General Assembly Resolution #565 “Volcanic Activity Convention” (Category: Regulation; Area of Effect: Safety) shall be struck out and rendered null and void.
The World Assembly,
Believing that it is indeed important there are strong measures in place to protecting member nations from volcanic activity, which poses a significant danger to many member nations, yet
Objecting to the resolution's self-professed "attempt" at this goal, as it stands in blissful ignorance of the metaphorically limp-wristed, overly restrictive, and burdensome nature of many of its mandates -- making it flawed to the point where repeal is imperative,
Convinced that it is in the interests of all member nations to clear the body of World Assembly law of dross that fails to actually achieve its ostensible goal while wasting member nation finances, especially when such legislation is now superfluous and redundant,
Finds as follows _
- Vague and subjective language is open to abuse by delinquent member nations. For this reason, the resolution's most inoffensive mandates are easily exploitable and open to evasion, contradicting the resolution's aims. Terminology such as conditioning minimisation of damage to the environment as "reasonable", mandating distribution of "necessary" resources, and only requiring reversal of damage from volcanic activity "within reason", is extremely subjective and abusable; delinquent member nations can thus avoid these "duties" and fail to protect themselves from volcanic activity by, for example, refusing to distribute resources on the basis that they are not "necessary", or failing to reverse any more than minimal damage from volcanic activity on the grounds that it is not "within reason" to do so.
- Further, Section 2b mandates that member nations at risk of volcanic activity "provid[e] aid to each other in an evacuation"; however, the resolution omits any explicit or implicit mandate whatsoever to prevent member nations from misusing such aid. Diversion very rarely occurs in public so as to give nations an opportunity to instead provide non-material aid in response to the diversion. As a result, this will open up a very likely possibility of a receiving nation misusing such aid -- eg diverting all financial aid to politicians' off-shore bank accounts -- but member nations that happen to be at risk of volcanic activity still being forced to throw money and resources to that nation en masse. Wasteful spending mechanisms reduce the amount of funds available for more important projects funded by member nations, including humanitarian aid for nations that actually require such aid. Member nations should not be allowed to dishonestly flush other member nations' funds down the toilet.
- Repeal of the resolution eliminates no actual substantial protection in volcanic activity, as all of the resolution ultimately falls under the purview of "Humanitarian Aid Coordination", "Disaster Precautions and Responses" and "Emergency Broadcasting Standards", which more comprehensively and competently legislate on protections in all disasters -- including "cooperation between member nations when it comes to handling disasters" -- rather than narrowly only targetting one specific disaster event. This renders the "Volcanic Activity Convention" obsolete, such that it covers nothing original in World Assembly law, and its significant flaws outweigh any benefit it otherwise may have. Further, any flaws in these resolutions ought to be addressed by replacing them with similar omnibi, rather than only targetting an exceedingly narrow scope of any such flaws.
For these reasons, be the "Volcanic Activity Convention" repealed.
