Statute of Secrecy

The **International Statute of Secrecy**, established in 1689, is an international law, enforced by each wizarding government, regulating the relationship between mages and non-mages, in an attempt to prevent non-mage knowledge of the existence of mage society.

#### Criticism

One main criticism of the Statute of Secrecy is its dictation of which lineages and creatures are considered inherently magical, and therefore must be hidden from the muggle community. This effectively forced many lineages , such as elves, centaurs, veela and giants, into nowhere plot Magic Reserves, which shrunk in size dramatically in many countries during their periods of industrialisation. A Magic Reserve is seen by many as no longer a beacon of safety from muggles, but rather prisons whose boundaries are upheld by other mages.

Another significant issue, which almost prevented the establishment of Statute, is the total separation of mage and non-mage societies. Not only did increased short-term survivability against anti-mage violence have to be weighed against long-term perpetuation of mage 'blood' and culture (as such a small community); some communities also strongly objected to this separation due to the proliferation of magical disciplines in their culture regardless of magical ability - most notably African diaspora, including Hoodoo, Voduo, Obeah and other magical practices.

#### An Inevitable Repeal?

Non-magic technical advancements have frequently raised doubt about the ability of the mage community to uphold of the Statute of Secrecy - especially photography and video, satellite imagery, and the internet. It has also been often suggested that atrocities such as the transatlantic slave trade and the Holocaust would force the hand of mages to reveal magic due to the necessity of their preventing it.

#### British system for upholding the Statute of Secrecy

The British Ministry of Magic holds a relatively low-tolerance enforcement of the Statute of Secrecy within the British mage community, due to the general absence of belief in miracles of its population, and prevalence of photo and film media. Violating the Statute of Secrecy can incur large fines and jail time.

The main preventative strategy for Statute breaches is the common utilisation of Nowhere Plots. The casting of magic, and the presence of non-human mages, outside of these areas is disallowed without illusion charms - although muggle reports are the only method used to track and punish this. The enchantments of Nowhere Plots, besides allowing all non-humans, generally refer to the Office of Status & Records Mage Ledger to know the bounds of the Statute.

The main responsive strategy to *Statute* breaches is the usage of *Memory Charms*, generally by the *Ministry*'s Obliviator Squad. This has faced ethical concerns - for disrupting muggle's bodily autonomy, for its common side effects of disorientation and confusion, and its affect on the Obliviators, as frequent and sustained use of memory charms can cause deletion of the caster's own memory and skills - but is generally considered a necessary evil to maintain the *Statute*.

1. ↑ Kaleidoscopic Grangers, chapter 66 https://archiveofourown.org/works/24597805/chapters/65716627