NationStates Jolt Archive

This forum is set up for the discussion and drafting of the Constition of the new Region of Sanctuary of MetaphysicalSouls.

Please post all structure and procedure ideas here.

ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION FOR THE SANCTUARY OF METAPHYSICAL SOULS

I. Regional Philosophy

A. Vision Statement
The Sanctuary is a cooperative region committed to the promotion of peace and harmony among its' members. Civil and political liberties are continuously refined through the active participation of the regional members.

B. Mission Statement

A requirement that I would like to see adapted is to restrict puppet nations. A nation can have them but they must reside in other regions. I say this because I think it is important that one nation should have only one vote.

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looks like things are shaping up here

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We, the People of the Republic of Elleuse would like to make it known to the People of Balligomingo and Flowerbeds our appreciation for the terrific job on the preamble for the Sanctuary of Metaphysical Souls. We would like to congratulate, too, on the creative use of arrows to point out tenet algorithms. We would like to add, however, that it require vote of at least 2/3 elders for permanant banishment. Considering the severity of a crime that would require ostrasization, this should not create a problem.
-Peace to All

Elder 2/3 vote is a point well taken. I guess there is no reason that the ejection can't be immediate (because that type of spamming is bad news) with the permanent ban voted on by the Elders.

To clairify - I assume you don't mean that the Council has to get the Elder's premission for a permanent ban. Also I'm thinking that in the unlikely case that an Elder or Council member needs to be banned the process to handle that will be in an impeachment article of the constitution.

Note: the arrows are due to the fact that the forum strips out extra spaces and tabs. Not to mention that once in a while emoticons are fun :shock: :lol: :roll: :wink:

We do, in fact, mean the council, upon voting a nation permanantly banned, automatically send that resolution to the elders for review and final decision. This would not necessarily apply to temporary bans, or other punishment taken from the tenets of the land, but considering the definition of a permanant ban, the nation in question should have the option of appeal to a higher court.
We cannot, at this time, think of an instance that the elders would have a reason to overturn a council decision, but this leaves that option, before a nation is banned from this region, never to return.
I like the impeachment process idea, although we'll hope that we never have to use it.
Gotta love those emoticons. :)

:idea: Perhaps a spin on your idea would be to require two thirds of the Elders and at least half the Advisors to participate in any "criminal" trial. :?:

BTW if someone manages to get a permanent ban from this type of process I don't want to hear from them any more. They can appeal to the Mods! :twisted:

This should be the end of my emoticon use for a while :roll:

We're not referring to a whole new trial, only a quick review and final decision. Hopefully, if there is a trial of this severity, the elders will already have been following it. Where the nation in question goes after banishment is of no concern to us, for sure. We just don't think that permanant banishment should be taken lightly or imposed upon swiftly.
And use all the emoticons you want, they're great :D

"don't think that permanant banishment should be taken lightly or imposed upon swiftly"

You are so right! If you think about it we have some powerful checks already in place. The best one being the requirement to notifiy the Mods about the actions that generated the permanent ban. You don't go bringing in the Mods unless you are very serious.

Also key to the design of the region is quality nations in the council.

We have to be very careful not to build too many bumps in the process. Remember from the last region how hard it was to get a commitment even for outright treason! Don't want that again.

Wow, that indeed is a freacking terrific good job. So terrific that we are in agreement with 100% of the work done so far.

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We are sure Tropical Montana will agree that it is not elligible for membership yet. We hope it will improve in the near future to make itself elligible. Nothing would make us as happy as living in peace in the region side by side with Tropical Montana. We are sorry it is not possible yet. We would like to appologise for the inconvenience this may cause.

Tropical Montana DOES agree that it is not a full member of the Sanctuary at this time, and will be subject to the same application procedures as any other entering nation.

We are still awaiting confirmation from the Elders to see if we are indeed eligible to apply for membership.

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We agree with nearly everything about the immigration policy so far and we believe it will improve the security of the region. However, security is not our only consern and we should be vigilant not to take it too far as well. We humbly believe that the low activity of a member should not be a reason for ejection. We think that it will not improve security and we think that it is a matter of freedom of neutrality. Any member should have the freedom to be active or not to be active, as many members will choose to be inactive during holidays periods for instance and we don't see any problem with it.

We like the propositions made by Tropical Montana about giving the opportunity of the applicants to improve their civil right and political freedom before they can be considered full member (although we are not sure that ejecting a nation is the right sanction to be applied to nations with low right records because a dictatorship will not vanished just because it is far from our region but we have nothing better to suggest so far).

Our researchers in human rights are currently working on more propositions to improve the region and the world. It does take time though and we will post when we have something ready to be debated and adopted (probably at the beginning of next week).

Also, we think that a debate about the values of this region is necessary before we start writing resolutions. We see the constitution as a direction rather than a path. We believe it should be restricted to state the values which we hold rather than how they will be implemented. After that our values are clear, we can write resolutions and laws implementing the constitution. So far a lot of excellent work has been done for the security, we will post next week our propositions on citizens' rights and freedoms as well as their duties and about the basic values of the region.

One thing that has not been posted in this thread yet is the shift in focus for this project. In my internal discussions with other region members we have begun to view this work as a set of by-laws rather than a "constitution". Mostly because a region is a bloc of nations not it's own country.

You are absolutely correct about the need to "state our values". In the context of a set of by-laws that becomes the Mission Statement and sometimes you also have a separate Vision Statement. I have held off on creating a draft of these until more members return from the holidays. However, please post any thoughts you have along these lines. I'm sure they will be a great base for the region to start its' discussions.

May we suggest a regional Mission of working to protect the health of both nature and man, through cultural example and by drafting and promoting international legislation.

A UN proposal committe could be convened...

Black Kettle Speaks

Good idea. The UN clearly needs help with quality thought out proposals.

We would like to see the region compile a list of viable options of activities that the region can persue. Then we can pick the one or two that seem like the best fit.

My current favorite idea is having the region get in the business of creating and submitting NS issues. Some have been well done. I'm still getting a lot of repeats. Clearly there is room for more.

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