21st General Assembly Session

An archive of previous sessions of both the General Assembly and Security Council as well as various ad hoc consultations and meetings.

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Re: General Assembly

Postby Polites » Wed Jul 11, 2018 11:56 am

Alexandra Iunia Marnix, representative of Selucian Foreign Affairs Minister Hiroto Yukimura

Honorable Minister Greer,

Your analogy too falls apart. The Northern Council is not Vanuku's mother. The Northern Council is another bully with a big stick, waving it around on the playground and demanding that the one bully that actually used his stick be humiliated and dishonored. Even if the Northern Council's demands were just, which we do not believe to be the case, there is no chance Vanuku would comply with the demands of a foreign military alliance that has every interest in seeing Vanuku weakened and humiliated. The only thing that will result is that Vanuku will become more defiant and get a bigger stick. The way to confront bullying is not to humiliate the bully or to mediate specific cases. It is rather whole-school approaches, that tackle not only individual incidents but establish a change program for the entire school's culture that have the most success. Incidents of bullying are a wonderful opportunity for the school to affirm its disapproval of bullying while making sure the bully himself is not humiliated and has the opportunity to make amends. Same in this case. The nuclear strike was unacceptable but there is no precedent in international law against the use of nuclear weapons. Perhaps we should take this crisis as an opportunity to build international momentum towards the abolition of nuclear weaponry and at the same time encourage and promote initiatives like Vanuku's government change, the abdication of the former King, the reconstruction and restitution efforts in Jelbania, or the Rklemjistad Summit. The right question to ask in this case, and indeed in all cases where an injustice has occured, is not "What is the right punishment?", but rather "What can we do to fix this?". Fingering the wrongdoer discourages active responsibility, that is taking responsibility for setting things right, and promotes resentment, defiance, and an escalating spiral of measures and countermeasures that can only end in nuclear Armageddon. By blaming the direct offender the Northern Council proclaims itself blameless and invites the risk of defiance against the attribution of responsibility, seen as an act of domination. The wrongdoer taking responsibility is the more moral outcome than the wrongdoer being made responsible by imposed external sanctions or threats. When the wrongdoer takes responsibility for an injustice he sends the powerful message that an injustice has indeed occurred and that he respects the victim's rights. Imposed condemnation instead cheapens justice and will only result in the condemners being condemned. Instead we must give Vanuku the honor of allowing them to do more than they are required and the victims to demand less than they are entitled. We should allow Vanuku to show generosity and the victims to show mercy.
Polites
 
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