Natural Disaster Act

Resolution History

Overview

The People's Republic of Groot Gouda was involved in the discussion around the Tsunami Warning System. The republic felt that while the issue the resolution addressed was worthwhile, it was too narrow by focussing just on tsunamis. After discussing this with the author and several others, the republic decided to come up with its own resolution for a broad range of natural disasters, as an addition to the Tsunami Warning Center. It got delayed because of the Sex Industry Worker Act, which was originally planned to happen later. Several months after resolution #91 passed, the Natural Disaster Act was finally up for vote and passed. It will go down in the UN history books as Resolution #100.

UN Debate

Resolution Text

Description: DEEPLY REGRETTING loss of life and material damages as a result of natural disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, typhoons, floods, blizzards, etc;

NOTING that these disasters do not stop at national borders;

OBSERVING the Tsunami Emergency Warning Center as instituted by the Tsunami Warning System (Resolution #90);

NOTING that the aforementioned Resolution #90 has limited effect for other natural disasters;

ALSO NOTING that the measures implemented by this resolution can and should be used for further research and development of natural disaster warning systems;

1. DEFINES "natural disaster" as any disaster caused by (physical) geographical, geological or meteorological processes, including but not limited to earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, typhoons, typhoons, floods, blizzards, etc;

2. ESTABLISHES a Natural Disaster Assessment Organisation (NDAO) which has the following tasks:
a. Conduct research on natural disasters, preventative methods and monitoring systems,
b. Coordinate international cooperation on this field, in scientific research and in practical solutions,
c. Create protocols for warning about possible disasters, evacuation plans and local disaster awareness programmes,
d. Maintain contacts with local authorities and local organisations in order to improve communication of information about possible natural disasters and how to respond to them,
e. Maintain contacts with national governments participating in the NDAO, the Tsunami Warning Center, and the UN;

3. EMPHASIZES that the NDAO is meant primarily for natural disasters with an international impact;

4. REQUESTS that member nations collect and share geological, meteorological and other relevant data with other countries and the NDAO to assist in monitoring, forecasting and researching natural disasters;

5. URGES all nations to establish and fund a National Geological Survey and a National Meteorological Office which can colelct data, contribute to the NDAO as well as work on a national or regional level on the monitoring of potentially dangerous sites and conduct research;

6. EMPHASIZES that technology alone is not enough, but warning and evacuating the population efficiently is just as important, as well as having plans for dealing with a disaster and the rebuilding of the affected region;

7. URGES all nations to contribute financially, organisationally or otherwise to the NDAO;

8. CALLS UPON all nations to provide care and assistance in case of a natural disaster, by themselves or through recognized UN organisations such as the International Red Cross;

The People's Republic of Groot Gouda would like to thank Grosseschnauzer, Mikitivity and the Nederland region for their input.

Votes For: 12,955

Votes Against: 3,094

Implemented: Sun Apr 24 2005

Gameplay Impacts

This resolution had no significant impacts on changing the way NationStates is played. However, since this resolution was the 100th resolution adopted by the NationStates United Nations the debate thread was added to the Jolt archive.

Additional Materials

• Natural Disaster Act UN Floor Debate
• Save the world, support the Natural Disaster Act UN Proposal Campaign
• Natural Disaster Assessment Early Draft Proposal
• Tsunami Warning System
• UN Timeline
• United Nations