The Sex Education Act

Resolution History

Overview

Following the contraversial The Transgender Equality Act resolution, this resolution managed to pass by a super-majority. Like the previous resolution, the topic promoting sex education managed to bring in a large number of nations to the official UN forum debates. By the time the UN forum poll had closed, over 314 different nations have participated or viewed the 19 pages of official debates.

Proposal Campaign

UN Debate

Immediately after this resolution hit the UN floor, UN members began to question the need for a UN resolution encouraging nations to set up their own sex education programs. In the early stages of the debate, for every nation that complained of what Ecopoeia and Enn described as micromanagement, other member states expressed complete support for both the need of the UN to promote sex education programs and the appropriateness for this to be an international issue. The ambassador from Jusma Kullailie pointed out that when tourists would visit other nations, they might be exposed to various domestic sex education materials and programs, suggesting that the UN should be involved in these programs.

In response to arguments from Fass that this resolution does nothing, the Powerhungry Chipmunks, one of the founding members of the National Sovereignty Organization, and the Forgottenlands both pointed out that this resolution actually respects the sovereignty of UN member states in that the resolution only urged nations to create their own national sex education programs. Dan Yeoman of the Powerhungry Chipmunks further explained why they felt this resolution respected national sovereignty with the following, "A resolution which "did anything" more than this resolution would actually hurt nations' ability to adequately provide sex education for their citizens. I personally think that the ol' days of "everyone must do exactly what I'm doing!" resolutions weren't only childish and mis-considered, but a little arrogant, too."

Resolution Text

The United Nations,

DEEPLY DISTURBED that in many Nations:

-A- Sexual education is lacking

-B- Education about female sexuality is often unheard of and no mention is made of the clitoris, the statistically most erogenous zone for women, which is not directly correlated with reproduction

-C- Lack of quality sex education can lead, many times, to unplanned teen pregnancies and unnecessary abortion

OBSERVING that:

-D- Sex has two important functions: reproduction and pleasure

-E- Sexual activity is a common activity, contributing to the happiness of many people, worldwide

URGES:

-1- All Nations to organize and secure some sexual education courses for all, before the age of 18-years; and

-2- All Nations to include in these courses, information about male sexuality, female sexuality, opposite-sex relationships, same-sex relationships, masturbation, birth control methods, abortion right, AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases without any value judgment

Votes For: 10,042

Votes Against: 3,921

Implemented: Tue Aug 23 2005

Gameplay Impacts

This resolution had no significant impacts on changing the way NationStates is played. However, like several previous resolutions, a poll asking nations if they voted yes, no, or abstained was attached to the official resolution debate. With 314 responses by the time debate had closed it is possible to compare the results of the UN forum poll to the official vote totals to address the question: "How representative is the UN forum of UN votes?"

Nations participating in the UN forum debates were asked to disclose their vote: yes, no, or abstain as part of an official survey. The raw UN forum poll results of this survey are presented above. On the UN forum, 188 nations voted for the resolution, 111 against, and 15 nations abstained. The abstentions are not included in calculating the percentage of votes.

The final overall UN ("official") vote was 72% of the votes cast being in favour, while the UN forum vote was 63% of the votes cast (for or against) being in favour. In this particular case it appears that the UN forum debate and poll were poorly representative (within 10%) of the entire UN vote. However, like other comparisons between the UN forum and overall UN vote, the trend in this survey was that the UN forum is much less likely to support a resolution than the overall UN.

Additional Materials

• The Sex Education Act UN Floor Debate
• Draft proposal: the Sex Education Act Draft Proposal Discussions
• UN Timeline
• United Nations