Core Rights
"That's horrible," MG said, with the kind of absolute revulsion Governance AIs reserved only for a Core Right violations.
A list of Rights Governance guarantees to its citizenry, likely similar to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, but legally binding in the following important ways:
1. It is the only known legal limit on the power and sovereignty of the Directorate, aside from the declaration of a Level 3 Emergency.[1]
2. A guarantee of the Core Rights is required of all colonies, and breach of these rights, even if unintentional, is considered sufficient grounds for a Governance takeover.[2]
No explicit listing of the Rights has yet been provided, but it is implied that it does not include freedom of speech or of the press, but does include protections on the cognitive independence and integrity of individuals, as Mami indicates in a statement to the press that the implantation of false memories is a violation of the Core Rights.[3] It is likely based on the description of a Level 3 Emergency that the Rights also bar capital punishment and summary imprisonment.
It is also implied by text in Chapter 43[4] (see the top of the page) that violations of the Core Rights are repugnant to Governance AIs.
Compared to current conceptions of Human Rights, it is likely that the Core Rights lack certain Rights that Governance considers destabilizing, but gains more specific restrictions on the use of future technologies.
