General Membership Treaty Amendments

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Nathan
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General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Nathan »

Blue is the original text, red is the proposed change.
Treaty of General Membership to the Micras Treaty Organization

1. There is an organization, called the Micras Treaty Organization, which shall consist of all signatory members of this Treaty. All member nations may send one representative to the General Assembly.
1a. For purposes of votes within the General Assembly, any vote cast as equivalent to "Abstain" shall not be counted as a vote in the affirmative or the negative, but simply a recognition that the representative was present and voted.

2. Nations wishing to join the organization must be approved by the General Assembly with at least a 1/3rd plurality. If rejected, a nation may reapply in 3 months.
2a. Members may be expelled from the organization by the General Assembly with a 3/4th (75.0%) majority.

3. The organization's day to day operations are headed and overseen by a chairman known as the Secretary-General which shall be a permanent position once appointed by the General Assembly. The Secretary-General oversees the General Assembly.
3a. The specific powers of the Secretary-General are to: declare votes passed or failed, remind representatives of proper procedure, set temporary voting and debate procedures to last in emergencies until canceled by 1/4 of the Assembly at anytime, keep debate relevant to the topic, serve as spokesman for the Micras Treaty Organization but not for its members, command (or officially appoint a commander) official MTO missions, delivering an official MTO Opinion to the greater micronational community and moderate the MTO's online forums.
3b. The General Assembly may elect an official known as the Deputy Secretary, subject to all the same election and removal procedures as the Secretary-General, whom shall be vested with the responsibility of assisting the Secretary-General. Should the Secretary-General be unavailable or unable to fulfill his/her duties the Deputy Secretary shall stand in for the Secretary-General, until available, or a new one is elected.
3b. For one full calender month the representative of a member nation will serve as the Deputy Secretary whom shall be vested with the responsibility of assisting the Secretary-General. The office will rotate in alphabetical order according to the formal name of the country as registered with the MTO (excluding government-type descriptors and excluding the native nation of the Secretary-General). Should the Secretary-General be unavailable or unable to fulfill his/her duties the Deputy Secretary shall stand in for the Secretary-General, until available, or a new one is elected.

4. At any time the General Assembly may hold a vote of no confidence and remove the current Secretary-General. A simple majority (50%+1) is needed to remove a Secretary-General and elect a new one. This vote is managed by the representative who proposed it.

5. The Parties to this treaty hereby establish the Common Court (“CC”, “the Court”) as an independent and free court of justice and law.
5a. The Court shall have the power to interpret the Treaties and Conventions of the Organization.
5b. The Court shall consist of a panel of three jurists independent of the government of the participatory States, elected by the signatory nations of this treaty. The election shall be overseen by the Secretary-General. The Jurists of the Common Court need not be national representatives.
5c. Disputes within a nation about a treaty or convention are dealt with by the concerning nations' internally established court.


5. The General Assembly has the authority to appoint mediators and arbitrators at the request of any member nation.
5.a. Nations that use MTO mediation agree to follow the findings of the mediator.

6. Any party to this treaty may put before the General Assembly a Resolution for an MTO Mission.
6.a. Valid missions are providing aid to any nation in need, peacekeeping services in zones of conflict or potential conflict or any action deemed absolutely necessary by the General Assembly to the peace and well-being of Micras.
6.b. For a Resolution for an MTO Mission to pass, the General Assembly must meet a 3/4th (75.0%) vote in favor of the resolution.
6.c. MTO Missions are non-binding and no member of the MTO is obligated to take part in them.

7. Any party to this treaty may put before the General Assembly a Resolution for an MTO Opinion.
7.a. An MTO opinion will be a non-binding opinion on the issue(s) provided in the resolution.
7.b. An MTO Opinion resolution will only become an official MTO Opinion upon a unanimous vote in favor of said resolution.

8. Nations may leave at any time, but must give public notice of their intent inform the Secretary-General of their intent to leave this treaty for it to be recognized. Upon leaving this treaty the departing nation is removed from all other treaties dependent upon this one.

9. This treaty may be amended by the General Assembly with a 3/4th (75.0%) majority.
Any further suggestions are still welcome and encouraged.
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Jonas
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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Jonas »

5. The General Assembly has the authority to appoint mediators and arbitrators at the request of any member nation.
What is the use of this? Do these mediators have any power or any influence? I seriously doubt that, so I doubt how useful this article is (except giving the impression that we actually want an organisation which meddles into affairs it has nothing to do with).
Important characters:
Frederik Alfons des Vinandy-Paravel, King of Batavia
Joseph Bartholomeus des Vinandy-Windsor, Prince-Regent of Batavia
Jin San, Diwang of Jingdao, Duke of Kildare

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Nathan
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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Nathan »

I'd be happy with giving the mediators some sort of condition that any nations that request mediation do so with the understanding that the are bound to the terms of the mediator's resolution. It's always easier to ere on the side of "less meddlesome" for these things.
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Liam Sinclair
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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Liam Sinclair »

I agree that we can expand the mediator proposal to be that of a binding arbitration system, so that the mediator has some sort of "teeth" to actually resolve the conflict when approached to do so by the involved parties.

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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Jonas »

Liam Sinclair wrote:I agree that we can expand the mediator proposal to be that of a binding arbitration system, so that the mediator has some sort of "teeth" to actually resolve the conflict when approached to do so by the involved parties.
I don't believe in a system which binds the parties: in the first place, in this small micronational world you don't often find a really, neutral mediator. Secondly, I doubt that in a real discussion between two nations (read: two groups of people with other goals) can be forced to sit at the table or accept the proposal of a mediator.

No, ladies and gentlemen of the MTO, let the nations keep their fights out of this organisation. When two nations are prepared to talk, they will do so without an institution forcing itself on it.
Important characters:
Frederik Alfons des Vinandy-Paravel, King of Batavia
Joseph Bartholomeus des Vinandy-Windsor, Prince-Regent of Batavia
Jin San, Diwang of Jingdao, Duke of Kildare

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Nathan
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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Nathan »

I don't see how two nations voluntarily asking the MTO to mediate is the MTO forcing itself on them. This clause does not prevent nations from settling their affairs privately either.

Mediation is the most basic form of international regulation we can possibly hope to achieve right now and it is much more informal and voluntary than the Common Court that it replaces.
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Jonas
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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Jonas »

Probably I'm sounding ruder than I meant to, but: I simply don't think we should pretend like this organisation has much use, and surely not as a mediating factor. If two nations want to have a mediator, they will find one (there are always third nations who try to find some glory by dealing with such problems :wink: ). So I really don't see the advantage of adding this to our Treaty (except when the nations would indeed agree about it being a binding system, but we all know something like that would be doomed to fail).
Important characters:
Frederik Alfons des Vinandy-Paravel, King of Batavia
Joseph Bartholomeus des Vinandy-Windsor, Prince-Regent of Batavia
Jin San, Diwang of Jingdao, Duke of Kildare

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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Jonas »

By Cato, my apologies: I just saw that this is the Assembly and not the general discussion forum. I would like to point out that, to the contrary of myself, there are Shirerithians who probably see this otherwise. I only was telling my personal opinion, as I thought we were not in the official debating room.

In no way my personal opinion is the opinion of the Imperial Republic (yet :twisted: ), of which I'm a loyal servant.
Important characters:
Frederik Alfons des Vinandy-Paravel, King of Batavia
Joseph Bartholomeus des Vinandy-Windsor, Prince-Regent of Batavia
Jin San, Diwang of Jingdao, Duke of Kildare

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Nathan
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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Nathan »

Nothing on Micras has much use, so let's take the proactive route instead. Yes, third parties always seek out the glory of being a mediator, so let's let the MTO be able to be such a glory-seeking third party.

There is no strict procedure against non-delegates speaking in the Assembly, so I welcome your personal opinions as the counter-point to this debate.

As two delegates, however, are in favor of a mediator clause I have added it to the working draft at the top.
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Jonas
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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Jonas »

I'm curious what the MTO will do when one of the two parties decides not to listen to the outcome. In that case the MTO is dragged into a conflict that isn't theirs to begin with.
Important characters:
Frederik Alfons des Vinandy-Paravel, King of Batavia
Joseph Bartholomeus des Vinandy-Windsor, Prince-Regent of Batavia
Jin San, Diwang of Jingdao, Duke of Kildare

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Nathan
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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Nathan »

The MTO has several options to act if the failure of the mediation results in escalated conflict or the outbreak of war. Depending on the type of conflict the MTO may issue an Opinion denouncing the nations involved or launch a Mission to stabilize the area.
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Jonas
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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Jonas »

Nathan wrote:The MTO has several options to act if the failure of the mediation results in escalated conflict or the outbreak of war. Depending on the type of conflict the MTO may issue an Opinion denouncing the nations involved or launch a Mission to stabilize the area.
There's nothing better than invadi... err stabilising countries that don't want to listen, huh? :wink:
Important characters:
Frederik Alfons des Vinandy-Paravel, King of Batavia
Joseph Bartholomeus des Vinandy-Windsor, Prince-Regent of Batavia
Jin San, Diwang of Jingdao, Duke of Kildare

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Jonas
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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Jonas »

This reminded me of something: what does the MTO do in case of conflict between non-members and members? Because, in case the MTO doesn't do anything in such cases, a denounced nation can easily leave the organisation. :doc:

(This is, for the record, meant as a serious question).
Important characters:
Frederik Alfons des Vinandy-Paravel, King of Batavia
Joseph Bartholomeus des Vinandy-Windsor, Prince-Regent of Batavia
Jin San, Diwang of Jingdao, Duke of Kildare

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Nathan
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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Nathan »

I believe precedent has held that the MTO has very little jurisdiction over non-members. The authority of such physical actions as launching a Mission (peacekeeping) are entirely dependent upon the power/influence of the member nations that participate.

In cases of arbitration, I can envision situations where a non-member may feel it has the moral highground and the MTO would be likely to rule in its favor and would therefore agree to abide by it. But if the non-member doesn't expect an outcome in its favor, it probably wouldn't even acknowledge the MTO in the first place and we wouldn't have to worry about it.

I move to begin voting, under the emergency procedures we've been operating under. The Treaty will be amended by replacing the original blue text with new red (and pink) text. Black text is unaffected.
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Nathan
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Re: General Membership Treaty Voting

Post by Nathan »

I will await a second member to support my motion to begin voting on these amendments. After this vote concludes, I believe I will start the process to move the MTO to Hub.
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Jonas
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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Jonas »

Hhmm. It seems the habit of people to move projects that started here to the Hub for no good reasons...
Important characters:
Frederik Alfons des Vinandy-Paravel, King of Batavia
Joseph Bartholomeus des Vinandy-Windsor, Prince-Regent of Batavia
Jin San, Diwang of Jingdao, Duke of Kildare

Liam Sinclair
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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Liam Sinclair »

Gotzborg seconds the motion to vote.

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Nathan
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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Nathan »

Voting has begun. It will last for four days.

Natopia votes Aye.
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Nathan
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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Nathan »

Well, technically this passes...
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Jonas
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Re: General Membership Treaty Amendments

Post by Jonas »

A bit shameful... :p
Important characters:
Frederik Alfons des Vinandy-Paravel, King of Batavia
Joseph Bartholomeus des Vinandy-Windsor, Prince-Regent of Batavia
Jin San, Diwang of Jingdao, Duke of Kildare

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