(R(I)) Draft Resolution: Regulation of Colonies and Research Facilities

Forum: Esamir General Assembly
Submitter: The United Kingdoms of Zackalantis
Question of: The Regulation of Colonies and Research Facilities in Space

Recognising the growing interest of member states in establishing colonies and other such establishments on foreign planets and natural sattelites,

Deeply disturbed that certain nations aim to change the natural landscape or prevalent conditions of these foreign planets or satellites through a process called Terra formation,

Emphasizing the need to maintain the sanctity of space,

Realizing that several member states wish to conduct productive scientific research in space,

Recognizing the pressing need for an internationally applicable frame work to regulate the presence of member states in space,

1. Endorses productive scientific research in space;

2. Designates space as the area beyond the Earth's atmosphere and dubs it a ‘Peaceful Playground' and thereby declares that,

a) No nation is permitted to declare any area of space as sovereign territory,

b) No nation is permitted to engage in wars or battles in space,

c) No nation is permitted to develop or stockpile weapons that can be used in space,

d) All territory of space belongs to the international community as a whole;

3. Proclaims Terraformation as a deplorable and an illegal act that disrupts the sanctity of space,

a) Terraformation facilities must be disbanded immediately,

b)  In the event of a nation refusing to disband any terraformation facilities they shall face trial in the Esamir Court of Justice;

4. Reccomends the following framework to regulate ‘colonies' of nations in space,

a) Colonies are not permitted to have individuals under the age of 18 and above the age of 50,

b) Colonies are solely to be used as reasearch facilities,

c) Individuals residing in colonies are not permitted to pro-create or reproduce,

d) Women who are pregnant shall not be permitted to reside in colonies,

e) Colonies are to be disbanded when the physical structure has reached expiration,

f) Colonies are not permitted to have more than 20 individuals living at one time,

g) Colonies are not permitted to house animals of other species ,

h) Colonies are not sovereign territory of it's founding nation however

i) All national rules will apply except rules of immigration,

ii) Founding Nations have liberty to chose their own internal framework for their colonies;

5. Calls upon the creation of the Esamir Council for Space Cooperation (ECSC),

a) The ECSC shall consist of all nations who have their citizens or programmes in space as voting members and all other members of the United Nations of Esamir (UNE) as observers,

b) The ECSC shall serve as the common forum for all nations to cooperate to achieve their goals in space,

c) The ECSC shall be an autonomous body of the UNE however it shall keep itself open to any all suggestions and recommendations made it to it by individual nations and the Esamir Security Council (ESC),

d) The ECSC will be responsible for the regulation of space colonies and other space programmes,

e) Every month the ECSC will submit a report to the ESC which will contain updates of happenings in space which mostly will be any violations of international law in space,

f) The ECSC has the power to independently settle disputes failing which they can revert the matter to the ESC,

g) In the event of violation of the laws governing space the ECSC does not have the power to pronounce judgement, the ECSC will file case in the ECJ against the violater.

Eurasia does not support a single word of this bill. This is an overwhelming violation of national sovereignty and is simply counter to the Charter itself.

Eurasia let us work together. I'm sure if you air your concerns i will be able to adress them all. Plus amendments are always welcome.

I must agree with Eurasia. I support the part about the terraformation, for different reason: firstly I think we must preserve every kind of environment that is possible to found in the galaxy but, most important, single nations can't decide the future of an entire planet, considering that other nations have their bases on it.
But the other point of the draft are simply too much extreme. Antanares has project to expand the lunar base into a city and to construct colonies, destined to be houses of thousands of people, I think it is normal. And these colonies would be of Antanares and of who participate in its construction, not of other nations.
Create a space council for the cooperation and the research could be good, but must be a Council, not a Directive of all our initiatives in the space.

Fundamentally, I agree with the first part against the terraformations, if is not decided from all the nations that have bases on a planet, but for the other point I am totally against.

Zackalantis wrote:Recognising the growing interest of member states in establishing colonies and other such establishments on foreign planets and natural sattelites[sic],

Deeply disturbed that certain nations aim to change the natural landscape or prevalent conditions of these foreign planets or satellites through a process called Terra formation,

We are deeply confused as to how manupilation of the Martian surface is negative. The ambient conditions on the Martian surface cannot support any life that we can detect, and attempts to locate life have proved useless. The terraforming to make it habitable for human life is a great scientific achievement and viewing it as anything else is silly.

Zackalantis wrote:Emphasizing the need to maintain the sanctity of space,

"Sanctity"? By whose standards? And how is it sacrosanct? It is space. It is, quite literally, a vacuum.

Zackalantis wrote:Realizing that several member states wish to conduct productive scientific research in space,

Recognizing the pressing need for an internationally applicable frame work to regulate the presence of member states in space,

We agree that regulation wouldn't be necessarily a bad thing, but this bill is extremely flawed. If regulation is a must, this is not the way to do so.

Zackalantis wrote:1. Endorses productive scientific research in space;

Define productive.

Zackalantis wrote:2. Designates space as the area beyond the Earth's atmosphere and dubs it a ‘Peaceful Playground' and thereby declares that,

"Peaceful playground"? Again, we have no idea what that means. If the delegate from Zackalantis means peaceful in regards to the word pacifistic, we will again stress different legislation is needed.

Zackalantis wrote:a) No nation is permitted to declare any area of space as sovereign territory,

b) No nation is permitted to engage in wars or battles in space,

c) No nation is permitted to develop or stockpile weapons that can be used in space,

All weapons can be used in space. Firearms still fire (albeit dangerously). This single passage just banned all military arms ever produced by humanity.

Zackalantis wrote:d) All territory of space belongs to the international community as a whole;

Does it now? So space is sovereign territory. This violates the above section a.

Zackalantis wrote:3. Proclaims Terraformation as a deplorable and an illegal act that disrupts the sanctity of space,

We demand an explanation as to what the sanctity of space means. And why is terraformation deplorable? This is a bizarre and asinine addition to an already flawed law.

Zackalantis wrote:a) Terraformation facilities must be disbanded immediately,

Again, why? Because Zackalantis says so? Eurasia says they shouldn't.

Zackalantis wrote:b)  In the event of a nation refusing to disband any terraformation facilities they shall face trial in the Esamir Court of Justice;

Please see above refutation.

Zackalantis wrote:4. Reccomends[sic] the following framework to regulate ‘colonies' of nations in space,

a) Colonies are not permitted to have individuals under the age of 18 and above the age of 50,

This is a blatant violation of sovereignty. Dictating the ages of people in colonies that are already banned?

Zackalantis wrote:b) Colonies are solely to be used as reasearch[sic] facilities,

Define "research".

Zackalantis wrote:c) Individuals residing in colonies are not permitted to pro-create or reproduce,

d) Women who are pregnant shall not be permitted to reside in colonies,

On these passages alone this law will be IMMEDIATELY struck down as illegal. This is literally the most egregious sovereighty violation we on the Eurasian delegation have ever seen in these chambers.

Zackalantis wrote:e) Colonies are to be disbanded when the physical structure has reached expiration,

We have no idea what this means. Are colonies akin to gallons of milk now?

Zackalantis wrote:f) Colonies are not permitted to have more than 20 individuals living at one time,

Again, an utterly arbitrary number.

Zackalantis wrote:g) Colonies are not permitted to house animals of other species ,

Why? Because they might escape? Have animals evolved to live on the Martian surface?

Zackalantis wrote:h) Colonies are not sovereign territory of it's founding nation however

Then what are they? Apartments? Rentals?

[quote="Zackalantis]i) All national rules will apply except rules of immigration,[/quote]

Again, we have no idea what this means.

Zackalantis wrote:ii) Founding Nations have liberty to chose their own internal framework for their colonies;

So colonies are sovereign land to whomever establishes them? Or aren't they.

Zackalantis wrote:5. Calls upon the creation of the Esamir Council for Space Cooperation (ECSC),

This may be the only are where agree, but we suspect that you will somehow dash our hopes.

Zackalantis wrote:a) The ECSC shall consist of all nations who have their citizens or programmes in space as voting members and all other members of the United Nations of Esamir (UNE) as observers,

Again, are the colonies colonies or not. This supposes they are but previous articles state otherwise.

Zackalantis wrote:b) The ECSC shall serve as the common forum for all nations to cooperate to achieve their goals in space,

See above.

Zackalantis wrote:c) The ECSC shall be an autonomous body of the UNE however it shall keep itself open to any all suggestions and recommendations made it to it by individual nations and the Esamir Security Council (ESC),

d) The ECSC will be responsible for the regulation of space colonies and other space programmes,

e) Every month the ECSC will submit a report to the ESC which will contain updates of happenings in space which mostly will be any violations of international law in space,

f) The ECSC has the power to independently settle disputes failing which they can revert the matter to the ESC,

g) In the event of violation of the laws governing space the ECSC does not have the power to pronounce judgement, the ECSC will file case in the ECJ against the violater [sic].

In summation, this is quite possibly one of the most flawed pieces of legislation we have seen in quite some time. It is self-contradictory, incoherent, and generally seems to be unaware of the goal it is trying to achieve. It rests upon a very flimsy basis, holding space sacrosanct without providing evidence as to why, and declares colonies do not exist whilst continuing to refer to them as colonies. In its present form, Eurasia cannot vote for this bill. Really, we cannot vote for any form of this bill, as the amount of editing and amending it would require is tantamount to effectively creating a new bill.

Federation of Antanares wrote:I must agree with Eurasia. I support the part about the terraformation, for different reason: firstly I think we must preserve every kind of environment that is possible to found in the galaxy but, most important, single nations can't decide the future of an entire planet, considering that other nations have their bases on it.
But the other point of the draft are simply too much extreme. Antanares has project to expand the lunar base into a city and to construct colonies, destined to be houses of thousands of people, I think it is normal. And these colonies would be of Antanares and of who participate in its construction, not of other nations.
Create a space council for the cooperation and the research could be good, but must be a Council, not a Directive of all our initiatives in the space.

Fundamentally, I  agree with the first part against the terraformations, if is not decided from all the nations that have bases on a planet, but for the other point I am totally against.

Eurasia is open to a council that could regulate the terraformation process, but this legislation is too deeply flawed to establish that. Further, we feel that terraformation is "okay" only if the planet is incapable of supporting life without it. For example, if we find a planet that has an Earth-like atmosphere and can support life but is mostly a desert, we wouldn't terraform it as we would destroy the life already there. Mars is barren, however, and we see no problem with terraforming.

The UKZ stands against the manipulation of the natural environment of heavenly bodies. It is as good as manipulating our environment here on earth. It is immoral.

Plus what is the point of the a colony? Why do we need to establish colonies in space. We have place here on earth.

Zackalantis wrote:The UKZ stands against the manipulation of the natural environment of heavenly bodies. It is as good as manipulating our environment here on earth. It is immoral.

Plus what is the point of the a colony? Why do we need to establish colonies in space. We have place here on earth.

Firstly, the idea of "morality" as you appear to define it is highly relative, and frankly Eurasia has no interest in sharing in your morality.

Further, Zackalantis may feel we have a place on Earth, but Eurasia feels that if we have the capability to travel amongst the stars then we should before we miss our opportunity.

We are sensing religious undertones for this bill, and if that is the case we demand this bill be removed immediately. one nation's beliefs cannot and should not supercede another's.

It is not a moral dilemma, not for Antanares.
It is that Mars, like every planet, has some particularities that allow the planet to be more useful with the actual environment, than with a modified one. Most important, and matter of this draft, the decision cannot be take from one nation, not with bases from all the world on Mars.

Please, keep calm, everyone.

We can work together, debating and resolving all the issues we encounter during the process.

So, first of all, we need to make some order: the intention and goals of the UKZ are good, in our opinion.
This sort of "Space Race" is getting out of control, and we strongly need regulation, to preserve life here on Earth as well as to give an opportunity to everybody to take profit from the opportunities and resources space has to offer to Mankind.

Thus, we believe the section regarding the Council is good for everyone, isn't it?

If this is so, we can proceed analyzing the other, more controversial, sections.
We agree with our Eurasian colleague, when he says that it is not possible to base international law on the belief of one, single, country. Religion or philosophy have no place in this Assembly.
But, at the same time, we should recognize that there are risks and dangers in the indiscriminate use of technology. And here comes the need for regulation.

About the terraforming process: practically every scientist on this planet agrees that it is impossible, at our actual technological level. The news by Atanean, Eurasian or other countries media about imminent terraforming processes on Mars are simply an exageration, if not an absurdity.

About colonies: we believe that regulation is strongly needed also on this subject. But we have to admit that the apposite section of this Resolution is far too strict.

We are not here to stop Mankind in the way to scientific and technological progress, or to the exploration of the stars and infinite space: we are here to help it reaching these goals.

So, we support the Zackalantis initiative, but we need amendments which could modify the shape of this Resolution as to meet the goals we have mentioned.

As we have said, the goals suggested by New Tarajan, with which we agree, would essentially require an entirely new act. We are fine with this course of action, but we doubt the delegation from Zackalantis is.

As said, we agree with New Tarajan. The goal of the General Assembly should be to guide our growth to the stars, not to neuter it in its early stages.

We appreciate the Eurasian share of our intentions.

Now, we believe we can work together on the draft proposed by Zackalantis, and reach a good compromise for the needs and interests of everyone here in this Assembly.

Like the delegation of UKZ previously stated. We are ready to work on this draft resolution together. We are open to ammendments.

Now this resolution has no religious under tones but mostly scientific. Terraformation is not possible firstly at our technological RP age and secondly terraformation is the equvilvalent of reshaping and remoulding nature. Destroying what is there.
This is wrong and is a hazard waiting to happen. Plus as Antanares has pointed out why should one natipn have the right to transform a natural habitat which can and which will effect all other nations.

Tge goal of this resolution is to prevent space from becoming another battle ground. We have conflicts here. But UKZ believes that space must remain free of our wars.

Also at some point of time colonies will fall due to theur structure failing. After this happens the pollution in space will be a lot.

When we establish colonies the repercussions of the same could be monumental. The amount of pollution spread on planets could be disastrous. Think about all this.

If there are any martians opposed to terraforming, please make yourself known now.... Exactly! 

Thus, we are strongly against this proposal.

Altering the natural habitat of a place cannot be excused. The scientific repercussion could be to harsh. We do not know how that planet's atmosphere or geology could react to such a drastic change.

OOC speaking: we haven't even reached that Technological RP age yet.

Also like we said earlier. Thr establishment of colpnies that aren't regulated strictly could result in spread of pollution in space. Why does mankind want to pollute the last frontier as well.

But i would like to put forth a question before all natipns present here. What is the point, what is the purpose behind establishing colonies in space?

Zackalantis wrote:Altering the natural habitat of a place cannot be excused.  The scientific repercussion could be to harsh. We do not know how that planet's atmosphere  or geology could react to such a drastic change.

OOC speaking: we haven't even reached that Technological RP age yet.

Also like we said earlier. Thr[sic] establishment of colpnies[sic] that aren't regulated strictly could result in spread of pollution in space. Why does mankind want to pollute the last frontier as well.

But i would like to put forth a question before all natipns[sic] present here. What is the point, what is the purpose behind establishing colonies in space?

The Eurasian delegation is curious as to whether or not the Zackalantis Delegate understands what "rhetoric" is. Typically, a state, especially states as powerful as the Eurasian Empire, New-Zealand, New Atanea, et al. do not want to release a news broadcast saying "Yeah, we'll terraform, eventually.".

Further, does the Zackalantis Delegation suppose that nations will build colonies and then immediately refuse to repair them and abandon them? That is rather foolish and extremely shortsighted.

The point behind establishing colonies, as we have answered before, is to expand our reach beyond our terrestrial home into outer space. Eventually, this Earth will be too small for us. Should we not prepare for the inevitable?

Zackalantis wrote:Like the delegation of UKZ previously stated. We are ready to work on this draft resolution together. We are open to ammendments.

Now this resolution has no religious under tones but mostly scientific. Terraformation is not possible firstly at our technological RP age and secondly terraformation is the equvilvalent[sic] of reshaping and remoulding nature. Destroying what is there.
This is wrong and is a hazard waiting to happen. Plus as Antanares has pointed out why should one natipn[sic] have the right to transform a natural habitat which can and which will effect all other nations.

Tge[sic] goal of this resolution is to prevent space from becoming another battle ground. We have conflicts here. But UKZ believes that space must remain free of our wars.

Also at some point of time colonies will fall due to theur[sic]  structure failing. After this happens the pollution in space will be a lot.

When we establish colonies the repercussions of the same could be monumental. The amount of pollution spread on planets could be disastrous. Think about all this.

As I've said, the number of amendments required for this would make it an entirely new bill. We would be better in scrapping it and starting from scratch.

And previous comments made by the Zackalantis Delegation itself would suggest religious undertones are indeed a part of it.

We would ask the Zackalantis delegate if they have actually seen the surface of Mars. Because they suppose there is already a natural ecosystem there, when in fact the only thing on Mars is dust, rock, iron oxide, and an unbreathable atmosphere. Again, we ask why they appear to be so against terraforming if there is no religious undertone for it, because scientifically there is nothing wrong.

If one nation terraforming is the concern of the Zackalantis and Antanaresian delegations, we would posit that the ability to solely terraform an entire planet is well beyond the capabilities of one nation. Hence, multiple are doing it.

We agree that wars in space need to be prevented, but again this resolution is too deeply flawed to accomplish that.

If Zackalantis is worried we will simply abandon our colonies, then they simply have absolutely no idea how investments function. It isn't in our best interest to establish an expensive colony, not maintain it, and then let it just collapse.

Antanares is against the terraforming, but only because we have different goals for our planet bases on Mars.

Europe and Asia wrote:If one nation terraforming is the concern of the Zackalantis and Antanaresian delegations, we would posit that the ability to solely terraform an entire planet is well beyond the capabilities of one nation. Hence, multiple are doing it.

Yeah, but is not your right come on Mars and start project that effect the works of other nations. Even if one simple nation would to avoid the terraforming, I don't see any right of you to start a this kind of project, because your action will damage us, while my actions don't damage anyone.
For the rest, I'm for the regulation of the space affairs, but not in this terms. They're too restrictive.

We would suggest to Antanares that their decision to not allow terraforming harms our research projects.

That said, we agree that this law is far too restrictive. We reiterate that a new law is needed.

Europe and Asia wrote:We would suggest to Antanares that their decision to not allow terraforming harms our research projects.

We are for the status quo of the planet, considering also our poor knowledge about it. The decision of terraforming harms our works on the planet, our citizens in our base and also the planet itself.

The decision not to jeoprodizes our stations and won't harm the planet, considering there is no resident life.

We would suggest to Antanares that their decision to not allow terraforming harms our research projects.

That said, we agree that this law is far too restrictive. We reiterate that a new law is needed.

This position is pure non-sense.

We also support the Antanaresian and Zack position against terraforming.
If a terraforming process has to be undertaken (and, we underline once again, NOW we don't have the technological level to do that), it shall be an international responsibility, not the undertaking of only few countries.

New Tarajan wrote:

We would suggest to Antanares that their decision to not allow terraforming harms our research projects.

That said, we agree that this law is far too restrictive. We reiterate that a new law is needed.

This position is pure non-sense.

We also support the Antanaresian and Zack position against terraforming.
If a terraforming process has to be undertaken (and, we underline once again, NOW we don't have the technological level to do that), it shall be an international responsibility, not the undertaking of only few countries.

We are fully aware our position is nonsense. We are demonstrating the absurdity of the Antanaresian claims that terraforming will somehow harm their facilities.

Further, we would be fine with a separate bill addressing the issue of terraforming, but this bill will not recieve a Eurasian vote.

Is space colonisation and terraformation even in our current RP tech age.

Zackalantis wrote:Is space colonisation and terraformation even in our current RP tech age.

Pardon?