This House Would Force All Governments to Become Totally Transparent

1. The resolution demands revocation of inherent human right to privacy. Medical records and performance reviews of government employees would be revealed. 2. Gag orders in the criminal cases would be overridden, resulting in prejudicial publicity and needless harm to the reputation of those being investigated and ultimately found innocent. This undermines the system of justice. 3. Divorce and lawsuit settlement agreements would be revealed, causing unnecessary financial harm and damage to the reputations of both parties. 4. Juvenile crime records would be revealed, causing permanent damage to young people who may have made a single mistake. 5. Trade secrets disclosed to the government as part of government bidding process would be revealed. Bidders would either deny government access to the best technology to the latest technology or withhold evidence that the technology works. 6. Private financial records related to business strategies and operation, disclosed during investigations and regulatory actions, would be revealed. This will cause capital flight to small countries happy to renounce UN membership in return for the influx of capital. 7. Since all advice given to government would be revealed, advice would either be withheld or rendered impotent in the name of political correctness. For example, an economics expert might advocate a policy that he believes would be good for the economy overall, but hurt Group A in the process. The expert would tend to withhold the advice for fear of unnecessarily provoking retribution from Group A. Without candid expert opinion, the executive functions of government would be impaired. 8. There is no such thing as an "impartial UN panel." Pro might as well demand that the decisions be made by impartial Norse Gods. The "impartial" panel on Human Rights was chaired by the Sudan, the only nation that practices slave trading. The UN is dominated by dictatorships, theocracies, and small dysfunctional nations. They would consistently rule that disclosing any information that damaged their ilk could be withheld as harmful, while information that damages free nations through 1-7 must be revealed. 9. The dysfunctional nations in the UN would demand that the military secrets of democratic nations all be revealed, claiming that doing so was harmless, while the military secrets of authoritarian regimes could be kept secret on the grounds that revealing them would be harmful. Iran would get the plans for ICBMs and nuclear weapons, but would never have to reveal what they are doing with them. 10. Loss of UN membership or imposition of UN trade sanctions is not a significant threat. Major UN sanctions were imposed on Saddam. France and Germany ignored them, trading conventions munitions, a million tons worth, for oil. Not only did the sanctions fail, but France and Germany suffered no adverse consequences, let alone expulsion. 11. Citizens of free nations would demand immediate withdrawal from the United Nations in order to maintain their privacy rights. Now that all medical records are going to be digitized at government behest, it means that the medical records as well as the tax returns of all citizens would be made public. A majority would find that unacceptable in comparison to withdrawing from the UN. Whatever good the UN does in distributing aid and occasional peacekeeping would then be obviated. 12. Revealing historical documents contrary to the conditions under which they were obtained would effectively prevent the future disclosure of valuable information. For example, war records reveal which commanders screwed up, the personal opinions of political leader X about leader Y, and so forth. Records are kept with the understanding that they won't be reveal for 50 years, when all the principles are long departed. Knowing that that anything put in government hands would be immediately revealed, sensible people will avoid writing anything down officially.