The United Regions

The United Regions was formed by the leading powers that made up the Deep South Region. These nations who wished to establish a long lasting treaty bloc with several nations that would work together to achieve peace. Though still young in exestince several resolutions have already be passed to insure government organization and human rights. Recently the UR has signed a non-aggression pact with the Commonwealth of Independent Regions.

MEMBER REGIONS

• Deep South
• The Praetorian Empire
• The Southern Confedercy
• The Wine Countries
• North Carolina

Offices

• Secretary General
• Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
• Economic and Social Committee
• Interegional Realations

Charter

Table of Contents

I Preamble II Membership III Decision-Making IV Secretariat Operations V Arbitration VI Military Code of Conduct VII Ammendments

I Preamble

The governing documents of the United Regions (UR) shall be contained in the United Regions Charter, the Specifications, and the Regulations. The Charter shall act as a general statement of our mission and goals to which we have ascribed; the Specifications shall act as records of interregional treaties and other agreements sanctioned by this body, also as a record of amendments made to the Regulations; the Regulations shall act as the documents which determine the day-to-day affairs of Ambassadors, Representatives, and Independent members, also the way in which the UR functions as a whole.

II Membership

Membership in the UR is determined by two factors: (a) the person who desires membership must have an active nation present in United Regions, the NationStates headquarters of this body; (B) the person desiring membership must register his/herself as a member of this forum and make an initial introduction post.

II a) Ambassadors are members who represent independent regions. Ambassadors are allowed to perform all legal activities on this forum, including (but not limited to) casting votes, posting in public forums, participating in General Assembly (GA) meetings, and applying for membership on the United Regions Security Council (URSC). The last ambassadorial benefit is void if the ambassador represents an observer region (II d).

II B) Representatives are members who represent certain branches of the UR (IV) and therefore must abandon all official positions outside of their UR offices. Representatives of the UR are not elected, but appointed by the Secretary-General and confirmed by the GA (III). A Representative is granted a lifetime term in office unless the GA votes him/her out of office.

II c) Independent members are members who do not represent any part of the UR or any independent region; they are counted as regular members and may not hold seats on the URSC.

II d) "Observer region" refers to a region that has established diplomatic connections with the UR (i.e., through an Ambassador) and is therefore counted as a member region, but without the ability to be represented on the URSC. Observer status may be removed by the mutual willingness of the GA and the region in question.

II e) All Ambassadors and Representatives will be required to maintain an active role in general concerns; after two weeks of elapsed time since the individual's last login date, his/her account will be deleted. No Ambassador, Representative, or Independent shall be required to be part of the United Nations of NationStates.

III Decision-Making

A formal decision concerning the political direction of the UR is determined by a poll of the GA, placed in the UR Developments board, so that all may view it freely. Any registered member is authorized to make a poll. A simple majority shall determine, after ten days' time, the outcome of a GA poll. If the poll contains more than two options, a seventy-percent majority vote, without the constraint of a time limit, shall be required to settle the issue. If the GA is not able to achieve a seventy-percent majority vote, the poll shall then be determined by simple majority.

III a) It is the responsibility of the Secretary-General to inform all members of the UR of current polls via Personal Messages and e-mails, so that a timely response may be delivered. If this notification has not been made thirty-six hours after the poll has been posted, the time elapsed shall not count toward the poll's exposure limit.

III B) Representatives shall be appointed according to the judgement of the Secretary-General, but must be confirmed by the GA. A confirmation poll with a maximum of two options must be provided by the Secretary-General immediately after the appointment has been made. If, for any reason, the GA does not confirm the appointment, the Representative shall be removed immediately. Refusal to do so on the part of the Secretary-General shall be cause for his/her removal. A Representative must be voted out of office by the GA: the Secretary-General may not dismiss anyone without full permission.

III c) The admission of regions into the UR does not necessitate a GA poll if it meets the following requirements:

1) the region does not have a public record of aggressiveness toward other regions and has acted militarily only in self-defense and according to its own laws;

2) the region does not proclaim itself to be a "Nazi" region.

If the region does not meet these requirements, the membership question must be decided by a GA poll.

III d) Elections for the Secretary-General shall be determined every four months, each term beginning on the first day of the first month and ending on the first day of the fifth month. Candidacy is unlimited and is determined by membership, regardless of what type. Exactly seven days before the end of the Secretary-General's term, the candidates shall have assembled and selected (through mutual consent) a vote-counter, who will receive votes via Personal Messages bound to this forum only. After this, if all votes indicate an outcome, the new Secretary-General will be proclaimed by the vote-counter.

1) The first duty of the newly-elected Secretary-General will be to review the Safety and Intelligence Commission of the United Regions (SICUR; see IV).

2) Each Secretary-General is responsible for the status of Global Moderator and is to retain such status throughout his/her term in office. The root administrator of this forum (West Alsace-Lorraine) is to retain such powers permanently and the control of forum skins may not be transferred without special permission from the root administrator.

IV Secretariat Operations

Each division or branch of the UR shall hereafter be described as a "secretariat." Each secretariat is listed as an individual component of the UR and is usually staffed by a Secretary and an Undersecretary (chosen by the Secretary or the Secretary-General and not confirmed by the GA).

IV a) The office of the Secretary-General represents the central authority of the UR and has authority over the operations of all secretariats and has the authority to determine the actions thereof.

IV B) The Secretary of the United Regions Political Department (URPD) is responsible for the upkeep of interregional traffic and monitors invitations, requests, ambassadorial issues, and all other issues pertaining to the basic affairs of ambassadors; the URPD is also responsible for the political representation and image of the UR around the world.

IV c) The United Regions Security Council (URSC) is made up of a maximum of ten members. URSC members may be removed from their positions only through a GA poll. It contains Representatives from five permanent URSC members: Pax Britannica, UNFR, Greco Anglican Majority of Utz, and two members undetermined at this time. Each permanent member is confirmed by a two-option GA poll until the maximum limit has been reached; members who are not permanent must be elected in the same manner as the Secretary-General (III d), with the following exceptions:

1) their terms may be only two months in length, beginning with the election of a Secretary-General and again in the middle of his/her term;

2) GA votes are to be sent via Personal Message to the Secretary-General.

IV d) The Safety and Intelligence Commission of the United Regions (SICUR) shall act as a sub-division of the URSC, one that is controlled entirely by the permanent members of the Security Council, but whose information must be released to the other URSC members. No SICUR information may be disclosed except on authorization of the URSC as a whole or if that information is found to violate a member region.

1) Espionage missions conducted on member regions are strictly prohibited and punishable by the permanent banishment of the offending nation and/or the offending region, depending on the individual circumstance and the GA's final decision.

2) For a full definition of espionage and a list of allowed and prohibited actions, consult the Military Code of Conduct.

V Arbitration

The arbitration of disagreements between two or more regions is to be determined by the GA and occurs solely on recommendation of the URPD, which should be the first secretariat to receive the arbitration request or to offer arbitration. Once a recommendation is made and decided upon, the involved regions may send Ambassadors to set up temporary accounts on this forum for purposes of negotiation in a specified area. Immediately after the negotiation has ended, the participants will be given twenty-four hours notice that their accounts will be deleted, in order to avoid security threats.

V a) If the negotiation ends in a peace agreement or nonviolence pact, that result must be made clear in the Specifications, where all such documents must be recorded.

V B) There shall be no limit on time taken to finish a session of arbitration, usually monitored by the Secretary-General or the URPD.

VI Military Code of Conduct

The Military Code of Conduct (MCC) relies on principles governing the treatment of prisoners and ethical practices. Espionage is the principal concern, but maintaining a difference between peacekeeping and invading is also crucial.

VI a) A peacekeeping force is a military force made up of soldiers acting in the name of the UR and under a UR commander (appointed by the URSC). A peacekeeping force is usually tasked either with being an impartial, nonendorsing group to maintain order in case of an invasion or attempted coup or with instating a native member of a region after an invasion. UR peacekeepers may also act to prevent invasions.

VI B) If the URSC resolves to take military action in a given region, the consent of the GA is not needed and a UR flag may be used in the operation. If the URSC elects to use the military of a region not represented on the URSC, a GA poll is required to determine the UR's course of action.

VI c) There shall be no chain of command in a peacekeeping mission beyond the URSC, a field commander, and UR peacekeeping troops.

VI d) Any practice that proves in any way harmful to a region's off-site forum or any action that causes or encourages such a change is to be strictly avoided. No griefing is allowed. Posting messages on a Regional Message Board (RMB), is also disallowed (except when given special permission), as any comment might be perceived as inflammatory.

VI e) A standard United Regions flag should be used during diplomatic missions, but the following flags are to be used by peacekeepers:

Flag of a UR Peacekeeper:

Flag of a UR Field Commander:

Slight variations (while still being clearly understood as a standard UR flag) are allowed only in the case of a field commander, but not in the case of a regular peacekeeper, unless the image must be resized.

VI f) A neutral national motto such as "UR Peacekeeper" or (to display the name of the specific region) "Pax Britannica/UR Peacekeeper" or "Pax Britannica/UR Field Commander," for example, must be used at all times, and never the motto of a particular region.

VI g) The UR may at no time have a permanent, standing army, as its military force is composed solely of individual contingents that are formed out of specific necessity.

VII Amendments

Amendments to these Regulations are decided through a GA poll, which must attain a seventy-percent majority vote. Amendments are to be added to the Specifications immediately after approval by the Secretary-General (the only office authorized to modify the founding documents within the bounds of law).

Resolutions

UR Resolution #1

Creation of a NS Wiki article.

After viewing the amount of info we can brodcast on http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/.

I ask that some one with good writing skills register on the site and make an article for our organization and member regions.

Article 1: The Charter be posted in the Article

Article 2: Region names, history, and ideals be posted.

Article 3: UR resolutions be posted.

UR Resolution #2

Forum reconstruction

Our Forum is not very well organized for a debate and so forth so I propose:

Article 1: Add a General Assembly and Security Council

Article 2: Add several commities to the forums.

Article 3: Elect Moderators from each Region to represent their Regions.

Article 4: Base this forum on the DeepSouth forum in its visual appearence.

UR Resolution #3

Office of the Secretary General

In accordence with Article IV section A. The office of Secretary General should be opened to votes between members of the UR.

Reminding that the Secretary General is vital to the UR.

Asking that an election commitee be established.

Article 1: The office of the Secretary-General represents the central authority of the UR and has authority over the operations of all secretariats and has the authority to determine the actions thereof.

Article 2: Each Secretary-General is responsible for the status of Global Moderator and is to retain such status throughout his/her term in office. The root administrator of this forum (West Alsace-Lorraine) is to retain such powers permanently and the control of forum skins may not be transferred without special permission from the root administrator.

Article 3: The first duty of the newly-elected Secretary-General will be to review the Safety and Intelligence Commission of the United Regions.

UR Resolution #4

Nuclear Proliferation

The General Assembly,

Bearing in mind its relevant resolutions,

Taking note of the relevant resolutions adopted by the Security Council of Deep South, which prohibits construction or maintenance of nuclear weapons

Cognizant that the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the regions of the Nation States would pose a serious threat to international peace and security,

Mindful of the immediate need for placing all nuclear facilities in the regions of Nation States under full-scope safeguards of an individual committee the International Atomic Council,

Noting that many regions have not yet disposed of their nuclear weapons,

Concerned about the threats posed by the proliferation of nuclear weapons to the security and stability of Nation States,

Stressing the importance of taking confidence-building measures, in particular the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Nation States, in order to enhance peace and security in the region and to consolidate the global non-proliferation regime,

Emphasizing the need for all parties directly concerned to consider seriously taking the practical and urgent steps required for the implementation of the proposal to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the regions of Nation States,

1. Welcomes the conclusions of the Deep South Security Council Resolution "Nuclear Ban" (see http://journalofdeepsouth.wetpaint.com/page/General+Assembly+and+Security+Council+Resolutions)

2. Reaffirms the importance of Nuclear Nonproliferations;

4. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Security Council from time to time on the implementation of the present resolution;

UR Resolution #5 (at vote)

Recrutment

Asking that a recrument committe be established.

Calling for good active regions to join us in our pursuit of peace and unity.

Article 1 Recruting office be set up.

Artical 2 All recrutments must be voted on by Sec.Council.