[Shelved] Honorary Citizenship Act

[Comfed]

I have drafted this bill to create a system of honorary citizenship for those who have contributed extraordinarily to TNP. It works like this:

• There are two special awards: the Order of Northern Courage and the Order of Polaris. The RA can give people these awards by 2/3rds majority vote. The RA can also revoke them by 2/3rds majority vote.
  • The Order of Northern Courage is for people who have defended TNP when it was in jeopardy (ex. leading the resistance against a rogue delegate) or during a war.
  • The Order of Polaris is for people who have otherwise contributed massively to TNP (ex. being an extraordinarily good Delegate).
• People with either of those awards are Honorary Citizens. They remain Honorary Citizens for as long as they have the Order of Northern Courage/Polaris. Honorary Citizens are also citizens.
• Honorary Citizens can't lose citizenship except by Court order. If there is a Court order to remove citizenship, they remain Honorary Citizens, but just not citizens.

I propose this because TNP has lots of extraordinary people who deserve official recognition, but we don't have an official method to do that right now. People have proposed this in the past, but haven't moved forward with it. So without further ado, here is my bill!

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Sections 6.1 and 6.2 of the Legal Code are amended as follows:

Section 6.1: Citizenship Applications
2. Any resident may apply for citizenship using their regional forum account, by providing the name of their nation in The North Pacific, and swearing an oath as follows:

I pledge loyalty to The North Pacific, obedience to her laws, and responsible action as a member of her society. I pledge to only register one nation to vote in The North Pacific. I pledge that no nation under my control will wage war against the North Pacific. I understand that if I break this oath I may permanently lose my voting privileges. In this manner, I petition the Speaker for citizenship in The North Pacific.

3. A copy of the laws applicants are pledging to obey must be available to them at all times.
4. An application for citizenship ceases to be valid if at any time the applicant's declared nation in The North Pacific is not located in The North Pacific.
5. Forum administration will have 14 days to evaluate the citizenship applicant and verify that they are not using a proxy or evading a judicially-imposed penalty. The Vice Delegate will have 7 days to perform a security evaluation and pass or fail the applicant. The Vice Delegate must consult the Security Council if there is reasonable concern as to whether an applicant should be admitted.
6. The Vice Delegate will automatically fail any applicant who identifies as fascist or has engaged in the promotion of fascism.
7. The Speaker will reject applicants who fail an evaluation by either forum administration or the Vice Delegate.
8. If an applicant is rejected for failing an evaluation by the Vice Delegate, the Regional Assembly shall immediately debate the rejection and will hold a majority vote on whether to uphold it. The vote must begin two days after the rejection occurs.
9. The Regional Assembly may overturn a previous decision to uphold the rejection of an applicant by majority vote.
10. The Speaker will accept all other applicants with valid applications.
11. The Speaker will process applications within 14 days. If an applicant has not been approved or rejected within that time, they will be automatically granted citizenship.
12. The Speaker will confer Honorary Citizenship to recipients of the Order of Northern Courage or the Order of Polaris.
13. The Speaker will remove Honorary Citizenship to those who have their Order of Northern Courage or Order of Polaris revoked.
14. Honorary Citizens shall retain citizenship for as long as they are Honorary Citizens unless their citizenship is removed by Court order.

Section 6.2: Administration and Loss of Citizenship
15. The Speaker will maintain a publicly viewable roster of citizens and their registered nations.
16. The Speaker will promptly remove any citizens whose removal is ordered by the Court.
17. Honorary Citizens who have their citizenship removed by Court order shall remain Honorary Citizens, but shall not be citizens. Honorary Citizens who lose their citizenship by Court order shall regain citizenship when the duration of their citizenship removal as established by the Court ends.
18. The Speaker will promptly remove any citizens who, for over 30 consecutive days, neither post on the regional forum, nor post on the regional message board with their registered nations, or whose registered nations in The North Pacific leave or ceases to exist. Honorary Citizens are exempt from the provisions of this clause.

The remaining sections and clauses of Chapter 6 of the Legal Code shall be renumbered in numeric order.

The following sections are added to Chapter 9 of the Legal Code:

Section 9.5: Order of Northern Courage
23. The Regional Assembly may, by two-thirds majority vote, bestow the Order of Northern Courage upon any resident or former citizen.
24. The Star of the North is reserved for those who have acted extraordinarily to defend the legitimate government of The North Pacific while it was in jeopardy or during a time of war.
25. Recipients of the Order of Northern Courage may display the following medal:
[medal here]
26. The Regional Assembly may strip a recipient of their Order of Northern Courage by two-thirds majority vote.

Section 9.6: Order of Polaris
27. The Regional Assembly may, by two-thirds majority vote, bestow the Order of Polaris upon any resident or former citizen.
28. The Order of Polaris is reserved for those who have served the government or military of The North Pacific in an extraordinary fashion.
29. Recipients of the Order of Polaris may display the following medal:
[medal here]
30. The Regional Assembly may strip a recipient of their Order of Polaris by two-thirds majority vote.

No part of this bill shall take effect unless all parts take effect.

---

Spoiler: Markup

Section 6.1: Citizenship Applications
2. Any resident may apply for citizenship using their regional forum account, by providing the name of their nation in The North Pacific, and swearing an oath as follows:

I pledge loyalty to The North Pacific, obedience to her laws, and responsible action as a member of her society. I pledge to only register one nation to vote in The North Pacific. I pledge that no nation under my control will wage war against the North Pacific. I understand that if I break this oath I may permanently lose my voting privileges. In this manner, I petition the Speaker for citizenship in The North Pacific.

3. A copy of the laws applicants are pledging to obey must be available to them at all times.
4. An application for citizenship ceases to be valid if at any time the applicant's declared nation in The North Pacific is not located in The North Pacific.
5. Forum administration will have 14 days to evaluate the citizenship applicant and verify that they are not using a proxy or evading a judicially-imposed penalty. The Vice Delegate will have 7 days to perform a security evaluation and pass or fail the applicant. The Vice Delegate must consult the Security Council if there is reasonable concern as to whether an applicant should be admitted.
6. The Vice Delegate will automatically fail any applicant who identifies as fascist or has engaged in the promotion of fascism.
7. The Speaker will reject applicants who fail an evaluation by either forum administration or the Vice Delegate.
8. If an applicant is rejected for failing an evaluation by the Vice Delegate, the Regional Assembly shall immediately debate the rejection and will hold a majority vote on whether to uphold it. The vote must begin two days after the rejection occurs.
9. The Regional Assembly may overturn a previous decision to uphold the rejection of an applicant by majority vote.
10. The Speaker will accept all other applicants with valid applications.
11. The Speaker will process applications within 14 days. If an applicant has not been approved or rejected within that time, they will be automatically granted citizenship.
12. The Speaker will confer Honorary Citizenship to recipients of the Order of Northern Courage or the Order of Polaris.
13. The Speaker will remove Honorary Citizenship to those who have their Order of Northern Courage or Order of Polaris revoked.
14. Honorary Citizens shall retain citizenship for as long as they are Honorary Citizens unless their citizenship is removed by Court order.

Section 6.2: Administration and Loss of Citizenship
15. The Speaker will maintain a publicly viewable roster of citizens and their registered nations.
16. The Speaker will promptly remove any citizens whose removal is ordered by the Court, or whose registered nations in The North Pacific leave or ceases to exist.
17. Honorary Citizens who have their citizenship removed by Court order shall remain Honorary Citizens, but shall not be citizens. Honorary Citizens who lose their citizenship by Court order shall regain citizenship when the duration of their citizenship removal as established by the Court ends.
18. The Speaker will promptly remove any citizens who, for over 30 consecutive days, neither post on the regional forum, nor post on the regional message board with their registered nations, or whose registered nations in The North Pacific leave or ceases to exist. Honorary Citizens are exempt from the provisions of this clause.

Section 9.5: Order of Northern Courage
23. The Regional Assembly may, by two-thirds majority vote, bestow the Order of Northern Courage upon any resident or former citizen.
24. The Star of the North is reserved for those who have acted extraordinarily to defend the legitimate government of The North Pacific while it was in jeopardy or during a time of war.
25. Recipients of the Order of Northern Courage may display the following medal:
[medal here]
26. The Regional Assembly may strip a recipient of their Order of Northern Courage by two-thirds majority vote.

Section 9.6: Order of Polaris
27. The Regional Assembly may, by two-thirds majority vote, bestow the Order of Polaris upon any resident or former citizen.
28. The Order of Polaris is reserved for those who have served the government or military of The North Pacific in an extraordinary fashion.
29. Recipients of the Order of Polaris may display the following medal:
[medal here]
30. The Regional Assembly may strip a recipient of their Order of Polaris by two-thirds majority vote.

 

[Lord Dominator]

I support the basic idea, but I'll have to think more on the specific ideas and structure used here.

 

[Pallaith]

Alright, this was tried recently and I still have the same problems with the idea. You are creating an alternative path to citizenship through the granting of cultural declarations. These awards you created are fine in and of themselves, but then you have the Speaker give "honorary" citizenship to people who receive the. You don't technically define what it is, and in practice it is indistinguishable from actual citizenship, so I would dispense with the "honorary" thing. I do not like an alternative process that completely ignores the actual process for citizenship, especially when you're stretching the term honorary citizenship, which most people would understand to not be the same as actual citizenship. A title or award is not the same thing as taking an oath and going through the checks.

I disagree with this method in principle, and I disagree with your naming of it. I am afraid I will have to oppose at this time.

 

[Gorundu]

I'm gonna guess that this is based on the "Honoured Citizens" system in Europeia, which means it's not really an alternative path to citizenship like Ghost interpreted it to be, but rather a way for exemplary TNPers to retain their citizenship even if they fall inactive. Obviously it doesn't say that someone has to be a citizen first to receive this "honorary citizenship", but it would be pretty hard to make extraordinary contributions to TNP without being a citizen, which Pathoal has intended to mean things like "being an extraordinarily good Delegate".

Presuming that to be the intention, I will say that I'm ambivalent about the concept. The practical implications I'm fine with, but TNP has never conferred any official honours, and I don't see why we should start now. Those who have contributed much to the region will be remembered for their contributions, with or without an award.

 

[Comfed]

which Pathoal has intended to mean things like "being an extraordinarily good Delegate".

Perhaps examples were not the greatest idea in the world. I will note that, as far as I am aware, the UDS also has a similar system.

@Pallaith, if what you are concerned about is making this an alternative path to citizenship, perhaps it would be best to restrict this to being awarded to current citizens?

 

[Great Bights Mum]

TNP has never conferred any official honours, and I don't see why we should start now. Those who have contributed much to the region will be remembered for their contributions, with or without an award.

This is a most eloquent way of saying what I was thinking. I am not fond of codifying an "elite" group in TNP. If we are striving to be egalitarian, does honorary citizenship forward that goal?

 

[Cretox]

Stripping out the fancy wording, what you have here is:

1. The Regional Assembly may give any resident citizenship by 2/3rds majority vote regardless of if they applied for citizenship or passed/failed any checks.
2. This citizenship is not lost by falling inactive, leaving the region, or CTEing.
3. This citizenship can only be removed by another 2/3rds RA vote or by "court order" (what does that mean? Can the court remove the citizenship for any reason?).

As someone who previously wrote a regional awards bill, I can't support this. I can't support giving certain TNPers fancy titles when WASC commendations exist, I can't support coupling those titles to citizenship, and I can't support giving out that citizenship to any resident with enough popularity in a way that completely circumvents all our security and administrative safeguards and ignores activity checks.

 

[Praetor]

This is a most eloquent way of saying what I was thinking. I am not fond of codifying an "elite" group in TNP. If we are striving to be egalitarian, does honorary citizenship forward that goal?

Yeah, we already have the Security Council for that! insert optional /s

 

[Pallaith]

Perhaps examples were not the greatest idea in the world. I will note that, as far as I am aware, the UDS also has a similar system.

@Pallaith, if what you are concerned about is making this an alternative path to citizenship, perhaps it would be best to restrict this to being awarded to current citizens?

I accept you may not have realized the significance of what you were proposing, given ongoing discussion I assumed this is what you were aiming for. If it’s truly just honorary citizenship, I suggest you don’t give it actual citizenship because that defeats the purpose, and I think the awards you created for it are more what you should pursue over an honorary citizenship. And if it’s just an award, absolutely former citizens can have it.