[Closed] 2019 Omoxoje Summit

"It may surprise some", Dardanus began cautiously, "but Haor Chall supports the idea of a human rights charter. However. It must clearly recognise the cultural and social differences across Meterra particularly - and beyond, if it is to apply to third-party members also. There are many different systems of government across those represented here, all of which are entirely legitimate and should be respected by META. The people of Haor Chall have extensive civil liberties, some of which I know are not shared by other states here, but equally our political system is... ah... less extensive than others. Much as I would not expect to push some of the rights our people have onto other nations which have a different social perspective, we are not willing to see a charter which would challenge our system of government. Any human rights charter should accordingly reflect what our considered minimum standard is. I also think we should focus on economic rights, both as fits the nature of our organisation and as the areas where we are most likely to be aligned, or willing to become so."

"To start with, we concur wholeheartedly that forced labour is abhorrent, which I expect we can all agree on. Did Demescia have a proposal for what else the charter should cover?"

“The prohibition of slavery is an obvious one, as you’ve said,” Kayode replied. “We should also focus on equal protections under the law, the prohibition of torture, rights to privacy, rights to freedom of movement…I can go on and on.

“As you said before, geo-economics inherently mixes the economic with the political. I concede that if we succeed in the realm of economics, we must also succeed in the realm of politics, which is why we need some like a human rights charter to interact with that realm. Hopefully, these areas of rights aren’t shocking.”

Boris listened with intent as the topic of discussion changed to - he presumed - something more favorable amongst all of the delegates gathered around the conference table.

"The Republic, although it doesn't practice - nor do I suspect will it ever - torture, doesn't believe it to be within META's jurisdiction to control, as the respectable Gospodin Dardanus said, to impose upon or change the culture of the nations that reside within. We must be specific when designing this proposed Rights Charter; for example, on the matter of torture, I would suggest making clear that the production of goods or services by individuals or entities under duress or coercion, with the purpose of being introduced at any point into META markets, be expressly prohibited - not, necessarily the use of coercion or duress in order to achieve ends met by, say, intelligence agencies, military, or even police forces.

"The more specific we can be when crafting this piece of legislature, the better," he rounded out, his baritone voice maintaining a calm and even pitch, "I think the establishment of Secretariats for the Association would be in the best interest of everyone here in order to more speedily deal with matters such as these. There are simply too many matters and a plethora of minutiae inside each of the matters for us alone to be able to hash out. Everything from license plates, trade regulations, ports of entry, travel across borders, currency standardization, could and would be much better handled - and at the expense of far less time caught in regulatory and administrative Hell - if there were sub-departments, Secretariats, or whatever we want to call them in order to decide these matters."

Boris did not want to shirk his responsibilities - he had no intention of doing that - but the group of them would honestly be here for decades deciding every last detail in everything if they had to do it personally. They couldn't and wouldn't be able to get through the problems fast enough; everything would bottleneck at them, nothing would get done, and META would fall apart merely as a loosely-regulated idea instead of a well-oiled and high-horsepower machine.

"I don't think things as basic as equal protections under the law and abolition would be topics of much contention.”

“I do, however, understand your point that we should be sure to tailor to the collective interests of the nations represented in this Association. Radically offsetting the political systems of our members is not a prudent outcome, especially with a political climate as diverse as ours. We could just take it one step at a time, establishing a few standards of the rights charter and letting a committee amend them from there.

“Speaking of committees, you also make a really good point about the benefit of secretariats. Though I don’t want us to get off-topic with this discussion, I do want to note that we indeed can establish a committee to handle and maintain a human rights charter and human rights disputes within the Association. However, that would entail talks about the structure and scope of the committee, which we can discuss after we’ve gotten our basic standards out of the way.”

Koizumi listened as the organization agreed to admit McMasterdonia as soon as it could. This was all going according to plan. Now, she thought, it was time to focus on the matters at hand.

“Guslantis is one of the most diverse and accepting nations in the world. My government and the organizations based in my nation comply with very strict, but very fair rules on how they treat citizens, residents, immigrants, and customers,” she began.

“For example, at Thomas we believe privacy is a fundamental human right. Every Thomas product is designed from the ground up to protect the information of our customers and to empower them to choose what they share and with whom. We are also committed to making sure all labor is legal, humane, and fair to those who are building our glorious future,” she continued.

“In short, Guslantis would be in favor of a charter that not only sets an example of human rights, but ensures the enforcement of these rights to Meterran citizens,” she said before sitting down.

“I'm glad we can agree on at least one standard of rights. The use of forced labour is deplorable and has no place in the Association. Are there any others we can agree on, like in regards to discrimination or torture?”

“Likewise, Guslantis is against all forms of discrimination, whether that be on account of gender, race, sexual preference/orientation, or age, to name a few. In regards to torture, that is not something we endorse nor practice. The only issue I see is how we enforce a ban on torture. Usually these are done by agencies or organizations out of the public eye. What happens if years pass and then we learn a nation has committed torture? More importantly, what happens if we learn information that one of our member nations is committing acts of war and that information was collected via torture?”

“That would likely depend on severity and the opinion of our members. The case may end in suspension or even an expulsion if it comes to that, but ultimately it depends on a vote and the mood those who decide. The Treaty draft will go even more in-depth regards such a matter, as it sets up a secretariat that handles trade disputes and the like.”

"I think we are some distance away from META enforcing any charter within member nations," Dardanus began slowly. "Certainly I can see that being problematic domestically for some nations. I think, at present, the only enforcement we should be considering is suspension or expulsion, in the event that serious breaches were to come to light. It is then the responsibility of member nationstates to comply with the charter in good faith, not something for META to be acting as some kind of international policeman. It should be an aspirational document for us all, not something of procedural minutiae for some new META bureaucracy to execute."

"In terms of further agreeable rights, I would like to see a focus on economic rights - the right to property for example. Other rights will have to be defined carefully. Whilst I appreciate Governor Koizumi's frequent advertisements for Thomas," he said dryly, "there is a difference between the rules we would expect corporate entities to comply with and government. Whilst I would agree with some form of right of privacy, clearly this has limitations - all of our nations have both internal and external security organisations which, to a lesser or great extent, these will impinge on individuals privacy rights. I don't want to get into a debate on the specifics of that, I simply raise it as an example of where these rights will need to be carefully defined."

"Accordingly, I am minded to agree with Mr Poklonskaja. I think we can confirm the broad concept today, but then allow sometime for the Secretariat to setup a committee with all member nations represented to work through the detail and come up with a proposal for us to agree at a future date. I suspect that it will need some tweaking, but I think that is probably the best route to achieving a Charter which all of us will be able to ratify. I appreciate that you may have been looking to achieve more today but I think that is the best option, assuming we reach agreement on what and how the Secretariat will operate.

"Will that be sufficient for you today? I think we can generate a good headline from it, agreement to establish a human rights charter and with some key fundamentals set out - detail to be worked out in committee - is a good announcement for META to be able to make."

Kayode sighed, massaging her forehead: “Very well. I suppose a committee should elaborate on the few fundamental rights we’ve agreed on.”

“Now it’s a matter of how this committee should be set up, as well as other committees like the standards committee created in the Charter. I believe it was Article 4: ‘the signatories shall establish a Committee tasked with thinking of common sense standardisations leading to better and more effective practices across multiple sectors.’ I and many other Demescians, since hailing from a republic, would prefer a parliamentary or democratic approach to the committee. Perhaps META citizens could participate in elections to appoint delegates to decide legislative on economic issues. Us plenipotentiaries, meanwhile, could fulfill a more executive role in running the organization.”

Koizumi nodded and then proceeded to speak.

“While I understand the need for multiple offices, I’m a bit hesitant to be in agreement entirely. Bureaucracy can be a dangerous tool in organization building, and I feel it may lead to things never getting done,” she began.

“My proposal is as such, a central META office or headquarters, potentially METAplex, where we would meet. This office would be supplemented by one or two secondary offices, with very concise roles and functions. I think it would be best to spread these offices throughout Meterra so that every member nation or potentially META member can be close to a local office,” she continued.

“In conclusion, by making sure we have very functional and local offices, we can do what META does best, work together as one unit,”

Already, Boris could see the inner machinations of META come to light. With each representative who spoke in succession, more and more was added to the framework that their nations had already agreed to. The META Charter would serve as the basis of their Association, but it lacked a lot of the provisions to set into motion the necessary infrastructure and policies that were necessary to manage and support an international entity for cooperation. Koizumi, the representative of Guslantis for META matters, made some strong points. As did Dardanus, the representative for Haor Chall.

Boris wrapped his fingers across the tabletop in deep thought. Mouxordia was already making significant strides to establish what they believed to be the necessary infrastructure to support META's smooth integration into the country - Hell, they'd already adopted the meten and began the distribution of the currency; rolling out measures necessary to exchange Mouxordian mou for the META meten. There was a brief lull in the conversation, everyone seemingly in thought at how to proceed.

"I can't help but agree with Representative Koizumi. An overabundance of red tape to cut through would only hinder META's purpose. As such, I support Representative Kayode and propose that we simply look to the Charter to establish our primary Secretariats - or whatever we will call these offices or jurisdiction. Obvious matters that immediately spring to mind is a Transportation Office to maintain standardization across roadways, port facilities - both sea and airborne - and railways; a border and customs organization to secure the borders to META member-states from outer-META transport of persons but facilitate the ease of movement between our nations; a META Bank or administration of similar variety to handle the design, implementation, and roll-out of the meten currency, as well as handle other economic exclusion nuances - for example, the administration of Areas of Protection, as mentioned in the Charter. Those are just a few of the more important organizations that I can think of.

"Additionally, as for organization of these entities, I don't believe there should ever be any more than a chain of two. That is, a main META-level body that decides the policy, design, and regulatory aspects of these areas, and local nation-based bodies that will implement the controls or regulations in accordance with their nation's customs. This ensures the unity of META in its primary purpose - that is, the standardization of complicated aspects of economic cooperation in order facilitate smoother and more beneficial trade between member-states - and simultaneously affords member-states their own individuality in the implementation of regulatory aspects which support this."

“I do agree, Sinjor Poklonskaja and Sinjora Koizumi,” she said, “that we should seek to cut unnecessary red tape that may prevent the progress of the Association. However, there are other parts of the Association that can’t be settled just with bureaucracy. I don’t think it would be Ilian to suggest a system that can effectively handle trade disputes, for example. Trade disputes are unique circumstances that should be handled by a democratic body such as ours, rather than simply thrown into the cogs and assembly line of civil service. The human rights charter, too, is something that should be handled beyond bureaucracy. I, hailing from a republic, like the idea of a parliament deciding on the moral and economic rights of the organization, but someone else may think differently. Nevertheless, it’s something to be decided outside of the local offices. If we only think of META regular functioning in terms of the menial and routine, I don’t know how we can push new frontiers and truly soar as an Association.”

“Now, speaking of local offices, I really love the idea Koizumi put forth: the idea of having a central headquarters and then having local offices throughout META. It’s a way not only to allow accessibility to META, but to curtail corruption or hyperconcentration of power in one country. Perhaps the mainstays for bureaus could be in the METAplex, with other local offices scattered around Meterra as Koizumi said. However, I think more prominent bodies like, for example, a council handling the human rights charter, could be in different countries so as to keep the balance of power.”

“I’m afraid I must most strenuously argue against the establishment of any kind of ‘parliament’ in META. Not only would it suggest a significant usurpation of national sovereignty but it would, inevitably, breed the kind of rampant bureaucracy that none of us wishes to see. Haor Chall cannot see any reasons to support the creation of a META-wide legislature of this kind of model. We see the establishment of a Secretariat, to fulfil the limited civil service type requirements of META, along with the various committees which should fall under it, as more than sufficient. As far as we are concerned the accountability of META back to the people of our nations is through the group assembled here. As the nominated representatives of the national governments, that is a significant part of our role. On that note, we would not be adverse to formalising this body, a Council of Representatives perhaps.”

“The committees, in our view, should be part of the Secretariat and be made up of an appointee from each nation. We think that appointee should be a relevant subject expert, chosen by the national government – who are then accountable to their people for their choice – but not another elected politician who may or may not be properly informed or qualified to comment on some of the highly technical discussions which will be necessary in committee. Ultimately that can be a national choice I believe; if Demescia, for example, wishes to hold elections for its committee members then so be it – but such a system should not be forced upon all of META.”

“In terms of where the headquarters of META should be, we would favour Mouxordia or Demescia as the host nation. If neither were willing, our view is that one of the smaller economies in META should be host. Both as the economic benefits of hosting the META headquarters would be of greater relative benefit and it would be less likely to generate friction between members in the future. I would question at this stage in our development, whether local offices are really necessary? I can see the likelihood of their requirement in the future, but at present I think that runs the risks of generating unnecessary bureaucracy to justify their existence. That said, I think more important than physical location is the structures and senior appointments we have to create. A rotating ‘presidency’ of this council – whatever we call it – makes sense. The more fundamental question perhaps is how we decide and/or appoint the various committee chairs and heads of departments with the Secretariat itself, including the presumably Secretary-General who will head the organisation from an administrative perspective? Recruiting staff further down can doubtless be done on a secondment basis from national administrations and civil services, depending on the requirements. I imagine domestic audiences will expect committee chair positions and equivalent to be distributed between nations on a broad basis?”

“Sinjor’ Dardanus, I won’t be debating the merits of democracy, because frankly that’s not why I’m here today. I do think we should take into account national sovereignty; that isn’t what I’m arguing against. My sole point is that something as normative as the rights we uphold in the Association should be handled outside of the bureaucratic office, and should be generally agreed upon by whatever representatives we choose to assemble about the matter, whether democratically or nominatively elected. I feel a part of coordination is knowing when something is just for the circumstances at hand, and civil service is just too routine and reductionist in its functioning to handle something as complex as a human rights charter or the validity of trade disputes. You can easily verify where a box has a valid certificate of origin attached. You can’t, however, easily verify whether a country is engaging in trade dumping or disruption of intermigration. At the very least, there should be some voting within the committee, like how we vote on issues at this moment, in order to assure that representatives and their respective countries agree with how a matter should be treated."

Kayode ahemed: “I also deem local offices to be necessary. We don’t want to distance the government of Meterran nations from the workings of META bureaucracy. We also don’t want to lose control over standards of products and transportation. As our Association grows to be seventeen in full members, I think it would be helpful to have local offices so as to improve the effectiveness of standards we impose. I like the idea of rotating presidency of the Council among countries of META, so as to keep power from being overly concentrated into one country. Again, sovereignty is important. As for how the Secretary-General is elected, perhaps it could be put to vote like we usually do. Representatives say their nomination and they go from there.”

Dardanus cleared his throat before speaking, "I think you misunderstand me slightly. I entirely agree that agreement should be reached, and decisions made, at this level. But, perhaps the Demescian civil service is different, but my experience suggests it is the elected politicians which drive reductionist thinking - in their quest to turn every issue into sound bites for electioneering. We certainly have no such issues in Haor Chall, with a highly professional, adaptive and responsive civil service with the right experts and specialists to deal with complexity properly. I digress nevertheless. The point is the difference between setting clear direction, generating agreement and making decisions, clearly the domain of empowered national representatives and the, occasionally highly technical, work that must be done to properly inform and support that activity. For instances, we can, and should, set the direction for the human rights charter and, indeed, it is the respective national governments who will need to agree to adopt it, but I can think of nothing worse than letting us write the charter ourselves - and I mean no disrespect to anyone in this room - but I know that I am most certainly not the kind of expert in human rights law and international law who we should be employing to craft the charter! We should employ the best and brightest people for the job, provide them with our guidance and vote to approve or amend it once they have written it, and so on. The committees should be staffed in this way too, with the head of each committee being an appointment made by this body."

"I do recognise your point on local offices and I will say that our stance is not to oppose their creation, I just suggest they must be structured and developed carefully to prevent wastefulness and ensure that there are providing value to the organisation and the member nations.”

“Yes, there is a difference between setting direction and actually enacting it. What I suggested was an assembly for setting direction and then a committee for enacting them. What we’ve done today is only a starting point for the new charter; no doubt there will be more ground to cover and ideological changes in the future. We need a body of representatives that will represent that progression, while also having technical experts to do what they need to do to achieve the objectives of that progression efficiently.”

"Well, we're getting closer I think," Dardanus replied dryly, "but we see this body as the only assembly necessary. As a group of representatives from national governments, is is what is needed to provide direction and put forward national positions. I would think we are more than able to represent, and deliver, the progression needed for META. Sometimes we may wish to convene this body with different representatives, such as a summit of heads of government, but we do not see a need for an assembly other than a group like this. An elected assembly can only lead to issues where it's members can take a different position from the governments of the countries they belong to, it also inevitably would start to usurp national sovereignty using its democratic 'mandate' as justification. That is certainly a step too far for Haor Chall."

Dardanus looked around the room, waiting for another representative to comment. A long pause followed and Dardanus decided to end the silence with a brief chuckle. "Should I assume the silence to be agreement with our position then?"

Arno Barre rose from his seat again after collecting his thoughts, weighing pros and cons and the directives given him by the Lancerian government.

"Lanceria firmly agrees that a headquarters for the META organization is a necessary establishment. We are not opposed to the suggestion of Mouxordia but would slightly prefer the headquarters to be located in Demescia. Having said that, there should be a meaningful process towards deciding where the META headquarters is established. We suggest that each nation interested in hosting the headquarters put together a bid package after the conclusion of this conference. We may then consider each location bid and hold a vote to determine the selected nation. This, I think, would be the fairest method."

"In terms of a broader assembly than the conference of representatives that we have gathered here today, Lanceria concurs with Haor Chall. At this time, META has been successful and efficient with the representatives appointed to it by all our respective governments, we feel a democratically elected assembly unnecessary at this time."

He nodded at Dardanus, and returned to his seat.

“I withdraw my original suggestion for a democratic parliament within the Association,” Kayode said. “What is most important is that we have a non-bureaucratic organisation to handle matters that require prudence and a regard for each member’s interests. So far, I and Demescia are content with the resolutions we have come to in regards to the future of this Association.”

“Now that we’ve discussed a majority of the topics on the list,” she said as she looks around at every plenipotentiary, even the eerily silent Syrixian representative that has said nothing and sat perfectly still for the duration of the summit, “I believe it is an optimal time to call for a vote on a treaty that captures the essence of our resolutions today.”

Pages come into the room and distribute copies of the Treaty.

“Feel free to review it at your own pace before we vote. If you have any recommendations for amendments, please discuss it before we begin the vote.”

Everybody in the room sat in silence for half an hour after perusing the document. Kayode spoke up, “if nobody has anything to say about the Treaty, we might as well go on with the vote. Everyone in favour of passing this Treaty say aye. All opposed say nay.”

The first to stand was the Lancerian representative.

"Aye." he said confidently and returned to his seat.

The Naizerri delegate remained seated, before indicating their support for the proposal, with a short, almost barked, "Aye."

Dardanus nodded in satisfaction as he finished reading through the treaty draft. "Aye."

Boris scanned the pages of the print that was set before him, taking care to at least read the highlights of each paragraph. He'd keep the copy in order to read it more in-depth at a later time, probably tonight, and probably only to nitpick about verbiage.

"Aye," he said, closing the document and looking up at the rest of the gathered representatives.

“Aye,” joined an eager Koizumi.

Mateusz Szymanski finally stood. He had not spoken at all throughout the summit; rather, he merely watched. The State Department had debated whether it was even worth sending him, and if so, in what capacity. If the Meterran nations were sane, they would not put additional barriers between them and the Empire's markets. Alternatively, there was an opportunity to influence the treaty if they did come; and if the Skandans came and they didn't? That would be a bad look.

In the end, Secretary Khanna had decided to run a middle ground. If Pataliputra wished to further influence Meterra's economy, the warpath would be both counterproductive and revealing. Better to work within the frameworks set by the Meterran nations; to appear eager to work with them in order to draw them as close as possible. It was in that capacity that Mateusz said nothing whilst various plenipotentiaries from across Meterra rambled endlessly in thick legalese. And the best part? The Skandans never showed up.

"The State Department has reviewed the proposed Treaty, based on the deliberations at this summit amongst you, the representatives of Meterran nations assembled, with great care." He paused briefly. "Our review has found that this treaty, in our view, adequately allows Observers to collaborate healthily with Meterran nations and economies, and provides for a new, modern evolution of this Organization."

"The Empire supports this treaty."