April 25, 2024 Resolutions

Here are the resolutions for the April 25, 2024 General Assembly session. The schools attending are Lafayette Prep Academy and Maplewood-Richmond Heights Middle. The General Assembly will be at the Creve Coeur Drury Inn from 9:00 am until 12:00 pm. We will be posting resolutions as we receive them. Some of these might be rough drafts and will have changes before the session. Click here to see country rosters and information about the other Middle School General Assemblies.

Status:	Sponsored by:	Topic:
GA-01	Portugal Maplewood-Richmond Heights	Reducing Inhumane Prison Conditions
GA-02	Canada Lafayette Prep Academy	Air Pollution in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
GA-03	Belgium Maplewood-Richmond Heights	Housing Homeless Refugees
GA-04	North Korea Lafayette Prep Academy	Providing Nuclear Power to North Korean Citizens
GA-05	Egypt Maplewood-Richmond Heights	Poverty Among Egyptian Citizens
GA-06	Peru Lafayette Prep Academy	Stopping Illegal Mining in Peru

Resolution GA-01 April 25

Re.:                             Reducing Inhumane Prison Conditions
Submitted to:            General Assembly
Submitted by:            Portugal
Date:                           April 25, 2024

Whereas Article 5 of the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS states, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”, and

Whereas Article 7 of the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS states, “All are equal before the law and are entitled without discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.”, and

Whereas Sustainable Development Goal #16 is Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, and

Shaken that in 2021, there were over 1,000 reports of mistreatment, torture, and abuse by security guards in Portugal, the highest amount of reports since 2012, and

Appalled that while the constitution and law prohibit torture and other cruel, degrading, or inhuman treatment or punishment, there were credible reports of excessive use of force by police and of mistreatment and other forms of abuse of prisoners by prison guards, and

Taken back that in 2022 Portugal’s had an incarceration rate of 114 out of 100,000 people being incarcerated but they still had issues with overcrowding and bad living conditions, and

Disgusted that in 2022, there were many reports of inhumane treatment and torture from secretary guards, and

Repulsed that even with the prison population at nearly ⅙ of the US Portugal still has overcrowding issues in prison,

Be It Hereby Resolved That The General Assembly:

Will create a committee and non-profit titled U.N.P.C (United Nations Prison Control) which works with local prison administrators to remodel the current prisons in Portugal to have prisoners live in less harsh and clean conditions. We will also initiate a program entitled C.R.H.C (courtesy, respect, honesty, collaboration) to teach correctional officers how to interact with prisoners in a productive and respectful manner while still disciplining and keeping control.
Our first initiative will be to start the C.R.H.C. program for prison guards. Prison guards will be required to attend mandatory lessons twice a week. These lessons will be taught by U.N.P.C. representatives that are stationed at each prison to make sure the U.N.P.C mission is actually gone through with. Prison guards will receive harsh punishment for any harmful, physical or emotional, behavior towards prisoners. Some of these punishments could include termination of employment, getting demoted from your job, or even facing jail time. However, we hope through this program that we can teach the prison guards productive ways to treat the prisoners humanely before they get fired or demoted.
Our second initiative would be to remodel a Portuguese prison to a newer, cleaner, and more modern version of its old self. We would create cleaner and more comfortable cells, bathrooms, recreational areas, and a schoolhouse. After a couple of years of evaluating the success of one prison, we will start remodeling other prisons. The prison we plan to remodel is Estabelecimento Prisional da Guarda. It is an 182 bed, high-security prison with both male and female sections.
We will only model half the cells at a time so that we can move prisoners to different empty beds at other prisons. Half will stay and half will move. Then once the half that had moved has their cells remodeled, we will send out the half that stayed. We plan to move the prisoners using police cars that we already have. These cars have all the safety mechanisms we need to protect the guards and prisoners.
We believe that a prison remodel would positively affect prisoners’ mental health and decrease mental illnesses like depression. We also believe that this would help decrease the recidivism rate (a person’s relapse into criminal behavior) in Portugal. For example, Norway in the 1990’s had a 70% recidivism rate. This means that 70% of all released prisoners recommitted crimes within two years of release. Norway’s prison system at this time thought that strict punishment in harsh conditions would be the best way to make prisoners learn their lessons. However, like the current Portugal prison system, Norway was seeing assaults, riots, and escapes in prisons. So they made a big change. They started putting a heavy focus on rehabilitation and trying to make the prisoners functioning members of society. For example, one of the most famous Norwegian prisons is the Halden Prison. This prison has a fitness center, library, chapel, athletic fields, family visiting center, and a school. This is a maximum security prison that holds some of the most dangerous inmates in Norway, and they see extreme success with this new ultra-humane practice.
Our total cost has a few different factors. First, we have the total cost for the construction. Building a brand new 1000-person prison costs about 100 million dollars. The prison population of Estabelecimento Prisional da Guarda is about 200. So that makes our construction cost about 20 million dollars. We do not have to account for any extra cost for guards or prisoners because that is included in what Portugal has been paying all this time. However, we will have U.N.P.C representatives at the prisons that we will need to pay. An average salary for someone living in Portugal is $33,000. We will have 4 U.N.P.C representatives at Estabelecimento Prisional da Guarda and we will be paying each $50,000. Keep in mind that living expenses are 36.3% lower in Portugal than in the United States so each employee should live comfortably with this salary. So that brings the total cost to 20.2 million dollars.
We have come up with a few ideas on how to fund this project. One idea is that we would receive donations through partnering with popular sports players in Portugal. We would hope to partner with an athlete who cares deeply about the issue of inhumane prisons in Portugal and who would be willing to speak about why they partnered with us in press conferences, social media, or TV. We are hoping to gain donations from people who are seeing their favorite athletes talk about our non-profit. They could also give us more advertisement and popularity. We estimate that we can raise $500,000 through this. Not only will the athletes donate but so will the fans.
We would also like to request Norway help us with the U.N.P.C mission. Norway’s prison system is renowned as one of the most effective and humane in the world with their highest number of registered prisoners at one time being only 4200. We know that the country highly values treating prisoners with respect and having them live in clean conditions. Along with this Norway was ranked as the 7th richest country worldwide in 2021. Due to this, we ask for 10 million dollars to go to our prison remodeling. We would also ask that they help us create a successful rehabilitation program and give us ideas on how to lower the abuse rates of prisoners. Along with these advantages of being partnered with Norway’s prison system, we would also gain even more popularity combined with us partnering with the sports player.
With all this, we ask to raise the U.N. dues of the 10 highest-paying countries by 0.5%. From this, we would receive $9,929,917.
So the total amount of money we estimate getting is $20,429,917. This includes the sports players, Norway’s donation, and raising U.N. dues for the 10 nations that pay the highest amount of dues. This would cover our $20.2 million dollar cost.
In the future, we hope to remodel many more prisons in Portugal. 3 years after we finish remodeling Estabele cimento Prisional da Guarda (Our target prison) and continue our C.R.H.C program, we will evaluate the success of the project by doing lots of recording methods. We will look at recidivism rates, interview past and current inmates, interview guards, look at any incident reports and how they were handled, and more. In 3 years we hope to bring reports of mistreatment and abuse by police and prison guards down by 40%. We also will make it so all prison guards most attend a mandatory 8 hours of training per week. We will also compare these new statistics to other prisons in the area. We will hopefully get more funding if this project is successful, so we will be able to remodel more prisons and still keep the C.R.H.C. program strong.
If this program becomes successful throughout Portugal, we will move to neighboring countries. First starting with Spain and going from there. We hope that the partnership between U.N.P.C. and Norway will continue strong and will show a worldwide standard for what prison conditions should look like, and how we should treat the world’s inmates.

Resolution GA-02 April 25

Re.:                             Air Pollution in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Submitted to:            General Assembly
Submitted by:            Canada
Date:                           April 25, 2024

Whereas Article 25, section 1 of the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS states, “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care, and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age, or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”, and

Whereas Sustainable Development Goal #3 is Good Health and Well-Being, and

Whereas Sustainable Development Goal #7 is Affordable and Clean Energy, and

Whereas Sustainable Development Goal #13 is Climate Action, and

Whereas Sustainable Development Goal #15 is Life on Land, and

Saddened that approximately 1,872 people die every year from the pollution in the air, and

Alarmed that the mean annual exposure to PM2.5 is eight times higher than what the World Health Organization considers safe for human health, and

Noting that fossil fuels contribute a lot to the pollution in the air, and

Concerned that migrant workers in UAE did not know the risks of air pollution and how they can protect themselves against it, and

Recognizing that the UAE government is planning on increasing the production of fossil fuels, and

Shocked that authorities in the UAE target people who speak out about the pollution problems caused by the UAE government,

Be It Hereby Resolved That The General Assembly:

The United Nations will establish a trade Sanctions Regime in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
This sanction will put a tariff on oil exports. These tariffs will increase the UAE’s oil export prices by 50%.
The extra money earned by these tariffs will be given to a group called UAE Emission Reduction Program (UAE ERP). This program will be run by The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs(UN DESA).
Reasonable administrative costs will be deducted from the tariff funds to pay the employees involved with UAE ERP.
The rest of the tariff funds will be used to help the UAE with its pollution problems. Helping the UAE with its pollution problems will also include teaching immigrant workers the risks of air pollution and how to protect themselves against air pollution.
The tariffs will be ended and the UAE ERP will cease operations once the UAE pledges to reduce its PM2.5 emissions by 50%.

Resolution GA-03 April 25

Re.:                             Housing Homeless Refugees
Submitted to:            General Assembly
Submitted by:            Belgium
Date:                           April 25, 2024

Whereas Article 13 section 1 of the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.”, and

Whereas Article 13 section 2 of the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS states, “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”, and

Whereas Article 25, section 2 of the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS states, “Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.”, and

Whereas Sustainable Development Goal #10 is Reduced Inequalities, and

Noting that in Belgium, at least 2,600 people seeking asylum are destitute due to the Belgian government’s failure to provide them with shelter and other essential goods and services, and

Appalled that De Moor complained that the influx of asylum-seekers over the past two years in the nation of 11.5 million had filled shelters almost to their capacity of 33,500. Last year, Belgium had nearly 37,000 applications for protection, and

Whereas ’Rejection’ covers the number of persons who received a decision refusing refugee status and refusing subsidiary protection status (total: 7,742) and those whose applications were declared inadmissible after subsequent applications and towards beneficiaries of international protection in another member state (total: 4,253) or were declared manifestly unfounded (Total: 1,046), and

Recognizing that most refugees coming to seek asylum in Belgium are Ukrainians escaping the conflict, or Afghans seeking refuge,

Be It Hereby Resolved That The General Assembly:

Create a project called BGHR (Belgium Group for Housing Refugees) including software that tracks every shelter in Belgium, and a home base in Brussels the capital of Belgium to easily place and transport these refugees.
BGHR will have a list of each shelter in Belgium. Each shelter will have the opposite end of the software where they will upload the number of occupants they have and that will filter into a master database on the home base side. With this information, they will be able to place the refugees that have come into the home base seeking shelter. Once they find a place for the refugees, they will receive a transit ticket, giving them free transportation to the shelter they were placed in. Once they get there, the shelter will update their software.
When the refugees cross the border to get into Belgium, they will be informed about the home base in Brussels, and get directed towards there if they are seeking shelter and want a quick and efficient way to get there.
The home base will include office spaces for employees to conference with the refugees to get them placed, a travel department, and a waiting area. The travel department will be vital in the expansion of the facility. If and when all shelters in Belgium are at full capacity, BGHR will expand into Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The travel department will issue temporary visas for the refugees to travel to those countries. We will provide all travel expenses.
The qualifications of the employees at the home base will include partial fluency in any or all of the above languages: English, French, Dutch, German, Ukrainian, and Arabic, as well as 3-5 years of experience working with computers and running software, and working closely with people.
Considering Belgium is the 21st richest country in the world, it will fund the project itself. These expenses include:
1. Cost for 2 software developers to develop the program itself (400,000 USD)
1. Cost for building the home base and extra costs relating to that (2,000,000 USD)
1. Costs for training shelter employees and home base employees (25,000 USD)
1. Cost for utilities for the home base (1,000,000 USD per year)
1. Cost for transit tickets (50,000 USD per year)
1. Cost for employing 20 workers to operate the home base (2,000,000 USD per year but they won’t start training until year 2)
1. Cost for travel visas (10,000 USD per year)
1. Cost for travel as a whole (50,000 USD per year)
In the first year of development, total costs will be around 3,500,000 USD including an initial investment of 1,500,000 USD. 3,110,000 USD will be paid annually after that.
The initial steps of this plan should span over 5 years. Let’s break that down:
In year 1, we plan to build our home base and plan, build, and test the software.
In year 2, we will find employees and train them and the shelter workers on how to use the software and make things run smoothly. Halfway through year 2, we will organize the transit.
We will hire back the software developers for the training period to break down the program to the employees. They will learn how to troubleshoot if something goes wrong, and how to filter through housing refugees quickly.
Through years 3,4, and 5, the software and home base should be up and running.
After year 5, we will see how much of a difference this solution has made, and whether it has shown success.
Success will be shown when the percentage of refugees that are unhoused goes down by 15% by the end of the 5 years. If this success is apparent or if all shelters are at full occupancy, we will plan to expand into Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
The expansion should be pretty much the same process as the original plan, so the budget will be the same for each other shelter made. Changes will only be made if the country where the expansion is taking place has a much larger amount of refugees seeking asylum. If this is the case, a larger home base will be developed, with more employees and resources, or multiple facilities will be made in multiple locations.
These facilities will run while the original Belgium home base continues to run.
Although Belgium is willing to fund this project ourselves, we are asking for the protection of the refugees traveling to Belgium from all countries. Whether this be in the form of peacekeepers at the border or a general understanding of the border control workers who let refugees through without issue.

Resolution GA-04 April 25

Re.:                             Providing Nuclear Power to North Korean Citizens
Submitted to:            General Assembly
Submitted by:            North Korea
Date:                           April 25, 2024

Whereas Article 1 of the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS states, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”, and

Whereas Article 3 of the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS states, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.”, and

Whereas Article 24 of the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS states, “Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.”, and

Noting that North Korea has consistently experienced rolling blackouts for decades, and

Recognizing that 2019, 99% of North Korean citizens stated that they would give up their power so Dear Leader could live comfortably, and

Affirming that in 2021, nearly 58% of North Korean citizens bravely went without electricity for the good of the nation, and

Acknowledging that electricity is necessary for the modern citizen to live comfortably, and

Amazed by the effort our leader has exercised to solve this issue as the Highest Dignity continues to do, and

Shocked that factories and workplaces have had to shut down due to this issue, and

Aware that even great nations must ask for help from others for the good of their country,

Be It Hereby Resolved That The General Assembly:

We are asking for $5.3 billion USD to fund the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Chagang province of North Korea.
This power plant would be 1000 MW and would possess the ability to power about 100,000 homes per year.
We are specifically asking the nations of Russia and China to help us with the money we need for this project, and Dear Leader will cover any extra costs that may arise.
This power plant will be built by North Koreans and will provide jobs for citizens in need of one, and monthly progress reports will be given to any country who contributes.
Our experts expect this power plant to take 9 to 10 years to complete, but it may be finished quicker on account of our efficient workforce.

Resolution GA-05 April 25

Re.:                             Poverty Among Egyptian Citizens
Submitted to:            General Assembly
Submitted by:            Egypt
Date:                           April 25, 2024

Whereas Article 2 section 1 of the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS states, “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without any distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”, and

Whereas Article 2 section 2 of the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS states, “Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.”, and

Whereas Sustainable Development Goal #1 is No Poverty, and

Concerned that as stated in an article by Reuters, “As many as 60% of Egypt’s 104 million citizens are estimated to be below, or close to the poverty line.”, and

Alarmed that according to UN.org, at a UN Summit, the Egyptian government determined that poverty was a large-scale problem in Egypt, and

Saddened that Egypt is currently in its most severe economic crisis since 2011, with a weak currency, rising inflation, and capital flight, all pointing toward deeper debt,

Be It Hereby Resolved That The General Assembly:

Acquire funding from the United Nations and taxes of rich Egyptians. $15,000,000 will be acquired from the United Nations Development Program and United Nations Human Rights Council $23,737,600 will be acquired from raising the taxes of the top 10% of Egyptians in regard to wealth. Egypt will look at the census and annual tax data to establish who fits this. This tax will last for 1 ½ years. Total funds for the project will be $38,737,600. We will create an organization called the Egyptian Housing Organization (EHO).
The Egyptian government, with the help of the United Nations, will spend $5,000,000 on acquiring 2 acres of land with apartments on them at two separate locations for a total of 4 acres. One location will be in Cairo and the other will be in Alexandria, the two biggest cities in Egypt. The Egyptian government will spend $7,000,000 on renovations to the apartment complexes. It is necessary to renovate these apartments because they do not meet the standard that we need for a 4-person home. Renovations will go to improving the structural integrity of the buildings, updated all appliances, and furnishing apartments. Food for everyone in the complexes, for all 5 years will total to $20,000,000. The Egyptian government will government will cover all utilities for the building. $2,016,000 will go to electricity, $480,000 will go to water, and $240,000 will go to gas. A shuttle bus will be provided to get people in the facilities to where they need to go. This will cost $3,000,000 combined. Advertisements will be on billboards, costing approximately $1,600. Each apartment complex will be fitted with workers from job-searching companies which will cost $1,000,000 in total. Any other work, such as upkeep, will be done by volunteers at no additional cost.
These apartments will be bought in December of 2024-January of 2025. It will take 1 year to renovate these apartments. January 2026 the apartments will open to the public and billboards will go up at this time to advertise the place. Every 5 years, the apartments will be checked in on to see progress in helping the public. The first evaluation will take place January 2031, to see progress and if expansion or change is necessary.
The evaluation process of these apartments will consist of looking at the change in percent of people in poverty changes, interviewing past residents, and looking at the percentage of past residents still with stable income.
At the beginning, approximately 800 people will be brought in, to fill all 200 apartments. Adults of these families will be matched with a worker from the job searching company, the two groups will work together to match adults with jobs they enjoy, that also provide steady income. Once these adults get enough to live financially stable on their own, they will move out of the center, and new families will move in. If space fully fills up, people will be put on waitlist with the goal to get them in for the next month. Once people can fully supports themselves and their families, new people will come in to the places.
After 5 years, if poverty rates have dropped by 5% and at least 90% of people formerly housed at these facilities have stable living situations a third location will be opened at Port Said, the 5th biggest city, and the biggest city over 2 hours away from Cairo and Alexandria. To purchase and renovate a building, keep utilities running, provide a shuttle service, and provide food, Egypt would request an additional $15,000,000 from the United Nations Development Program and UN Human Rights Council. Egypt would also like to request $26,000,000 over the span of 5 years (roughly $5,200,000 a year) to keep the other two facilities running.

Resolution GA-06 April 25

Re.:                             Stopping Illegal Mining in Peru
Submitted to:            General Assembly
Submitted by:            Peru
Date:                           April 25, 2024

Whereas Sustainable Development Goal #7 is Affordable and Clean Energy, and

Whereas Sustainable Development Goal #12 is Responsible Consumption and Growth, and

Whereas Sustainable Development Goal #13 is Climate Action, and

Whereas Sustainable Development Goal #15 is Life on Land, and

Deeply concerned that an estimated 59,011 acres of southern Peru has been deforested due to mining, and

Alarmed that 90% of mining in Peru is illegal or informal, and

Observing that Peruvian government’s anti-illegal mining program only lasted from 2019 to 2020,

Be It Hereby Resolved That The General Assembly:

To help combat illegal mining in Peru we can start a program sending two hundred workers to Peru to report on all mining activity in Peru. The volunteers will report back to UN officials who will then place sanctions on companies participating in illegal activity. These sanctions will stay in place and we will ask countries in the UN to withhold trade with said companies until the illegal activities subside.
The volunteers will stay to monitor the situation in Peru for two more months after the initial report and then return six months after to check up on the situation. The check ins will continue every six months for the next five years.
If the amount of illegal mining in Peru decreases by 20% or more by the five year mark then the program will be deemed successful and can be copied in other countries with illegal activity.
We are asking for $3 million dollars to pay workers, cover the cost of flights and cars for the work itself. We are asking for money from the U.S.A, Japan, Canada and the UK.

CIVITAS-STL

April 25, 2024 Resolutions

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