[GA—UP NEXT] Prohibition On Coerced Testimony

[Jinkies]

Prohibition On Coerced Testimony
Category: Civil Rights | Strength: Significant
Proposed by: Lieutenant Columbo | Onsite Topic​

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Recognizing the inherently adversarial relationship between police and suspect,

Determining that the immense power imbalance between the state and the individual and the violence of suspect detention as inherently vulnerable to abuse by those tasked with enforcing the law,

The World Assembly hereby,

1. Defines an "officer" as an individual lawfully empowered to enforce the law or investigate violations thereof,
   
   
2. Forbids member states or their officers or officers of entities subject to member state jurisdiction from:
   
   • Coercing any form of communication from a detained individual,
     
     
   • Punishing or threatening to punish a detained individual for not communicating, or
     
     
   • Putting questions to a detained individual without either that individual's legal counsel present or that individual's explicit and uncoerced consent, or in the case of a detained minor that of their legal guardian, to take questions without counsel present,
3. Forbids member states or their courts or courts of entities subject to member state jurisdiction from:
   
   • Admitting evidence or considering evidence that includes communications obtained from an individual in contravention of section 2,
     
     
   • Admitting evidence or considering evidence consisting of polygraph tests, body language tests, or any other means of attempting to discredit verbal communication by means of assessing simultaneous nonverbal communication, or
     
     
   • Requiring a defendant to testify against themselves, or considering refusal to do so as evidence in and of itself.

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Note: Only votes from TNP WA nations, NPA personnel, and those on NPA deployments will be counted. If you do not meet these requirements, please add (non-WA) or something of that effect to your vote. If you are on an NPA deployment without being formally registered as an NPA member, name your deployed nation in your vote.

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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!

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For	Against	Abstain	Present
3	2	0	1

 

[Jinkies]

IFV

 

[Bankowiata]

For

 

[Polgaria]

For

 

[nvxl]

Present

Not particularly opposed; just notes: clause 2c is quite hard to unambiguously parse; 3c questionable; and "courts of entities subject to member state jurisdiction" seems slightly confused and overreaching (perhaps "courts empowered by member states to [...]" was intended? "courts" is a bit general).

 

[Zash]

Against

 

[Petronellania]

For

 

[Comfed]

Against.

 

[Chipoli]

Against.