General Assembly Resolution #32 “Veterans Reform Act” (Category: Social Justice; Strength: Strong) shall be struck out and rendered null and void.

SADDENED by the fact that this resolution was submitted before it was effectively refined;

OUTRAGED at the multitude of flaws this resolution holds within its body;

DISMAYED by the fact that member nations will be required to fund care for another nation's "veterans", including, but not limited to, those soldiers who have recently been at war againt them or those they will be at war with in the future;

ALARMED by this resolution’s definition of “veteran” that includes not only those citizens who have willingly joined their nation’s armed services, but also those who have been conscripted which, in certain cases, can include a vast majority of a nation's citizens;

CONCERNED that the WA Veterans Assistance Office (WAVAO) requires all member nations to incur the monetary cost of all services allocated by Section 4 of the "Veterans Reform Act" through use of the W.A. General Fund;

MORTIFIED that the expenditures incurred to the General Fund by the WAVAO are exponential, un-restricted, unregulated and extremely vulnerable to corrupt abuse, leading to a high likelihood of massive depletion of W.A. funds;

HEREBY repeals the Veterans Reform Act.

The World Assembly,

UNDERSTANDING that anyone may be accused of a criminal act, whether innocent or not;

DESIRING that the innocent not be wrongly punished and that the guilty not be wrongly exonerated;

BELIEVING that rigorous examination of evidence will aid this cause;

RECOGNISING that nations have many different equally valid legal systems;

OBSERVING that persons from many nations travel to other nations for a variety of reasons;

CONVINCED that agreement amongst member states on the basic legal rights of individuals concerning trials can further protect travellers and improve relations between nations;

MANDATES that all persons charged with criminal offences in the jurisdictions of member nations shall be brought to trial with such reasonable speed as is consistent with both prosecution and defence properly assembling available relevant evidence;

DEFINES "criminal offences" as those prosecuted by the state or a state-appointed actor;

REQUIRES that such trials be directed impartially by someone competent in the area of law concerned;

REQUIRES further that such trials be adjudicated impartially by person or persons competent to understand the proceedings;

COMMENDS to the consideration of member nations a jury of the accused's peers as such trial adjudicators;

INSISTS that the accused be permitted expert representation by a professional versed in the area of law concerned;

INSISTS that the accused and their representative be permitted to confer in private as regards the facts and presentation of the case, and that no part of such a conference may be revealed to any third party without the explicit permission of the accused;

FURTHER INSISTS that governmental or charitable mechanisms be set up to provide such representation to those accused otherwise unable to afford it;

REQUIRES that the accused be capable of understanding proceedings, through the provision by the court of translators and carers as necessary;

REQUIRES that evidence-giving, any addressing of the trial adjudicators by either the prosecution or defence, and any procedural or legal directives made by the trial director shall be open and transparent, excepting that individual evidence-giving may be done with the public excluded if the trial director agrees that openness would present a risk to national security;

OBSERVES that ceremonial or religious activities of the court not related to evidence-giving, addressing the trial adjudicators, or directing the course of the trial may or may not be required to be open at the determination of member nations;

FORBIDS prejudicial public discussion of a trial and prejudicial private discussion with the trial adjudicators while the trial is in progress;

REQUIRES that the accused, through their representative, be permitted to question those who bear witness against them;

ALLOWS that the identity of witnesses may be concealed as deemed appropriate by the trial director, provided there are reasonable grounds to fear that the witnesses concerned may otherwise be endangered or unfairly coerced;

REQUIRES that the accused may not be forced to self-incrimination, and that this constitutes sufficient reason for them to refuse to answer a question put to them during the trial;

OPINES that a trial should be held reasonably locally to the place of commission of the crime;

HEARTILY RECOMMENDS the use of a verdict of "Not Proven" where the trial adjudicators think it appropriate.

WHEREAS genocide is a most reprehensible crime and an affront to civilisation itself; and,

CONVINCED that no circumstance can justify the commission of genocide; and,

SEEKING to enact measures to prevent and punish acts of genocide,

NOW THEREFORE, the World Assembly enacts as follows:

1. (1) Genocide shall be defined as any act committed, or measure enacted, with the intent to destroy, in whole or partially, an identifiable group of persons on the basis of belief, ethnicity, nationality, culture, or a perceived innate characteristic, which for the purposes of this resolution shall include sexual orientation.

(2) Acts of genocide include, but are not limited to: killing or inflicting serious harm upon members of the group, creating living conditions for the group which tend to bring about its physical destruction, forcibly removing children from the group, or taking measures to prevent births within the group.

2. Member nations are prohibited from perpetrating acts of genocide, and must take action against non-state groups undertaking such activities whithin their borders.

3. Member nations must provide aid, protection and refuge to victims of genocide to the best of their ability, and must deny such aid to the perpetrators of genocide.

4. Genocide, conspiring to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to genocide, attempting to commit genocide, and complicity in genocide shall be punishable acts in all member states.

5. (1) Nations must facilitate the extradition of those suspected of the crimes specified in section 4 to the appropriate authority should they have escaped outside of the appropriate authority's control, subject to national and international law.

(2) The crimes specified in section 4 may not be considered political crimes for the purposes of preventing extradition proceedings.

6. In consideration of the gravity of the crime of genocide, member nations are strongly urged to apply the harshest penalties under their laws for the punishment of those convicted of genocide, and part of the sentence shall include measures to prevent those found guilty of genocide from repeating such acts.

7. The final goal of action against genocide is to uphold the rights of sapient beings, and actions taken against genocide should be consistent with this higher goal.

THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD ASSEMBLED,

CELEBRATING the cultural diversity of its member states,

RECOGNIZING that legal unions of marriage vary among member nations and include civil contracts regulating the union of two or more persons including nationally recognized effects on the common estate and inheritance rights of the parties,

RECOGNIZING the fallibility of sentient desires and actions, failures which can touch aspects fundamental to a person's pursuit of happiness, among them the choice of entering in good faith in a partnership for the purpose of lasting a lifetime,

RECOGNIZING that unions of marriage may become unwanted, untenable, undesirable, harmful, and even dangerous,

APPALLED that certain member States have not desisted to devise ever subtler ways to try to ignore self-evident sentient rights, such as the right to happiness, the right to avoid harm to oneself and one's children, the right to self-determination, and the right to pursue a second chance in life,

ENACTS the following resolution:

1) Divorce is the legal dissolution of a marriage, which ceases to have legal existence between the requesting party or parties to said marriage from the date the divorce is legally and finally pronounced, and shall henceforth be available to all inhabitants of the World Assembly member states without let or hindrance.

2) Any of the parties to a marriage may ask for and obtain a lawful divorce in appropriate legal systems of the member state which they inhabit, which shall resolve such dissolutions fairly, equitably, and with promptitude.

3) Legal parenthood shall never be annulled by the sole reason of a divorce. In case the divorcing parties to a marriage have children, appropriate legal systems of member states shall resolve issues of custody of and support for said children with an overriding priority of the best interests of each and every child.

4) Upon divorce proceedings, appropriate latitude shall be given in the defense of personal assets, and appropriate legal systems of member states shall determine equitable distribution of the parties’ common estate and inheritance rights.

5) No penalty of any kind shall be imposed on a party or parties seeking divorce for the sole reason of such seeking or for the sole reason there is no consent of all parties to such divorce.

6) Nothing in this Resolution shall be construed so as to dictate the beliefs or the internal, solely religious procedures and rites any religion should follow.