World Assembly resolution

A World Assembly resolution (WA resolution) is a formal text adopted by a World Assembly (WA) chamber. Resolutions are issued by the General Assembly or the Security Council.

Legal status

General Assembly resolutions are binding on all member states, and World Assembly staff are deployed as soon as possible after resolutions are passed by that body to execute their provisions. Resolutions can be proposed by any member nation endorsed by at least two others, and are proposed via one of up to fourteen committees in the body. Nations joining the World Assembly are expected to abide by all binding resolutions of the General Assembly, including those passed before they joined the body; agreement to apply previously passed, and still extant, legislation part of the conditions of membership.

Resolutions passed by the General Assembly are enforced by the World Assembly Compliance Commission, a child agency of the body, and nations found by that agency to be in non-compliance face significant fines; nations found in non-compliance with General Assembly resolutions may not be expelled from the body, however.

Of the four resolution types that may be passed by the Security Council, however, three are considering non-binding. Declarations, Commendations, and Condemnations are considered only the expression of the view of a majority of member states; member states who do not subscribe to the outlook expressed in these resolutions are free to disregard them and/or decline to implement any recommendations contained within them.

In contrast, Liberation resolutions passed by the Security Council are binding on the the resolutions' targets. Liberation resolutions are designed to arbitrate border disputes and, therefore, are required to be binding in those disputes to effectively resolve them.

Structure of a resolution

World Assembly resolutions have no fixed structure, but most tend to follow a format of heading, preamble, and operative clauses. In the General Assembly, the heading contains the title of the resolution, as well as the nation proposing it and via which committee it is being proposed through. In the Security Council, the heading also contains the title of the resolution and the nation proposing it, but it also specifies which type of resolution it is and if there is a target nation or region, in the cases of Commendations, Condemnations, and Liberations.

The majority of text of Security Council resolutions are usually considered preambulatory, with the clauses laying out the reason for the resolution. That is, for example, a resolution to commend a nation will detail in its preambulatory clauses the positive or praise-worthy reasons for the commendation. The General Assembly normally has a much shorter preambulatory section, with the greater part of their resolutions dedicated to operative clauses; it is because resolutions passed by the General Assembly are fundamentally binding, and Security Council resolutions are usually not, that the concentration in resolutions from this body are on the operative clauses.

In the General Assembly, the operative section of the resolutions typically begin with a clause stating that body "hereby" does what follows in the rest of the operative clauses, while in the Security Council the "hereby" statement is usually the only operative clause i.e. the Security Council hereby condemns, commends, liberates, or declares.

Implementation

World Assembly staff in the Compliance Commission are responsible for ensuring nations remain in compliance with binding resolutions passed by the body, and delegations from that Commission promptly inform governments of member nations when new resolutions are passed, or when old resolutions have been repealed.

Staff are present in all member nations to ensure that actions mandated by binding resolutions are implemented as quickly and efficiently as possible, and the World Assembly is able to deploy more advisors to member nations when resolutions are particularly sweeping with regards to new policies or required legislation; these advisors work with member nations' governments, legislatures, and other statutory or state bodies to ensure new protocols or laws are implemented.