[DRAFT] Cultural Erasure

[Defwa]

Before beginning, I would like to encourage endorsements to be posted in Defwa's 2015 Grand Wizard elections.
Yours truly, Angela Landfree, running.
Vote Now!

I was asked to author this by Ambassador Bell as part of his series on war. Though I must confess, my own inclination is not towards such things, it is a wonderful opportunity to stop an act that might as well be genocide.

Cultural Erasure
Human Rights / Significant

NOTING instances in history in which cultural erasure has been used to subjugate groups and hide crimes,

RECOGNIZING the importance of cultural identities to individual identities,

LAMENTING the loss of any culture,

DEFINING Cultural Erasure as actions of modifying, suppressing, outlawing, or destroying languages, cultural practices, art forms, religions, or historical records with the effect of falsifying aspects of, hiding, or destroying a culture,

The World Assembly,

DECLARES any act of Cultural Erasure by a member nation as a crime against humanity,

BANS member nations from performing, condoning, or encouraging acts of cultural erasure in any way,

EXCEPTING instances where a risk of physical or mental harm to individuals exists from the culture being targeted,

EXCLUDING from the protections of this resolution any cultural aspect that would take or modify property without the owner's consent,

ALSO EXCLUDING from the protections of this resolution cultural aspects that impede others from representing their own culture or pursuing another culture,

EMPOWERS WATCH (the World Assembly Trust for Cultural Heritage) to determine if an act constitutes cultural erasure, when in dispute,

CLARIFIES that at no point are member nations expected to cater to or otherwise encourage any specific culture nor are they required to allow hate speech

[Separatist Peoples]

"WOOT! My only comments, as I wait for you to find your notes, are, first, to address this as a crime against humanity instead of a war crime, which hopefully an ICC replacement will adequately handle, and to include. War crimes generally only happen at war, where this is something that could occur domestically by a state. Two, and this is only if your notes don't approach it, this ought to cover the destruction of public artifacts and sites specifically, if possible, as that is probably one of the largest unregulated areas of this issue at the moment. More to follow when you're collected, Angela."

[Defwa]

"WOOT! My only comments, as I wait for you to find your notes, are, first, to address this as a crime against humanity instead of a war crime, which hopefully an ICC replacement will adequately handle, and to include. War crimes generally only happen at war, where this is something that could occur domestically by a state. Two, and this is only if your notes don't approach it, this ought to cover the destruction of public artifacts and sites specifically, if possible, as that is probably one of the largest unregulated areas of this issue at the moment. More to follow when you're collected, Angela."

Might have to be careful around... whats the name, cultural preservation act? the one about architecture for that. Thanks for the better term. I'll get to it later.

[Cardoness]

We love this idea and also eagerly await the fuller draft.

[Sierra Lyricalia]

Might have to be careful around... whats the name, cultural preservation act? the one about architecture for that. Thanks for the better term. I'll get to it later.

OOC: While there are enough other examples out there that it might look a bit petty for me to single out Spain again, the expulsion of Jews (immediately in 1492 and all at once) and Muslims (starting piecemeal about ~1499 and finishing decisively around 1614) from that country is instructive here as well. The dedicated and often quite sophisticated conversion of synagogues and mosques to Christian churches could be interpreted under CSP NOT to constitute "unnecessary damage" (emphasis mine), and so there's definitely room here for buildings to be included. It's also kind of unrealistic to think that every culturally significant building in the multiverse has been noted and catalogued by WATCH (the agency created by that resolution); jackbooted thugs shouldn't be able to declare some one horse town's Temple of Apollo to be suddenly a Church of the Blessed L. Ron just because it's beneath the World Assembly's notice.

Hope to have more thoughts later; happy drafting!

[Defwa]

Might have to be careful around... whats the name, cultural preservation act? the one about architecture for that. Thanks for the better term. I'll get to it later.

OOC: While there are enough other examples out there that it might look a bit petty for me to single out Spain again, the expulsion of Jews (immediately in 1492 and all at once) and Muslims (starting piecemeal about ~1499 and finishing decisively around 1614) from that country is instructive here as well. The dedicated and often quite sophisticated conversion of synagogues and mosques to Christian churches could be interpreted under CSP NOT to constitute "unnecessary damage" (emphasis mine), and so there's definitely room here for buildings to be included. It's also kind of unrealistic to think that every culturally significant building in the multiverse has been noted and catalogued by WATCH (the agency created by that resolution); jackbooted thugs shouldn't be able to declare some one horse town's Temple of Apollo to be suddenly a Church of the Blessed L. Ron just because it's beneath the World Assembly's notice.

Hope to have more thoughts later; happy drafting!

OOC: Well lets face it, the spaniards are a deeply racist, awful people. Damn spaniards. [/joke]
Good examples, exactly what I'm looking for. I should be in later tonight to expand.

[Normlpeople]

OOC: A more modern example may be the treatment of citizens in Japanese occuped territories (Jorea specifically) in WW2. I agree its a skeleton, but workable. I look forward to seeing what comes of this.

[Defwa]

First, a quick plug for Defwa's election. Vote! Endorse! Bump!

So I've made those little modification in terminology. I want to keep it as simple as possible- "Don't do it unless you're saving lives" and not get bogged down in definitions that create loop holes.
I added a line to allow WATCH to handle building removal. My fear was that it might be construed to basically say no public works project may demolish a church, otherwise. But it won't really increase WATCH's ability to obstruct activity.

A lot of what I'm seeing from the examples appear to be covered now. Some of the more human costs, like forced relocation, are not- but I'm not sure if I can effectively handle those quite yet. I'm a little concerned about trying to touch on that. I know that ancestral lands can be very important to some cultures but in this day and age... It definitely cannot be allowed to be an absolute block. Maybe another situation for WATCH?

[Goddess Relief Office]

DEFINING Cultural Erasure as actions of modifying, suppressing, outlawing, or destroying, the language, practices, art, historical record, artifacts of a culture with the effect of falsifying aspects of or hiding that culture.

Under that definition, Japan whitewashing their war time history and denying the occurrence of Nanjing Massacre would be cultural erasure. The Chinese forbidding Facebook from operating in their domestic market would also classify as cultural erasure (since they are "hiding" the Western culture from Chinese citizens). The Japanese banning of Aum Shinrikyo cult would classify as cultural erasure, as is Dalai Lama's persecution of the Dolgyal Shugden minority. The US banning of Marxist literature in the middle of the Cold War would also classify as cultural erasure.

These examples may be extreme, but history, religion, language, even political systems are all components of culture. Either you need to better define the term "cultural erasure" or delegate the task of determining what is and what is not cultural erasure to an organization similar to WATCH for architecture.

[Northern Arcadian Empire]

Interesting, I would like to see this in the WA voting booth

[Normlpeople]

Clover looked at Ambassador Landfree. "I may be totally ignorant and non-understanding when it comes to Democracy, but why would my endorsement matter in a domestic election, and why would you permit me to vote?"

"As to the draft, I am not sure that it is as cut and dry as it seems. There is a fine line between erasing ones culture, and bringing a culture to date. Educating a group of primitives in order to allow them to function in modern times is one thing, however, forcing them to do so is another. In both cases, it can be seen as erasure.

I look forward to seeing how this plays out. Hopefully I will be able to assist in some way"

[The Dark Star Republic]

"What does 'cultural' mean?

"And, to avoid the appearance of just tossing a golden kumquat* and running, I will add: I have to believe it will be difficult to get around the existing blocker on the subject. If there were any way you could tie this to a repeal and replace that would make things so much easier for you."

~ Daisy Chinmusic
Legislative Intern

* In traditional Dark Star mythology, the godron of spite Flerkinerk threw a golden kumquat inscribed with the words "to the one with the most absolutely ginormous stick up their arse about just about everything" into a party, instigating a massive civil war as all sides fought to claim this coveted title for themselves.

[Defwa]

Clover looked at Ambassador Landfree. "I may be totally ignorant and non-understanding when it comes to Democracy, but why would my endorsement matter in a domestic election, and why would you permit me to vote?"

"As to the draft, I am not sure that it is as cut and dry as it seems. There is a fine line between erasing ones culture, and bringing a culture to date. Educating a group of primitives in order to allow them to function in modern times is one thing, however, forcing them to do so is another. In both cases, it can be seen as erasure.

I look forward to seeing how this plays out. Hopefully I will be able to assist in some way"

Well, its a little complex.
The Grand Wizards, which rule over city states as opposed to the lower Wizards who rule the cities within, can really only set a tone. Anything they do is tempered through the senate and through referendum votes. Nowadays, with so much focus on Defwa's position in the world, candidates will seek endorsements from other nations to basically use as evidence that they will be good for Defwa's position.

The real power comes from the senate and local wizards and that's where the real debates are. It works a bit like the WA. The Senate writes multiple versions of a law on a topic, through referendum the population votes on which version they support, then the Wizards formulate the executive process.

"What does 'cultural' mean?

"And, to avoid the appearance of just tossing a golden kumquat* and running, I will add: I have to believe it will be difficult to get around the existing blocker on the subject. If there were any way you could tie this to a repeal and replace that would make things so much easier for you."

~ Daisy Chinmusic
Legislative Intern

* In traditional Dark Star mythology, the godron of spite Flerkinerk threw a golden kumquat inscribed with the words "to the one with the most absolutely ginormous stick up their arse about just about everything" into a party, instigating a massive civil war as all sides fought to claim this coveted title for themselves.

I'm not sure what blocker you're referring to. In here, the definition of cultural or culture isn't really touched upon. The target for protection are the "language, practices, art, historical record, and artifacts of a culture" which is basically all languages, practices, art, historical records, and artifacts and the goal is to prevent governments from targeting any group for elimination in a method that doesn't quite constitute genocide- such as one might destroy the art and history of another nation during an invasion in order to pretend they were 'civilizing savages' or had always owned the territory (something that actually happens).

Not saying that they have to teach their children about all the natives they raped or have to make all the traffic signs have a Bigtopian translation. But they can't say that it never happened and Bigtopia doesn't exist.

[Separatist Peoples]

"Would it help to split off artifacts and artwork into a different resolution then less tangible concepts like historical records and cultural practices, ambassador? I'm worried the nuance of this will become an issue, as I read the minutes here."

[The Dark Star Republic]

I'm not sure what blocker you're referring to.

"Cultural Site Preservation legalises the destruction of culturally relevant sites.

In here, the definition of cultural or culture isn't really touched upon. The target for protection are the "language, practices, art, historical record, and artifacts of a culture" which is basically all languages, practices, art, historical records, and artifacts and the goal is to prevent governments from targeting any group for elimination in a method that doesn't quite constitute genocide- such as one might destroy the art and history of another nation during an invasion in order to pretend they were 'civilizing savages' or had always owned the territory (something that actually happens).

"But then the easiest way around is to simply declare that a particular group doesn't constitute 'a culture'. Which is not legalistic wrangling, but genuine observed practice: for example, many nations that conducted cultural "erasure" against indigenous populations claimed that those peoples didn't constitute a valid culture.

"By contrast, the definition of genocide to which you allude is much more precise:

Genocide shall be defined as any act committed, or measure enacted, with the intent to destroy, in whole or partially, an identifiable group of persons on the basis of belief, ethnicity, nationality, culture, or a perceived innate characteristic, which for the purposes of this resolution shall include sexual orientation.

"By invoking this nebulous concept of 'culture' you're actually making it much easier to evade.

"Would it help to split off artifacts and artwork into a different resolution then less tangible concepts like historical records and cultural practices, ambassador? I'm worried the nuance of this will become an issue, as I read the minutes here."

"From our delegation's point of view, we would strongly support separating tangible and intangible culture."

~ Daisy Chinmusic
Legislative Intern

[The Eternal Kawaii]

In the Name of the Eternal Kawaii, may the Cute One be praised

We must point out that there are some cultures that should be erased. There are nations out there that practice human sacrifice, cannibalism, child prostitution and all manner of similar abominations. We see no reason why the this Assembly should shield such evil from the destruction it has coming to it.

[Normlpeople]

"A good, and fair starting point would be: what defines culture? Its not an easy definition, and such a definition would form the basis of what can and cannot occur under a bill like this."

[Separatist Peoples]

In the Name of the Eternal Kawaii, may the Cute One be praised

We must point out that there are some cultures that should be erased. There are nations out there that practice human sacrifice, cannibalism, child prostitution and all manner of similar abominations. We see no reason why the this Assembly should shield such evil from the destruction it has coming to it.

"That's a dangerous slope to slide down. The WA can remove most, if not all, of those factors from a culture through development, but that doesn't mean those people deserve to have their heritage erased."

OOC: cannibalistic cultures or those with human worship are still studied and preserved today. Not unlike the ongoing attempt to preserve, not destroy, what is found of the Aztec civilization, which, as we know, practiced ritual heart-ripping out.

[Bears Armed]

In the Name of the Eternal Kawaii, may the Cute One be praised

We must point out that there are some cultures that should be erased. There are nations out there that practice human sacrifice, cannibalism, child prostitution and all manner of similar abominations."

"Ahem! There are actually a few small cultural minority-groups within Bears Armed that practice cannibalism... as a limited, and respectful, part of their traditional funerary practices. We would not accept the definition of that as an "abomination"..."

Artorrios o SouthWoods,
ChairBear, Bears Armed Mission at the World Assembly
for
The High Council of Clans,
The Confederated Clans of the Free Bears of Bears Armed.

[The Dark Star Republic]

"You know, the WA hasn't technically banned human (or "sapient being") sacrifice, nor cannibalism. So far as I can see both would be legal under Convention On Execution.

"That said, I agree with the point that eradicating specific practices - such as female genital mutilation - doesn't equate to cultural erasure."

~ Daisy Chinmusic
Legislative Intern

[Defwa]

Alright, here we go.
Defwaen elections are still going on. And I'm barely keeping up with Alex. A couple of endorsements [read: bumps] would do wonders.

Now, I've taken this resolution out of Pre Draft status and there are a couple things needed before we get into full swing.

Category- it could easily be Human Rights or Eduction/Cultural Heritage. The latter would be more honest, but isn't the real important part how popular the category is?

The definition of culture (or refusal to define a culture) could definitely throw a wrench in this proposal's utility. But how do you define that? I'd really prefer to avoid it completely which would require rewording of the definition. Suggestions on either front would be helpful.

In the meantime, I've removed any reference to those more physical ideas. So languages, cultural practices, religions, and historical records.
Still should be pretty clear that at no point is anyone expected to cater to any of these groups while still leaving gaps to stop physical harm from coming to people- it would for instance still be legal to ban cannibalism even between consenting individuals.

I'll probably do some further expansion on what constitutes falsification of historical records, specifying that it applies to intentional modification of history contradicting evidence or witness accounts to fit a narrative, but that can take some wrangling to do effectively. Definitely don't want to be defending some kind of false history [OOC: Like the south winning the civil war but electing to stop having slaves anyway]
I'm a little concerned about the inclusion of religion here considering that could be construed as stopping theocratic nations from changing their laws. I'd personally rather leave it out, but for the sake of fairness religion might belong.

While I was looking at existing legislation on similar topics I want to post my interpretation of how this interacts with Freedom of Expression. While that resolution clearly allows people to declare their views on these subjects, the actual practice of those is a separate thing entirely. Just thought I'd mention that before it gets brought up later, just in case there are other interpretations out there.

[Separatist Peoples]

OOC: I definitely don't think FoE will handle all practices. The US handling of the native Ghost Dance ritual comes to mind. Splitting off tangible and intangible from your scope was probably wise.

As DSR will probably say, the popularity of the category shouldn't matter, as it only serves to marginalize unpopular categories further. Fwiw, I'm a supporter of it being an Education and Creativity proposal, but that depends on what you emphasize: preservation and recording or barring states from erasure. /$.02

Edit: happy Thanksgiving , y'all!

[The Dark Star Republic]

OOC: Moral Decency is an unpopular category, yet most of the very most popular resolutions have passed in that category. Besides, Cultural Heritage has never been particularly unpopular anyway, there've been quite a few resolutions in it.

that depends on what you emphasize: preservation and recording or barring states from erasure.

Agreed.

[Defwa]

I'd rather avoid the subject of recording and preservation for now. I've heard complaints in previous debates about preserving things that 'didn't deserve it'. Probably better to ban hunting than to mandate everyone build a zoo.
In that light, I suppose Human Rights would be the better fit, possibly mild considering governments aren't at any point asked to do anything but significant is always that little safe zone.

[Defwa]

With any luck, letting WATCH identify cultural erasure when a nation refuses to identify a target group as a culture, should alleviate that concern.
There was also a bit of expansion on the exclusions. The intent is to allow a nation to ban cannibalism if they want to but not the gutentag hop clop.
Also to restrict cultures that exist to impede other cultures, like those weird chrifteanty people that keep trying to tell people how to live.

I added "art forms" as a protected category- so basically one might burn all of Leonardo's paintings but they can't stop the italians from picking up a brush. Thought that would protect the important part without stretching the topic.
That said, there's a lot of space here for whatever is needed and I might be able to cover some protection for physical objects or maybe put some 'urging' clauses about displacement. I don't know. We'll see what the public wants when the public gets here.