[PASSED] Explosive Remnants of War

[Separatist Peoples]

Explosive Remnants of War
Health | International Aid

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Noting that unexploded ordinance left over from war can pose a serious threat to civilian populations, and can detonate decades after they are deployed;

Concerned that, in resuming their daily lives, transient populations returning after a conflict can become casualties by accidentally disturbing these remnants of war;

Determined to reduce the risk to civilians by explosive remnants of war to a point where they can safely resume their lives;

The General Assembly establishes the following:

The humanitarian clearing, disposal, and quarantining of unexploded ordinance that poses a persistent danger to public health and safety shall be referred to collectively as demining.

The International Humanitarian Aid Coordination Committee shall establish the Explosive Remnants of War Action Subcommittee (ERWAS), which shall be tasked with the following duties:

• Inspecting humanitarian demining operations to ensure such operations maintain a sufficient degree of safety, quality, and effectiveness in methods, as well as to guarantee public awareness, and safety during operations;
  
  
• Rigorously testing detection and demining methods and statistically evaluating those methods, as well as make public those findings;
  
  
• Liaising with and coordinating efforts between national and non-governmental humanitarian organizations to cooperate with local populations to identify and report areas requiring demining, establish unexploded ordinance awareness education outreach, facilitate demining operations, assembly and share technical intelligence, promote joint training, and ensure equipment availability.

Member states are required to report sites with significant risks to civilian populations as a result of explosive remnants of war, and must cooperate with ERWAS during humanitarian demining operations.

Member states are required to take steps towards demarcating and demining or quarantining aforementioned sites, and publicize the process in the interests of public health and safety.

Member states are required to ensure their humanitarian demining operations utilize methods that, collectively, ensure a clearance rate of 99.7% for a particular site, and ensure compliance with ERWAS inspection findings.

"Hello. If you are seeing this, I am dead."

Bell snickers, then bursts out laughing.

"Ok, no, I'm not dead, but I'm not here for some reason. I probably finally got permission for a vacation back home, and wanted to make sure I could still do some work without actually doing any work. That's triple overtime per hour. At any rate, this is an interactive hologram. I found it in Enta's office when I assumed the Monkey Island delegacy, and I've recorded a number of response algorithms. I think. I have no idea how this works, and I've been basically pressing buttons. I can't read Ainocran, you see.

"Eh, at any rate...to head off any concerns about the arbitrary number, is chosen for statistical reasons. At 99.7%, all data within 3 standard deviations from the mean, which is generally all statistically relevant data, is included. When doing statistical analysis for testing and projected minefield clearance, which, since the number of mines is an unknown, would have to be done based off other data and estimated accordingly, some outliers will be inevitably left out of regular coverage. This balances reasonable mistakes with acceptable efficiency."

[Wallenburg]

"Couldn't this be rolled up into your landmine draft? Or vice versa? I find it hardly necessary to clog up the voting process with two resolutions that could be made into one."

[Separatist Peoples]

"Couldn't this be rolled up into your landmine draft? Or vice versa? I find it hardly necessary to clog up the voting process with two resolutions that could be made into one."

"Ambassador ##DATA_NOT_FOUND##, this draft falls outside the GD/IS category requirements. This focuses on humanitarian demining, which is distinct from military clearing in scope, efficiency, and means. To be more specific, military clearing is meant to quickly clear a small path such that enough military forces can cross as to make assault successful. Casualties are expected, and a high efficiency in clearing is inefficient to the goals of speed and strategy. Humanitarian demining is an in-depth, slow process designed to remove sufficient explosive ordinance as to make the resumption of regular life possible by the indigenous. It is expensive, slow, exhaustive process that cannot allow for casualties, and is never done mid-conflict. As such, affecting military budgets and limiting military clearing operations would run counter to ensuring explosive remnants are removed.

"To summarize, Ambassador ##DATA_NOT_FOUND##, demining is not a military action, but a humanitarian one, and I would like to avoid a category violation."

[Wallenburg]

"Couldn't this be rolled up into your landmine draft? Or vice versa? I find it hardly necessary to clog up the voting process with two resolutions that could be made into one."

"Ambassador ##DATA_NOT_FOUND##, this draft falls outside the GD/IS category requirements. This focuses on humanitarian demining, which is distinct from military clearing in scope, efficiency, and means. To be more specific, military clearing is meant to quickly clear a small path such that enough military forces can cross as to make assault successful. Casualties are expected, and a high efficiency in clearing is inefficient to the goals of speed and strategy. Humanitarian demining is an in-depth, slow process designed to remove sufficient explosive ordinance as to make the resumption of regular life possible by the indigenous. It is expensive, slow, exhaustive process that cannot allow for casualties, and is never done mid-conflict. As such, affecting military budgets and limiting military clearing operations would run counter to ensuring explosive remnants are removed.

"To summarize, Ambassador ##DATA_NOT_FOUND##, demining is not a military action, but a humanitarian one, and I would like to avoid a category violation."

"In that case, my support for the landmine draft is quickly fading. I'll support this one in its stead. Also, my name is Trevanyika. Helen Trevanyika. And since I doubt I can irritate a facsimile, I will add that I am technically not an ambassador."

[Separatist Peoples]

"Ambassador ##DATA_NOT_FOUND##, this draft falls outside the GD/IS category requirements. This focuses on humanitarian demining, which is distinct from military clearing in scope, efficiency, and means. To be more specific, military clearing is meant to quickly clear a small path such that enough military forces can cross as to make assault successful. Casualties are expected, and a high efficiency in clearing is inefficient to the goals of speed and strategy. Humanitarian demining is an in-depth, slow process designed to remove sufficient explosive ordinance as to make the resumption of regular life possible by the indigenous. It is expensive, slow, exhaustive process that cannot allow for casualties, and is never done mid-conflict. As such, affecting military budgets and limiting military clearing operations would run counter to ensuring explosive remnants are removed.

"To summarize, Ambassador ##DATA_NOT_FOUND##, demining is not a military action, but a humanitarian one, and I would like to avoid a category violation."

"In that case, my support for the landmine draft is quickly fading. I'll support this one in its stead. Also, my name is Trevanyika. Helen Trevanyika. And since I doubt I can irritate a facsimile, I will add that I am technically not an ambassador."

The hologram of Bell opened it's mouth, but a cool, female voice came out instead. "This hologram is not equipped with adaptive learning subroutines beyond the drafting database."

Returning to Bell's voice, "Ambassador ##DATA_NOT_FOUND##, this draft works in conjunction with the sister Landmine Proliferation Treaty, and would be inefficient as a stand-alone law. It is not meant to incorporate wartime regulation."

[Imperium Anglorum]

Parsons, in his Colonel's uniform, sits down and reads over the proposal draft. Upon reaching the mandates spoken of in clauses which an Imperial drafting office would demand to be numbered (OOC: I'm a big fan of numbered clauses, if you haven't noticed), he speaks up.

OOC: Unfortunately, in the RP universe in which Parsons exists, the year is 1913. Both World Wars have not yet happened and this is entirely about the French experience cleaning up from the Great War. So, I'll have to go OOC with this.

In France, after the First World War, the government of France basically said 'fuck it' when it came to cleaning up many of the battlefields in the area, such as Somme and Verdun. This became known as the zone rouge.

They abandoned these areas because of the total destruction there with: millions of unexploded shells that would pose a significant threat to anyone even walking over that land; tonnes and tonnes of shrapnel lying about; mass poisoning of the ground with arsenic, lead, and other noxious chemical residues; etc. Because it would have been a massive loss of human lives and an extremely poor use of scare resources, the French government decided, then and to this day, to simply abandon the villages in the area — villages which were flattened by shellfire from the war anyway.

I feel it should always be an option to simply abandon these areas (especially when nobody lives there anyway), but your clause on de-mining requires that governments take actions to clean them up, even when such a cleanup would take centuries. Then again, since that clause also says 'demining, demarcating, or quarantining', I could always interpret that to mean only one of those things. But on the other hand, I don't believe that is what the intention was, since that means a nation could simply demarcate and do nothing else.

[The Silver Sentinel]

OOC: Unfortunately, in the RP universe in which Parsons exists, the year is 1913. Both World Wars have not yet happened and this is entirely about the French experience cleaning up from the Great War. So, I'll have to go OOC with this.

Yet Parsons argues for nuclear proposals, and clearly has a working knowledge of nuclear weapons, which were not even though of until the mid 30's.

[Separatist Peoples]

Parsons, in his Colonel's uniform, sits down and reads over the proposal draft. Upon reaching the mandates spoken of in clauses which an Imperial drafting office would demand to be numbered (OOC: I'm a big fan of numbered clauses, if you haven't noticed), he speaks up.

OOC: Unfortunately, in the RP universe in which Parsons exists, the year is 1913. Both World Wars have not yet happened and this is entirely about the French experience cleaning up from the Great War. So, I'll have to go OOC with this.

In France, after the First World War, the government of France basically said 'fuck it' when it came to cleaning up many of the battlefields in the area, such as Somme and Verdun. This became known as the zone rouge.

They abandoned these areas because of the total destruction there with: millions of unexploded shells that would pose a significant threat to anyone even walking over that land; tonnes and tonnes of shrapnel lying about; mass poisoning of the ground with arsenic, lead, and other noxious chemical residues; etc. Because it would have been a massive loss of human lives and an extremely poor use of scare resources, the French government decided, then and to this day, to simply abandon the villages in the area — villages which were flattened by shellfire from the war anyway.

I feel it should always be an option to simply abandon these areas (especially when nobody lives there anyway), but your clause on de-mining requires that governments take actions to clean them up, even when such a cleanup would take centuries. Then again, since that clause also says 'demining, demarcating, or quarantining', I could always interpret that to mean only one of those things. But on the other hand, I don't believe that is what the intention was, since that means a nation could simply demarcate and do nothing else.

"Abandoning the area is a valid option, Ambassador ##DATA_NOT_FOUND##, considering the requirement is to quarantine them, thus making them permanently inaccessible. The issue arises when the areas remain open to the public, as individuals become directly exposed to military weapons on a daily basis. Obviously, there are some areas that this is not an acceptable approach: city blocks, large tracts of active farmland, or major roadways. I am contemplating, then, making high-traffic areas mandatory to clear. However, the option for quarantines, especially for low-traffic areas, is available."

[Imperium Anglorum]

Parsons, in his Colonel's uniform, sits down and reads over the proposal draft. Upon reaching the mandates spoken of in clauses which an Imperial drafting office would demand to be numbered (OOC: I'm a big fan of numbered clauses, if you haven't noticed), he speaks up.

OOC: Unfortunately, in the RP universe in which Parsons exists, the year is 1913. Both World Wars have not yet happened and this is entirely about the French experience cleaning up from the Great War. So, I'll have to go OOC with this.

In France, after the First World War, the government of France basically said 'fuck it' when it came to cleaning up many of the battlefields in the area, such as Somme and Verdun. This became known as the zone rouge.

They abandoned these areas because of the total destruction there with: millions of unexploded shells that would pose a significant threat to anyone even walking over that land; tonnes and tonnes of shrapnel lying about; mass poisoning of the ground with arsenic, lead, and other noxious chemical residues; etc. Because it would have been a massive loss of human lives and an extremely poor use of scare resources, the French government decided, then and to this day, to simply abandon the villages in the area — villages which were flattened by shellfire from the war anyway.

I feel it should always be an option to simply abandon these areas (especially when nobody lives there anyway), but your clause on de-mining requires that governments take actions to clean them up, even when such a cleanup would take centuries. Then again, since that clause also says 'demining, demarcating, or quarantining', I could always interpret that to mean only one of those things. But on the other hand, I don't believe that is what the intention was, since that means a nation could simply demarcate and do nothing else.

"Abandoning the area is a valid option, Ambassador ##DATA_NOT_FOUND##, considering the requirement is to quarantine them, thus making them permanently inaccessible. The issue arises when the areas remain open to the public, as individuals become directly exposed to military weapons on a daily basis. Obviously, there are some areas that this is not an acceptable approach: city blocks, large tracts of active farmland, or major roadways. I am contemplating, then, making high-traffic areas mandatory to clear. However, the option for quarantines, especially for low-traffic areas, is available."

Parsons responds to the hologram which just popped up out of the ground, 'However, as my colleague already stated, if quarantining is an option given interpretations of the second-to-last clause, then 'demarcating' is also an option. Demarcating does ... nothing, so I don't believe you intended that in the proposal'.

[Separatist Peoples]

Parsons responds to the hologram which just popped up out of the ground, 'However, as my colleague already stated, if quarantining is an option given interpretations of the second-to-last clause, then 'demarcating' is also an option. Demarcating does ... nothing, so I don't believe you intended that in the proposal'.

"Demarcating minefields and areas with unexploded ordinance is a critical part of safe demining and quarantining, and is a very specific part of both processes. Demarcation is the first step to figuring out where to demine or quarantine, unless your demining crew have photographic memories and internal compasses. However, given the grammatical gymnastics this Assembly enjoys, the addition of a single article will clear this confusion up."

[Imperium Anglorum]

Parsons responds to the hologram which just popped up out of the ground, 'However, as my colleague already stated, if quarantining is an option given interpretations of the second-to-last clause, then 'demarcating' is also an option. Demarcating does ... nothing, so I don't believe you intended that in the proposal'.

"Demarcating minefields and areas with unexploded ordinance is a critical part of safe demining and quarantining, and is a very specific part of both processes. Demarcation is the first step to figuring out where to demine or quarantine, unless your demining crew have photographic memories and internal compasses. However, given the grammatical gymnastics this Assembly enjoys, the addition of a single article will clear this confusion up."

Parsons smiles, happy at the changes proposed earlier. But rereading the proposal, he then asks, 'Given that change, why would this clause, "must cooperate with ERWAS during humanitarian demining operations" be necessary? If nations are free to abandon zones which they view as unreclaimable, then why must they be forced to cooperate with an international organisation who decides to run headfirst into such an affair?'

[Separatist Peoples]

Parsons smiles, happy at the changes proposed earlier. But rereading the proposal, he then asks, 'Given that change, why would this clause, "must cooperate with ERWAS during humanitarian demining operations" be necessary? If nations are free to abandon zones which they view as unreclaimable, then why must they be forced to cooperate with an international organisation who decides to run headfirst into such an affair?'

The hologram fizzles, then flickers back on.

"Ambassador JANITOR SCRUFFY, safety protocols are still required when quarantining a dangerous area. The size of the field, compensating for migration of ordinance, judging based on the historical blast radius or sensitivity of the weapons, adjusting for nonstandard chemical, nuclear, or alternative ordinance, and accommodating for variables in ordinance construction, such as wood, glass, or plastic components instead of metal, are all considerations to make when engaging in any demining operation, even if the operation is quarantining. As a result, ERWAS should be involved, to ensure the same high standards are being utilized in this as in the sexy act of blowing them all the hell up."

[Imperium Anglorum]

Parsons smiles, happy at the changes proposed earlier. But rereading the proposal, he then asks, 'Given that change, why would this clause, "must cooperate with ERWAS during humanitarian demining operations" be necessary? If nations are free to abandon zones which they view as unreclaimable, then why must they be forced to cooperate with an international organisation who decides to run headfirst into such an affair?'

The hologram fizzles, then flickers back on.

"Ambassador JANITOR SCRUFFY, safety protocols are still required when quarantining a dangerous area. The size of the field, compensating for migration of ordinance, judging based on the historical blast radius or sensitivity of the weapons, adjusting for nonstandard chemical, nuclear, or alternative ordinance, and accommodating for variables in ordinance construction, such as wood, glass, or plastic components instead of metal, are all considerations to make when engaging in any demining operation, even if the operation is quarantining. As a result, ERWAS should be involved, to ensure the same high standards are being utilized in this as in the sexy act of blowing them all the hell up."

OOC: Those wouldn't be demining operations. Those would be quarantine operations. The clause I spoke of talks about demining operations. Also, is the title not plagiarising the title of Protocol V of the Convention on Conventional Weapons?

[Separatist Peoples]

OOC: Those wouldn't be demining operations. Those would be quarantine operations. The clause I spoke of talks about demining operations. Also, is the title not plagiarising the title of Protocol V of the Convention on Conventional Weapons?

OOC: Quarantining based on mine presence is a demining operation in and of itself. The term is a common-use term of art in both legal application and the field of humanitarian demining. Utilizing terms of art is not plagiarism. It is a professional standard.

[Imperium Anglorum]

OOC: Those wouldn't be demining operations. Those would be quarantine operations. The clause I spoke of talks about demining operations. Also, is the title not plagiarising the title of Protocol V of the Convention on Conventional Weapons?

OOC: Quarantining based on mine presence is a demining operation in and of itself. The term is a common-use term of art in both legal application and the field of humanitarian demining. Utilizing terms of art is not plagiarism. It is a professional standard.

OOC: I mean that your title, 'Explosive Remnants of War', is the same as Protocol V's title, 'Explosive Remnants of War'.

Secondarily, regarding what 'demining' is: You've defined demining as 'The humanitarian clearing and disposal of unexploded ordinance that poses a persistent danger to public health and safety'. That doesn't include quarantining, which you've told us is part of demining?

[Separatist Peoples]

OOC: I mean that your title, 'Explosive Remnants of War', is the same as Protocol V's title, 'Explosive Remnants of War'.

Secondarily, regarding what 'demining' is: You've defined demining as 'The humanitarian clearing and disposal of unexploded ordinance that poses a persistent danger to public health and safety'. That doesn't include quarantining, which you've told us is part of demining?

OOC: That another law has used a term of art as a title is rather irrelevant. Were it in my power, I'd change the title to "International Law Governing the Removal of Explosive Remnants of War and Unexploded Ordinance for the Good of Public Safety and Health". Alas, I have but 30 characters. Creativity, thou art stifled.


If it removes the proverbial bee from your bonnet, I can toss in the term QUARANTINE into the definition, though it really makes little difference in the reading of the resolution.

[Imperium Anglorum]

If it removes the proverbial bee from your bonnet, I can toss in the term QUARANTINE into the definition, though it really makes little difference in the reading of the resolution.

Parsons smiles and says, 'Given that change, we are prepared to offer our tentative support for your proposal'.

[We Couldnt Agree On A Name]

snip

It is quite unfair that this cost is born by the nation in which the explosives are, even when that nation may have had nothing to do with the conflict in question.

"Couldn't this be rolled up into your landmine draft? Or vice versa? I find it hardly necessary to clog up the voting process with two resolutions that could be made into one."

Agreed. It makes most sense to add the landmine proposal to this one I'd say.

[Separatist Peoples]

snip

It is quite unfair that this cost is born by the nation in which the explosives are, even when that nation may have had nothing to do with the conflict in question.

"Couldn't this be rolled up into your landmine draft? Or vice versa? I find it hardly necessary to clog up the voting process with two resolutions that could be made into one."

Agreed. It makes most sense to add the landmine proposal to this one I'd say.

"Ambassador JANITOR SCRUFFY, Landmine use in wartime is dramatically different in scope and in category than humanitarian demining of unexploded ordinance."

[We Couldnt Agree On A Name]

"Ambassador JANITOR SCRUFFY, Landmine use in wartime is dramatically different in scope and in category than humanitarian demining of unexploded ordinance."

Not necessarily. I see it as proactive mitigation though proper design of munitions.

[Separatist Peoples]

"Ambassador JANITOR SCRUFFY, Landmine use in wartime is dramatically different in scope and in category than humanitarian demining of unexploded ordinance."

Not necessarily. I see it as proactive mitigation though proper design of munitions.

"Ambassador JANITOR SCRUFFY, that is an adorable mentality, considering that military mine clearing is A) inherently incomplete, as it requires a cleared path rather than the entire minefield to be cleared, B), far more accepting of casualties than humanitarian clearing, as they are expected in combat operations, C), involves much less tolerant timelines than humanitarian operations, what with the shooting and fighting, and D) involves mines only, where this covers all manner of unexploded ordinance. The only similarity between the two operations tends to be the presence of explodey items. Moreover, this resolution deals entirely with the allocation of funds to international aid in the interest of improving global health, where the other deals entirely with the expansion of military funding through the addition of mechanical and legal restrictions."

A few sparks fly from the hologram device.

[Bears Armed]

OOC: Shells meant to spread poison gas (or other chemical weapons) have an explosive 'bursting charge', so that any of them which haven't worked would be covered here as "unexploded", yes?

[Separatist Peoples]

OOC: Shells meant to spread poison gas (or other chemical weapons) have an explosive 'bursting charge', so that any of them which haven't worked would be covered here as "unexploded", yes?

OOC: I don't see why they wouldn't be. And they would require special training to identify and dispose of safely, so the need for an element of standardization and oversight is doubly necessary.

[Bears Armed]

OOC: Shells meant to spread poison gas (or other chemical weapons) have an explosive 'bursting charge', so that any of them which haven't worked would be covered here as "unexploded", yes?

OOC: I don't see why they wouldn't be. And they would require special training to identify and dispose of safely, so the need for an element of standardization and oversight is doubly necessary.

OOC: Good. I was slightly worried that they might not be covered.

[Separatist Peoples]

OOC: Bumpity. This isn't going to be submitted until after my landmine project, so take your time.