Repeal Writing Guide

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Repeals were introduced to NationStates on September 23, 2004 and ever since then, countless nations have been trying to garner support to have previous United Nations resolutions revoked from legislature.

Therefore, it is the mission of this guide to help nations develop coherent and well-thought out rebuttals of any previous resolution in order to justify why it should be stricken from the United Nations floor in a coherent, diplomatic, and presentable way.

On October 23, 2004, the first repeal in NationStates history, Repeal Fight the Axis of Evil, was passed 13,343 votes to 2,722 votes. Congratulations to New Western America for a job well done!

Repeal: A Definition

We should start with a definition of what a repeal actually is to separate it from a regular legislation proposal. According to dictionary.com, a repeal is:

  1. To revoke or rescind, especially by an official or formal act.
  2. Obsolete. To summon back or recall, especially from exile.

Just as a common proposal seeks to justify an addition to the legislation, a repeal does the exact opposite and seeks to justify a subtraction from the legislation.

Repeals: A Purpose

Keep in mind, in order to write a proper resolution, one must be well-versed enough into why a given law should become just that for the entirety of the United Nations. If a nation begins writing a resolution for name’s sake, to see themselves emblazoned in NationStates history, nine out of ten times that resolution will not even see the light of day in the proposal list.

The same is even truer when writing a repeal; thus, if a nation supporting a repeal goes into it with the theory of just getting the repeal passed, the repeal will reflect that in language, design, and effort, most likely resulting in not garnering enough support to reach queue.

Those who frequent the proposal list will no doubt tell you that since repeals have been instituted more than 90% are lost within the melee of proposals trying to make it into the queue for some of the following factors:

  • A given nation says it should be repealed simply because their nation says so.
  • The argument is left completely blank.
  • The resolution is in violation of a nation’s sovereignty.
  • Not representing the entirety of the United Nations.
  • It simply states the original resolution exactly using the negative form of each sentence.
  • The resolution occurred to long again to be representative of today’s voting population.

Picking a Resolution to Repeal

Any nation who wishes to repeal a resolution must proceed with caution.

Most resolutions were won by a large majority of the UN population, regardless of whether or not they are a sample of the current UN pool. The original vote should give a nation particular insight into whether or not launching a given repeal may be successful or not once it reaches the queue and into the actual voting stage by the entirety of the United Nations population.

Thus, it is important for nations to keep that idea in mind when going through the resolution list to eliminate legislation from the United Nations hall.

Some resolutions that might be good candidates for repeals based on numbers alone:

Passed Repeals

The following repeals have been passed:

Failed Repeals

The following repeals have failed:

Language

Writing a repeal, similarly, is just like writing a normal proposal when it comes to language. I would suggest reading Sophista’s United Nation’s Resolution Writing Guide before seriously deciding how to formulate your repeal.

From there, one might want to check out The Elements of Style by E.B. White. It is a handy reference of the basic do and do nots of the English language.

Some other resources that might be of interest to those who wish to write a real UN-inspired resolution can be found here:

To Quote or Not to Quote

After choosing a resolution to repeal, it is important to recognize whether the entire resolution is part of your argument or if only part of the resolution is part of your argument.

If one wishes to repeal the entire resolution, then, there is no need to quote the original resolution in your repeal. Instead, just make sure you address the main points of why one feels a repeal is needed. If you choose the above method, make sure you post the original resolution when asking for feedback from fellow nations so they do not have to dig up the resolution themselves.

However, if one wishes to repeal a resolution based on just parts, then, it might be more appropriate to directly quote the parts one has qualms with in the repeal itself in order to facilitate the ability for fellow UN members to understand exactly where your points are directed. Hence, there is no need to directly post the entire resolution when asking for feedback, instead, just make sure the members know exactly which resolution you are seeking to repeal is called.

For an example of the latter, please, check out my “Repeal Fight the Axis of Evil” here.

Formulating an Argument

The whole point of your repeal is to convince the UN population that a given resolution should not be part of the United Nations legislature. Since the resolution passed the first time around, as already stressed, it is important that your counter-argument for revoking the resolution is sound, steady, and flawless.

Repeals need to be much more careful about word usage, exactness, and quick to the point without over-elaborating and crossing lines that the general population considers grievances against the United Nations.

Stick to the point of exactly why the resolution is to be repealed and above all else, do not go out on a limb as to why the resolution should be revoked. Sharp, steady, to the point, keep that at the forefront of the mind when writing a repeal.

Drafts and Feedback

The more drafts, the better, is always the case. After you first go through your repeal, post a thread in The United Nations’ forum requesting feedback from fellow UN members.

Incorporate suggestions that seem to be widespread and eliminate bits and pieces as you go to make the repeal the best it can be before submitting it to the proposal list.

Contacting UN Delegates

Always take caution when starting a telegram campaign to inform UN Delegates.

Once you submit your repeal to the United Nations floor, from there it is up to you to formulate how you want to go about contacting Delegates to approve it so that it will reach queue within the given time limit.

There are several ways to go about this, such as:

Telegramming

Telegramming can be either a rewarding experience or the bane of one’s existence. It is important that this telegram links to the text of your repeal, either by hosting it on an off-site forum or web site, or through the NS forums themselves. Do not just telegram a delegate, tell them to wade through the proposal list, and be done with it. Always be polite, ask for comments and/or concerns, and be respectful. If you receive a flame or otherwise negative response that adds nothing to your repeal, ignore it.

The United Nations’ Forum

Always post a thread in The United Nations’ forums when submitting a repeal for consideration by the UN Delegate population. Most UN members, along with Delegates, will offer suggestions, point out areas of weakness, and you will generally be able to gather a strong support from the population to start off with who will then let their Delegate know about your repeal.

Off-site Forums

Most of the feeder regions, and Lazarus, appreciate it if you post on their off-site forums, which you can find in their World Factbook Entry or by looking here:

Depending on the size of the player-created region, some might also prefer you to post on their off-site forum; it’s important for you to find out ahead of time what the proper procedure is and follow through with it.

Also, off-site forums – particularly that of pro-UN regions – is a great place to find information, support, and technical data on the United Nations. One such example is the IDU’s off-site forum which hosts a list of UN Delegates friendly to telegrams and those who are not. It is definitely a good resource to look over when telegramming Delegates specifically.

IRC

Unfortunately, it is yet to be seen how significant this type of contact with UN members and Delegates might be. Read Goobergunchia’s thread on the IRC NS UN channel here, as he says:

  • Download an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) program. mIRC is the program that most of us use, but there are many others. A Google search for IRC programs should yield positive results for your particular system.
  • Connect to the server irc.esper.net
  • Join the channel #unitednations

Important Links

Some of these links are via the UN forum hosted by Jolt/NationStates and others are hosted on off-site forums and web sites, hopefully, they can provide some help to nations seeking to write resolutions and repeals alike:

Credits

First and foremost, I would like to thank Sophista and the contributors to his guide on writing successful UN proposals; I would also like to thank Enodia for his guide and insight into the NS United Nations from the very beginning of my time on NationStates.

Second, I would like to thank all those nations who regularly go through the UN proposal list who have shared their insights into what makes a good proposal on the forums both on-site and off-site.

Lastly, to all those who participate in the NS UN, without you, it just would not be much fun to be a part of it.

Additional Information

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