GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION AT VOTE
A Decriminalization of Suicide
A resolution to improve worldwide human and civil rights.
Category: Human Rights
Strength: Significant
Proposed by: Unibotian WA Mission
Description: The General Assembly,
Noting that modern psychiatry has come to recognize suicidal tendencies as a common response to depression or a symptom of mental illness,
Believing that the religious or moral prohibitions of “self-murder” are not strong enough to justify the sentencing and incarceration of those who attempt and fail to commit suicide, since this punishment may only further damage the subject’s mental state,
Hereby:
1. Affirms that the act of intentionally ending one’s own life, hereby defined as “suicide”, shall not be a criminal offense or breach of law in any member-nation;
a. Additionally, the act of attempting to commit suicide shall not be a criminal offense or breach of law in any member-nation;
b. Member-states shall not impose taxation on suicide or attempted suicide (see cl.3);
c. Member-states shall not withhold inheritance, tax credit or other benefits on the basis that one died specifically by suicide. However, if a member-state is an insurer it may withhold life insurance to beneficiaries if the insured died by suicide;
d. Any ongoing punishment for breaching laws that do not comply with this resolution shall cease immediately;
2. Requests that member-states and their respective legal systems take care in distinguishing between activities of a potentially careless and/or life-threatening nature (e.g., recreational substance use, failure to use safety equipment) and specific acts that are intended by one to end one's own life;
3. Demands a state shall not respond to someone who has attempted suicide as it would respond to a criminal offender simply because they acted to end their own life;
a. If a subject committed criminal offenses in the course of an attempted suicide, the subject could be convicted for those offenses but the actual act of attempted suicide would not be a criminal offense;
b. If a subject's suicide attempt directly affects the health and safety of others (e.g., suicide bombing), the subject may be convicted for posing a harm to others but the actual act of attempted suicide would not be a criminal offense;
c. If a suicidal person has not breached the law but is to be institutionalized, this institution must be a dedicated mental health facility, separate from the criminal justice system or penitentiaries;
4. Recognizes a desire to attempt suicide motivated by many of the common underlying motivations behind suicide (e.g., despair, depression, substance abuse) is a medical emergency which demands therapy and treatment;
5. Clarifies that nothing in this act shall impact whether member-nations can criminalize the forcing, assistance, aid or abetment of suicide.
Votes For: 2,209
Votes Against: 571
[Delegate Votes]
Voting Ends: in 3 days 14 hours
Poll