Post by Asairia on Mar 4, 2019 18:00:43 GMT
WORLD ASSEMBLY GENERAL ASSEMBLY
REPEAL: DEFENDING THE RIGHTS OF SEXUAL AND GENDER MINORITIES
DELEGATE IS VOTING: AGAINST ☒
FINAL RESULTS:
4,088 FOR
11,740 AGAINST
Overview
Repeal: Defending the Rights of Sexual and Gender Minorities seeks to repeal GAR#457: Defending the Rights of Sexual and Gender Minorities (henceforth referred to as DRSGM), which further guaranteed the equality of sexual and gender minorities.
About the Proposal
The author, THX1138 of The North Pacific, has proposed the following repeal:
The General Assembly:
Fully acknowledging the importance of providing specific protections to Sexual and Gender Minorities,
Asserts that recently passed legislation GA #457 Defending the Rights of Sexual and Gender Minorities (DRSGM) must be repealed due to critical flaws that bring about significant legal paradoxes for nations.
Of specific concern is DRSGM’s Clause 5, which states “…that religious organizations and their internal discrimination do not fall under this resolution and should be addressed by future legislation.”
This Assembly believes that the silence from this legislation, as it relates to this ideological group, can be readily interpreted as a de facto exemption from the mandates and penalties of this legislation, while all others must comply.
This is alarming, given previous World Assembly law requiring, as a cornerstone of human rights, that all inhabitants of member states be treated equally under the law.
Noting several troubling and untenable paradoxes for nations, that result from DRSGM:
• Nations are mandated to impose rules and penalties on some organizations within their borders, while provided no strength through this law to apply those rules and penalties, equally, to others.
• Without the legal ability to hold all organizations to exactly equal account, it becomes impossible for nations to adhere to clause 2 of DRSGM, which states “…that every member nation must grant exactly the same rights, powers, permissions and services to individuals of all sexualities and genders, subject to exactly the same qualifying conditions...”.
This Assembly acknowledges the potential for these inequities under law to lead to civil unrest within nations, and to create an untenable burden on nations to both uphold DRSGM and simultaneously preserve the intended human right to civil equality under law.
Further, due to the precedent set by DRSGM, it is understood that any future legislation can now be tailored, through silence on specific ideological groups, to target some and not others, leaving open the potential for an unacceptable, multi-tiered system of law and human rights, applying inequitably across the spectrum of society.
The Assembly concludes that the passage of DRSGM has revealed a critical flaw in WA jurisprudence that requires clarification, and,
Understands that, due to precedent, those clarifications can not legally be applied while DRSGM stands.
For these reasons, The General Assembly hereby repeals GA #457.
Fully acknowledging the importance of providing specific protections to Sexual and Gender Minorities,
Asserts that recently passed legislation GA #457 Defending the Rights of Sexual and Gender Minorities (DRSGM) must be repealed due to critical flaws that bring about significant legal paradoxes for nations.
Of specific concern is DRSGM’s Clause 5, which states “…that religious organizations and their internal discrimination do not fall under this resolution and should be addressed by future legislation.”
This Assembly believes that the silence from this legislation, as it relates to this ideological group, can be readily interpreted as a de facto exemption from the mandates and penalties of this legislation, while all others must comply.
This is alarming, given previous World Assembly law requiring, as a cornerstone of human rights, that all inhabitants of member states be treated equally under the law.
Noting several troubling and untenable paradoxes for nations, that result from DRSGM:
• Nations are mandated to impose rules and penalties on some organizations within their borders, while provided no strength through this law to apply those rules and penalties, equally, to others.
• Without the legal ability to hold all organizations to exactly equal account, it becomes impossible for nations to adhere to clause 2 of DRSGM, which states “…that every member nation must grant exactly the same rights, powers, permissions and services to individuals of all sexualities and genders, subject to exactly the same qualifying conditions...”.
This Assembly acknowledges the potential for these inequities under law to lead to civil unrest within nations, and to create an untenable burden on nations to both uphold DRSGM and simultaneously preserve the intended human right to civil equality under law.
Further, due to the precedent set by DRSGM, it is understood that any future legislation can now be tailored, through silence on specific ideological groups, to target some and not others, leaving open the potential for an unacceptable, multi-tiered system of law and human rights, applying inequitably across the spectrum of society.
The Assembly concludes that the passage of DRSGM has revealed a critical flaw in WA jurisprudence that requires clarification, and,
Understands that, due to precedent, those clarifications can not legally be applied while DRSGM stands.
For these reasons, The General Assembly hereby repeals GA #457.
My Decision
As a general practice, I try not support repeals targeting legislation I have previously supported. While there are cases where I go against this, this repeal is not one of them.
The short version of this lengthy resolution is that the author believes DRSGM should be repealed because it gave religious organizations an exemption without providing, "A clear explanation as to why." This 'exemption loophole' therefore provides the basis for the author's objection. Even though DRSGM provides a clear path for legislation addressing religious exemption, THX believes repealing and replacing the resolution as a whole is more effective than trying to adopt supplementary legislation to address this issue.
What further concerns me is the fact that the author, when confronted about this strange approach, offered a draft for new legislation designed to address their concerns, but get this: it has nothing to do with addressing religious exemption. Instead, it is a proposal regulating exemptions in legislation and has nothing to do with religious exemption or protecting sexual and gender minority rights.
This resolution is a case where the author says one thing and does another. The target resolution is too important to repeal and hope it gets replaced by nearly identical language that corrects one flaw, a flaw that the target resolution clearly recognizes and wholeheartedly permits further attempts to correct through supplemental legislation. Unfortunately, the issue of religious exemption and permitted discrimination is a very sensitive matter in the World Assembly, presenting uncertain odds of a successful repeal and replace; therefore, I believe a far safer and more effective solution is to try to patch the hole through supplemental legislation, not a full-blown repeal.
I have cast my vote against of this resolution, and I encourage you to do the same.
Current Regional support at time of publication.
Current Delegate support at time of publication.