The Giza Conventions are ICSS agreements adopted in Cycle 9876 to protect uncontacted and technologically primitive Tier 0 and Tier 1 populations from exploitation, forced subordination, and prohibited interference by interstellar powers.
The conventions arose from Net'hret experiments with Void-based faster-than-light communication on Earth. The pyramids at Giza were integrated stone-and-technology devices. The experiments demonstrated working communication, but the stability of the technology was uncertain and exposed Earth's inhabitants to the hazards of deliberate interaction with the Void.
The ICSS intervened and compelled the participating Net'hret to withdraw. The devices' technological components were removed shortly after the experiments. The stone structures and a small number of artifacts rendered useless by age remain. The sponsors found no suitable replacement test site and did not resume the program.
The conventions prohibit exploitation and forced subordination of protected populations and restrict contact that alters their societies' development. Protection applies to populations of both indigenous and offworld ancestry. A civilization remains within the protected Tier 0 or Tier 1 categories until it possesses a practical means of interstellar faster-than-light travel.
Covert research is permitted while the inhabitants remain unaware of the observers. The restrictions also govern external actors operating within territory they otherwise control. Earth, a Tier 1 civilization within Nebkhet territory, remains under strict ICSS protection.
Protectorate and client-state arrangements involving Tier 2 or higher civilizations are governed by general interstellar law. The Giza protections continue to apply to Tier 0 and Tier 1 populations placed under a purported protectorate.
The ICSS enforces the conventions against offworld actors. The Wardens, founded on stardate 9890.188 following the conventions, include protection of non-spacefaring peoples within their mandate. Their work encompasses investigation of unauthorized extraction, abduction, coercive settlement, and other exploitation, together with interception and removal of illicit offworld activity.
Enforcement operations remain subject to the conventions' contact restrictions. Monitoring, investigation, and intervention must account for their effects on protected societies.