ECO history

The Earth Community Organization (ECO) was previously called The Global Community organization. The name was changed during the August 2000 Global Dialogue.

The Global Community organization was first discussed in a report on global changes published in 1990 by Germain Dufour. The report contained 450 policies (workable sound solutions) on sustainable development, and was presented to the United Nations, the Government of Canada, the provincial government of Alberta and several non-profit organizations and scientists.

With the coming of the millennium, the affairs of humanity appeared to be unfolding in more profound ways. Cause and effect was more apparent and happening more quickly.

Today global link-ups are already happening at a fast rate. Business leaders are much more sensitive to the greater, wider needs for their expertise and are already in the process of creating a new kind of civilization.

One of the most important factors in our lives is the inter-connection we have to others, to other countries. Through these connections individuals will be able to create changes for good on a global scale.

We are now all becoming linked to others in faraway places on a much deeper level. If we work together to keep our planet healthy, productive and hospitable, it will benefit all people and living things. As your awareness of this global need deepens you will want to join with others to see that good changes happen.

Right now you can use your skills, your knowledge, your abilities, to realize how these strengths can help bring about the best kind of changes in the world by connecting with us in our aim to promote sustainable development and Earth management on four major levels: the land, the richness of our land, our economic endeavours and the welfare of all our peoples.

All communities are at a turning point. We can no longer perceive ourselves as a People who can survive alone and who does not need anyone else. We belong to and depend upon a much larger group, the Earth Community. The 21st Century will see limitless links and interrelationships formed within this Earth Community. The entire world is at a turning point.

Already we notice new ways of thinking being embraced, new behaviors and attitudes adopted.

New standards, goals and objectives have to be defined. Exchange of creative solutions will help us create firm universal guidelines to keep Earth healthy.

All interacting levels of concern must be considered ~ people, resources, economic development and environment.

The Earth Community Organization aims to establish a new, permanent dialogue on measuring and managing sustainable development. It is a grassroots process. Everyone is involved. Everyone is part of the Earth Community. Your views are important. We want to hear what they are.

Every person is part of the Earth Community and can become a member of the Organization.

The Board of Directors of the Earth Community Organization will be elected by all members during the August 2002 Global Dialogue. Members will also be allowed to vote through the Internet and email. Meetings will be conducted on the Internet. Agendas and minutes will be displayed on this Website. For now only one director position was filled during the August 2000 World Congress: the President of the organization is Germain Dufour. It is hoped to have at least two other directors during the August 2002 Global dialogue. It takes at least three elected directors in other to create a 'Not-for-Profit Charitable Organization' in Ontario, Canada. Directors becomes legally responsible so it is necessary to obtain insurance for their protection against potential law suits.

Although there is a need to find a home for the Earth Community Organization, and also although the organization was not registered legally in any country so far, the organization exists and has a membership, organizes worldwide conferences, and has an active Global Community Assessment Centre (GCAC). At the moment the organization is handling several research and development projects one very important project being the research and development of the Earth Government model.

All Participants of the August 2000 World Congress on Managing and Measuring Sustainable Development - Global Community Action 1 have been given a lifetime membership of The Global Community organization.

This is the founding group of The Global Community organization, Earth Community Organization, the Interim Earth Government, global community concepts and universal values.

The Earth Community Organization was envisioned in 1990 as an entity having a new home every five years. Its present home has been Canada since then. Its new home and headquarters will be established in the coming global dialogue.

Headquarters may be in Canada with branches everywhere else in the World. Or there may be a Board of Directors selected in a country and the Board would change every five years and should move periodically anywhere on Earth to keep the organization free from connection to any specific country and cultural environment. Each new place would bring in fresh, stimulating input to the organization, giving it a new life.

Call for proposals to elect the new Board of Directors of the Earth Community Organization

We assume here two different scenarios:

A) Assuming the Earth Community Organization is structured as a moving entity every five years.

We are now accepting proposals for a new Board of Directors and a new host country for the Earth Community Organizationn. We accept proposals by groups of four officers as described below.

* Only participants can apply to become an officer.
* Officers of the new Board of Directors will be selected and they will be required to work as a team. Those interested please submit applications now. A new Board of Directors is made up of at least four officers: a President, a Vice-president, a Treasurer, and a Secretary-general. The past President is an automatic officer as a Vice-president. Those groups of four officers (or more) interested in taking over the task of administrating the Earth Community Organization through the next five years please submit your proposal now.

Any group will have to satisfy basic criteria:

* In deciding where Headquarters of the Earth Community Organization will move after the election, several criteria will be taken into account:

1. qualifications of the candidates for leadership (submit your CV if not already sent),
2. the communications infra-structure of the host country,
3. support systems, and
4. financial support by the Board of Directors or sponsors,

as the Earth Community Organization itself has no outside funds at all.
* Ten percent of any money made by the organization should be put into a special fund and let accumulated. The fund could only be used by the organization in case of an emergency and for its own survival.
* Candidates work strictly on a volunteer basis and find what support they need for the organization. As President of the organization, I will see that the transfer of the Earth Community Organization to its new home proceeds smoothly.
* The new team must be capable of the successful continuation of global projects and also the initiation of new projects in the host country and other parts of the world.
* Five years later the team will pass on the organization to a new group in another country with a different cultural environment using a similar process. No debt should be passed on to the new group. A credit should have been let accumulated over five years and pass on the new group.

You must send the CVs of the officers, each officer will submit a short essay of why he/she thinks he/she can manage the organization through the next five years, and show how he/she will satisfy the above criteria.

All participants of the global dialogue on Earth Management will be asked to vote for the new Board of Directors as a group during the ECO meeting on August 21, 2002. Participants using the Internet will also be asked to vote. All participants (those participating using the Internet and those present in Toronto) will select the group. A vote will be a vote for the group. The voting procedure will be described at a later date.

The first task of the Board will be to approve the Earth Charter discussed during the global dialogue on Earth Management. This task may be accomplished during the global dialogue on Earth Management.

B) Assuming the Earth Community Organization has Headquarters in Canada and branches are created everywhere else in the world.

In this case the new Board of Directors would be a group of at least four people chosen amongst members (participants to the global dialogue on Earth Management). They may be from any country.

There is a need to develop a voting system to elect representatives to form a democratically elected Earth Government. Every person in the world can claim the birth right of electing a democratic government to manage Earth: the rights to vote and elect representatives to form the Earth Government. They are our human rights! Each and everyone of us on Earth was born free and equal in dignity and rights. Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms is one of the characteristics of a democracy. The typical fundamental freedoms of a democracy (freedom of expression, thought, assembly, and association) are themselves part of human rights. These freedoms can exist everywhere. Democracy is a political system based on the participation of the people. It foresees the separation of powers among the judiciary, the legislative and the executive authorities, as well as free and regular elections.

The political system of an individual country does not have to be a democratically elected government that is, the political rights of a country belong to that country alone. Democracy is not to be enforced by anyone and to anyone. On the other hand, representatives to Earth Government must be elected democratically in every part of the world. An individual country may have any political system at home but the government of that country will have to ensure (and allow verification by Earth Government) that representatives to Earth Government have been elected democratically. This way, every person in the world can claim the birth right of electing a democratic government to manage Earth: the rights to vote and elect representatives to form the Earth Government.

Once representatives to Earth Government have been elected democratically they will govern and manage Earth.

In order to elect representatives to Earth Government it is proposed (as part of a Discussion Roundtable of the August 2002 conference) the following:

A.    Each individual government in the world will administer the election of representatives to Earth Government with an NGO and/or members of Earth Government be allowed to verify all aspects of the process to the satisfaction of all parties involved.
B.    Representatives be elected every five years to form a new Earth Government.
C.    It is proposed here that there will be one elected representative per 1,000,000 people. A population of 100 million people will elect 100 representatives. This process will create a feeling of belonging and participating to the affairs of the Earth Community and Earth Government
D.    Earth population is now 6.114 billion people. If all representatives had been elected this year there would be 6,114 representatives to form Earth Government. They would be the Legislative elected body of Earth Government. They would participate in some ways in choosing the Executive and Judiciary bodies of Earth Government. All these aspects will be discussed during the global dialogue in August 2002.
E.    All representatives will not have to be meeting in Headquarters. The Interim Earth Government and later on, Earth Government, will meet and make decisions, including voting of day to day affairs, through the use of the Internet and other communications devices.

Our job is to create a government model we prefer amongst others: an Interim Earth Government. We hope that the elected representatives will adopt the model as theirs and govern Earth. Other models can be discussed and we may even decide that one of them is a better idea. Send all your models or proposals. There will be Discussion Roundtables on Earth Government Models, voting systems, election procedures, and hundreds of other aspects or issues related to forming the Earth Government.

There are 51 Ministries listed in an article of the December 2000 of this Newsletter. Anyone of you may apply for those positions. I am asking you to choose a Ministry and start defining it completely: what it will do, why is it needed, the money needed to run it, the people needed, the work it will do all over the world, etc. Each and everyone of us (and new Participants) can pick a Minister's position and find absolutely everything there is to be found about your Ministry. You may create brain-storming exercises in your community to help you. We will gather all our information and create a new Discussion Roundtable for each Ministry and do more discussion and research. The idea is to pass on to the elected representatives for Earth Government (assuming that they will be elected shortly after the Global Dialogue of August 2002) the work we have done to help them govern Earth. This way representatives will have an idea about what to do before they are elected as representatives to Earth Government. Once they are elected they may want to adopt our research work as a starting point for governing Earth.

I have discussed about the voting system in one of the articles. One representative per million people. If all countries in the world had decided to participate with this process we would have today 6,114 elected representatives to form Earth Government. They would form the Legislative body of Earth Government. They could actually all stay home to govern or from some place in their communities. Today communications are more than good enough to allow voting and discussing issues, etc. through the Internet and video conferencing. That would cut cost of governing down to a minimum, at least administrative costs. The Executive body would also govern in this way to cut cost down to a minimum. Ministers can administer their Ministries from where they live if they wish to. There will be a place for the Headquarters. We will show that it costs very little to administer Earth Government, and that we can achieve immense results. There is no limit to the good the Earth Government can achieve in the world. Think! What can do a unified 6.114 billion people determined to make things work to keep Earth healthy?

Those interested to become officers or ministers please submit your CV, three references, and a five page essay on why you want to become an officer or a minister. Several criteria will be taken into account: qualifications of the candidate for leadership, past record as a good citizen, no criminal records, your own financial support (we dont have any funds to pay anyone and for anything), and proven experience and competence in the position. Candidates work strictly on a volunteer basis. You are completely responsible for your own affairs. You are also required to have accepted in your heart and mind universal values, global concepts, democratic principles, and human rights as obtained and defined in the previous global dialogue. The immediate goals of the Interim Earth Government are to define and develop each Ministry as explained above. Details of Earth Government structure, goals and objectives, and Mission are available at

The reason why I have decided to choose members of my Executive is because I am working on a specific Earth Government model, the democratically elected Earth Government. Some people may not agree on its foundation. They are welcome to propose their own model during the global dialogue in August 2002.

All of those who decide to join me will be part of a major research paper to be published on the Earth Community Organization and Earth Government websites. Our work will be an important part of the Proceedings. If it happens that our research was adopted by the elected representatives than we would become founders of Earth Government.

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