The Covenant of the Organization of Unrecognized States, as ratified under the Ratification of the Covenant of the Organization of Unrecognized States Act, 2025.
Declaration of values and principles
The failure of organisations of and within the community of unrecognized states is their tendency to devolve into a political arena. The design of these organisations hinge on individual persons, their whims, factionalism and biases, to the point at which the organisation finds itself perpetually busied with maintaining its own internal governance. There is no mind paid to the constituent parts of the organisation, the members; who are not persons, but states.
WE THE HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES, namely the Kingdom of Northwood-Oregon, the Kingdom of Humberlea, the Empire of Saspearian, the State of Rovia, the Empire of Aenopia, the State of Hokoria1, the Kingdom of Asteria, and all other such states fatedly party hereto
HAVE THEREFORE RESOLVED TO create an ORGANIZATION OF UNRECOGNIZED STATES
In order to:
- Represent the community of unrecognized states in the international community and unto the general public.
- Foster and sustain ideological and methodological coherence in the lawful practice of statehood that is otherwise unsanctioned by the international community.
- Inspire interconnectedness in the community of unrecognized states.
- Apply and uphold the peremptory and customary norms of international law.
- Advocate for the democratization of sovereignty, and that the same be enacted only with respect to public international law, human rights and democracy.
- And to do all of the above with minimal attention to matters of internal governance.
CHAPTER I. Fundamental provisions
§1. Name
The Organization bears as its name the same as its dignity, an Organization of Unrecognized States, for which the acronym is ORUS.
§2. Purpose
The Organization exists to elevate and prescribe the ideological unanimity and interests of governments that are not represented in the United Nations General Assembly nor to which active diplomatic recognition is extended by a party to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 confer its Article 48.
§3. Progressive realization
The Organization and its members are committed to the progressive realization of democracy and human rights.
§4. Conditions
The present Covenant and the Organization will govern itself in accordance with and respect to the peremptory and customary norms of international law.
CHAPTER II. Assembly
§5. Composition of the Assembly
The Assembly will be made up of all Members of the Organization of Unrecognized States who will each hold one vote.
§6. Sessions of the Assembly
The Assembly will conduct its business in two distinct types of session, formative sessions and summative sessions.
§7. Formative sessions of the Assembly
Formative sessions will serve to propose new resolutions, facilitate the deliberation and debate of proposed resolutions, the formulation of new resolutions, and amendments to already proposed resolutions. They will not be used to adopt resolutions.
§8. Occurrences of formative sessions
Formative sessions will occur at a frequency that does not fall short of one formative session per calendar month.
§9. Summative sessions of the Assembly
Summative sessions will be used to adopt, with a majority vote unless otherwise stipulated, resolutions and amendments to those resolutions that were discussed in the formative sessions. They may be used for limited deliberation and debate. They will not be used to propose new resolutions.
§10. Occurrences of summative sessions
Summative sessions will occur at a frequency not exceeding one every three calendar months.
§11. Procedure of sessions of the Assembly
The Assembly will conduct its sessions using parliamentary procedure prescribed by the Curia.
CHAPTER III. Executive Secretary
§12. Nature of the Executive Secretary
The Executive Secretary is the chief executive of the Organization. They serve for a twelve month renewable term.
§13. Exclusivity of the Executive Secretary
The Executive Secretary may not serve in any other internal office nor plenipotentiary capacity concurrently to their term.
§14. Criteria for eligibility for the Executive Secretary
Any candidate for the position of Executive Secretary must:
- Be of 18 years of age or above by the time of taking office.
- Have the written nomination of at least three Member’s governments.
- Accept their nomination and subsequent consideration by the Curia.
- Be of sound mind, good intention, and be ideologically adherent to the conditions of the Organization’s founding.
- Be nominated on the grounds of qualification and competence.
If a nominee does not meet the criteria for eligibility, their nomination will not be considered by the Curia.
§15. Ineligibility ex post facto
If an Executive Secretary is found to have been selected who does not qualify, and the Curia can produce evidence of this beyond reasonable doubt, said person must cease to hold office as soon as possible. Any unilateral organic decisions of said person in this capacity must be ratified by the Assembly at the earliest occasion, or must be undone.
§16. Selection of the Executive Secretary
The Curia recommends, of eligible nominees, one person for the office of Executive Secretary cf. §14
The Assembly must select the Executive Secretary with a majority of at least sixty-five percent or the selection will otherwise fail.
§17. Failure of a selection
If a selection fails, the Curia must recommend another individual to the Assembly. It may not recommend the same individual twice. If the Assembly should wish to select an individual that it had previously failed to select, it may do so through a resolution adopted with the same majority stipulations as a traditional selection. Resolutions to select an individual that the Assembly had previously failed to select do not need to be received by the Curia nor initially introduced at a formative session of the Assembly and may instead be introduced directly at the summative session during which the selection of the Executive Secretary is taking place.
§18. Failure of the Assembly to select an Executive Secretary
If the Assembly fails to select an Executive Secretary by the expiration of the outgoing Executive Secretary’s term, the Curia will select an individual to act as the interim Executive Secretary. Selection for the Executive Secretary will continue until an individual is selected by the Assembly, at which point they will take office within twenty-four hours of selection.
§19. Staff
The Executive Secretary will appoint and dismiss a staff with the consideration of competency and integrity, and in accordance with any regulation created by the Assembly.
§20. Duties of the Executive Secretary and their staff
The Executive Secretary and their staff will execute the duties assigned to it by the present Covenant and by the Assembly.
§21. Function of the Executive Secretary as a depositary
The Executive Secretary executes the functions of depositary for all treaties and international agreements entered into by parties of the present covenant.
CHAPTER IV. Curia
§22. Members of the Curia
The Curia will consist of three individuals who will serve for nine month terms and they may not serve in any other internal office nor plenipotentiary capacity concurrently to their term.
§23. Criteria for eligibility for the members of the Curia
Any candidate for membership within the Curia must:
- Be of 18 years of age or above by the time of taking office.
- Have the written nomination of at least two Member’s governments.
- Accept their nomination.
- Be of sound mind, good intention, and be ideologically adherent to the conditions of the Organization’s founding.
- Be nominated on the grounds of qualification and competence.
§24. Elections of the members of the Curia
The members of the Curia will be elected through the process of instant-runoff voting with each Member having one vote.
§25. Nature of decision making of the Curia
The Curia will make its decisions and recommendations through a majority vote unless otherwise stated in the present Covenant.
§26. Compliance ensuring responsibility of the Curia
The Curia will receive any resolutions and amendments after they are introduced at a formative session of the Assembly in order to assure their compliance with the laws of the Organization and international law.
§27. Resolution of non compliant resolutions or amendments
If a resolution or amendment is not in compliance, the Curia may make any necessary edits to bring it into compliance or, in particularly egregious situations or where edits may substantially change the meaning of the resolution, return it to the sponsoring States for edits to be made.
§28. Necessity of reception and approval of the Curia
If a resolution or amendment is not accepted by the Curia then it may not be voted on or adopted by the Assembly.
CHAPTER V. Parliamentary Secretariat
§29. Nature of the Parliamentary Secretariat
The Parliamentary Secretariat is chiefly responsible for coordinating the Assembly and acting as archivist for the Organisation. The Parliamentary Secretariat may not serve in any other internal office nor plenipotentiary capacity concurrent with their incumbency.
§30. Responsibility of the Parliamentary Secretariat
The Parliamentary Secretariat must plan and arrange the formative sessions of the Assembly and will act as archivist of all laws, resolutions, treaties and conventions facilitated anywise by the Organisation.
§31. Selection of the Parliamentary Secretariat
The Parliamentary Secretariat will be selected and recalled by the Curia.
CHAPTER VI. Membership
§32. Members of the Organization
The Members of the Organization of Unrecognized States will be all states who, through proper process, ratify or accede to the present Covenant in accordance with the articles under Chapter VIII.
§33. Criteria for eligibility for Members
In order to be eligible for membership within the Organization, a state must:
- Be, by its nature, compatible with the conditions of the Organization’s founding.
- Have a defined system of government, the structure and actions of which are congruent with the goals of the Organization’s founding.
- Have sufficient agency over its foreign affairs and the capacity to enter into diplomatic relations.
§34. Invitation of a potential Member
In order to bring forward a resolution to invite a state to accede to the present Covenant, two state Members must bring petition to the Executive Secretary to do so who will then perform their duties to inspect and confirm the eligibility of the proposed Member before producing a resolution for the Assembly to invite said state which will then undergo the process that all resolutions may undergo. Such a resolution to invite a state to accede to the present Covenant must be adopted by the Assembly with a majority of at least sixty-five percent or it will otherwise fail.
§35. Granting of privileges to non-Members
The Assembly may, through resolution of itself, give non-Members of the Organization of Unrecognized States privileges within the Organization that do not rise to the level of membership.
§36. Suspension of a Member
The Assembly may, following the recommendation of the Curia, suspend a Member of the Organization from exercising their rights and privileges given to them by virtue of being a Member through a resolution which must be adopted by the Assembly with a majority of sixty-five percent or it will otherwise fail. The restoration of rights and privileges may be done by the amendment or repeal of the resolution.
§37. Expulsion of a Member
The Assembly may, following the unanimous recommendation of the Curia and a material breach of the present Covenant committed by the Member in question, expel a Member from the Organization through a resolution which must be adopted by the Assembly with a majority of at least seventy percent or it will otherwise fail.
CHAPTER VII. Final Provisions
§38. Inviolable independence of the actions of officials
No official within the Organization, including but not limited to the Executive Secretary, the members of the Curia, the Parliamentary Secretariat, and the Executive Secretary’s staff, will take guidance from the government of any Member or other external actor in the execution of their duties, which will be a respected consideration by the Members’ of the Organization.
§39. Adoption of optional protocols to the Covenant
The Assembly may adopt official optional protocols to the present Covenant that will be distributed alongside the Covenant but must take the form of an independent treaty that includes a clause requiring all parties to the optional protocol to be party to the present Covenant at least at the time of the party’s ratification of or accession to the optional protocol.
§40. Initial members of the Curia
In order to guarantee the staggered nature of the terms of the members of the Curia, the initial members of the Curia will be Sertor Valentinus who will serve for three (3) months, Tyler Wilson who will serve for six (6), and Chris Ramsay who will serve for nine (9) months.
§41. Initial acting Executive Secretary
There will be an interim Executive Secretary until a selection of the Executive Secretary can take place, who will be Carson Snyder.
CHAPTER VIII. Amendments
§42. Amendments to the Covenant
The present Covenant may be amended by a resolution of the Assembly which must be adopted with a majority of at least seventy-five percent or it will otherwise fail.
§43. Delayed adoption of amendments
Any amendments to the present Covenant will be delayed by no less than fourteen (14) days before coming into legal force in order to provide time for the facilitation of any necessary changes.
§44. Integration of amendments by the Curia
Any amendments to the present Covenant will be integrated into it by the Curia before being formally adopted by the same and released as a new edition of the Covenant. Multiple amendments may be integrated into a new edition at once. Amendments will still hold legal weight if they come into force before the release of a new edition of the Covenant which contains them.
CHAPTER IX. Ratification and Depositing
§45. Ratification of the Covenant
The present Covenant will be open to ratification by all participant states of the Convention on the establishment of the Organization of Unrecognized States until 21 September 2025.
§46. Accession to the Covenant
The present Covenant will be open to accession to any state who, by resolution of the Assembly as outlined in Paragraph 34, have been invited to do so.
§47. Function of Northwood-Oregon as depositary in the context of the Covenant
The instruments of ratification and accession to the present Covenant will be deposited with the Government of the Kingdom of Northwood-Oregon which will then notify the Executive Secretary of the Organization as well as all other state parties of the Covenant of such.
§48. Function of Northwood-Oregon as depositary in the context of any optional protocols
The instruments of ratification and accession to any optional protocols of the present Covenant will be deposited with the Government of the Kingdom of Northwood-Oregon which will then notify the Executive Secretary of the Organization as well as all other state parties of the optional protocol of such.
§49. Function of Northwood-Oregon as archivist
The present Covenant along with all instruments of ratification and accession of such or of any optional protocols will be deposited in the archives of the Government of the Kingdom of Northwood-Oregon which will also be responsible for executing the functions of a depositary.
§50. Entry into force of the present Covenant
The present Covenant will come into force on the next Sunday after the depositing of the tenth instrument of ratification or accession.
Notes from the Koru’s Office
- The names of participant states, including the Hokorian State, in the Declaration of values and principles are to be corrected after relevant deposits of the Covenant. ↩︎