[DRAFT] Preventing State-Sponsored Denialism

[United Massachusetts]

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Education in Past Evils
Category: Education and Creativity | Area of Effect: Educational

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The World Assembly:

Recalling that since the dawn of its existence, this world has been unfortunately permeated by genocide, hatred, and bigotry, among other twisted acts that run afoul to all the values this Assembly holds dear,

Aware of its commitment since time immemorial to preventing tragedies and moral depravities from happening, a goal towards which this Assembly has already made progress,

Noting that education in the facts of such atrocious events keeps alive in the collective memory their evils, thereby empowering sapient beings to learn from their mistakes and improve the world around them,

Concerned that certain more sinister nations seek to, for their own political gain, twist the facts regarding such depravities and deny their citizens the truth regarding certain acts which fall in the lowest annals of cruelty,

Fearing that when left ignorant of history, one is doomed to repeat it,

Yearning to ensure that all sapient beings, across every member nation, are made aware to such heinous acts in a way which allows them to understand their gravity,

Hereby, in order to never forget the past when looking to the future:

1. Defines, for the purposes of this resolution, the following terms:
   • genocide as a the intentional, systematic murder of those from a particular ethnic, racial, religious, political, or other background
   • atrocity as an attack of the natural rights of sapient beings to free speech, free assembly, free religion, privacy, and legal justice
   • war crime as an act undertaken during a time of war which involves a significant, major, and intentional violation of the generally-accepted rules of combat
   • "revisionism" as any attempt to lessen the significance of or alter the internationally-accepted understanding a grave evil through false information
2. Forbids the deliberate spread of the denial or "revisionism" of a genocide, war crime, or atrocity by a World Assembly member nation,
   
   
3. Further forbids member-states from deliberately misconstruing the statistics, facts, or reasons regarding any genocide, war crime, or atrocity,
   
   
4. Urges member nations to present information about the aforementioned evils in an objective manner via their educational system, free from propaganda or the glorification of a genocide, war crime, or atrocity,
   
   
5. Declares that the employment of a public educator shall neither be put in jeopardy nor be terminated due to the teaching of a genocide, war crime, or atrocity in a factual manner, presuming the educator is otherwise in good-standing.

[Essu Beti]

"I'm sorry, since who brought the world into being?" calls out the aggrieved voice of... Iksana's intern? Inan seems to have misplaced her usual meekness for the time being. "The rest is fine, excluding that it could cause a serious rift in our community because some still blame the Tal for the- anyway. It was the Brothers who made the world, not Violet!"

[Dobrobyt]

We agree. What has been proven to be a major genocide or tragedy needs to be taught in our schools.

[Flowrisa]

"Who, or what in all seventeen million hells, is Violet?!" Alexis says, quoting Game of Kingdoms. "If I were in any way religious, the 61 gods made the world, and not this weird being called Violet!"

[Tinfect]

Believing that, furthermore, education serves as a method for these nation-states to transcend greed and division in pursuit of a common goal--knowledge of our shared world in an environment of peace and tolerance,

"This clause seems to have rather little to do with the Legislation at hand." Starts Feren, "Rather, it seems to largely an attempt to extol the supposed virtues of international education. I would recommend its removal, simply in the interests of brevity and coherence."

Regrettably remembering, however, that since Violet brought it into being, this world has been unfortunately permeated by genocide, hatred, and bigotry, among other twisted acts that run afoul to all the values this Assembly holds dear,

"Please keep whatever... theologies you may ascribe to well-away from the World Assembly. It is quite bad enough that certain Member-States are unable to extricate their Governments from such things, we do not need similar nonsense inset into International Law."

Noting that education in the facts of such atrocious events keeps alive in the collective memory their evils, thereby empowering sapient beings to learn from their mistakes and improve the world around them,

"Well, one Nation's mistakes, another's proud history; this clause's assertion is unlikely to hold true in those Nations in which the conditions that lead to the unfortunate events in question still hold true."

Fearing that when left ignorant of history, one is doomed to repeat it,

"And when certain individuals are well-aware of it, they may strive to emulate it, and be all the more successful in doing so for their acknowledgement and recognition of past successes and failures in methodology. Of course this does not justify allowing ignorance, I merely intend to point out that vague assertions such as this are utterly worthless, and are best left out of legislation."

Hereby, in order to never forget the past when looking to the future:[list=1]

"Is the platitude entirely necessary at this point in the draft?"

atrocity as a significant attack of the natural rights of sapient beings to free speech, free assembly, free religion, privacy, and legal justice

"And what, for the record, qualifies as 'significant', Ambassador? Certainly a wide variety of actions taken by our predecessor-state qualify as 'attacks', to use your term, on the freedom religious beliefs during its formation, and despite the protests of certain groups during that period, they certainly could not be called atrocities. The Imperium must also take issue with the use of term 'natural rights'; the term is meaningless, one has no 'rights' by mere virtue of existing, they are, by definition, secured by law. Again, please keep whatever theology you ascribe to, to yourself, and well away from International Law."

war crime as an act undertaken during a time of war which involves a significant and intentional violation of the generally-accepted rules of combat

"I do not believe intent is an acceptable requirement, the Imperium determines such things as a matter of fault; a civilian casualty during a military action is not a Crime of War, a Civilian Casualty due to a Soldier waving his weapon about in a crowd, while not likely intentional, remains a Civilian Casualty caused by their actions, and thus, a crime of war. Also criminal incompetence, but I have been told that foreign nations often lack laws on the subject. You may wish to recommend that your Government make haste in rectifying that."

Mandates that all public, private, charter, or other educational institutions in World Assembly member nations teach their students about significant genocides, atrocities, and war crimes throughout history, at an age-appropriate level, laid out clearly and explicitly, including significant and/or relevant facts regarding the incident

"While the Imperium maintains information regarding crimes of war, including those in foreign nations, I... well, I rather doubt the necessity of including courses for every instance of a foreign soldier opening fire on an illegal target. It would be quite long, and likely serve largely to normalize such things as acceptable and commonplace, which, as I certainly hope we can agree, is not acceptable."

Urges member nations to present such information in an objective manner, free from propaganda or the glorification of a genocide, war crime, or atrocity,

"The Imperium finds it rather objectionable that this clause is non-mandatory. While the Imperium understands fully the necessity of displaying such things in historical and academic contexts, this is merely a blanket refusal to enforce reasonable academic and historical standards.

In any case, the Imperium cannot support this legislation in its current form, there is very little here that is not greatly flawed, and some of these flaws alone would be sufficient for the Imperium to withhold its support. We cannot, however, rule out the possibility of an acceptable future draft at this time."

[Imperium Anglorum]

We will happily teach our children about the evils of communism.

[Herby]

There is no Violet. Only Zuul.

Heh heh.

Okay seriously I like that line but ehhhh I just wonder if it's gonna cause you problems. I like the idea too, see we always wanna make sure the next generation of Jettas and Passats know what we old folk went through with the slaver-drivers in our day and how we rounded them up and kicked 'em out and those that we couldn't get rid of we ehhhh okay okay we don't have to tell them a hunnert percent o' the facts do we?

[United Massachusetts]

Gee. I guess you all hated that Violet line. It's my attempt to insert humor here. At any rate, Violet has been referenced in the SC before.

[Herby]

Gee. I guess you all hated that Violet line. It's my attempt to insert humor here. At any rate, Violet has been referenced in the SC before.

Okay seriously I like that line

[Separatist Peoples]

Gee. I guess you all hated that Violet line. It's my attempt to insert humor here. At any rate, Violet has been referenced in the SC before.

OOC: The GA is NOT the SC. They are linked only by a common voting mechanism, nothing more.

[Serrus]

Gee. I guess you all hated that Violet line. It's my attempt to insert humor here. At any rate, Violet has been referenced in the SC before.

OOC: The GA is NOT the SC. They are linked only by a common voting mechanism, nothing more.

And a webpage. forgot that one.

[Araraukar]

And a webpage. forgot that one.

OOC: Which itself is part of the Metagaming violation when it comes to proposals.

...actually, mentioning [Violet] would probably be a RL mention...

[Essu Beti]

"It's not a very good joke," grumbles Inan. "How is it decided what counts as an atrocity?" she asks. "In many Prexsivnai sects and a few Beuwani ones, it is accepted that humankind came about because the Tal committed an act of extreme violence on the Kainur tribe of elvenkind. The Tal and the Neskai -that is, members of Bheidor that do not have an unbroken line of descent from the Iksaira tribe- both disagree strongly with this belief. Under this proposal, would we have to teach this to even those who don't believe that is the source of humanity?"

[Araraukar]

*snip*

"You'd do better if you avoided teaching anyone anything about religion, kiddo," Janis remarked, absentmindedly doodling on her copy of the draft.

[Essu Beti]

Inan looks like she's about to protest, but then she deflates suddenly. "You're right. That's a job for our priest to do instead. I'll ask Marsanis if they're available to teach you. Maybe they can invite you to our service; we have a church set up in the office."

[United Massachusetts]

"to clarify, the Violet remark was a joke. Everything else is a serious, albeit troublesome, draft.

[Araraukar]

"You're right. That's a job for our priest to do instead. I'll ask Marsanis if they're available to teach you. Maybe they can invite you to our service; we have a church set up in the office."

"Ha! I'd really like to see them try. Just remind them that our office is above the 20th floor and the reflection pool is not there to save them, even if hitting the water from that height wasn't deadly all on its own... Ooh, actually, can you send three of them? They recently added a couple of security guys to my diplomatic detail, and they've been getting so bored they might enjoy tossing some superstition-peddling idiots out of the window as well."

OOC: Do note that Araraukar is a very atheist nation, and that Janis personally views religion as a dangerous, infectious delusion and anyone who believes they're speaking for or with a god or gods should be put down for the betterment of their species. Essu Beti already knows my IC and OOC views don't match 100%, but I thought to make it clear to everyone...

[Essu Beti]

"Ha! I'd really like to see them try. Just remind them that our office is above the 20th floor and the reflection pool is not there to save them, even if hitting the water from that height wasn't deadly all on its own... Ooh, actually, can you send three of them? They recently added a couple of security guys to my diplomatic detail, and they've been getting so bored they might enjoy tossing some superstition-peddling idiots out of the window as well."

"Excuse me-" Inan starts to say, before Iksana places a hand on her shoulder.

"Kid, I think you should all quicklike go see if Mouse has managed to blow up the office yet," he says, gently shooing her in the direction of the door. "You're about to lose your temper and this isn't the right place for that."

"Ambassador Leveret, what the actual fuck? I like pissing off my own people myself and I know a dozen rude ways to turn down a church service, but that went straight to 'active hostility' without even stopping at 'trolling' on the way. I'd understand if Inan had been being an ass, but that was a pretty friendly offer."

[Separatist Peoples]

"So, now we have to educate our students about atrocities that occur in nations we have little contact with? Great. Rather than learning something useful, they can memorize Lilliputian dictators and their rap sheets." Bell rolls his eyes.

[The Greater Siriusian Domain]

Teran Saber: "While I understand the intent of this proposal, I wish to know how this is an international issue. As the ambassador of Separatist Peoples stated, how would the actions of the dictators of Lilliput even matter to a nation that, for example, isn't even on the same planet? Surely you should at least limit this to ones that are within a nation's circle of influence. For example, the Siriusian Imperialist Movement's assault on and subsequent destruction of Arcturus Prime during the Siriusian Civil War (OOC: The Imperialist Movement lost that war in the end, by the way) would be far more relevant to us than the total destruction of Alderan a long time ago in a galaxy far far away."

[Bears Armed]

...actually, mentioning [Violet] would probably be a RL mention...

OOC: RL or Meta-gaming, one or the other depending on context, I'd say.

___________________________________________________________________

Hwait? is this supposed to be about 'past evils' in all of the countries that have ever existed, rather than just any such incidents with hwhich our own homelands might -- unfortunately, for one reason or another -- have been involved? Bearing in mind the number of nations known to exist, hwhat room would that leave in educational curriculums for anything else hwhatsoever?!"

Artorrios o SouthWoods,
ChairBear, Bears Armed Mission at the World Assembly.

[Aclion]

OOC: RL or Meta-gaming, one or the other depending on context, I'd say.

___________________________________________________________________

Hwait? is this supposed to be about 'past evils' in all of the countries that have ever existed, rather than just any such incidents with hwhich our own homelands might -- unfortunately, for one reason or another -- have been involved? Bearing in mind the number of nations known to exist, hwhat room would that leave in educational curriculums for anything else hwhatsoever?!"

Artorrios o SouthWoods,
ChairBear, Bears Armed Mission at the World Assembly.

"It's comes down to whether those genocides are significant for not. If we weren't involved, or our enemies or allies weren't involved, and it's not affecting society today, then is it really significant? I mean there are an infinite possible nations, which means that any act of genocide that could have happened did, and did an infinite number of times. They're not all significant surely."

[Fauxia]

OoC: I love when someone pro-Life claims the GA is against genocide.

Bearing in mind

Geddit?

I'll [not] see myself out

IC: "I see no way this will not be construed to force nations to teach Christians, Muslims, etc. that they are evil for opposing same-sex marriage."

[Serrus]

OOC: RL or Meta-gaming, one or the other depending on context, I'd say.

___________________________________________________________________

Hwait? is this supposed to be about 'past evils' in all of the countries that have ever existed, rather than just any such incidents with hwhich our own homelands might -- unfortunately, for one reason or another -- have been involved? Bearing in mind the number of nations known to exist, hwhat room would that leave in educational curriculums for anything else hwhatsoever?!"

Artorrios o SouthWoods,
ChairBear, Bears Armed Mission at the World Assembly.

OOC: Didn't see that coming.

[Grays Harbor]

Yeah, so, not real crazy about mandating all schools teach about any particular "Outrage Du Jour".