NationStates Jolt Archive

I'd like to thank everyone who supported my original proposal "End Segregation." Upon reading the reactions to the proposal, I have improved it to make it more clear and I've decided to stick to one issue in the proposal: race. The new proposal is below.


The UN recognizes that all men and women are created equal. Therefore, everyone must be entitled to the same rights no matter what race they may be.

With the passing of this act, the following laws will be put into place in every UN member nation:

1) Nobody will be restricted from a public place because of race. In these public places, everyone will be allowed to use water fountains, swimming pools, and other facilities. Bathrooms and changing rooms will still be separated by gender, but not by race.

2) People may not be restricted from citizenship due to race.

3) In countries that hold elections, people may not be denied the right to vote due to race.

4) No nation will be allowed to persecute people due to race.

5) Public transportation must treat everyone the same, regardless of race.

6) Private schools or organizations may not mistreat anyone they allow into their school or organization, regardless of race.

7)People of every race are allowed to enroll in public schools and apply for employment as long as they meet requirements set universally for everyone to follow. No employed person will be denied pay due to their race.

8) People of every race may hold public office as long as they are valid citizens of their nation.

9) People of every race have the right to purchase goods and no person will be denied services offered by organizations due to their race.

10) People of every race must follow the same government laws and will not be denied government welfare or medicare if their nation offers it. However, each race, in order to receive those services, must qualify based on standards that every race must follow. The government may not impose more laws on any indvidual because of their race.

11) No person will be denied enlistment in a nation's armed forces due to race and no person in the armed forces, regardless of race will be denied pay, services, and weapons.

12) People of every race in nations that allow private ownership have the freedom to own property, housing, transportation, companies, insurance, and any other goods that they purchase or inherit.

In an effort to end racism, the governments of all UN nations will take action against those who disobey these laws.

Please support this new proposal so every race has equal rights!

The Republic of Shurr has particular arguements for several aspects of this proposal:

4) No nation will be allowed to persecute people due to race.

The provision stated above is too broad in its interpretation. 'Persecution' is a subjective term not stating any specific civil right spelled out in UN resolutions. Civil Law for any particular nation supercedes the protection of 'persecution', regardless of race, therefore such a provision is unnecessary. This provision also allows for too much power in the UN to dictate the civil laws of any individual nation.

6) Private schools or organizations may not mistreat anyone they allow into their school or organization, regardless of race.

The term 'mistreat' is similar to the term 'persecution' and therefore subject to the same arguements as is relevant to the previous provision. Also the Holy Republic of Shurr is against any provision or resolution denying private schools or organizations the right to determine membership or affiliation. Shurr fears the term 'mistreatment' infringes upon such civil rights afforded private organizations and schools.

7)People of every race are allowed to enroll in public schools and apply for employment as long as they meet requirements set universally for everyone to follow. No employed person will be denied pay due to their race.

The Holy Republic of Shurr is against any law denying the opportunity for employment in any organization that opens to public employment. This provision however does not stipulate which organizations are public and which are private in regards to employment. Organizations that hire privately are not subject to equal payment laws or equal hiring practices, because of their private employment concerns. However they also are not given government intervention in the same concern. Shurr still recognizes the existence of private organizations, and private hiring concerns and will not infringe upon those rights. Shurr cannot therefore endorse such a provision that denies one right in favor of another.

9) People of every race have the right to purchase goods and no person will be denied services offered by organizations due to their race.

Again this is dependent on the privatization of such organizations. Shurr cannot in good conscience approve a provision that tramples the rights of private organizational congregation.

The remainder of these provisions Shurr will favor and vote to have implimented officially and defended from all nations, if and only if, the above provisions are amended to fit Shurr's concerns.

I don't really understand your arguement. You're saying that you don't think it's right for me to impose this on nations? That's what the UN does. If outlawing discrimination frowned upon by certain countries, I think it's a problem. There's no reason each race shouldn't be treated equally.

The whole private/public organization isn't really an argument. Any organization can choose who they hire, and any business that's not government run is privately owned. If they don't hire anyone from a certain race, it may be just because the people they did hire were better for the job because of skills or experience.

Hopefully I can gain more support for this proposal this time.

Hopefully I can gain more support for this proposal this time.

I realise that I somewhat destroyed your last suggestion with a lot of comments, and I believe this is a lot better. However you have totally dropped the gender part of the resolution. Which was a key part of it. That you should not discriminate on basis of gender, but you can segregate on the basis of it due to shared bathrooms being a somewhat strange concept to some of my people.

I figured that the sexes rights law had already addressed several of these issues, but I'm going to review the act again to figure out whether or not there were things that weren't covered. I may submit this proposal again if it doesn't reach the quorum including gender but being more careful about certain things.

Number 1 should say "Bathrooms and changing rooms may still be separated by gender" as there are places where they are not. Different cultures.

Also, you really need to define "race". It's a very vague term, with apparently little basis in biological fact.

Why should it need to be defined? I think that'll just create loopholes. By saying that no race can be denied their rights it means that no person can be.

All the same, if you're going to use such an ambiguous term, I have little doubt that somebody will see a way to exploit that ambiguity and thus find their own loophole. It's always worth defining terms like this.