Inimicus v. Strathae

UK and California

The Imperial Consul Simge Galanth is bringing this case against Strathae for violation of right to privacy, freedom of conscience, freedoms of speech and association. I invite opening statements.

BrumBrum

Áine Uí Duibhidhir Seòras :I would like to motion to dismiss the case as there is no government involvement beyond voluntary coordination with Sports leagues. This is a league for the sports leagues and sports leagues alone and as sports leagues they have the right to determine their policies on speech, access and who they let in their events.The government has no role in this policy.

Inimicus

"Your Honours, thank you for allowing this case to be brought before the Court. My name is Benjamin Steyn, and I represent petitioner Simge Galanth in these proceedings. Before I commence my opening statement, I ask that you consider how insecure the Defence must feel to attempt to have this case dismissed without its proper proceedings. I shall dedicate a brief portion of my opening statement to this shambolic attempt at suppression of due legal process.

Governments, Your Honours, have duties to keep their citizens safe. To safeguard basic, fundamental rights. The Prosecution will show that not only did the Government of Strathae fail to maintain the wellbeing, safety, and democratic rights of its citizens, but it even engaged in activities meant to directly counter and infringe those rights. Whether the Government of Strathae is involved in the specific organisational technicalities of Strathae sports' leagues' policies on free speech or not, the Government of Strathae has the duty, under the Constitution of the European Union and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to enforce free, unrestricted speech and the rights to free, unrestricted protest. The Government of Strathae is, by any legal measure, liable for this Case.

Moving on now to the substance of the Prosecution's arguments, Your Honours. I shall begin with Exhibit A, a news report which claims the Government of Strathae "celebrated" -- celebrated, Your Honours -- the prescribing of cultural and national symbols for public consumption. In particular, the Government of Strathae changed the lyrics of the national anthem to remove reference to religious groups. The report further suggests societal frictions will result from this sudden change of lyrics, of which the Prosecution shall lay bare more in subsequent evidence. Your Honours, this Exhibit is not meant to evidence a breach of any UDHoR Article, but rather, this situation helps explain the utter, criminal contempt the Government of Strathae shows for human rights in subsequent exhibits.

Moving on, I present to the Court Exhibit B, a proclamation from the Strathae Foreign Office (note: an integral part of the Government of Strathae, not of Strathae sports associations, not of football leagues, but of the Government of Strathae) proclaiming three measures meant to, I quote, "crack down on hatred" in a "civilised manner". If this is the Strathae Government's level of civility, Your Honours, I do not want to hear what their measures of ruthlessness are. These measures appear to have been introduced following an explosion of societal friction, which in itself followed the Strathaen Government's decision to change its national anthem lyrics. Let us take each measure individually, and examine what articles of the UDoHR it breaches:

"Each major professional match the Strathaen Sports agencies organise in each sport are allowed to they will [sic.] send 30 undercover private investigators to film and [sic.] incidents that may slip through the cracks of other systems."
In Inimicus, the correct terminology for such measures can be summarised in the phrase state-sponsored mass surveillance. The Government of Strathae is enabling private organisations to make infringements on citizens' private lives, directly counteracting UDHoR XII (I-II) which, for the benefit of those following these proceedings, prohibits anyone from arranging "arbitrary interference with one’s privacy, family, home or correspondence". What's more, Your Honours, the same Article tasks Governments to provide "the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks". It is clear that the Government of Strathae failed to the highest degree to uphold these rights.
"Every time one buys a ticket for any domestic Strathaen game or any of the allotment of tickets that is sold by Strathaen sports agencies for international games they will have to agree to a web bot searching the web and social media with their name and image and checking for any hate content towards any race , ethnicity, nationality , gender, religion or sexuality within the last 5 years, this will also include any videos of including singing the old national anthem after the ban on singing it was announced , if evidence of such transgressions are found the will be denied the ticket and added to the list of those blocked from buying tickets any attending any events organised by the associations for a period of 5 years"
Government-sponsored mass surveillance again, Your Honours, and direct breaches of UDHoR XII (I-II) proclaimed by the Government of Strathae once again. Perhaps more poignantly, however, this proclamation also breaches the absolutely fundamental right to Freedom of Speech, as enshrined in UDHoR XVIII. Apparently, in Strathae, voluntarily adhering to opinions on private traditions will mean the Government can restrict your freedom of movement and attendance at public events.
"Before every match any names and images on the ban list will be sent by SASA to the relevant border, immigration authorities, sporting agencies and policing agencies before any match so the local national authorities can decide whether to let them into the country or any cities near the matches with Strathae."
While not, in the Prosecution's case, constituting a breach of other UDHoR Article, this Proclamation does evidence how the Defence's arguments for dismissal are fallacious at best, and deceptive at worst. Several agencies of the Government of Strathae are clearly involved in this state-sponsored mass surveillance and repression of fundamental rights.

Your Honours, Exhibit B speaks for itself. However, there is more concerning evidence that supports the Prosecution's case, evidence that goes beyond breaches of UDHoR XII and XVIII. Exhibit C shows a report by a brave journalist shining light on some of the Government of Strathae's most heinous crimes against European rule of law. Citing publically-available lists of arrests, this journalist (whose current whereabouts are unknown, but we may hazard a guess) suggests thirty thousand individuals had been detained by authorities for no other reason than their holding collective opinions.

Your Honours, I do not need to tell you this is in clear, blatant breach of UDHoR XVII, which maintains freedom of conscience; UDHoR XVIII, which maintains freedom of expression; UDHoR VII, which maintains equal protection under the law; Section IX, which maintains the right to habeas corpus; and, the Prosecution submits, UDHoR II, which maintains human dignity. These offences make it all the more offensive to this Court that the Defence instantly filed a motion to dismiss. Real crimes are happening in Strathae, Your Honours. Do not look away.

UDHoR (I.IV) formalises the basic principles of governments' duties to protect basic rights, in its proscription that "All member states of the European Union are charged with upholding this Declaration." In this, the Prosecution submits to the Court, the Government of Strathae has failed drastically. It has counteracted any and all of the Articles I have mentioned, and it falls upon the European Union to take appropriate measures. Thank you."

BrumBrum

Áine Uí Duibhidhir Seòras:Your honour the case simply doesn't stand or work. The UoDHR says you have free speech not freedom from consequences. The national sports associations and private actors in Strathae are not required to allow the old national anthem to be allowed to be sung at stadiums and not take action against those who do so , people here are not facing arrest but bans from buying tickets and attending matches. Other countries have banned hate anthems and chants from their stadiums , this is a regular practise to prevent hooliganism and create a positive atmosphere in the stadiums. The old anthem for many years has had variants without the Catholic nor protestant lyrics because some groups felt it was a hate lyric which if you know the history it is. It is only right organisations choose if it is allowed or not.

Secondly as far as we are aware and I'll be honest the government don't have full access to the system for obvious reasons of privacy and security and data protection the check on your social media and web presessence only scrapes from posts set to public and public profiles, by default on these posts are public information available to all to use as they wish as explained by social media websites , the bots cannot search the posts set to "friends only" or even "friends of friends" as confirmed by Ogo publically . This is a private agency doing their own checks and consulting against their own lists to see if offenses have took place previously in order to keep matches safe and trouble free and ensure Catholics and Protestants are not subject to harassment or hate speech while attending matches in Strathae or involving the Strathae teams not only that they make it known they are doing so. Also matches by nature are public spaces and events you have no reasonable expectation of privacy at the football or shinty match the privacy right refers to posts set to private and when you are at home which incidentally is well protected in Strathae , indeed some have actually said our home privacy laws are too strict even since no one can protest or harass people at home adresses or publish them , though we would say as a government thats a fair balance.

It is also true there are arrests however that article is from a far right propoganda paper linked to Blairites and published by journalists now in the DU who are only complaining because they can no longer get away with harassment and doxing of Catholics consequence free. They want free speech to mean freedom to harass which it doesn't and has never meant. Free speech has never meant total free speech if that was the case it would be okay to threaten people with violence , intimidate or shout fire in a crowded theatre but thats not allowed. Why? Because by doing so you are breaking peoples right to safety and to not be harassed in their daily life. Free speech has always meant freedom to say something without being prosecuted as long as it doesn't harm others rights to safety or other rights in the process. It is legal in Strathae to say gays shouldn't marry but it will lose you friends and come with consequences of private employers possibly deciding you don't fit into there culture or values of their business and so you lose your job but this is a private decision just as one has the right to express such oppinions or indeed sing the old hate anthem under the law society and organisations have the right to then ban you from attending games or not hire you or work with you due to your expression of values contrary to their organisations values , in fact by restricting organisations in this regard you are restricting their rights. I think the complainant is arguing from the basis that free speech equals saying what you like without consequence and it is just not the case you have that right. Anyone has the right to sing the old anthem without prosecution but likewise organisations and private businesses and people have the right to not associate with them and ban them from their premises and events that right to associate or disassociate goes both ways.

We don't have specific details on how it would work as those cannot be shared for privacy reasons and the sports leagues are independent and working with each other. The only time they share personal information with the government is if a suspected crime has taken place and police need to be involved. I would like to note the Strathae sports associations have chosen voluntarily to work with police on this issue , much like we know of cases in other countries around Europe who do so to prevent racism, or homophobia in their stadiums for instance. Sure Catholics and Protestants deserve the same protection against hearing hate against them every match they attend and have the right to be and feel safe at matches where Strathae plays. I would like to note that no one is being arrested the only consequences from this programme are barring people from buying a ticket to a football or shinty match or any sports events organised by the associations or attending the games. There is no fundamental human right to attend a game or go to every event.

UK and California

I am opening the floor to the prosecution.

UK and California

Please adhere to the predefined time limit.

UK and California

Now I open the floor for closing statements.

Inimicus

"Your Honours, the Defence's catchphrase that freedom of speech does not imply freedom from consequences is one we have heard several times before and one that does not even begin to justify the criminal, exploitative practices by the Strathaen Government. I also note that the Defence has made no more mention of its own motion to dismiss, clearly in an attempt to draw attention away from the fact this motion had no basis in any kind of reality whatsoever.

"Given your expedience in getting proceedings going, Your Honours, I shall rebuff several of the prosecution's arguments and make my closing statement at the same time. First, the Defence suggests that the Government of Strathae has no access to, or no capacity for oversight of, the violently intrusive databases it itself mandated, and that therefore this somehow implies the Defence is innocent of the crimes I have exposed against it. You will understand, Your Honours, that not only is this an erroneous notion, it is also a dangerous and incompetent one. I reiterate from my opening statement, and I quote from the UDoHR: "All member states of the European Union are charged with upholding this Declaration." All member states, I tell the Prosecution, are charged with upholding the rights to privacy and freedom of speech, assembly, conscience, and human dignity. No member state can hide behind "we did not know" or "we did not have access". The Government of Strathae is failing, repeatedly and intentionally, to uphold the basic human rights of its population, under the guise of 'anti-hatred' and 'privacy and security'.

"The Defence's slandering of Exhibit C as "far-right propaganda" while admitting that it is true politically-motivated arrests are taking place shows exactly the type of attitude the Prosecution has exposed, Your Honours. Journalists who aim to uncover political crimes by the Government of Strathae are not just arrested and detained, only to never reappear in public again, but they are slandered by Government representatives in the highest court in our region. Do we need any further evidence of the Government of Strathae's disdain for human rights? In the same argument, the Defence encourages the placing of limits on individuals' personal freedoms if they utter potentially controversial opinions. Your Honours, I do not need to explain to you that this is one of the most dangerously illegal opinions ever to have been uttered in this Court. Not only does this notion violate the UDHoR articles I set out in my opening statement, but it further opens the door for unlimited government control over people's lives, their daily routines, and takes away any kind of privacy they may have.

"Finally, another pattern we have seen from the Defence is a general "we cannot share" or "we do not know". The Government of Strathae proclaimed that these restrictive rules on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly were to be enacted, it has the moral and legal duty to know what it is enforcing. This is not a game, I say to the Defence, this is about a persistent, gross violation of several legally binding human rights by your Government.

"To sum up the Prosecution's case, Your Honour, we have shown evidence of repeated and state-sponsored violations of the rights to privacy, freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, equal protection under the law, habeas corpus, and, indeed, human dignity. We have shown the Government of Strathae is actively involved in the maintenance of extremely detailed databases on the private details of its citizens, using those details to bar citizens from national events in a strategy reminiscent of Big Brother. Did the Defence show any sort of remorse for these actions? No. Instead, the Defence treated the Court to a vague, non-legal discussion of the extent of free speech, notwithstanding the violations the Prosecution set out. I am confident, Your Honours, the Prosecution has the evidence on its side, and has shown that the Government of Strathae cares even less for the fundamental rights set out under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights than it does for the wellbeing of its citizens. Thank you."

BrumBrum

"Your honour there is no record of journalists being arrested and dissappeared that is entirely fictional. In fact I’d like to know there sources for that since even the nationalist papers are not claiming that since it is obviously ridiculous. Journalists have been charged with a prosecuted on privacy and doxing charges only and only if they have breached someone's privacy by publishing a home address or personal contact details that are not available publicly. That is an entirely reasonable rule for journalists to have to follow along with rules they cannot dox people as that can have significant safety and security implications for the individual victim of such a crime.Not only that we did repeal some of the laws on publication of public addresses and names of officials available on church sites since then.

We will continue to state freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences because it is true. As private run sporting organisations they can implement any policy they like in regards to entry and buying of tickets. Being allowed entry to sporting events is not a "right", there are several reasons you may not want them to such as if they have caused trouble at other events in the past , they have a criminal conviction that may lead you to believe they will and more reasons beside. They also have the right to access posts set to public to establish if they are known to have done hate speech according to their ticketing rules in the past , they do not have to allow entry and may check on people who are planning to attend their events in order to maintain a friendly civil atmosphere in the stadiums.

If the prosecutions argument run hooligans around Europe would have to be let into stadiums against and racial abuse , misogynistic abuse , homophobic and transphobic abuse would have to be allowed in stadiums again as associations couldn't stop their "freedom of speech" which the old anthem falls under in regards to their rules. The state has treated all equally under law thats why it doesn't prosecute homophobic speech with criminal charges nor anti-catholic speech as long as its not harassment. However we cannot force private organisations to accept this and cannot force society to interact , be friends or associate with those type of people , in fact doing so would be breaching citizens rights to choose who they associate with. There is also as stated before not a reasonable expectation of privacy at a football or shinty match or any public sporting event, if you are in public at a public event it is commonly accepted people can take photos and video including your face and of your behavior in order to report it, likewise associations under law in Strathae have the right to have investigators to do this in public matches as long as they do not film people at their homes which would be illegal without a warrant to do so which would typically only be granted if there was significant evidence of a crime in order to protect the privacy of home.

In terms of police involvement there is police involvement whereby teams selling tickets and the sports associations may check the police databases for criminal charges but this is in line with all know exceptions to privacy rules and is equivalent to a DBS check for working with children to ensure that public safety of all is protected.

The allegations of state sponsored surveillance are utterly untrue; the private investigators would be hired by a private organisation that is not run by the state and does not have state involvement. How can it be state sponsored if the state is not involved in the decision making , our sports associations are entirely independent so any decision they come to independently is nothing to do with the state nor do we have the right to intervene unless they breach a national law on a policy which they haven’t as far as we are aware. The same applies to ticket buying checks which again is a private organisation doing it and are only scraping from publicly available information on the web including posts set to public which again does not breach the Strathaen law in this instance while it does not breach freedom of movement because freedom of movement does not mean the right to attend any event or match , if you were to take this stance it would mean no one could ever remove a guest from a party or ban someone from a party or pub event because it would breach their “freedom of movement” which it obviously does not , they are organising and putting on the event as a private actor therefore they set the rules on who can or cannot attend and who can be in each stand. They also do have the right to send pictures , names and images of past trouble makers to foreign police and border agency authorities so they can act if they need to or at least know who to watch out for this can easily be justified by security needs. We do have working relationships with SASA but its much like normal state to football association relationships , we share data on convicted criminals with them if they request it and they can send details of those banned from the games to security organised for the game, these are pretty standard policies that almost ever sports association has.

Does the prosecution not understand the Catholics and protestants have a right to attend a football or shinty match without being harassed or constantly having to hear anti-Catholic and anti-prostestant lyrics aimed specifically at them.

UK and California

The court's opinion and decision is Strathae is guilty of violating privacy and guilty of violating conscience. However, all other charges are not carried.

Chief Justice Robert French