Difference between revisions of "UN Timeline"

Revision as of 16:54, 7 September 2005

The United Nations works from a body of International Law. The UN members vote to accept proposals into resolutions, and push for repeals of existing resolutions. Here is the current body of law as accepted by the United Nations.

UN Timeline

The official chronology of the United Nations only makes note of the passage of resolutions. There is no official UN record of failed resolutions, nor of proposals that were removed from the queue prior to reaching the UN floor. Several UN resolutions that did pass have also been purposefully deleted from the official record of adopted UN resolutions. Typically, deleted resolutions or proposals violated the Enodian UN rules or game mechanics.

The following chronology has been assembled by meticulous study of forum topics past and the recollections of UN members and observers. Since game time tends to be somewhat fluid, this list has been indexed into annual quarters. The numbers express the 'official' chronology, with other important events inserted where appropriate.

All of 2002 and much of 2003 (through early September) is no longer available in the forums, so your assistance is especially welcome in upgrading that portion of the Timeline. Additionally, note that official forum topics did not exist until 2004, so earlier resolutions often had many topics to discuss them.

2002

2002 Fourth Quarter

The United Nations was formed on Nov 13 2002 by Maxtopia. In order to test the new procedures for voting on UN resolutions, a test resolution, Fight the Axis of Evil, was proposed and voted upon by three nations prior to the official starting date of the UN. This resolution is considered the first United Nations resolution. It took over a month before the next (and only other 2002) resolution reached the UN floor. There were no formal guidelines for resolution submission nor formats at this time.

2003

2003 First Quarter

3. Education for All Jan 8 2003 Repealed: Mar 1 2005
4. UN Taxation Ban Jan 13 2003
5. DVD Region Removal Jan 17 2003
6. End Slavery Jan 21 2003

   Removed for mechanics reasons: Proposal limits Jan 26 2003

   Removed for mechanics reasons: Search Function Jan 30 2003

   Removed for mechanics reasons: Secretary General Feb 6 2003

   Removed for mechanics reasons: Resolution 245A Proper Grammar Feb 15 2003

   Removed for mechanics reasons: Knowledge of Own Country Feb 19 2003

   Removed for mechanics reasons: Reduction of Needed Approvals Mar 4 2003

7. Sexual Freedom Mar 13 2003

   Failed: - UN, Where did it go wrong? Mar 21 2003

   Failed: - Self-Support Mar 25 2003

   Failed: - TO PROTECT Mar 30 2003

2003 Second Quarter

8. Citizen Rule Required Apr 4 2003

   Removed for mechanics reasons: Resolution Restrictions Apr 8 2003

9. Keep the World Disease-Free Apr 14 2003
10. Stop Privacy Intrusion Apr 22 2003
11. Ban Single-Hulled Tankers Apr 28 2003
12. Gay Rights May 3 2003
13. Mandatory Recycling May 8 2003
14. Child Labor May 13 2003

    Contoversy over Child Labor

15. Protect Historical Sites May 23 2003
16. Elimination of Bio Weapons May 31 2003 Repealed: Jun 28 2005
17. Required Basic Healthcare Jun 5 2003 Repealed: May 13 2005

    Failed - Curb Illicit Arms Transfers Jun 10 2003

18. Hydrogen Powered Vehicles Jun 16 2003
19. Religious Tolerance Jun 21 2003
20. 'RBH' Replacement Jun 26 2003

2003 Third Quarter

Failed - United Nations Peace Prize Jul 5 2003

21. Fair Trial Jul 13 2003
22. Outlaw Pedophilia Jul 18 2003

    A History of Outlaw Pedophilia

23. Replanting Trees Jul 23 2003
24. Metric System Jul 28 2003
25. The Child Protection Act Aug 2 2003
26. The Universal Bill of Rights Aug 8 2003
27. Due Process Aug 13 2003
28. Free Education Aug 19 2003
29. The IRCO Sep 1 2003

    Establishment of the International Red Cross Organization

30. Common Sense Act II Sep 12 2003 - Forum topic -
31. Wolfish Convention on POW Sep 17 2003 - Forum topic -

    A History of Wolfish Convention on POW

    Failed - The Cato Acts Sep 25 2003 - Forum topic -

    Failed - The Bill of No Rights Sep 30 2003 - Forum topic -

    Removed for mechanics reasons: International Space Initiative (ISI) Oct 3 2003 - Forum topic -

    Failed - The GenetiCorp Convention Oct 11 2003 - Forum topic -

2003 Fourth Quarter

32. Global AIDS Initiative Oct 18 2003
33. No Embargoes on Medicine Oct 24 2003
34. Oceanic Waste Dumping Oct 30 2003
35. Stop Dumping - Start Cleaning Nov 4 2003
36. Freedom of Humor Nov 9 2003
37. World Heritage List Nov 15 2003

    Failed: - Equality For All Nov 19 2003

38. The Rights of Labor Unions Nov 24 2003

    A History of The Rights of Labor Unions

39. Alternative Fuels Nov 30 2003

    Removed: - HIPPOS ARE BIG - removed Dec 02 2003

40. Banning the Use of Landmines Dec 6 2003
41. End Barbaric Punishments Dec 11 2003

    Failed - HIPPOS ARE REALLY QUITE LARGE Dec 16 2003

42. Increased Access to Medicine Dec 28 2003

2004

2004 First Quarter

Failed - Internet Advertising Pop-ups Jan 10 2004 - Forum topic -

Removed for mechanics reasons: Freedom From SPAM Act Jan 15 2004

43. Legalise Euthanasia Jan 16 2004 - Forum topic -
44. Fair Treatment of Mentally-Ill Jan 21 2004 - Forum topic -
45. UCPL Jan 26 2004 - Forum topic -
46. Legalize Prostitution Feb 2 2004 - Forum topic - Repealed Jan 12 2005

    Exclusion of Res. 46a? Passport Harmonisation Feb 9 2004 - Forum topic -

47. Definition of 'Fair Trial' Feb 14 2004 - Forum topic -
48. Save the Forests of the World Feb 19 2004 - Forum topic -
49. Rights and Duties of UN States Feb 24 2004 - Forum topic -

    A History of Rights and Duties of UN States

50. UN Space Consortium Feb 29 2004 - Forum topic -

    Establishment of the United Nations Space Consortium

51. Children in War Mar 8 2004 - Forum topic -
52. Ballast Water Mar 14 2004 - Forum topic -

    A History of Ballast Water

53. Universal Freedom of Choice Mar 26 2004 - Forum topic -

2004 Second Quarter

During this time period, UN discussions were characterized by double posts due to issues with the old NationStates server. Problems with the server made it difficult to conduct business on the old server, but a number of the discussions were transfered over to Jolt, thus providing records of many of the discussions from this time. A number of UN resolutions were voted down. The Enodian Protocols came into effect around this time.

2004 Third Quarter

The NationStates United Nations under went some significant changes in the third quarter of 2004. First, the server that was used to host the forum debates for NationStates was switched to Jolt. The transition took several weeks, during which time, several UN resolutions reached the UN floor for voting at a time when there was no centeralized debate location. Second, the UN Secretariat went through the old adopted resolutions and deleted a number of early resolutions because they violated UN rules. Proposals submitted to the UN were now subject to the high standards left in the Enodian Protocols, meaning more illegal proposals were deleted before they had the chance to reach quorum while in the proposal queue. Though some proposals still reached quorum, the decide to remove the Olympic Games proposal after it had reached the resolution queue, reinforced the idea that a proposal is only a resolution once it actually was put before the UN for a vote.

2004 Fourth Quarter

Towards the end of the third quarter of 2004, the UN Secretariat enacted changes to the UN procedures (i.e. the moderators changed the game) to allow repeals. Though many nations attempted to repeal just about every existing resolution, it wasn't until late October that a proposed repeal achieved quorum and reached the UN Floor. The official United Nations repeal was a motion to remove the Fight the Axis of Evil resolution from the books, and this motion was carried by a supermajority. Two months later the next repeal that reached the UN Floor failed. The vast majority of the 2004 repeals were justified on the opinion that the resolutions they seeked to repeal were flawed, but many UN members disagreed with this sort of reasoning thus accounting for the lack of success of many of the proposed repeals of this time.

When the NSWiki project was started during this time period, many governments and NGOs started using NSWiki to document UN resolutions, thus increasing the continuity in UN resolutions. It was also during this time that references to prior adopted resolutions started appearing in the preambles of proposed resolutions. The International Red Cross was also revisited in two Moral Decency resolutions, starting a renewed international focus on humanitarian aid and protecting populations against natural disasters and epidemics.

2005

2005 First Quarter

Although repeals were first established in 2004, it was in this quarter that nations began to organize into coalitions and make use of the repeal function to replace resolutions with new revised and improved versions of the resolutions. The repeal debates began to shift away from "this resolution should be removed" campaigns to a more successful "there is an effort underway to replace the text of this resolution". The Global Library and Legalize Prostitution are two examples of resolutions that were repealed and then quickly replaced by resolutions that had stronger support. The Tsunami Warning System resolution is also notable in that it was a NationStates response to the real-life Boxing Day Tsunami and is considered a good example of how to incorporate ideas from the real world in a NationStates context.

2005 Second Quarter

The 100th resolution was adopted by the NationStates UN by a supermajority. The UN Secretariat removed one proposal that had reached quorum, but after a revision that proposal managed to reach the UN floor and was adopted. It was during this quarter that the Enodian Protocols were replaced by a new set of rules drafted by the Most Glorious Hack. Some of the changes included limitations on the number of authors that could be listed in a resolution and the number of committees established by a resolution.

2005 Third Quarter

The most significant UN resolution of the 3rd quarter of 2005 was the United Nations Security Act, because as a result of its passage all future Global Disarmament resolutions now must include language stating that any weapon being restricted is not necessary to national defense. This quarter was marked by a steady decline in UN members and also in a decrease in the level of support for UN resolutions.

Additional Material

United Nations Association UN Resolution Chronology pdf