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Protection of Sapient Rights; Proposed by Excidium Planetis
Topic Started: Jul 22 2015, 10:06 PM (162 Views)
Christian Democrats
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HMSM James II
Voting on this proposal begins in six hours.

In-game debate thread: http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=340934

Protection of Sapient Rights
Proposed by Excidium Planetis
Protection of Sapient Rights
Category: Human Rights
Strength: Significant
Proposed by: Excidium Planetis


The General Assembly,

Applauding the efforts to secure rights for all sapient beings, regardless of race, and the many efforts not to limit such rights to only beings of the homo sapiens species;

Nevertheless Concerned at the many attempts to restrict the rights of sapient beings for purely racial reasons, including but not limited to attempts to restrict the rights of sapient machines and an attempt to make human decisions necessary in the warfare of non-human species;

Reminding the members of the WA that legislation applying only to humans has been passed before, such as the now repealed GA#16 "Sexual Privacy Act";

Believing that to secure once and for all the rights of sapient beings everywhere, a resolution is needed to affirm these rights;

Defines:
  • "Sapient Being" as any entity possessing both a) the ability to reason and act with appropriate judgement and b) sentience.

  • "Sentience" as the ability to feel, perceive, or experience subjectively.

  • "Existing international laws" as any passed World Assembly Resolutions which are extant and not void at the time an individual may read this resolution, whether those resolutions have been passed before or after this resolution was passed.
And Hereby Declares that any sapient beings found inside member nations are not to be denied any of the rights guaranteed to humans or sapient beings by existing international laws, and that no member nation may discriminate against sapient beings for reasons of race or species alone.

Clarifies that it is the responsibility of individual member nations to determine whether a given entity is a sapient being, but that such methods of determination must apply equally to humans and any other entities examined.

Further Affirms that sapient beings shall be recognized in the eyes of the World Assembly as living beings, regardless of biological status.
"I was born free and desire to continue so."

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Christian Democrats
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HMSM James II
Against.

There are major problems with this proposal.

1. People can roleplay nonhuman intelligent life if they want, but they shouldn't force it on the rest of us.

2. This proposal's conflation of species and race in the first two clauses cheapens actual efforts to secure racial and ethnic equality. This proposal comes across as insensitive to the actual abuses that disfavored groups have suffered in the real world throughout history: from slavery and genocide to more subtle forms of maltreatment.

3. The second-to-last clause condones the discriminatory view that some humans are not, in fact, persons by suggesting that some human beings could fail an exam to determine their "sapience."
"I was born free and desire to continue so."

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Guy
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Old Admin Slave
Against, because effectively enforcement is completely up to the member state.

While the method of determination may be seemingly equal, the actual method may indirectly discriminate (discrimination in fact, disparate impact, etc) against a species.
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Banned: Chester Pearson
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Resouluton Author Extraordinaire
Against
The Right Honourable Chester B. Pearson,

Prime Minister, United Federation of Canada

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Dvorak The Great
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Former HR Officer
Against.
"Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."
     - Dwight D. Eisenhower
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Opressed Ones
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Dedicated
Against
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Karolingia
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Lost and Confused
Against. By leaving the definition of sapience up to each individual nation, this resolution will allow for a multitude of definitions of sapience, denying rights to beings considered sapient in one nation because they happen to live in another--and this assumes that all nations act in good faith, which I think we all know will never happen. How difficult can it be for a segregationist nation to define sapience in such a way that only humans fit the requirements? Attempting to protect the rights of sapient beings requires a standard definition of sapience; without that, the proposal is about as useful as a dead doornail.
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