these situations.

Additionally, what the hell is "international sentient law"? Why don't these people separated from their families have any say in their "restoration of identity"? There's too many questions left unanswered that the proposal is terrifyingly vague about. On top of it all, the formatting is one big block of text which is somewhat hard to read - which is certainly less than ideal for it all.

I urge you all to vote against this proposal.
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Overuse of the word “Encourages”, and that really serves to highlight how this proposal does nothing in effect. Against.
 
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