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The Worlds Universities Debating Championship 2017 is taking place right now in The Hague, Netherlands. The rounds start on the 28th of December, and we will post all the WUDC 2017 motions and results as soon as they are announced. If you are participating or just following your team, check in the comments!

Round 1: This house believes that post-genocidal regimes should destroy all places of extermination (for example, death camps). 
Round 2: This house would allow members of the armed forces to form labour unions
Round 3: This house believes that sports leagues should significantly tax and redistribute from wealthier teams to poorer teams
Round 4: In areas with rapidly rising property prices, This house would suspend all restrictions on property development that are not health and safety requirements (for example, environmental zoning regulations, building height restrictions, and regulations on the appearance of buildings)
Round 5: R5: This House believes that the Netherlands should allow citizens to purchase additional votes from the government at a cost proportional to their wealth (for example, one additional vote for 1% of wealth) Info Slide: The Netherlands has a political system with many political parties in which no one party typically gets a majority of the vote. Seats in the parliament are allocated in proportion to the number of votes received by each party on a national level ('proportional representation'). The government is formed by the coalition of parties that has a majority in the parliament.
Round 6: This house believes that the world would be a better place if women from privileged backgrounds turned down any benefits arising from affirmative actions programs.
Round 7: This house believes that South Korea should produce nuclear weapons
Round 8: This house regrets the glamorization of start-up culture that encourages people to start own companies rather than puruse traditional career paths
Round 9:This house would temporarily and significantly relax minimum labour standards in times of unusually high unemployment, including workplace health and safety standards, minumum wage, working hour restrictions etc.

Partial Double Octos: This house believes that countries close to conflict zones should only grant long-term asylum to refugees who agree to one year of military service.
ESL Quarterfinals: This house believes that the U.S. should provide campaign funding for federal and state confressmen and senators who score highly on bipartisan metrics*. *Info: Scores derived from instances of voting with the other party, co-sponsoring bills, etc., calculated by independent bodies.
Open Octo-finals: This house would ban advocacy for religious belief in public places
ESL Semis: This house, as the pope, would abolish the requirement for clerical celibacy.

If you are interested in the draw for each round, check out this link where the draw is updated for each round. Click here

Round 1: Info slide: Mercenaries are soldiers for hire outside of national armed forces. They can be hired either as individuals contracted by a state or through companies offering these services to a state. Motion: This house would allow states to use mercenary forces in combat roles in active military operations.
Round 2: This house would would prohibit private ownership of art deemed to be culturally or historically significant
Round 3: This house believes that all states should collectively aggregate and evenly distribute all revenue from mineral wealth globally on a per capita basis
Round 4: This house believes that governments with racially diverse populations should never record the ethnic or racial background of their residents.
Round 5: This house believes the US should withdraw from East Asia and cede regional hegemony to China.
Round 6: Info slide: A sunset clause is a legal measure that provides that the law in which it is contained shall expire after a specific date, unless further action is taken to extend it. Motion: This house believes that states should adopt sunset clauses that legally force them to review and either re-authorize or revise their constitutions every generation.
Round 7: This house supports stronger collective bargaining rights and protections rather than legislated labor market regulations (e.g., wage levels and working conditions)
Round 8: This house believes that the creation of feminist icons and their cults of personality are good for the feminist movement
Round 9: Info slide: Culpability is a measure of the degree to which a person can be held morally responsible for an offense. Motion: This house believes that that criminal punishments should be based only on the offenders' culpability rather than the damages caused by the criminal act or other outcomes derived from the punishment.

Round 1: This House pay all elected politicians the median wage in their country.
Round 2: This House believes that when multi-national corporations conduct any business in Western states, these nations should enforce their environmental standards at all stages of production.
Round 3: This House believes that Western states should not use private military contractors in combat.
Round 4: This House would ban any treatment, service or ritual from claiming a physical healing effect until it is tested and proven more effective than a placebo by a national regulator.
Round 5: This House believes that the European Union should lift its arms embargo on China.
Round 6: This House would only allow the media and campagning organisations to depict or publish information about the deceased in a tragedy with the explicit permission of the family.
Round 7: TH believes that the West should stop all attempts to gather information or intelligence by deception and/or coercion of foreign citizens
Round 8: TH believes that it is legimitate for individuals to punish people they deem to have committed online harassment by revealing their identity online.
Round 9: THW introduce a 100% inheritance tax

Preliminary Round 1: This House would ban the use of zero-hour contracts 
Preliminary Round 2: This House would require defendants in criminal trials to be represented exclusively by public defenders 
Preliminary Round 3: This House supports academic tracking in primary and secondary education
Preliminary Round 4: THW not consume art created by people who have committed deeply immoral acts
Preliminary Round 5: This House believes that cities with significant immigrant populations should actively break up ethnic enclaves
Preliminary Round 6. This house would ban political opinion polls
Preliminary Round 7: This house supports a right to die
Preliminary Round 8: This house would forgive Greece's debt

Octa finals: This house would require members of the clergy to report all crimes to authorities including those made in confession.
SEMI FINAL 1: This house believes that the military struggle against ISIS should be conducted solely by Middle East nations
SEMI FINAL 2: This house regrets the media focus on the personal lives of politicians
Grand final motion: This house believes that governments should provide a guaranteed universal basic income

Durham Open tournament was held in Durham on the  8-9 November 2014. Here are the motions that were debated in the 5 elimination rounds and the Semis, and finals:

Round 1: This house would ban religious organizations from providing rehabilitation services to drug and alcohol addicts.
Round 2: This house believes that democracies should extend voting rights to migrant workers.
Round 3: This house, as a feminist, would oppose products marketed to help women protect themselves from date rape.
[Info slide - Undercover Color are a company that are developing a nail-varnish that changes colour in the presence of date-rape drugs such as GHB and Rohypnol. Many bars provide bottle toppers such as 'the Spikey Bottle Topper' that encourage customers to protect their drinks.]
Round 4: This house believes that Arab-Israelis who successfully seek election to the Knesset should opt not to take up that seat. [Info slide - The Knesset has 120 seats. 12 seats are taken up by Arab-Israelis, who are divided into six parties.]
Round 5: This house believes that the state should construct false historical narratives that promote social cohesion (e.g. racial and religious tolerance)
Semi-Final: This house believes that true women’s liberation is incompatible with the existence of organized religion.
Novice Final: There is a potion which can stop you falling in love. This house, as an 18 year old, would take the potion.
Open Final: This house believes that FB should manipulate users’ newsfeeds in order to promote progressive content. [Info slide - In the past few years Facebook has engaged in a series of experiments manipulating the content that users are exposed to (e.g. skewing news feeds to show more happy/sad posts, showing or hiding posts about having voted) to determine whether this can have an effect on user’s actions/attitudes. In 2012, Facebook modified newsfeeds to test the effect of exposure to news articles about the upcoming elections, and whether it increased or decreased voter turnout. Research data suggests that these methods are effective at increasing voter turnout.]