NationStates Jolt Archive

Be it covenient for my esteemed fellow member states, Ritonas would like any comments/questions/complaints about the following resolution the Holy Empire of Ritonas plans to submit to the UN for proposal consideration. Specifically, we are seeking clarification as to the "Optionality" rule of proposal consideration. It is our contention that the meat of the proposal is to promote democracy, and the proposal does not make this goal optional - it merely makes optional the method by which UN Member states may choose to go about promoting democracy.

Ritonas will maintain two versions of the draft in this proposal - the working draft where modifications will be noted so that readers can track changes, and the revised draft which shall be the "finalized" version of the draft (if the draft were to be submitted today...).

Bold sections are additions
Italicized sections are alterations
Underlined sections are to be deleted
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The working draft: (Ritonas will leave modification notations in this draft so that members can track whether their suggestions have been noted)

Category: The Futherence of Democracy
Strength: Significant

RECOGNIZING that international travel and the free passage of individual citizens between nations represents the greatest single method of unifying citizenry, spreading international peace and goodwill, and creating an international sense of understanding and tolerance,

ACKNOWLEDGING that many nations do not wish to allow free and unrestricted access to their nation by travelers of the world,

And, ACKNOWLEDGING that free borders may present a security risk to nations for whom security is of primary concern,

REALIZING that to mandate free travel between member nations extends beyond UN charter and existing UN Resolution,

ARGUING that whilst it is unrealistic to mandate free travel and immigration, it is also restrictive of civil liberties to not allow a legally definable and protected method for the UN citizenry to travel between borders,

The United Nations hereby

ESTABLISHES the United Nations Free Travel and Migration Organization (UNFTMO), whose responsibility it will be to create, update and maintain a listing of UNFTMO member states who agree to open their borders to all nations on said list and the citizens contained within,

SPECIFIES and ESTABLISHES a UNFTMO Arbitrator and Court to settle disputes between list-member nations, the court which shall be a council of esteemed representatives selected from the populace of list member nations by the General Assembly, and the arbitrator which shall be a member of the UN Operations Staff reporting to the General Assembly and selected by the General Assembly whose decisions shall be ratified by the UN Security Council, and the process by which matters are referred to the arbitrator shall be by grievance submitted by a UN member nation, and the council shall hear appeals of the Arbitrator's decisions, and in situations where a Council member is both involved in a grievance or judged by the Arbitrator to be unfairly biased a substitute or substitutes may be selected by the General Assembly, and the Arbitrator shall serve as governor and Chief Executive of the organization (UNFTMO), whose charter can only be modified by majority vote of the General Assembly,

DECLARING Countries on the list will be subject to UNFTMO inspectors who will ascertain the security of their own (list-member) borders, and the precision, meticulosity and brevity of security checks at list-member borders and all international travel means within each list-member state,

Also, DECLARING that citizens of list member states shall be allowed all immunities and privileges granted in their home nation basic human rights and the rights guaranteed them by UN Resolution, but shall be subject to the laws of the nation(s) they may visit insofar as their civil rights under UN Resolution, and basic human rights are not violated and such subjection does not conflict with immunities and privileges granted in their home nation basic human rights and UN Resolution, and they are granted full due process of law as defined by the Charter,

Also, DECLARING that no citizen of a list member state shall be disallowed the privileges of free travel without due process of lawas defined by the UN Charter,

Also, DECLARING that Funding for the UNFTMO is to be primarily composed of list membership fees judged to be suibtable by the leadership of the organization for the maintinence of the list and inspectoratetotaling ten cents US for every citizen in a list member nation, to be augmented by the general fund at the disposal of the UN General Assembly,

Finally, DEMANDING that no nation shall be required or compelled by sanction or force to join or maintain list membership with the UNFTMO, nor shall any citizen of any list member nation be discriminated against by a list member.

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The Revised Draft: The Proposal in its current, modified form.

[COLOR="SeaGreen"]RECOGNIZING that international travel and the free passage of individual citizens between nations represents the greatest single method of unifying citizenry, spreading international peace and goodwill, and creating an international sense of understanding and tolerance,

ACKNOWLEDGING that many nations do not wish to allow free and unrestricted access to their nation by travelers of the world,

And, ACKNOWLEDGING that free borders may present a security risk to nations for whom security is of primary concern,

REALIZING that to mandate free travel between member nations extends beyond UN charter and existing UN Resolution,

ARGUING that whilst it is unrealistic to mandate free travel and immigration, it is also restrictive of civil liberties to not allow a legally definable and protected method for the UN citizenry to travel between borders,

The United Nations hereby

ESTABLISHES the United Nations Free Travel and Migration Organization (UNFTMO), whose responsibility it will be to create, update and maintain a listing of UNFTMO member states who agree to open their borders to all nations on said list and the citizens contained within,

SPECIFIES and ESTABLISHES a UNFTMO Arbitrator and Court to settle disputes between list-member nations, the court which shall be a council of esteemed representatives selected from the populace of list member nations by the General Assembly, and the arbitrator which shall be a member of the UN Operations Staff reporting to the General Assembly and selected by the General Assembly whose decisions shall be ratified by the UN Security Council, and the process by which matters are referred to the arbitrator shall be by grievance submitted by a UN member nation, and the council shall hear appeals of the Arbitrator's decisions, and in situations where a Council member is both involved in a grievance or judged by the Arbitrator to be unfairly biased a substitute or substitutes may be selected by the General Assembly, and the Arbitrator shall serve as governor and Chief Executive of the organization (UNFTMO), whose charter can only be modified by majority vote of the General Assembly,

DECLARING Countries on the list will be subject to UNFTMO inspectors who will ascertain the security of their own (list-member) borders, and the precision, meticulosity and brevity of security checks at list-member borders and all international travel means within each list-member state,

Also, DECLARING that citizens of list member states shall be allowed all immunities and privileges granted in their home nation basic human rights and the rights guaranteed them by UN Resolution, but shall be subject to the laws of the nation(s) they may visit insofar as their civil rights under UN Resolution, and basic human rights are not violated and such subjection does not conflict with immunities and privileges granted in their home nation basic human rights and UN Resolution, and they are granted full due process of law as defined by the Charter,

Also, DECLARING that no citizen of a list member state shall be disallowed the privileges of free travel without due process of law as defined by the UN Charter,

Also, DECLARING that Funding for the UNFTMO is to be primarily composed of list membership fees judged to be suitable by the leadership of the organization for the maintenance of the list and inspectorate totaling ten cents US for every citizen in a list member nation, to be augmented by the general fund at the disposal of the UN General Assembly,

Finally, DEMANDING that no nation shall be required or compelled by sanction or force to join or maintain list membership with the UNFTMO, nor shall any citizen of any list member nation be discriminated against by a list member.

[COLOR]

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We suspect that there may be some modifications required to better escpate the "Optionality" proposal infraction, and we have some changes in mind to better bring the proposal in line with that goal. We also note that the creation of a UNFTMO council may violate the rule against creating organizations outside the UN - it is our contention that this organization functions in all respects seamlessly within the UN, and the "invisibil and magical" status of all UN functionaries can be maintained with the current language. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Well, I for one, would like to congratulate you on this draft of the proposal--that it's very good for a "first draft". First, this is a very well written proposal. It is solidly within the modern NS conventions on proposal writing and appears (I haven't read everything thoroughly) to be well within NS rules. I like this proposal with regards to its style.

Second, because I personally think the approach to be commendable. The proposal would be, I feel, overreaching if it were requiring all nations to become part of this List, and it simply wouldn't have much more than fluff if it just "encouraged", etc. I like it with regards to its content.

I hope that discussion on this proposal is open-minded. I like it. I'll probably see if I can comment more explicitly on things in it later.

Good Luck! :)

Looks interesting, except for two points:

Also, DECLARING that citizens of list member states shall be allowed all immunities and privileges granted in their home nation, but shall be subject to the laws of the nation(s) they may visit insofar as their civil rights under the UN Charter are not violated and such subjection does not conflict with immunities and privileges granted in their home nation, and they are granted full due process of law as defined by the Charter
this is a bit confusing. if it reads how i think, it means that they get immunity traveling abroad, which to us is not good. they are visiting us, so they should be subject to our laws. or it could be that if they commit a crime in another country, they are immune from persecution from their home nation, but not their host nation. if it is the latter, you could simplify it.

Also, DECLARING that Funding for the UNFTMO is to be primarily composed of list membership fees totaling ten cents US for every citizen in a list member nation, to be augmented by the general fund at the disposal of the UN General Assembly,

the 'ten cents US' might contravine the 'no RL references' rule. you might be better off putting it as a 'minimal membership fee for every list member nation'

other than those two, looks interesting

Just a note: we don't have a Secretary-General. The closest we have to a Secretariat are the Mods and the Gnomes. Specifically mentioning the Secretary-General would probably count as a real-life reference, and as such is against the rules.

Welcome to the UN - you have made an excellent start with this draft, and I think it is well written and presented. It also is well balanced.

Enn and Lynx have already mentioned one RL reference each, I'll list a couple of others:
UN charter
UN Security Council

This bit: whose charter can only be modified by majority vote of the General Assembly, Is a mechanics violation. You can only repeal a resolution, not modify.

the method of which shall be to list the list-member nations and a vote shall be taken, and the top seven vote-earning nations shall become council members for one yearNot sure about this bit - it's more a Roleplaying thing, so I'd agree with your concerns there.

In summary, your report writing skills are excellent, and your understanding of the little rules of the NS UN will come in time. Welcome to the UN and I hope you stick around.

This is certainly a well-written and carefully thought out draft. We believe it deserves careful consideration. As initial comments, we would provide the following:

The NSUN has no charter. Recommend that all references to "UN Charter" be changed to "UN Resolutions".

Suggest that the last line, "Be it resolved", be deleted. Instead, insert "The UN hereby" between the "ARGUING" and "ESTABLISHES" clauses.

There is one provision of the draft that we believe needs to be reconsidered:

Also, DECLARING that citizens of list member states shall be allowed all immunities and privileges granted in their home nation, but shall be subject to the laws of the nation(s) they may visit insofar as their civil rights under the UN Charter are not violated and such subjection does not conflict with immunities and privileges granted in their home nation, and they are granted full due process of law as defined by the Charter,

By granting visiitors "all immunities and privileges granted in their home nation", it could mean that they would have privileges beyond those enjoyed by citizens of the nation being visited. Also, it could grant them privileges which would be properly reserved to citizens of the visited state, for example, voting in elections.

We look forward to seeing the results of the author's continued work on this draft. We believe it has considerable promise.

Patrick T. Olembe
Minister for Foreign Affairs

:rolleyes:
How are we supposed to make money on tourism if it is for free. I mean, maybe the economy is strong in your country, but others might need some source of income in their country. Why don't you make migration for free, it helps the new country, but leave the travel out. Some countries depend on tourism, don't take it away from them. Other than that, post your resolution.

How are we supposed to make money on tourism if it is for free. I mean, maybe the economy is strong in your country, but others might need some source of income in their country. Why don't you make migration for free, it helps the new country, but leave the travel out. Some countries depend on tourism, don't take it away from them. Other than that, post your resolution.

In this case, the intent of the word "free" is to mean "unrestricted" and not "without monetary cost." Is this a point that should be clarified in the resolution?

Excellent work. Which category do you intend to submit this under? My inclinations are for The Furtherment of Democracy (Mild/Significant).

Varia Yefremova
Speaker to the UN

Yet another UN-run bureaucracy? Sigh...

Re the passages
"global travel and the free passage of individual citizens between nations represents the greatest single method of unifying citizenry, spreading international peace and goodwill, and creating a global sense of understanding and tolerance,
&
ACKNOWLEDGING that many nations do not wish to allow free and unrestricted access to their nation by travelers of the world,"
are you aware that the NSUN's members are actually spread across quite a few separate globes, and probably some non-globelike worlds too?

ESTABLISHES the United Nations Free Travel and Migration Organization (UNFTMO), whose responsibility it will be to create, update and maintain a listing of sub-member UN member states who agree to open their borders to all nations on said list,




Explain what a SUB-MEMBER UN MEMBER STATE is to me. We are either members on equal standing or not.. Thus you here create a SUB-MEMBER. Put them on a list saying come on in we have open borders.. I take it a nation can opt off this list and not have to deal with it. Not become a SUB-MEMBER of the UN.. Thus not have to fund this crazy idea.. to make a SUB-MEMBER... and open our borders to any nation even if they are in UN.... as with more out of it we need to tighten our borders not open them up.

As who really knows the hidden agenda of some members of the UN...