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Bill: Punishment of Slavers Act
Details
Submitted by[?]: Bloc Militaire pour Restauration
Status[?]: passed
Votes: This bill is a resolution. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: January 2480
Description[?]:
| Considering that slavery is in customary international law a crime against humanity and considering that the prohibition of slavery is a peremptory norm in international law(ius cogens). Considering that national laws which are in violation with peremptory norms are null and void. Considering therefore that the law legalizing slavery in Jelbania was null and void and thus slavery has always been illegal. Also considering that it is appropiate to make a exception on the prohibition of ex post facto laws in case of crimes against humanity. Also considering that it is appropiate that Jelbania has universal jurisdiction over crimes concerning slavery. The Assemblee Nationale has resolved the following: Article 1 Anyone who buys or sells slaves or has bought or sold slaves will be punished with imprisonment for at least twenty years and a maximum of life long imprisonment. Article 2 Jelbania has jurisdiction over anyone on Jelbanian territory who has committed the acts described in article 1, no matter where on Terra they committed these acts. Article 3 Any immunities of former or current members of the Assemblee Nationale, the government and the president shall be lifted for the purposes of this act. Article 4 This act shall have retroactive force, in exception to the general prohibition of ex post facto laws. The defendant cannot use the Belated Development Act, nor any other law as a legal basis for his acts. The second sentence of this article shall also have retroactive force for civil lawsuits. Article 5 This act shall immediately be in force after it has been passed |
Proposals
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 15:13:01, October 31, 2007 CET | From |  Socialist Jelbanian Party-D.L.J.-D.L.F | To | Debating the Punishment of Slavers Act |
| Message | we strongly agree. In addition, we propose the institution of a permanet commitee for human rights in our nation, in order to prevent every slavery , child laboring and authoritarian legislation. |
| Date | 18:10:51, October 31, 2007 CET | From | Drtárék Jelbék Prta | To | Debating the Punishment of Slavers Act |
| Message | Impossible to enforce, millions must have been involved in such a trade, along with many former members of this assembly. You can't punish someone for taking part in a legal activity. |
| Date | 20:26:26, October 31, 2007 CET | From | Revolutionary Constit'nal United Front | To | Debating the Punishment of Slavers Act |
| Message | Retroactive legislation? This is a terrible idea. What the slavers did under the previous regime was legal--how were they to anticipate their future punishment? This is liberal totalitarianism. |
| Date | 21:11:33, October 31, 2007 CET | From | Centre Démocratique | To | Debating the Punishment of Slavers Act |
| Message | We support this, we must not let those who enslaved others get away with it. Those who engaged in slavery knew it was in defiance of international morality and a long tradition of anti-slavery laws in Jelbania. Those who engaged in this practice while it was legal knew it would be temporary because pro-slavery forces would not be in power forever and these individuals also weakened our national security and international prestige. Slave traders deserve to be behind bars for a good many years. |
| Date | 21:40:11, October 31, 2007 CET | From | Socialist Jelbanian Party-D.L.J.-D.L.F | To | Debating the Punishment of Slavers Act |
| Message | we strongly agree with Ucc, let's go forward with the vote! |
| Date | 00:30:31, November 01, 2007 CET | From | Drtárék Jelbék Prta | To | Debating the Punishment of Slavers Act |
| Message | "international morality" - er, what? This is meaningless. There are no universal international organisations, how can there be a universal international morality. Of course, there isn't. Lets not raise nonexistent international laws and pretend that they mean something. How did they know it was temporary? Given that the opposition gained power through the collapse of a pro-slavery party it was hardly a given that anti-slavers would win though. "weakened our national security" - again, the pro-slavery parties are the parties in favour of high defence spending and ensuring that we have free access to weapons technology. If anything the parties that are willing to give into international opinion and sign up to weapons treaties are the parties that have continuously undermined our national security. "Slave traders deserve to be behind bars for a good many years." - What are we to do, build massive gulags? How many hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Jelbanian citizens may have engaged in this practice? What about customers who worked with companies that employed slaves? What about the current 38 national representatives who belong to pro-slavery parties? How on earth is the prison system going to accomodate locking up a considerable proportion of our population? Think this through before proposing such nonsense. |
| Date | 09:44:00, November 01, 2007 CET | From | Bloc Militaire pour Restauration | To | Debating the Punishment of Slavers Act |
| Message | Not many, because slavery was instituted for a short time; there was not enough opportunity for the great majority of people to buy or sell slaves. About the 38 national representatives; if they had slaves they will be prosecuted. |
| Date | 10:30:50, November 01, 2007 CET | From | Drtárék Jelbék Prta | To | Debating the Punishment of Slavers Act |
| Message | The whole reasoning behind this Bill is unsound, and clearly, due to the last statement, it is aimed at putting members of the opposition in prison, therefore we must oppose. |
| Date | 14:53:52, November 01, 2007 CET | From | Drtárék Jelbék Prta | To | Debating the Punishment of Slavers Act |
| Message | Furthermore we must continue to raise the following points. Hundreds of thousands of Jelbanians will have owned slaves in the six year period in which it was legally practised. Furthermore millions more, perhaps even most of the population, will have indirectly benefited from slavery, from customers who shopped at shops that employed slaves, to teachers who worked at schools that employ slaves. All branches of state would have employed slaves, including the national assembly, which means that indirectly all those who served terms in the last two national assemblies will have benefited from slavery, whether they wanted to or not. Thus for the hundreds of thousands who have been directly tainted by this, their trials will go on for years, and the prison system will need to be massively expanded to accommodate these new political prisoners. Secondly a system will have to be put in place to determine whether or not those who indirectly benefited from slavery will be punished, or whether their acceptance of such a practice was only because they were law-abiding citizens. Secondly we are going to have to place ourselves in a situation whereby a substantial proportional of our elected representatives are going to operate from behind prison bars, which will include our previous Head of State, and the entire membership of the last government. Do the RCF not accept how ridiculous such a situation is? |
| Date | 19:05:59, November 01, 2007 CET | From | Bloc Militaire pour Restauration | To | Debating the Punishment of Slavers Act |
| Message | In six years time only a few thousand Jelbanians shall have owned or sold slaves. The Act only speaks of buying or selling slaves; not of indirectly benefitting from slavery. Only the owners of slaves and the slave traders will be punished. If these members of the Assemblee owned or sold slaves they deserve to be punished. They can give up their seats to other people of their respective parties; the act is not aimed at silencing the opposition. As to the retroactive force; Legality is not only determined by national law, but also by international law and fundamental principles of law. Laws who are in violation with these principles are null and void; Slavery is such a grave crime against the human dignity that every human being knows it's wrong; the human conscience speaks loudly against it. So slavers knew that what they were doing was wrong and should be punished; even though slavery was in national law legal. |
| Date | 07:12:44, November 02, 2007 CET | From | Revolutionary Constit'nal United Front | To | Debating the Punishment of Slavers Act |
| Message | The voters who supported pro-slavery parties will not take this meekly. They shall not bow under your foreign ingterests or your retroactive totalitarianism. Be forewarned, you risk to tear this nation asunder with the horror of civil war. We hope that you will be able to sleep with that on your conscience. |
| Date | 10:49:00, November 02, 2007 CET | From | Drtárék Jelbék Prta | To | Debating the Punishment of Slavers Act |
| Message | As mentioned elsewhere, there is no international law, and it cannot be applied. The fundamental principles of law seem a fancy concept that can be used to overturn anything one dislikes if the law is removed from primarily protecting property. |
| Date | 12:37:59, November 02, 2007 CET | From | Socialist Jelbanian Party-D.L.J.-D.L.F | To | Debating the Punishment of Slavers Act |
| Message | I remember a similar situation...Cuf threaten civil war? |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | |||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 62 | |||||
| no | Total Seats: 38 | |||||
| abstain |
Total Seats: 0 |
| Random fact: If there are no parties in your nation with seats, feel free to visit the forum and request an early election on the Early Election Requests thread: http://forum.particracy.net/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4362 |
| Random quote: "War crimes is such a lilliputian term for the atrocities committed by the Yeudish state." - Katrine Lorenzen, former Kazulian diplomat |