Good Samaritan Laws

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#76: Good Samaritan Laws

Category: Moral Decency
Proposed By: Mikitivity
Strength: Mild
Status: Passed
Adopted: Fri Oct 8 2004
Votes For: 10,303
Votes Against: 3,990


Resolution History

Overview

In the fall of 2004, the NationStates United Nations saw three of the current four Moral Decency resolutions to ever reach quorum within a two week period. The Good Samaritian Laws resolution actually was based on a Political Stability proposal focusing on international disaster assistance, however, the UN Secretariat felt that the proposal was miscategorized and issued a warning against the government of Mikitivity. This delayed the basic idea to revitalize international interest in the International Red Cross Organization by several weeks, and allowed Roma Islamica's No Marriage Under Age of 15 resolution to reach the floor first. Even though that resolution failed, it managed to pave the way for the new Good Samiartian Laws proposal to quickly reach quorum, where it eventually was adopted by the United Nations by a supermajority.

Proposal Campaign

UN Debate

Resolution Text

UNITED NATIONS RESOLUTION #76
Good Samaritan Laws
A resolution to restrict civil freedoms in the interest of moral decency.

Category: Moral Decency Strength: Mild Proposed By: Mikitivity

The NationStates United Nations,

RECALLING its resolution, the IRCO, adopted Sep. 1, 2003, which established the voluntary funded International Red Cross Organization (IRCO) for United Nations members in order to be “the first response team to natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and any other events which threaten the lives of citizens”;


OBSERVING that in addition to medical and law enforcement personnel, that these first response teams include technical and engineering professionals who in many non-emergency situations may be highly regulated by domestic liability laws;


CONCERNED that international disaster assistance programs like the IRCO as well as volunteer disaster assistance teams sent by other nations are limited in their effectiveness to quickly respond to disasters and emergency situations due to the lack of pre-existing disaster assistance arrangements, such as arrangements concerning the liabilities associated with volunteer response and recovery teams carrying out emergency aid;


  1. AFFIRMS the right of nations responding to offers of disaster assistance to decide which offers to accept and which offers to refuse;
  2. PROCLAIMS that nations responding to offers of disaster assistance also have the right to refuse assistance from specific individuals and / or types of aid;
  3. CALLS UPON all nations to develop domestic “Good Samaritan” laws granting volunteer based first responder teams, including technical and engineering professionals, some immunity to civil liability associated with work and professional judgments made while rendering disaster assistance provided that they do not act with reckless or intentional disregard of known dangers; and
  4. DECLARES that the immunity to liability associated with rendering aid applies only to work associated in disaster or emergency assistance, and that all other normal domestic laws should apply to these individuals.


Votes For: 10,303
Votes Against: 3,990
Implemented: Fri Oct 8 2004


Gameplay Impacts

This resolution had minor significant impacts on changing the way NationStates is played. The original proposal was a Political Stability proposal and one moderator, whom never identified him or herself, claimed it was the wrong category without ever stating what category it should be. Cogitation then reviewed the proposal and felt that it was two different categories, reinforcing the UN rule that proposals should be primarily one category. Since that time, a number of other resolutions have been adopted which span several categories, but the discussions between Mikitivity and Cogitation did result in a tradition of game moderators being more helpful in defending their decisions.

By achiving a supermajority as a Moral Decency resolution, it did also managed to contest notions that United Nations players simply voted based on the game stats of resolution.

Additional Materials