[GA, Passed] Repeal: "Crime And Punishment"

Repeal: "Crime And Punishment"
Category: Repeal | GA #375
Proposed by: United Massachusetts | Onsite Topic​

General Assembly Resolution #375 “Crime and Punishment” (Category: Human Rights; Strength: Significant) shall be struck out and rendered null and void.

The General Assembly,

Lauding the various mandates within "Crime and Punishment" which seek to curb the inhumanities and cruelties associated with the provision of capital punishment in certain, more sinister nations,

Concerned, however, by Clause 1 of the target resolution, which effectively prevents a substantive ban on capital punishment across World Assembly member-states,

Convinced that such a ban would be desirable for the following reasons:

the finality of the death penalty prevents the state from correcting any errors made in the legal and conviction processes, thereby inevitably condemning to death certain innocent individuals,

a great many individuals facing the death penalty are unable to afford their own attorneys, and are often forced to rely on overburdened public defense mechanisms,

any long legal process associated with the death penalty is bound to extend the pain and frustrations of crime victims, rather than provide the closure they need and desire,

the predominantly retributive model of justice employed by the death penalty has failed to deter crime in any provable way,

permitting the death penalty represents a rejection of the notion that life has intrinsic worth merely by virtue of its existence,

Noting that such a ban has already been drafted and will be proposed in short order following the passage of this repeal,

Seeking, therefore, to empower this Assembly once again to ban the morally problematic, unmerciful, and outdated practice of capital punishment, does hereby repeal General Assembly Resolution #375, "Crime and Punishment."

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Spoiler: Intended Replacement - "Ban on Capital Punishment"

Ban on Capital Punishment
Category: Human Rights | Strength: Significant
Proposed by: United Massachusetts | Onsite Topic​

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Having already presented its rationale in GA 4XX,

Restating, however, that the death penalty institutionalizes a model of justice based solely on revenge, a model inherently flawed in its assertion that violence and killing are best dealt with by more bloodshed,

Concerned, further, that in their reckless pursuit of such an system, member nations have institutionalized the murder of innocent blood, unless they do consider themselves omnipotent,

Further angered that the complex legal mechanisms associated with capital punishment only serve to prolong the closure of crime victims by dragging them into a long legal process,

Somberly noting that every second spent on this preamble is another second of dehumanizing punishment, murder of the innocents, inefficiency, and barbarism on the global scale,

Bewailing, therefore, the insufferable length of this resolution, which could have been written in as few as 139 characters,

Realizing that the very sentence above is an example of such a needless clause,

Told, however, that the masses would prefer a preamble to this resolution, even where one already exists in GA 4XX,

Putting a very long clause here in an attempt to make a profound and grandiose gesture comparing our inability to act on something so simple to this resolution, whose preamble, in an ironic sense, has captured perfectly the World Assembly's inability to act,

Declaring that this nonsense ends now, with the resolution before this Assembly,

Again invoking dramatic symbolism to draw out a needless preamble to what is already known to be true,

The General Assembly, at long last, invoking its august power in this session assembled, and by the advice and consent of its delegates and member nations, hereby:

Bans member nations from employing a penalty of death for any crime within their jurisdiction,

Mandates that member nations reprieve and cancel the execution of those already sentenced to death within their jurisdiction, and instead determine through their legal processes an alternate punishment,

Prohibits member nations from extraditing individuals to a foreign nation where they are likely to face a penalty of death,

Urges member nations to issue official reports condemning the length of this resolution.

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• 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.

The Ministry's Opinion:

United Massachusetts proposed this repeal as the first step towards replacing it with a resolution to ban capital punishment, which would conflict with the currently standing resolution. UM highlights irreversable effect that capital punishment inflicts, the loss of life. We concur with this and also raise the point that in the event of an error found later on, posthumous acquittals are only symbolic in nature, as they do not change the fact that the state executed an innocent. We believe that all persons have the right to live, and we believe this proposal is a step in the right direction.

For these reasons the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs recommends voting For the proposal.

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