UNID Card Act

UNID Card Act, the brainchild of Herconia, holds the dubious distinction as the resolution to fail by the greatest vote margin in NSUN history. The proposal, seeking to establish a universal ID card ("UNID card") for citizens of all UN member states, managed to win just 22.2 percent of the General Assembly vote, eking out Karmicaria's UN Funding Act, at 24.4 percent. At issue in the UNID Card Act floor debate were concerns over the text's purported claim for the UNID card to replace "any sort of" national visa systems for controlling entry of persons into member nations, and opponents' fears for what impact a universal ID card would have on civil liberties. The proposal's sponsor, while active in the draft discussion, mostly kept quiet while the proposal was at vote.

Resolution Text

Description: NOTING the lack of or the international differences in a proper means of UN citizens to identify themselves in UN nations other than their own.

ACKNOWLEDGING the importance of such a standardized system to simplify the transit of people between UN member nations.

The United Nations,

ESTABLISHES the system of the United Nations IDentification Card, abbreviated UNID card. The UNID card must measure 8,5 cm (3,35 inch) by 5,3 cm (2,09 inch). All nations must use a standardized format as described here. The left half has the UN logo and the right half the national logo or flag as background. At the top appears the text “UNITED NATIONS” and the issuing county’s name in both the established UN language and in the local language. At the right is the citizen’s picture in black and white. The person’s full name, date of birth, signature and place of birth are placed in that order at the middle of the card together with the expiration date and the UNID card number. It is allowed for a nation to place an RFID at the left of the card that can hold additional information at the nation’s discretion.

DEFINES the UNID card number as code comprising of a UN and national part. The first fifteen digits are a numeric number supplied by the UN as country code. The national part is at the nation’s discretion.

AWARE that the UNID card system doesn’t infringe on the liberties of UN citizens, but increases their liberties by giving an easy and safe means of identification.

DECLARES that national governments must accept UNID cards as a valid identification of citizens of other UN nations on their soil. UNID cards are valid for a period of five years following their issue date. The UNID card system replaces any sort of Visa system in use for international travel in UN nations.

FORBIDS any nation other then the supplier of the UNID card to store data supplied by the UNID card without the written permission of the citizen for any means other then judiciary prosecution.

DECLARES that national governments may charge the citizen with the production cost of the card and of any replacement cards. The citizen is responsible for putting at disposal of the government a valid photograph to be used for the UNID card.

RESOLVES that all UN member nations must supply all their citizens with a UNID card at no later date than the 1st of august 2008.

AFFIRMS that UN member nations are allowed and strongly encouraged to use the UNID card as a national identification card, to give their own citizens the ability to identify themselves in their own country by the UNID card.

Additional Material

• UNID Card Act UN floor debate
• UNID Card Act Draft proposal discussion
• UN Timeline