Rights of Neutral States

Resolution History

Overview

The Rights of Neutral Nations is the second UN resolution sponsored by the Wolfish government, and like the Wolfish Convention on POW, this resolution used a convention format. For the purposes of NationStates, it can be assumed that all member states of the United Nations have signed and agreed to the terms of this resolution, except where otherwise noted.

Proposal Campaign

When the Wolfish ambassador to the UN presented their draft proposal concerning the rights of nations neutral to specific conflicts in mid-November, the initial reactions of many UN committee delegates was supportive. However, Queen Lilly of Pallatium quickly pointed out to the lack of provisions for neutral states to provide humanitarian aid to either side in a conflict. Hirota however pointed out that neutral nations could still use non-governmental organizations like the International Red Cross Organization.

UN Debate

Role of NGOs and humanitarian assistance

During the debate of the resolution, Jean-Christophe Dunant, Secretary-General of the Mikitivity Rote Kreuz, questioned the Wolfish ambassador on the resolution’s impact on non-governmental organizations and their role in humanitarian assistance. Dunant's specific concerns centered around the “Shall not be used for the internment of prisoners of war, treatment of wounded or storage of dead combatants, without the explicit and uncoerced consent of all parties;” clause due to the fact that many Red Cross organizations rely upon national militaries to provide transportation and logistical aid to remote regions.

The Wolfish ambassador assured Dunant that “third party humanitarian group(s)” would not need the consent of all parties in a conflict before rendering humanitarian aid. However, he conceded that the language in the resolution would make it more difficult to receive official aid from neutral governments during war time.

Resolution Text

RECOGNIZING that all sovereign states have the right to declare war and defend themselves from attack;

NOTING that nations may, from time to time, declare themselves neutral, and

DEFINING a "Neutral State" as one which has formally declared its neutrality with regard to a specific state of war or belligerency existing between two or more other nations, thus

AFFIRMING that it is the right of nations which are not belligerents in such a conflict to make a claim of neutrality;

ALSO AWARE that such states need the support and respect of the NationStates United Nations to maintain that neutrality;

THESE UNITED NATIONS DO HEREBY FIND AND DECLARE THAT a neutral state must abide by the following terms:

1. It must not knowingly harbour, aid, support or provide for any combatant nation, nor its forces nor military allies, nor any extra-national combatant force or militia, including but not limited to air forces, naval ships, land forces, agents, or those undertaking to procure the goods and supplies of war.

2. It must not actively or covertly act to hamper or assist any force or agents of an active combatant nation, nor the militarily allied force of another nation, nor any extra-national combatant force or militia, through either force of arms or other support.

3. It shall not conspire to influence the outcome of armed combat through overt or covert means, excepting efforts to mediate or negotiate a truce or end to the conflict.

4. It may allow and facilitate provision of humanitarian aid by neutral third parties to civilian populations and to military wounded, and may allow such organizations to operate from, travel through, or stage in neutral territory, for the express purpose of delivering said aid.

Violation of these terms shall render neutrality broken.

THESE UNITED NATIONS DO FURTHER DECLARE THAT

Any nation publicly declaring neutrality must be afforded the special rights stated herein for the period during which they maintain the obligations of a neutral state;

A neutral state shall not be invaded, occupied, or otherwise used by belligerents during time of war or conflict by any signatory to this treaty, and

Shall not be used for the internment of prisoners of war, treatment of wounded or storage of dead combatants, without the explicit and uncoerced consent of all parties;

No declared neutral state shall be used or traversed to facilitate the transportation of war materials, foodstuffs or supplies of any kind, including ammunition, personnel and armaments or agents of signatory states, excluding humanitarian aid noted above, and

At the sole discretion of individual governments, nations can use any or all measures deemed appropriate to deter non-UN nations from violating the terms of neutrality, including all diplomatic efforts and sanctions, economic and trade sanctions, economic and trade embargoes, declaration of hostile state status, and declaration of hostilities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned, having deposited their respective full powers, have signed the present Convention.

Votes For: 9,897

Votes Against: 3,009

Implemented: Tue Dec 12 2005

Gameplay Impacts

This resolution had no significant impacts on changing the way NationStates is played.

Additional Materials

• Rights of Neutral States UN Floor Debate
• UN Timeline
• United Nations