Act to Protect Political Expression
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Debate on this starts now and will last until 05:30 GMT on April 25th, 2020.
Edward Firoux
Council Speaker and Councillor for Inquista -
Councillor Tevfik stands up somewhat perplexed.
I must say to the Councillor, what do you exactly propose we do about these perceived injustices? The European Council has already debated and voted on measures on this particular subject. I see no point of this Act other than to scold the Council for things not going your way. In fact, I don't see an actual act. Madame, it is your freedom to express your opinion by all means. But surely, you can agree that this council meeting can be utilized better than to chastise fellow Councillors.
So I ask you again, Councillor-- what exactly is your Bill?
Su Tevfik
European Councillor from the Court of Osman -
@Ottoman-Empire I have made the necessary changes, Cllr. Tevfik, to respond to your question.
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I fail to see any real course of action for this Council in what the Councillor from Eastern Haane is proposing. It seems to me like a superfluous and impassioned tirade that is no basis for an act to be passed by this council. No real evidence or an actual plan of action for the Union to take, just directionless posturing. I urge the Councillor from Eastern Haane to propose a true plan of action for this body to address, or, at the very least, provide a clear set of quantifiable arguments for this council to debate. While I myself am in favour of the concept of freedom of political expression, in terms of personal freedoms, national governments should not be afforded such luxuries, and even then such abstract ideals must be quantified if they are to be set forth as law.
Furthermore, need I remind the Councillor that the salient reasoning behind the condemnation of the coup in Icholasen: the change of government was not an action taken or endorsed by the people. Though there are many in the Union that recognise the legitimacy of the UNSR, Fremet and this Council do not. The UNSR has brazenly subverted the will of the people and such acts must not be tolerated by the council. The UNSR has yet to establish a "clear" democratic government and has made little effort to allow foreign election observers to that end. The condemnation of the UNSR was not premature, and there was never any clear move towards a democratic government, in spite of what Nicoleizian propogandists would have us believe.
You cite "guidelines" above, but I see none. What I see are subjective points and unclear propositions. No litmus tests, no clear regulatory path, no actual restrictions or regulations. The council acted in this manner to protect the freedom and democracy of European citizens, not simply because we dislike any one ideology. There are fine examples of communist nations thriving within the Union and upholding the values and principles of this body.
What you are proposing sounds not like a protection of individual freedoms, but a freedom for governments to act or express themselves without fear of retribution from this council. The Constitution of the European Union protects the absolute sovereignty of members, and the provisions exceptional to this have already been set forth and allow for this council to speak for the majority of Europe. The majority of members voted for this condemnation of what is, in my government's opinion and the council's, an illegal government.
In short: We need real evidence, not sensationalist appeals.
Cllr Charles Michel
Councillor to the European Union
Kingdom of Fremet -
I'd like to take this time to say that Ms. Comtois, who proposed this travesty, has been recalled. I deeply apologize to those who were forced to waste their time on this. However, to ensure that something good comes out of this, I would like to propose the following:
To ensure a greater fairness in the judgement of nations, a commission should be established to rate political freedom in the constituent nations of the European Union, basing such ratings on the following:
Were the members of government elected through free and fair elections?
Is it possible for opposition parties to increase their power and support?
Can an opposition be organized?
How easily can the people form political parties?
Can citizens express their political beliefs without fear of reprisal?
How difficult is it to declare candidacy for elected government positions?
Is governance under the undue influence of an external, unelected power?
How transparent is governance?
Do safeguards against corruption exist?
To what extent does corruption exist within a country's government?
Are all allowed to vote, regardless of their personal characteristics?
Does there exist opposition media?
Can the people petition their government? If so, how easily?
Do the people have the right to assemble and protest?
The ratings of the commission shall be issued on a yearly basis, or when needed, and will be used, if available, to judge states, as to avoid poor decisions.
A benefit of such a commission, other than allowing for a more fair judgement of states, is that it galvanizes states to improve the current political liberties they offer to their citizens - if a state receives a poor score, said score will be known to all. As a result, they may lose some of their influence and standing, pushing them to improve.
Helga Becker
Interim Councillor for the Confederation of Eastern Haane -
First, I would like to welcome the Councillor to this Chamber. I'm sure the Councillor will be a valuable member to this Council and I look forward with working with her. Particularly so since she has presented a bold idea. A bill that I, in principle, support.
Yet there are objections I have for this Bill. The first of which is there is no mechanism in place to ensure that this Commission will not biased towards certain groups of countries. Such regulatory systems will need to be debated extensively and will likely be difficult to implement. Metrics that keep track of corruption and other related (and might I add) complicated phenomena are known to not be as effective as they are designed to be. And perhaps the most important of the problems is, I have serious doubts that this rating system will in any way change the behaviors of any government that is determined to stay in power. We all know that the UNSR is an undemocratic regime that violently took power, they decry us as imperialists that use "democracy" as a means to take over their country. I assume similar outcomes will happen in Inquista as well. It will be no different with the implementation of this system. And we did not need measured statistics to know that is a reality.
With that said, I do feel that this bill has potential and I certainly do hope my fellow Councillors will concur.
Su Tevfik
European Councillor from the Court of Osman -
I would like to also welcome Cllr. Becker to the European Council. I am always happy to see a new face, especially one who is eager to legislate.
In the future, please take a look at the Acquis Communautaire and use the formatting and style of past pieces of legislation to inform your own. There is a learning curve with everything, including with writing legislation, so I am more than happy to be patient with you, Councillor. This is just a piece of advice and isn't meant to try and discourage you. After all, I appreciate a passionate and active legislator such as yourself more than anything else!
I'm not entirely sure if you're proposing to have discussion on such a commission, or if you're proposing such a commission as a piece of legislation. For now, I'm treating it as the former.
My main problem with the proposal is that is filled with qualifiable, value-laden terminology that really ought to be defined. For instance, what is a "free and fair election" and how could that be defined? Otherwise, whoever inevitably sits on this commission - and that hasn't been laid out either - will get to define and interpret each of those questions to their liking. As an example, in the Elected and Accountable Council Act, we used six defined metrics to qualify what it means to have a democratic process so as to lessen the ambiguity of the term.
The actual logistics of this commission also really ought to be fleshed out more. Who sits on this commission? How many members are there? Who oversees them?
All in all, I don't dislike the idea and premise of this proposal. In fact, I actually really like it. I just think it requires much more development and thought.
Edward Firoux
Council Speaker and Councillor for Inquista -
I congratulate Coun. Becker for joining us in this institution and that I hope we can make better progress as nations.
So far, I applaud the idea of this act. But, I agree to Coun. Firoux that this must follow the formatting from our other acts. And I am willing to help in the codification of this act.
All in all, I am impressed. God Bless!
Yuridiana Yahontov
Deputy Councilor, Kingdom of Reitzmag -
May debate on this legislation be extended?
Helga Becker
Interim Councillor for Eastern Haane -
Since the previous Councillor withdrew the original piece of legislation and the new Councillor put forward another idea, this legislative session effectively ended. However, we are free to discuss the merits of the second proposal. If Councillor Becker wishes to legislate their commission, then they ought to re-propose as a new piece of legislation altogether ((OOC: in a new thread)).
Edward Firoux
Council Speaker and Councillor for Inquista
