[DRAFT] Act for the Protection of Miners

[The New European Order]

Yes! This will protect miners, a populace thats constantly in danger. Gotta hate black lungs... I am for this proposal, even though my country doesnt mine... at all

[Marzicon]

This draft resolution has just been submitted to the WA GenSec!

Act for the Protection of Miners

[Araraukar]

This draft resolution has just been submitted to the WA GenSec!

OOC: *sigh* Why?

Act for the Protection of Miners

Category: Environmental
Industry Affected: Mining

The World Assembly,

Recognizing the dangers associated with mining operations,

Acknowledging that not all mining companies and organizations can be trusted with providing adequate mining safeties,

Keeping in mind the long-term health risks associated with mining,

HEREBY:

1. DEFINES, for the purposes of this resolution:

- Mining: the process of employing workers to extract substances from the ground,
- Substances: minerals, rocks, and elements which can be sold on the open market or to state governments,
- Operation: any site or location used by a mining organization for the purposes of substance extraction,
- Open-pit mining: a mining operation with a wide, deep hole is created in order to extract substances,
- Strip mining: a mining operation in which a rock layer of a substance at or close to the surface is extracted,
- Deep-surface mining: a mining operation in which a substance is extracted using tunnels and boreholes deeper than 50 meters below the surface,
- Post-operation: the period of permanent inactivity at a mining operation,

2. MANDATES that all member-states with a mining sector to hereby enact these changes:

- Regulations to mandate deep-surface mining operations and open-pit mining operations to have proper ventilation systems and other measures placed with the goal of stabilizing the air quality of the surrounding environment of non-atmospheric components to 5000 parts-per-million,
- Require all mining employees to be fully clothed and require employees to be wearing necessary additional safety equipment including but not limited to reflective jackets and air filtration systems,
- Provide medical access and screenings for mining-specific illnesses including, but not limited to, respiratory infections and cancers,
- Require mining companies adequately pay their workers for their high-risk occupations,
- Require open-pit mining operations post-operation to completely fill the site, and require the mining company to pay 100% for the cost of reclamation,
- Require strip mining operations post-operation be fully reclaimed, and require the mining company to pay 100% for reclamation the site, and 50% for the usage and production of the site post-operation,
- Require Deep-surface mining operations post-operation to be fully closed off to anyone and everyone using physical barriers which cannot be accessed,

3. ENCOURAGES that member-states create a safety board for the inspection of mining agencies and for the protection of miners,

4. RECOMMENDS that member states pass legislation ensuring transparency between their government safety board and mining organizations,

5. ALLOWS a member-state government to create incentives and/or other regulations with the purpose of bettering the conditions of mining operations,

6. CLARIFIES that this resolution also implies regulations be placed on any and all sectors that directly require the extraction of ground-based substances for the purpose of sale on the open market,

7. CREATES the World Assembly Committee on Mining Safety (WACOMS), with the purpose of providing oversight into the affairs and operations of mining operations with the intent of ensuring safe and reasonable procedures.

---

OOC: This isn't a proper vivisection, I only have time for one of those per day. This is based on the version posted on this thread, not the submitted one, not sure if there are changes other than the category.

- Mining: the process of employing workers to extract substances from the ground,
- Substances: minerals, rocks, and elements which can be sold on the open market or to state governments,

Not really needing defining.

- Operation: any site or location used by a mining organization for the purposes of substance extraction,

Why this instead of using the word "mine"?

- Open-pit mining: a mining operation with a wide, deep hole is created in order to extract substances,
- Strip mining: a mining operation in which a rock layer of a substance at or close to the surface is extracted,
- Deep-surface mining: a mining operation in which a substance is extracted using tunnels and boreholes deeper than 50 meters below the surface,

Open-pit and strip are often the same thing. Deep-surface has an arbitrary depth number?

- Regulations to mandate deep-surface mining operations and open-pit mining operations to have proper ventilation systems and other measures placed with the goal of stabilizing the air quality of the surrounding environment of non-atmospheric components to 5000 parts-per-million,

I have to wonder what you think "non-atmospheric components" would be? Even volcanic rock dust is an "atmospheric component". The atmosphere is a lot more than just air.

- Require all mining employees to be fully clothed and require employees to be wearing necessary additional safety equipment including but not limited to reflective jackets and air filtration systems,

Wouldn't wearing safety gear include the clothes? What about nations whose miners don't need clothes, like sapient robots? Or nations that do mining with remote-controlled things?

- Provide medical access and screenings for mining-specific illnesses including, but not limited to, respiratory infections and cancers,

This one I don't have an issue with, other than "how would you know what caused the cancer"?

- Require mining companies adequately pay their workers for their high-risk occupations,

Even if they're not high-risk occupations? Strip and open pit mining aren't nearly as hazardous as the tunnel mining.

- Require open-pit mining operations post-operation to completely fill the site, and require the mining company to pay 100% for the cost of reclamation,

"Reclamation"? And only fill it? They could fill it with water and be compliant.

- Require strip mining operations post-operation be fully reclaimed, and require the mining company to pay 100% for reclamation the site, and 50% for the usage and production of the site post-operation,

Again with the reclaiming. It's not defined anywhere that I could find. Also, any use post-operation would go against your definition of it, which says "permanent inactivity".

- Require Deep-surface mining operations post-operation to be fully closed off to anyone and everyone using physical barriers which cannot be accessed,

Did you read this sentence after writing it? "Using physical barriers which cannot be accessed"? That'd require some kind of force fields, sounds like.

3. ENCOURAGES that member-states create a safety board for the inspection of mining agencies and for the protection of miners,

No argument here.

4. RECOMMENDS that member states pass legislation ensuring transparency between their government safety board and mining organizations,

Why? Who would that serve? And what problem would that solve?

5. ALLOWS a member-state government to create incentives and/or other regulations with the purpose of bettering the conditions of mining operations,

But you're mandating they do so anyway...

6. CLARIFIES that this resolution also implies regulations be placed on any and all sectors that directly require the extraction of ground-based substances for the purpose of sale on the open market,

What, seriously? Selling bagged soil for gardeners would make shoveling the soil into the bags "mining". Soil is made of different sized particles of minerals (and often some organic stuff, but in lesser amounts than the inorganic).

7. CREATES the World Assembly Committee on Mining Safety (WACOMS), with the purpose of providing oversight into the affairs and operations of mining operations with the intent of ensuring safe and reasonable procedures.

Why? This is an entirely unnecessary committee.

[Bears Armed]

OOC
I've now found time for a detailed look at this, and agree that you've been too hasty in submitting it.
By my reckoning you've actually got two proposals, that belong in separate categories, stuck together here: One on the treatment of miners (whichever category that ends up best suited for), and another on the 'post-operation' treatment of mines (which is 'Environmental: Mining').
Please withdraw it from the list, for further drafting. I won't mark it as 'Illegal' today, but will do so in 24 hours time if's still in the list of submissions then and a clear majority of the other Secretariat members haven't approved it as 'legal'.

[Marzicon]

OOC
I've now found time for a detailed look at this, and agree that you've been too hasty in submitting it.
By my reckoning you've actually got two proposals, that belong in separate categories, stuck together here: One on the treatment of miners (whichever category that ends up best suited for), and another on the 'post-operation' treatment of mines (which is 'Environmental: Mining').
Please withdraw it from the list, for further drafting. I won't mark it as 'Illegal' today, but will do so in 24 hours time if's still in the list of submissions then and a clear majority of the other Secretariat members haven't approved it as 'legal'.

I will delete the parts about post-operation and act on the changes submitted by Araraukar. The proposal has been withdrawn. Terribly sorry for my haste. Not sure if I should abandon the resolution altogether as punishment for my mistake truly sorry.

[Separatist Peoples]

OOC
I've now found time for a detailed look at this, and agree that you've been too hasty in submitting it.
By my reckoning you've actually got two proposals, that belong in separate categories, stuck together here: One on the treatment of miners (whichever category that ends up best suited for), and another on the 'post-operation' treatment of mines (which is 'Environmental: Mining').
Please withdraw it from the list, for further drafting. I won't mark it as 'Illegal' today, but will do so in 24 hours time if's still in the list of submissions then and a clear majority of the other Secretariat members haven't approved it as 'legal'.

I will delete the parts about post-operation and act on the changes submitted by Araraukar. The proposal has been withdrawn. Terribly sorry for my haste. Not sure if I should abandon the resolution altogether as punishment for my mistake truly sorry.

OOC: there is no need to give up merely because you made a mistake. Were that true, nobody would pass anything.

[Marzicon]

OOC: there is no need to give up merely because you made a mistake. Were that true, nobody would pass anything.

Right.

[Separatist Peoples]

The Health category doesn't have a strength, it has an Area of Effect. Here, you want Healthcare.
Category: Health
Area of Effect: Healthcare

[Marzicon]

The Health category doesn't have a strength, it has an Area of Effect. Here, you want Healthcare.
Category: Health
Area of Effect: Healthcare

Duly noted. Changes going into effect.

[Marzicon]

Newest edition of the draft. Will be used for proposal.

Act for the Protection of Miners

Category: Health
Area of Effect: Healthcare
Proposed by: The Republic of Marzicon

The World Assembly,

Recognizing the dangers associated with mining operations,

Acknowledging that not all mining companies and organizations can be trusted with providing adequate mining safeties,

Keeping in mind the long-term health risks associated with mining,

HEREBY:

1. DEFINES, for the purposes of this resolution:

- Operation: any site or location used by a mining organization for the purposes of substance extraction,
- Open-pit mining: a mining operation with a wide, deep hole is created in order to extract substances,

2. MANDATES that all member-states with a mining sector to hereby enact these changes:

- Regulations to mandate deep-surface mining operations and open-pit mining operations to have proper ventilation systems and other measures placed with the goal of stabilizing the air quality of the surrounding environment of toxic, mine-related gases and particles to 5000 parts-per-million,
- Require all mining employees, if they are carbon-based life forms, to be fully clothed and require employees to be wearing necessary additional safety equipment including but not limited to reflective jackets and air filtration systems,
- If need be, require robotic assistants and workers in the operation sites to be fully cleaned post-operation whilst maintaining a constant state of reliability through regular maintenance,
- Provide medical access and screenings for mining-specific illnesses including, but not limited to, respiratory infections and cancers,
- Require mining companies adequately pay their workers for their high-risk occupations through benefits and insurance plans which protect workers from the physical and medical dangers posed by mining operations,

3. ENCOURAGES that member-states create a safety board for the inspection of mining agencies and for the protection of miners,

4. CLARIFIES that this resolution also implies regulations be placed on any and all sectors that directly require the extraction of naturally occurring ground-based substances for the purpose of sale on the open market, and not to more artificially-created extraction industries, including but not limited to agriculture, in this regard,

Changes made since First Draft. Compilation of all changes.

Edit 1: Changed "Mining" to "Environment" under Category
Edit 2: Added Clause 13
Edit 3: Changed "Environment" to "Human Rights" under Category
Edit 4: Changed "Human Rights" to "Environment" under Category
Edit 5: Rewrote Clause 1 to say "ground" in lieu of "Earth"
Edit 6: Rewrote Clause 12 to say "ground-based" in lieu of "Earth-based"
Edit 7: Revised the title of DRAFT to "Act for the Protection of Miners" in lieu of "Mining Standards Act"
Edit 8: Streamlined Clauses, places all definitions into Clause 1, and labels subsequent clauses accordingly
Edit 9: Changed "Environment" to "Health" under Category
Edit 10: Rewrote Clause 1's definitions for the purpose of demarcating the term being defined
Edit 11: Changed the Abbreviation of "WMS" to "WACOMS"
Edit 12: Changed abbreviation in Clause 2 from "ppm" to "parts-per-million"
Edit 13: Minor grammatical changes to preserve syntactical flow post-edits
Edit 14: Created "New Edition" of DRAFT, thus replacing the existing draft below. "New Edition" complies with the edits and ideas brought forth by Araraukar

Original Draft

Act for the Protection of Miners

Category: Health
Strength: Significant
Proposed by: The Republic of Marzicon

The World Assembly,

Recognizing the dangers associated with mining operations,

Acknowledging that not all mining companies and organizations can be trusted with providing adequate mining safeties,

Keeping in mind the long-term health risks associated with mining,

HEREBY:

1. DEFINES, for the purposes of this resolution:

- Mining: the process of employing workers to extract substances from the ground,
- Substances: minerals, rocks, and elements which can be sold on the open market or to state governments,
- Operation: any site or location used by a mining organization for the purposes of substance extraction,
- Open-pit mining: a mining operation with a wide, deep hole is created in order to extract substances,
- Strip mining: a mining operation in which a rock layer of a substance at or close to the surface is extracted,
- Deep-surface mining: a mining operation in which a substance is extracted using tunnels and boreholes deeper than 50 meters below the surface,
- Post-operation: the period of permanent inactivity at a mining operation,

2. MANDATES that all member-states with a mining sector to hereby enact these changes:

- Regulations to mandate deep-surface mining operations and open-pit mining operations to have proper ventilation systems and other measures placed with the goal of stabilizing the air quality of the surrounding environment of non-atmospheric components to 5000 parts-per-million,
- Require all mining employees to be fully clothed and require employees to be wearing necessary additional safety equipment including but not limited to reflective jackets and air filtration systems,
- Provide medical access and screenings for mining-specific illnesses including, but not limited to, respiratory infections and cancers,
- Require mining companies adequately pay their workers for their high-risk occupations,
- Require open-pit mining operations post-operation to completely fill the site, and require the mining company to pay 100% for the cost of reclamation,
- Require strip mining operations post-operation be fully reclaimed, and require the mining company to pay 100% for reclamation the site, and 50% for the usage and production of the site post-operation,
- Require Deep-surface mining operations post-operation to be fully closed off to anyone and everyone using physical barriers which cannot be accessed,

3. ENCOURAGES that member-states create a safety board for the inspection of mining agencies and for the protection of miners,

4. RECOMMENDS that member states pass legislation ensuring transparency between their government safety board and mining organizations,

5. ALLOWS a member-state government to create incentives and/or other regulations with the purpose of bettering the conditions of mining operations,

6. CLARIFIES that this resolution also implies regulations be placed on any and all sectors that directly require the extraction of ground-based substances for the purpose of sale on the open market,

7. CREATES the World Assembly Committee on Mining Safety (WACOMS), with the purpose of providing oversight into the affairs and operations of mining operations with the intent of ensuring safe and reasonable procedures.

[Araraukar]

OOC: Leave your most current draft unspoilered. That way it's easy to see what your current text version is.

[Marzicon]

*nervously glances around the room* well, the changes are all here... any opinions on the matter?

[Europe and Oceania]

We support this.

[Araraukar]

*nervously glances around the room* well, the changes are all here... any opinions on the matter?

OOC: As an example, slight rewrite of the beginning of the proposal. It includes the use of the list code, so if you quote this post, you'll see how it works.

For the Protection of Miners

Category: Health
Area of Effect: Healthcare

The World Assembly,

Keeping in mind previous efforts for workplace safety,

Aware of the specific dangers associated with mining industry,

Worried for the health and safety of the mining industry workers,

Wishing to avoid both immediate and long-term negative health effects on miners from impacting both their personal well-being and the healthcare systems,

Hereby,

1. Defines, for the purposes of this resolution,

1. a "mine" as the site of mineral extraction from the ground in the commercial scale, where the product may also be further crushed as well as packed for transportation to a processing plant,
2. a "miner" as a mining industry worker who is directly responsible for mineral extraction, either bodily or with machinery,
3. "basic protective equipment" as the safety equipment necessary to ensure the minimum safety of a miner, including but not limited to protective clothing, mining helmets, personal lighting and facemasks,

I was originally going to rewrite it further, but the more I look at GA #7, Workplace Safety Standards Act, the more I feel this all has already been dealt with. It's clause 4 requires the protective gear, clause 5 that it's given to the workers and that they use it, clause 6 that the workplace is safe, clause 7 that they're trained to deal with any hazardous materials they might encounter, clause 8 that proper training for all tools and machinery be provided, clause 9 and 10 that emergency exits be provided and kept marked and accessible, clause 11 that workers who are danger to themselves or others not be allowed at the work site, clause 12 that all this be obeyed and clause 13 establishes a national committee to inspect work sites and see the regulations are adhered to.

I really can't think of anything beyond micromanagement and lots of repetition that might be added to any of that. And if all of that is already obeyed, there aren't a lot of health hazards left.

[Marzicon]

*nervously glances around the room* well, the changes are all here... any opinions on the matter?

OOC: As an example, slight rewrite of the beginning of the proposal. It includes the use of the list code, so if you quote this post, you'll see how it works.

For the Protection of Miners

Category: Health
Area of Effect: Healthcare

The World Assembly,

Keeping in mind previous efforts for workplace safety,

Aware of the specific dangers associated with mining industry,

Worried for the health and safety of the mining industry workers,

Wishing to avoid both immediate and long-term negative health effects on miners from impacting both their personal well-being and the healthcare systems,

Hereby,

1. Defines, for the purposes of this resolution,

1. a "mine" as the site of mineral extraction from the ground in the commercial scale, where the product may also be further crushed as well as packed for transportation to a processing plant,
2. a "miner" as a mining industry worker who is directly responsible for mineral extraction, either bodily or with machinery,
3. "basic protective equipment" as the safety equipment necessary to ensure the minimum safety of a miner, including but not limited to protective clothing, mining helmets, personal lighting and facemasks,

I was originally going to rewrite it further, but the more I look at GA #7, Workplace Safety Standards Act, the more I feel this all has already been dealt with. It's clause 4 requires the protective gear, clause 5 that it's given to the workers and that they use it, clause 6 that the workplace is safe, clause 7 that they're trained to deal with any hazardous materials they might encounter, clause 8 that proper training for all tools and machinery be provided, clause 9 and 10 that emergency exits be provided and kept marked and accessible, clause 11 that workers who are danger to themselves or others not be allowed at the work site, clause 12 that all this be obeyed and clause 13 establishes a national committee to inspect work sites and see the regulations are adhered to.

I really can't think of anything beyond micromanagement and lots of repetition that might be added to any of that. And if all of that is already obeyed, there aren't a lot of health hazards left.

Aforementioned, the issue is resolved with the clause in GAR#7 which allows for more stringent codes in the future.

[Imperium Anglorum]

OOC: Call it Miner Protection or Act of Miner Protection, like the Skyrim gear.

[Araraukar]

Aforementioned, the issue is resolved with the clause in GAR#7 which allows for more stringent codes in the future.

OOC: Okay, I'll rip it apart instead, then.

Again, not a proper vivisection, just a quick ripping apart.

Act for the Protection of Miners

A random quote code at the start.

Recognizing the dangers associated with mining operations,

Acknowledging that not all mining companies and organizations can be trusted with providing adequate mining safeties,

Keeping in mind the long-term health risks associated with mining,

This seems to waver between safety and health. I know those two don't exclude one another, but you might want to emphasize that there are both immediate and long-term health risks, and that the safety issue affects the health issue.

1. DEFINES, for the purposes of this resolution:
- Operation: any site or location used by a mining organization for the purposes of substance extraction,
- Open-pit mining: a mining operation with a wide, deep hole is created in order to extract substances,

I suggest you learn to use the list code for subclauses. Also, why exactly are these definitions in here? You don't actually seem to be using either. I suggest you use the definitions from my example post above.

2. MANDATES that all member-states with a mining sector to hereby enact these changes:

Try "mining industry" instead of "mining sector", and "regulations" instead of "changes". The latter change takes into account the fact that nations may already have the same laws in place. Also, list code again.

- Regulations to mandate deep-surface mining operations and open-pit mining operations to have proper ventilation systems and other measures placed with the goal of stabilizing the air quality of the surrounding environment of toxic, mine-related gases and particles to 5000 parts-per-million,

Ok, this has changed but not necessarily towards the saner direction. If you make the change above to read "regulations", perhaps something more like "All areas where workers could be subjected to dangerous amounts of dust or dangerous gases in the breathing air must be properly ventilated".

Going into specific ppm amounts is 1) serious micromanaging and 2) nowhere near accurate enough - H₂S is poisonous around 300-350 ppm, but in RL safety gas detectors used in the industries where the gas can often be encountered, are set to alert around 5-10 ppm and go into high alarm at 15 ppm. Whereas CO₂ won't become deadly until around 70,000-100,000 ppm. For uranium that's something like 8 ppm (10 mg /1 m³ of air, the amount of air which at sea level weighs about 1.2 kg), and soluble uranium about 0.8 ppm. Chlorine gas kills within an hour at around 400 ppm, though only 10% of that will cause serious health issues that can kill you anyway. Hence my rewording it to "dangerous amounts", as that allows for the various things to have their own limits. You could, either later or before, require nations to set limits for the dangerous amounts of various things that people are likely to encounter in the mines.

- Require all mining employees, if they are carbon-based life forms, to be fully clothed and require employees to be wearing necessary additional safety equipment including but not limited to reflective jackets and air filtration systems,

Not the direction I was trying to steer you towards. Mandating clothing is both unnecessary (it would be included in the PPE of the previous resolution if it was necessary) and possibly ridiculous (for people who don't need it). Again, I would suggest you use the "basic protective equipment" definition from my example in the previous post. Then you could make this one "in addition to the basic protective equipment" and skip needing to mention clothes at all.

- If need be, require robotic assistants and workers in the operation sites to be fully cleaned post-operation whilst maintaining a constant state of reliability through regular maintenance,

Again, I suggest you use the definition of "mine" instead of "operation site". And as you currently don't have any definition of "post-operation", you might want to require just the cleaning of workers and their "equipment and machinery" when they leave the mine. And probably advice against housing the workers at the mine. Requiring maintenance of both machinery and the protective gear would also be a good idea.

- Provide medical access and screenings for mining-specific illnesses including, but not limited to, respiratory infections and cancers,

I repeat: how do you know what caused the cancer? Additionally, I hope you realize that "respiratory infection" means an actual infectious disease, one caused by bacteria or viruses? And not inhaling dust or poisonous gases.

- Require mining companies adequately pay their workers for their high-risk occupations through benefits and insurance plans which protect workers from the physical and medical dangers posed by mining operations,

I suggest something like "immediate and long-term health hazards" rather than "physical and medical dangers", since physical injuries are medical issues. Also, here you're requiring mining companies to pay all their workers for high-risk occupations, even if the workers were office clerks whose greatest hazard was a paper-cut.

3. ENCOURAGES that member-states create a safety board for the inspection of mining agencies and for the protection of miners,

Such a safety board has already been mandated to exist by the previous resolution. Also, "mining agencies"? Not "mining companies"? Or just simply "mines"?

4. CLARIFIES that this resolution also implies regulations be placed on any and all sectors that directly require the extraction of naturally occurring ground-based substances for the purpose of sale on the open market, and not to more artificially-created extraction industries, including but not limited to agriculture, in this regard,

This one is very confusingly constructed. Resolutions shouldn't imply anything, they mandate actions. If you want to mandate all this stuff only for mines, you need to define a mine (you can use the definition I made for the example either as is, or as a basis for one) and a miner, and stick all your clauses on them and things relating to them. That way you don't need any "excludes this and that" clauses.