NationStates Jolt Archive

General Orders of Space Travel

Category: Human Rights
Strength: Strong
Proposed By: Aligned Planets

Let the term UN personnel extend to include the population of all UN Nations currently serving in a military capacity.

Let the term UN citizenry extend to include all civilian personnel in Nations within the UN.

Let the term UN member extend to include all the Nations within the UN.


General Order 1
As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no UN personnel may interfere with the normal and healthy development of alien life and culture. Such interference includes introducing superior knowledge, strength, or technology to a world whose society is incapable of handling such advantages wisely. UN personnel may not violate this Prime Directive, even to save their lives and/or their ship, unless they are acting to right an earlier violation or an accidental contamination of said culture. This directive takes precedence over any and all other considerations, and carries with it the highest moral obligation.


General Order 2
No UN personnel shall unnecessarily use force, either collectively or individually, against member Nations within the UN, their duly authorized representatives, spokespersons, or designated leaders, or members of any sentient non-member race, for any reason whatsoever.


General Order 3
The sovereignty of each UN member being respected in all things, UN personnel shall observe any and all statutes, laws, ordinances, and rules of governance currently in effect within the jurisdiction of a member planet. Violators of such ordinances will be subject to such punishments or corrections as shall be determined by local governmental bodies.


General Order 4
If contact is made with hitherto undiscovered intelligent life-forms, under no circumstance shall UN personnel, either by word or deed, inform said life-forms that worlds other than their own or intelligent life-forms other than their own exist outside the confines of their own space.


General Order 5
In cases of extreme emergency, UN special representatives are empowered to assume emergency powers to deal with a condition or circumstance that is deemed hazardous to the welfare of UN citizenry. Within the scope of these emergency powers, duly authorized civilian personnel may assume temporary command of vessels of UN Nations and/or personnel to deal with the emergency. UN personnel must submit to their authority for the duration of the crisis.


General Order 6
The request for emergency assistance from UN citizenry demands unconditional priority from UN personnel. Such personnel shall immediately respond to said request, postponing all other activities.


General Order 7
Upon sighting a warship within UN space and identifying it as belonging to a foreign power, the commander of the UN vessel shall determine the reason(s) for that craft's presence in the vicinity. If there is conclusive evidence that the vessel has hostile intentions, the UN vessel may take appropriate action to safeguard the lives and property of UN members. In such cases, the commander may use his discretion in deciding whether to use force to disable the hostile vessel. However, care should be taken to avoid unnecessary loss of sentient life.


General Order 8
No commander of a UN vessel, military or auxiliary, may grant political asylum to any individual without first being given express permission to do so by a representative of the UN.


General Order 9
If there exists eyewitness testimony by senior officers or similar verifiable evidence that an individual has violated the Prime Directive, said individual may be relieved of duty by a duly sworn representative of the UN and placed under immediate arrest. The representative shall then take such action as he deems necessary to minimize the results of the violation.


General Order 10
UN officers with the rank of captain or higher are granted full authority to negotiate conditions of agreement and/or treaties with legal representatives of non-UN planets. In such circumstances, the acting officer carries de facto powers of a UN Special Ambassador. Any and all agreements arranged in this manner are subject to approval by the Chief of UN Operations and the Secretary of the UN.


General Order 11
UN officers may violate Neutral Zone areas as designated by treaty only if such action is required to save the lives of UN citizens under conditions of extreme emergency.


General Order 12
Except when orders state to the contrary, UN personnel will respect the territorial integrity of independent planetary systems and governments, and will not violate territorial space belonging to such worlds.


General Order 13
UN personnel may intervene in local planetary affairs to restore general order and to secure the lives and property of UN citizens only upon receiving a direct order to do so from a civilian official with the title of governor or higher.


General Order 14
No officer of flag rank shall travel into a potentially hazardous area without suitable armed escort.


General Order 15
UN personnel may extend technological, medical, or other scientific assistance to a member of a previously unrecognized sentient species only if such assistance in no way compromises the Prime Directive or the security of the UN.


General Order 16
UN vessel captains are to consider the lives of their crew members as sacred. In any potentially hostile situation, the captain will place the lives of his crew above the fate of his ship.


General Order 17
"Upon being accused of treason against the UN, UN personnel may demand a trail conducted by the UN judiciary". If the individual is acquitted, the Military Command of said person's Nation shall have no further legal recourse against the accused in said matter.


General Order 18
Except in times of declared emergency, UN personnel may under no circumstances convey personnel or material between planets or planetary systems when there is reason to believe that said personnel or material may be used to conduct aggression. This order applies to independent worlds within the UN as well as to UN members.


General Order 19
Officers and personnel of the military of UN Nations may employ whatever means necessary to prevent the possession, transportation, sale, or commercial exchange of sentient beings held against their wishes within the boundaries of UN space.


General Order 20
No UN personnel, either officer or enlisted, may offer his services to an independent foreign government without the express authorization of the UN Assembly.


General Order 21
As the rights of individual expression and free discourse are considered sacred, UN personnel may debate the policies and decisions of their governmental representatives privately at any time, to the extent that such discussions do not violate their command oath or specific duties to the UN per these General Orders or UN regulations.


General Order 22
When verifiable proof is presented to the senior commanding officer of a UN vessel or post that a UN representative may currently be acting or have acted in the past to violate the Prime Directive, the officer may relieve said representative of office, then assume the full powers of that office pending a full investigation by governmental officials.


General Order 23
If a commanding officer deems that an individual or group of individuals pose a threat to UN personnel or UN civilians, he may take any action deemed necessary (including force) to secure the safety of those threatened.


General Order 24
Civilian and military personnel taken into custody by UN personnel during times of extreme emergency shall be accorded proper treatment consistent with their rank or station, insofar as such treatment does not compromise the security of the UN.


General Order 25
No member of a ship's complement or other ground-based installation can be held directly accountable for the actions of their superiors. Similarly, no member of a ship's company or other UN personnel will share in disciplinary measures taken against the commanding officer(s) if said individuals were not directly involved in the actions leading to disciplinary measures. This order extends to conditions involving proven violations of the Prime Directive, where proof of such violations exist.


General Order 26
No member of the UN shall be required by the assignment of standard duties and responsibilities to undergo extended separation from his family if family members can be reasonably provided for aboard ship or as a part of an existing UN installation.


General Order 27
No officer of command rank shall be removed from command status unless such action has the complete and unqualified agreement of at least three senior officers present. Whenever possible, such officers shall include the ship's First Officer, Chief Medical Officer, Counselor, and one junior officer of command station.


General Order 28
The primary responsibility of the commander of any UN vessel or installation is the welfare and safety of his crew, including any civilian members. No action may be taken that creates an unwarranted threat to the safety of those individuals under the officer's charge, except in the line of duty and when otherwise unavoidable.


General Order 29
The UN recognizes the right of each ship commander to interpret the specifications of the Prime Directive as he sees fit, consistent with the conditions of other existing general orders in effect, and based upon circumstances that may arise in dealing with newly discovered sentient races.


General Order 30
The conditions and specifications of the Prime Directive shall henceforth apply to all sentient life-forms discovered, whether they are of natural or artificial origin.

Let the term UN personnel extend to include the population of all UN Nations currently serving in a military capacity.

Let the term UN citizenry extend to include all civilian personnel in Nations within the UN.

Let the term UN member extend to include all the Nations within the UN.


Since you state that every citizen of a nation that is a UN member is a UN citizen, that means that all citizens of UN nations are UN citizens. Since they are all citizens of the same "federation", whose control exerts over them? I know the members of my region, some of which include dictatorships, would like to keep control over THIER citizens, I could not vote for it.

While copying the Prime Directive is cool and all, I will not vote for it, as it makes us all "one", and I cannot agree to give up any power over my nation, as others like me do not either.

You should also be aware that there is a limit to the length of a proposal. I think it's around 5500 characters. Your present proposal is 9619 characters including spaces (no, I'm not that anal - MSword), and is way over the limit.

And no, I don't think we'll be supporting the Prime Directive and its little brothers either. Roddenberry's 23rd century is just a bit too civilized for this place to accept.

OOC: It's also illegal to pass resolutions restricting role-play, the same as it's illegal to pass resolutions affecting game-mechanics.

Aye - if I put this resolution forwards, I would condense it slightly...make is less verbose

You should also be aware that there is a limit to the length of a proposal. I think it's around 5500 characters. Your present proposal is 9619 characters including spaces (no, I'm not that anal - MSword), and is way over the limit.

And no, I don't think we'll be supporting the Prime Directive and its little brothers either. Roddenberry's 23rd century is just a bit too civilized for this place to accept.

3500, not 5500. (The original Convetion on Genocide was 5000 characters and it was way too long).

General Order 2
No UN personnel shall unnecessarily use force, either collectively or individually, against member Nations within the UN, their duly authorized representatives, spokespersons, or designated leaders, or members of any sentient non-member race, for any reason whatsoever.


I realise you quoted this as general space orders, but this paragraph could be used to prevent various wars here on the planet. And while that might not be a bad thing, sometimes war is necessary :}


General Order 3
The sovereignty of each UN member being respected in all things, UN personnel shall observe any and all statutes, laws, ordinances, and rules of governance currently in effect within the jurisdiction of a member planet. Violators of such ordinances will be subject to such punishments or corrections as shall be determined by local governmental bodies.


This cracks me up :} You are using a UN resolution to enforce national sovereignty. Which means you are overriding it to enforce it.


General Order 5
In cases of extreme emergency, UN special representatives are empowered to assume emergency powers to deal with a condition or circumstance that is deemed hazardous to the welfare of UN citizenry. Within the scope of these emergency powers, duly authorized civilian personnel may assume temporary command of vessels of UN Nations and/or personnel to deal with the emergency. UN personnel must submit to their authority for the duration of the crisis.


Woah!!! We are required to hand over control of our nation to "special representatives" during an "extreme emergency"? With no definition of the powers they are embued with, what consitutes and extreme emergency, and how long the power will be in the hands of the "reps" I think that this is quite easily be used to take over the world in a single night.

I understand that if the entire planet is threatened it is better to have one voice directing the fight back, rather than many different voices, but this would have to be a LOT more clearly defined before I could support it.


General Order 6
The request for emergency assistance from UN citizenry demands unconditional priority from UN personnel. Such personnel shall immediately respond to said request, postponing all other activities.


And what if someone who is responding is someone we are at war with, and would quite happily like to see die a horrible death? Are we still required to help them? (Thus prolonging the war and costing more of my people their lives?)


General Order 8
No commander of a UN vessel, military or auxiliary, may grant political asylum to any individual without first being given express permission to do so by a representative of the UN.


Yeah - I have to disagree. If we (as the TilEncan government) want to grant asylum to someone, I am not going to want to check it with the UN first. It's my nation (you can't override national sovereingty according to general order 2) so why can't I do what I want in it?



General Order 10
UN officers with the rank of captain or higher are granted full authority to negotiate conditions of agreement and/or treaties with legal representatives of non-UN planets. In such circumstances, the acting officer carries de facto powers of a UN Special Ambassador. Any and all agreements arranged in this manner are subject to approval by the Chief of UN Operations and the Secretary of the UN.


Ok - this one is a bit out on a limb. But if the captain is killed, the first officer assumes the captaincy. Same with the second officer, third officer and everyone in the line of sucession, right down to the newly enlisted junior ensign. If he is the last person "of the line" then he will be ranked as captain.
Would he have the powers listed here?


General Order 13
UN personnel may intervene in local planetary affairs to restore general order and to secure the lives and property of UN citizens only upon receiving a direct order to do so from a civilian official with the title of governor or higher.


What's a governor? And seriously - you really want me to accept that anyone can just come in and sort out disorder in my nation if one of my Councillors asks them to? Also - I don't think civilians from another nation should be permitted to give direct orders to members of my military. Cause that would just be potential chaos and mayhem.


General Order 14
No officer of flag rank shall travel into a potentially hazardous area without suitable armed escort.


(smirk) (OOC - watching Wrath of Kahn last night?) Sometimes it's necessary for the guy who leads to actually lead. Plus all areas are potentially hazardous - the officer could get run down by a dung-cart on the street when he crosses the road. And space is just one big hazard.


General Order 16
UN vessel captains are to consider the lives of their crew members as sacred. In any potentially hostile situation, the captain will place the lives of his crew above the fate of his ship.


Again - not something I can agree with. Sometimes the safety of the ship is paramount, and crew members should be ready to be asked to give their lives to maintain it. (An example would be if the ship is carrying a cure for a plauge that is about to kill three million people. If the engines develop a fault that will destroy it, and the only way to save it is for someone to go inside the main drive engine - an action that will kill them - then I would not be happy to do it, but I would willingly order someone to their death to do it, and I would expect them to follow that order or face a court-martial when we were done doing what we were doing.
I know - you said potentially hostile - but if that situation occured cause someone was shooting at us, or the only way to get there on time was to fly through an ion-storm that could kill someone - I would still do it and expect every person on the ship to agree.


General Order 17
"Upon being accused of treason against the UN, UN personnel may demand a trail conducted by the UN judiciary". If the individual is acquitted, the Military Command of said person's Nation shall have no further legal recourse against the accused in said matter.


We have a UN judiciary?
How about civil recourse?


General Order 18
Except in times of declared emergency, UN personnel may under no circumstances convey personnel or material between planets or planetary systems when there is reason to believe that said personnel or material may be used to conduct aggression. This order applies to independent worlds within the UN as well as to UN members.


Every person is capable of conducting agresion. I could punch someone on the nose. Does that mean I can't travel anywhere unless there is an emergency? Also you need troop transports and weapons transports to be capable of sending troops to defend areas and so forth. And although the troops are going for a defensive role, they can easily be used in an agressive role as well, so they should not be able to travel.


General Order 19
Officers and personnel of the military of UN Nations may employ whatever means necessary to prevent the possession, transportation, sale, or commercial exchange of sentient beings held against their wishes within the boundaries of UN space.


I know this realtes to slavery, but because of the way it is written it also applies to prisoners. You would not be able to transport prisoners within the UN because of this general order. And all military personnel would be duty bound to free any prisoners who are being held against their wishes.


General Order 21
As the rights of individual expression and free discourse are considered sacred, UN personnel may debate the policies and decisions of their governmental representatives privately at any time, to the extent that such discussions do not violate their command oath or specific duties to the UN per these General Orders or UN regulations.


Something about this seams wrong, but I can't put my finger on it just now. I might come back to this later.


General Order 22
When verifiable proof is presented to the senior commanding officer of a UN vessel or post that a UN representative may currently be acting or have acted in the past to violate the Prime Directive, the officer may relieve said representative of office, then assume the full powers of that office pending a full investigation by governmental officials.


As long as it is understood that the past DOES NOT include any time before this proposal became law, I don't have a problem. But I am not really a big fan of retrospecitve legislation, as it can be abused in the most horrible manner.


General Order 23
If a commanding officer deems that an individual or group of individuals pose a threat to UN personnel or UN civilians, he may take any action deemed necessary (including force) to secure the safety of those threatened.


Bwahahahahahahahaha!! You just put the life of every single member of the UN in the hands of one person who only has to believe there is a problem to be allowed to kill them all. Please tell me that was not what you intended to do!!


General Order 25
No member of a ship's complement or other ground-based installation can be held directly accountable for the actions of their superiors. Similarly, no member of a ship's company or other UN personnel will share in disciplinary measures taken against the commanding officer(s) if said individuals were not directly involved in the actions leading to disciplinary measures. This order extends to conditions involving proven violations of the Prime Directive, where proof of such violations exist.


If you know your CO is committing an illegal order, and you do nothing to stop him from doing it, you are as guilty as he is. So you should be punished in an equal manner.


General Order 29
The UN recognizes the right of each ship commander to interpret the specifications of the Prime Directive as he sees fit, consistent with the conditions of other existing general orders in effect, and based upon circumstances that may arise in dealing with newly discovered sentient races.


No baseline? The entire basis of General Order 1 is being pu in the hands of the commander of the ship, to break or follow as he pleases? Cool!


I think it is safe to say that I would not be able to support this if it came to quorum. While there are one or two good parts, there are far too many parts that would be impossible to follow, and far too many parts that have either not been fully considered, or have not been written down in a way to reflect what the author was actually thinking.

And also it does assume that every nation of the UN has the same military codes of conduct as every other one. Which is almost certainly not true.

Oh, boy. Here we go:

Let the term UN personnel extend to include the population of all UN Nations currently serving in a military capacity.

Let the term UN citizenry extend to include all civilian personnel in Nations within the UN.

And:

General Order 1
As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no UN personnel may interfere with the normal and healthy development of alien life and culture. Such interference includes introducing superior knowledge, strength, or technology to a world whose society is incapable of handling such advantages wisely. UN personnel may not violate this Prime Directive, even to save their lives and/or their ship, unless they are acting to right an earlier violation or an accidental contamination of said culture. This directive takes precedence over any and all other considerations, and carries with it the highest moral obligation.

I think I should point out that these two passages, taken together, expressly forbid the military personnel of every UN nation from violating the prime directive, but do not prevent the civilian personnel of any UN nation from doing so.

This whole proposal assumes that the military of the various UN nations will have a monpoly on spaceflight, and proceeds from there. Might I suggest that to be a faulty assumption?

Now, it doesn't take much of a breach in the Prime Directive to render it meaningless. Transmitting a 100-page text on atomic weaponry, complete with a few sample blueprints for working bomb designs, to a world with early 20th-century technology and a 16th-century social structure would do it quite effectively, without any need for extended contact or a gross and willful violation on the part of an organization the size of a government. Plenty of other examples come to mind...imagine transporting a single printing press down to the goverment of a theocracy that conducts an operation similar to the Spanish Inquisition. Any citizen organization capable of spaceflight would be capable of such things, and odds are the type of organization most likely to pursue such things would be the one most likely to profit from them...organized crime. There's nothing wrong with ordering the militaries of UN member states from meddling in the societies of backward planets solely on moral grounds, but one ought to not kid oneself that one is doing much more than ordering the tide back to the ocean, a la King Canute.

The Prime Directive works well as the backdrop of a fictional 23rd-century space naval saga, but in the world of NS, there are likely more pressing concerns to address. History has shown that UN member states are likely to eventually establish some sort of colonies on other worlds or even in large space structures. History has also shown that governing remote colonies is difficult, even if communications are nearly instant, so long as transportation times are much greater (on the order of weeks to months). History has also shown that Powers great enough to establish colonies often meddle with the colonies of other Powers, and that colonies often desire independence from the founding state. There is also the matter of property rights in space -- for example, does the moon belong to all UN states (a la Antarctica), or can a UN member state claim all or part of it, or can a member state citizen claim part or all of it for personal use? If not, what is to be done about "squatters"? Can the UN authorize military forces to evict them? These are the sort of thing that a good "UN Position on Space" proposal could address.

(OOC)

I am watching the end of Star Wars (on video - I have some standards!) and something about it struck me in relation to this proposal.

I won't tell you the outcome, in case you haven't seen it yet, but the Death Star is being attacked by the Rebel Alliance. And because the Rebels are doing some damage, Darth Vader orders some pilots to go out in TIE-Fighters to protect the ship.

Under this proposal that would be an illegal action - instead Vader would have to order the Death Star to withdraw and flee from the battle in order to save the lives of all of the crew under his command.

Does this sound like something anyone would do in his situation? I mean - yeah - he is a pretty evil bastard, but if it was the other way round, and the Rebels were in the Death Star and the Empire were attacking, would you be willing to cut and run and not destroy the main base of the Empire? Or would you send out every last person to defend the station while you carry out your mission?

So all in all this proposal is seriously flawed because it takes no account of the fact that sometimes people have to die to defend an ideal, a ship or a mission. I wish it were not so, but it is.

But what about the civilian contractors aboard the Death Star? I mean, weren't the Rebel Forces in fact terrorists? Though they did choose a military target, they did not take actions to minimize civilian casualties....

[So sorry to steal my argument from Clerks]

Just a post to point out the ridiculousness of this proposal. I mean, how much time did you spend on such a waste of electrons? I clearly violates the setup of the UN, most important being that the UN has no standing military force, and will not have one, by rule, on Earth or in space.

It's a fine idea for your own "Federation," but doesn't even begin to work for the UN. Take some time to read before you propose things.

I haven't proposed it in the UN and, as the topic is titled, this was merely a draft.

I just wanted to gauge reactions and see how it would be received.

Woe on you, TilEnca, you not only got the nerve to read through the twenty-odd orders, but actually replied to almost every single one of them. To be honest, I stopped reading after GO 9 and realizing that no end is coming any nearer...

All that being beside the point, I still wish to state that the Holy Empire of Tarnak-talaan will vote against this resolution should it make the floor.

This Resolution isn't going to make it to the floor - because I'm not going to propose it :-)

This Resolution isn't going to make it to the floor - because I'm not going to propose it :-)

That's a relieve :)

Could a Mod please lock this topic for me?

Thanks :-)