The World Assembly,
Recognizing the vital role of foreign aid as an instrument of development, humanitarian relief, and greater international cooperation,
Acknowledging the sovereignty of all member states to provide foreign aid as a vital part of international diplomacy,
Certain that transparency regarding the nature of such aid is integral to fostering trust, respecting the autonomy of recipient nations, and ensuring the integrity of public discourse,
Seeking to further ascertain a clear, unambiguous, and universal standard of public classification of foreign aid, to provide greater clarity to member nations without infringing on the right of any nation to formulate its own foreign policy,
Hereby Enacts the "
Honest Labelling of Foreign Aid Act":
Clause 1: Definitions
For the purposes of this resolution, the following definitions shall be applied.
- Foreign Aid:refers to any grant or concessional transfer of financial, material, technical, or personnel resources from one member state to another. A transaction is considered "commercial" and is exempt from this definition only if the value of goods, services, or capital provided by each party is not grossly disproportionate.
- A transaction shall be deemed "grossly disproportionate" if a reasonable, impartial observer would conclude that, considering the fair market value of all the goods exchanged, the primary purpose of the transaction is to confer a significant benefit upon one party rather than act as a reciprocal commercial exchange.
- Unconditional Aid: defined as any Foreign Aid where the recipient is not expected to purchase goods or services as a condition separate from the aid itself, nor to adopt, repeal, or alter certain domestic or foreign policies as a prerequisite to, or consequence of, receiving the aid.
- Conditional Aid: defined as any Foreign Aid which does not meet the criteria for being classified as Unconditional Aid.
Clause 2: Mandate for Labelling
- The member state providing the Foreign Aid, or the "donor" state, must classify the Aid package explicitly and accurately as either "Conditional" or "Unconditional" aid in its first official communication that confirms said offer or discloses the existence of said aid and is intended for general and unrestricted public dissemination. An official communication that is targeted to a limited or select audience does not satisfy this requirement.
- Should the terms of a Foreign Aid package be altered after its initial announcement in a way that would change its initial classification under Clause 1, the donor state is required to issue a new official public communication reflecting the updated and correct classification without undue delay.
Clause 3: Scope and Limitations
For complete avoidance of doubt, nothing in this resolution shall be misconstrued to:
- Compel a member state to accept, decline, or provide a package of Foreign Aid.
- Require the public disclosure of the specific terms, conditions, agreements, or criteria proposed by a package of Conditional Aid.
Clause 4: The World Assembly Registry of Aid (WARA)
- The World Assembly Registry of Aid (WARA) shall be established, whose purpose is to maintain a publicly accessible database of all officially announced packages of Foreign Aid, and their declared classification as reported by member states.
- The WARA is also authorized to address credible claims of deliberate mislabelling by other member states through the following process:
- Upon receipt of such a formal complaint from a member state, the WARA shall review publicly verifiable evidence submitted by the complainant and from other publicly available sources.
- If such evidence is present and shows a clear and material contradiction between a donor state's "Unconditional Aid" label, the evidence shall be formally presented to the donor state and the recipient state, and the WARA shall await a public response.
- Based solely on present evidence and public response, the WARA's sole recourse shall be to issue and publish a detailed "Finding of Deliberate Misrepresentation" which shall be permanently recorded alongside the aid package in question.
- A "Finding of Deliberate Misrepresentation" issued by the WARA shall be considered a permanent part of the censured nation's diplomatic record within the World Assembly. All World Assembly committees, agencies, and bodies are required to formally record and consider such findings in the official proceedings of their meetings when evaluating the suitability of the censured nation for loans, grants, leadership positions, or other discretionary honors or benefits.
