Eradicate Smallpox
Resolution Text
| Category: | Human Rights | Strength: | Mild | Proposed By: | Allemande |
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Description:
RECOGNIZING that the United Nations has already acted to limit the spread of contagious disease through such efforts as United Nations Resolutions #9 ("Keep the World Disease Free") and #84 ("NS HIV AIDS Act"), AND
ACKNOWLEDGING that such acts are justified given the difficulty of containing epidemics, even in the face of prophylactic measures such as those authorized by United Nations Resolutions #34 ("No Embargoes on Medicine") and #43 ("Increased Access to Medicine") (among others), AND
OBSERVING that highly virulent diseases are the best source of potential templates for so-called "bioweapons" - weapons whose development and use the United Nations has attempted to limit through such acts as United Nations Resolution #17 ("Elimination of Bio Weapons"), AND FINALLY
REALIZING that no concerted effort has yet been mounted to address one of the world's oldest and deadliest contagions - variola (commonly known as "smallpox") - a disease of considerable danger in its natural form and even greater danger as a bioweapon,
THE UNITED NATIONS
DECLARES ACCORDINGLY that all Member nations shall make a concerted effort to eradicate smallpox within their territory through the use of established disease eradication techniques, such as quarantine and vaccination, AND
FURTHER CALLS UPON all Member nations to increase health care spending accordingly to cover the costs of these measures, AND
ALSO FINALLY RECOMMENDS that all Member nations provide other Member nations a share of this additional spending, in a fashion entirely at their discretion, as long as such assistance would not be detrimental to their own eradication efforts, for the purpose of accelerating the pace at which this disease can be wiped out worldwide.
- Votes For: 12,215
- Votes Against: 3,377
- Implemented: Sat Apr 2 2005
Gameplay Impacts
Though smallpox are a real life disease and players objected to a UN resolution assuming that the smallpox were a problem in NationStates, it was argued by proponents and agreed upon by the moderators that enough UN Delegates endorsed the proposal based on the assumption that smallpox also exist in NationStates. According to the multiverse theory adopted in NationStates, it is possible that prior to the adoption of this resolution that there was no significant international effort to combat smallpox. However, following the passage of this resolution it can be assumed that UN members are working to eliminate the NationStates version of this disease from their boarders.
In real life, the smallpox were declared erradicated in 1979 by the World Health Organization (a subsidary of the United Nations) following an international effort to erradicate the disease in 1967. Though time is not really defined in NationStates, it does seem reasonable that many players would be interested in roleplaying a NationStates collaboration to combat this disease.
Although the resolution is categorised as a human rights measure, one of Allemande's principal reasons for authoring it was national security. In real life, the eradication of smallpox was followed by a relaxation in efforts to curb the disease; at the same time, samples of smallpox were maintained for scientific purposes, albeit under very tight security. This created a potential security risk from theft and release of the virus by terrorists - a problem that would not exist if innoculations had been continued after eradication.
In the NationStates world, however, the open-ended nature of the mandate effectively insures that any current UN member may consider itself invulnerable to attack in this fashion by virtue of ongoing compliance measures. Even non-members might be protected for gameplay purposes, assuming they spent any significant time as UN members during the period in which the resolution was in force and did not terminate eradication efforts upon withdrawal from the UN (Allemande itself being an example of this), or were to include in their history coordination with the UN-backed effort (Yekrut being one such example).
In light of the emergence of groups such as Reveal & Repeal, it is interesting to speculate on whether the effects of repeal would recreate the situation found in real life after 1979, wherein the disease is presumed to have been more or less eliminated (especially if the repeal were to claim as much, in the same fashion as the original text presumed the existance of smallpox) but is still being kept various facilities from which it could be released by accident or as an act of bioterrorism to trigger a global pandemic. Would nations be presumed to have relaxed their efforts against the disease, as happened in real life? Only a nation-by-nation analysis of initial compliance and continuing efforts after repeal would probably tell.
