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Dispatch → Bulletin → News
Griffindor's 14th Fortnightly Update
This dispatch was originally sent as a Regional Telegram on March 9th, 2024:Greetings, my fellow South Pacificans!
It has been 12 days since my last Fortnightly Briefing! Once again, we are back on schedule for our Fortnightly Telegrams! The region was not as active as it was during the last update, but stuff still happened nevertheless! Now, without further ado, it is time for another fortnightly briefing!
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First: In what consumed much of the region's interest these last couple of weeks, the High Court continues to deliberate its opinion on [2403.HR] Review of the Rejection of Siberian Districts’ Citizenship Application.
You can read the background of the case in my last Fortnightly Telegram, but here is what has developed since then...
1) Several Amicus briefs were submitted, generally arguing against a potential overturn of the denial of citizenship.
2) The Presiding Justice, Belschaft, after reviewing the evidence they requested of the Citizenship Committee and Council on Regional Security, asked several questions relating to Siberian Districts being labeled a security risk and how both their Brotherhood of Malice membership and actions during the 2016 Cabinet Coup played a role in the decision making.
3) HumanSanity motioned for Justice Belschaft's recusal after their commentary in the Assembly on a topic related to the pending High Court case. The remaining justices on the Court determined that the commentary provided did not warrant the recusal of the presiding justice but cautioned them to appear neutral in public spaces while the case continues to be processed.
You can follow the case developments for yourself here: https://thesouthpacific.org/t/2403-hr-review-of-the-rejection-of-siberian-districts-citizenship-application/5097
Second: The Assembly was active in debate too!
1) The Assembly debate and vote on who actually leads the military and the prohibition of membership in multiple militaries has once again failed. This appears to be the end of interest in the topic!
2) The Assembly resumed and then proceeded to stop the debate on changing the election method of Delegate from Approval voting to Instant Runoff Voting.
3) The Assembly began debate on several topics related to Siberian Districts citizenship denial:
- One debate suggests allowing citizenship denials to be appealed to the Assembly for a vote. The fear cited in this proposal is that the Assembly could circumvent a security risk designation and render it meaningless. The debate has since shifted to modifying the appeal for denied legislator applications.
Another debate began seeking to have the Assembly declare that the Amnesty granted following the 2016 Cabinet Coup is legally void and does not exist due to its repeal following the 2016 Great Council. This debate triggered the aforementioned recusal request against Justice Belschaft, who described the argument as having no legal basis and undermining the Court's ability to reach a decision in the currently active case.
- The final debate seeks to expand the scope for which a proscription may be issued. Under current law, only attacks against the South Pacific or our allies could count to proscription. Under the proposal, all attacks against innocent regions could be considered for declaring a proscription of a group or individual.
4) The Assembly began to debate who should be allowed to debate within the Assembly. The prevailing opinion of the Assembly is that any member of the Coalition should be able to post within the Assembly if they so choose, which would be in line with longstanding tradition.
Third: Endorsement Days did not happen (my bad!), but you can still endorse me, Ebonhand and the other members of the Coral Guard!
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The South Pacific Coral Guard (SPCG) is a group of trusted nations who maintain a high-endorsement count and are one of the most crucial lines of defense against external and internal security threats alongside the Council on Regional Security (CRS).
For the safety and security of our region, we ask that all World Assembly (WA) member nations in the South Pacific endorse the members of the SPCG, as well as the Delegate. There is no requirement to do so but endorsing the SPCG and the Delegate will make those who do a SWAN Knight.
Member nations of the SPCG (Number of members: 5) | ||||
Duties and privileges of the SPCG
Member nations of the SPCG are permitted a higher Endorsement Cap than that provided for the general World Assembly membership. The current endorsement cap for SPCG members is set to be 60 less than the endorsement count of the delegate. (Currently Ebonhand at 555 endorsements)
A member of the CRS will be appointed to act as a liaison for SPCG members and, in times of emergency, SPCG members might be called upon to support or otherwise work with CRS members.
Joining the SPCG
Requirements
In order to become a member of the SPCG, one has to:
Have maintained citizenship for at least six consecutive months prior to the date of their application to the Coral Guard; and
Meet the requirements for influence and endorsements set and published by the Council on Regional Security
Process
Step 1: Ensure that you meet all the requirements listed above.
Step 2: Write up an application which provides:
The name of your WA nation;
Your history in NationStates including any aliases you are using or have previously used; and,
One (or several) paragraphs arguing why the Council should appoint you to this position of high trust.
Step 3: Send your application to a member of the CRS. You can do this by a variety of methods (a telegram, a private message on the forum, or a direct message on Discord).
The CRS will review your application. This can take a number of days to three weeks. The Council will likely have additional questions which they will communicate to you via the method of your application. Following a formal vote within the Council, it will decide whether to appoint you to the Coral Guard and notify the Assembly of its decision.
Please be advised that meeting the requirements does not automatically guarantee that the application will be successful. These mechanical conditions are one of several factors which the Council considers in its determination.
A few notes:
Everything is updated every 24 hours so you need to wait for any change in the data to happen.
If you see any inaccuracies, errors, or have ideas for improvements, please contact us.
There are some minor inaccuracies in the data, read this for more information.
If you want to know more about the SWAN initiative, check out our dispatch index.
Oops! I accidentally left some cake on my nation page; please feel free to have it: 🍰
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That is all for this fortnightly update! It was a bit shorter than usual; for making it to the end of this Telegram, you all get the traditional end-of-update slice of cake, plus an extra slice to make up for the lack of content! 🍰🍰
I look forward to updating you all again in a Fortnight, and talking with you all in the interim! Remember, my Telegram box is open to those who want to talk!
Always and eternally yours,
Ebonhand/Griffindor
His Most Benevolent Cakeness, the Mother and Delegate of the South Pacific