Earth Management - all Peoples together
This new global dialogue will be held August 17-22, year 2002
in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The theme is
Earth Government for Earth Community- A grassroots process -
NEWSLETTER
Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 04, May 2001
|
Interim Earth Government (Developing Earth government models is a R&D project of Earth Community)
Executive |
Mailing address
Earth Community Organization
Canada
email
gdufour@globalcommunitywebnet.com
Websites of the Earth Community Organization and of Earth Government
http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/earthgov1
http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/earthcommunity
http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/global2000
http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/vdufour2000/http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/GIMProceedings/index.html
http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/gdufour99/http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/GIMProceedings/index.html
http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/gdufour2000/
Back to top of the page
Back to Index of the Preliminary Program
Back to HOMEPAGE
Table of Contents
President's Message
Articles
1. The aspirations of the people of the Americas and Caribbean in the New Age, by Germain Dufour
2. The Peoples Revolution of the New Age, by Germain Dufour
3. Charter of the Earth Community
President's Message |
We now have completed the first draft of the Charter of the Earth Community and included it here. This first draft is a direct result of the World Congress on Managing and Measuring Sustainable Development - Global Community Action 1 held in August 2000. The Charter shows the "belief, universal values, principles and aspirations of the New Age". The draft will be officially adopted by the membership of the Earth Community Organization (ECO) during the global dialogue Earth Management - all Peoples together to be held August 17-22, year 2002, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
We welcome your comments and recommendations about the Charter and its development so far. Send them to:
Marielle Jansen (Sociocracy@aol.com)
and to Germain Dufour (gdufour@globalcommunitywebnet.com).
The Charter of the Earth Community is a declaration of interdependence and responsibility to build a global partnership amongst all Peoples. It is a commitment to Life and its evolution to bring humanity to God. Humanity welcomes the belief, universal values, principles and aspirations of the New Age with Faith in the Divine Will and without fears such as the fear of change. ECO has invoked the Divine Will as a guiding principle to bring Unity and Peace in the midst of all the discord and strife we find in the world. Divine Will brings forth a sustainable global society embracing universal values related to human rights, economic and social justice, respect of nature, peace, responsibility to one another, and the protection and management of the Earth. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of Life within Earth Community.
In order to build a sustainable global society each individual, each local community and national government of the world must initiate their commitment to the Earth Community Organization. We invite you to participate in the grassroots process to ensure a sound future for Earth. We can help you realize your actions by coordinating efforts efficiently together to bring about the best kind of changes in the world.
We are sending a special invitation to the people of the 34 nations of the Americas and Caribbean, and to Cuba, in participating in the formation of the Earth Government as a sound replacement of the FTAA. The establishment of democracy and the protection of human rights can only be achieved within the Earth Government.
May the DIVINE WILL come into our lives and show us the way.
May our higher purpose in life bring us closer to the Soul of Humanity and God.
Cordially,
Germain
Germain Dufour
President
Earth Community Organization
and
Interim Earth Government
Headquarters
Ontario
Canada
gdufour@globalcommunitywebnet.com
The aspirations of the people of the Americas and Caribbean in the New Age |
by Germain Dufour
Leaders of the 34 member nations of the Organization of American States (all the independent nations in North and South Americas and the Caribbean, except Cuba) have met in Quebec City, Canada, to discuss hemispheric free trade which would eliminate trade and investment barriers on goods and services between member countries by 2005. They proposed to create the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) which would represent the world’s largest common market.
During the Summit of the Americas several members of the Earth Community Organization (ECO) were protesting peacefully and orderly outside the gates. ECO was protesting against the undemocratic process that is the FTAA. Everything that’s important to the Earth Community is being let go by the 34 nation leaders and world business leaders in favor of the goal of making profits.
The member nations produced a total $11.4 trillion in goods and services in 1999, but had only $2.7 trillion in cross-border trade. The common market would link 800 million people, or 15 per cent of the world’s population. It will open up the hemisphere, streamline rules of investment and compete with such regional blocs as the European Union with fewer than half the population of the Americas.
There are nine major fundamental mandate sections included within the FTAA document: services, market access, subsidies investment, dispute settlement, agriculture, government procurement, intellectual property rights, competition. Three other areas of concern were also established within the FTAA document: civil society, electronic commerce, small economies.
Objectives shown in the FTAA document:
The FTAA will include a new constitution leading to rights and freedoms for corporations that override national rights. Investments will be protected in the agreement and investors will not lose their business as a result of government expropriation. The agreement is entirely business oriented. Profit is the goal to achieve. Business leaders are successful as long as they produce profits for their shareholders. Furthermore, they have to account for their performance every quarter, and they are not free to act in ways that would jeopardize their company’s financial health. The agreement would be a strong incentive to businesses to obtain and accumulate profits.
The World Trade Organization, foreign corporations and world business leaders claim that the FTAA agreement will bring sweeping democracy to all of the Americas. They claim trade globalization is a forerunner of democracy in nations where it is non-existent. The Earth Community Organization does not believe democracy will automatically succeed in a global free market. In fact, the FTAA is itself a flagrant abuse of democracy.
The FTAA will entrench corporate power at the expense of democratically elected officials from local communities, municipal governments, provincial governments, national governments and states. Such a free trade agreement is a form of "world anti-government" (such as the European Union block) as citizens lose the ability to act in their best interests and find sound solutions to their own problems. Citizens become disconnected with the decision-making process. In such scenario, democratic principles lose meaning and no longer prevail. All that we have worked for over the past decades to build sustainable communities will be all gone in the signing of an agreement, the FTAA. People were never asked to discuss and were never invited in its development. The principles of a sustainable development are let go and replaced by the desire of the world business leaders to make larger profits.
Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed by Canada, Mexico and the U.S. in 1994 describes the right of foreign investors on national governments. These rights will be intensified in the FTAA. It lets corporations sue governments directly for breaching trade deals they never signed. Companies can claim damages when they believe their rights under the trade pact have been violated by government regulations or decisions. They are allowed to sue for anything that gets in the way of profits. This elevates corporate rights far beyond those of the average citizen and their human rights. In the past, it has led government to cancel anti-pollution or environmental measures. The agreement disempower people and communities. It is the most powerful corporate tool to challenge democratic governance. In effect, no government should enter into an agreement such as the FTAA when citizens know it violates their own constitution. A constitutional referendum and an election with the issue of the FTAA as a priority would have to be conducted by each member nation before considering such an agreement. Government must negotiate the FTAA openly, transparently and honestly.
Earth Community believes all citizens have the right to share the wealth in the world. Foreign investment and the trade agreement must protect and improve social and environmental rights, not just the economy. A sustainable development in the hemisphere would mean finding a sound balance among the interactions designed to create a healthy economic growth, preserve environmental quality, make a wise use of our resources, and enhance social benefits. Free trade cannot proceed at the expense of the environment, labour rights, human rights and the sovereignty of a nation. The FTAA will lead to an increase in poverty by giving investor rights priority over government decision-making. Employers will be looking for more concessions from workers. Small businesses will find it more difficult to grow and compete against large corporations.
People are concerned about the lack of public consultation in free trade negotiations. The agreement is being negotiated without public scrutiny. The actual process of developing the FTAA is itself undemocratic as it excludes anyone but government officials and business interests. Civil society groups were left outside the gates during the conference. The decisions by trade bodies must not be allowed to take away the rights and responsibilities of local communities. A local community will find it impossible to make decisions about planning, public health, local control over water, waste, zoning, or environmental issues because the rights of corporations to profits would be deemed to take precedence.
The process of the Summit of the Americas had several other wrongdoings: decisions were made in secrecy; misappropriation of taxpayers’ money; violent suppression of free speech; and the sacrifice of Canadian interests for the profit of big corporations. None of the national governments had a referendum on the free trade issue. There were no discussions at home and in communities. People were not asked for their opinions and recommendations. Freedom of speech is a major aspect of democracy. So where is democracy? Citizens were not told what is at stake in the trade deal. The process of developing an agreement must include all citizens in order for democracy to expand freely across the Americas and Caribbean.
Other implications of the FTAA:
a) Services offered to the public can be managed by private, foreign providers; these providers are allowed to bid for contracts in all sectors such as energy, transportation, agriculture, forestry, fishery, health, education, sewer and water services. Truly, all sectors of life are affected.
b) Resources are opened for trade and may no longer be controlled by a national government; energy, rain forests and water are affected. In effect, business leaders of large corporations become the real owners of our resources.
c) Environmental decisions, education initiatives, health policies and cultural programs will be affected if they represent a threat to a corporation’s potential profit.
d) Canadians will have to accept continental economic and social policies and the U.S. dollars as our currency. The U.S. dollars will eventually become the currency of all 34 member nations. What it means to be a Canadian will be gradually diluted to fulfill the desires of business leaders. What it means to be a citizen in any country will be diluted to nothing.
e) Government will no longer have an independent financial policy.
f) Labour rights will be subjected to the primary goal of making profit.
g) Viability of social programs in a community will be subjected to scrutiny and control by the FTAA.
h) Operation of government will be restrained and dependent on economic goals.
i) The sovereignty of a nation will be chipped away. Government will give away sovereign and constitutional powers to secret FTAA tribunals whose only goals and objectives are to protect investments and investors.
j) The quality of life of every nation in the hemisphere will be diminished and subjected to economic goals.
k) Environmental degradation: lowering of plant and biomass diversity, increase of air pollution, natural resource depletion and pollution, deforestation, soil erosion, endangerment and extinction of life species. The legacy to our children and to the future generations thereafter will be a wasteland.
l) U.S. military is "to protect U.S. interests and investments" and that includes making other nations safe for U.S multinational corporations. When will the military issue be discussed? How will the military be part of the FTAA? Are we seeing here in the Americas a scenario that has occurred in Europe before the Second World War? The FTAA should entrench a strong statement that says that military should not be an option as a solution to any situation arising in the hemisphere. The Earth Court of Justice was created to deal with any situation and, therefore, the military is not needed. The military should also be subjected to the Earth Court of Justice for any violation of human rights including environmental rights as defined by the Scale of Human Rights).
m) What impacts will the FTAA have on women and children, indigenous Peoples, on poverty?
n) Degradation and disrespect of national standards (engineering, health, environmental, etc.).
o) If U.S. interest rates go up what will be the impacts of the cost of debt servicing of the 32 (out of 34) poor countries? Investments in those nations have to be serviced through any export surplus.
p) Future generations will be affected by entering into an agreement that obligates the present generation to irrevocable conditions. The FTAA would violate the basic principle of a sustainable development in the hemisphere and endanger the survival of Life on Earth.
q) If Canada and the U.S. were serious about the FTAA and a sustainable development in the poorest nations would they not accept removing now all tariffs for the very poorest members?
NAFTA has led to the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs in Canadian plants as companies relocated to Mexico to take advantage of the cheaper and weaker environmental and safety standards. The same thing will happen with the new agreement. The FTAA will have the effect of lowering down wages and working conditions in Canada and in the U.S. thereby adding more profits to business leaders.
The human rights abuse and environmental degradation are two of the many unresolved social issues in countries that want the trade agreement. Human rights violations would constitute unfair trade subsidies.
The process of designing the FTAA is obviously undemocratic and will lead to an "unsustainable development". Earth Community has worked hard to find sound solutions and better ways to improve the quality of our lives and that of the future generations. We are not going to let go the "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age". We will form our own ways to manage the Americas and the Caribbean. We will form the Earth Government. The people of the Americas and Caribbean will be first in forming Earth Government to manage the hemisphere.
The Earth Government will be formed when representatives from the 34 member nations have been elected. Earth Government allows the creation of a truly democratic process whereby one representative is elected for every million citizens. For the 800 million people or more of the Americas and Caribbean there would be 800 elected representatives whose job will be to manage responsibly the hemisphere. Each elected representative will bring forth issues and concerns of their particular citizens.
There are multiple issues related to forming Earth Government, and they are a part of discussion roundtables of the global dialogue Earth Management - all Peoples together with the theme Earth Government for Earth Community - A grassroots process. This new global dialogue will be held August 17-22, year 2002, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We are inviting researchers and groups to submit research papers and discussion proposals. We are making a special invitation to all civil society groups. Everyone is invited to participate in the discussion.
The Earth Community Organization will decide when there is a significant enough proportion of people throughout the hemisphere participating in the process. The 34 countries of the hemisphere will decide if they want to participate with this process or not. No one country will be forced to participate. It just means that if the government of a country does not allow representatives to be elected within their population then their will not be representatives from that country sent to Earth Government. It is a choice each country must make on their own.
One representative per million people! If all countries in the world had decided today to participate with this process we would have today 6,114 elected representatives to form Earth Government. They would form the Elected Representative Council or Legislative body of Earth Government. They could actually all stay home to govern or from some place in their communities. Today’s communications are more than adequate 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 Earth Executive Council 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. 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 accomplish a unified 6.114 billion people determined to make things work to keep Earth healthy!
This third millennium is a new challenge for the people of the Americas and Caribbean. New standards, goals and objectives have to be defined. Firm universal guidelines are essential in keeping the hemisphere healthy. When a group of ordinary people realized that they, personally, will make the changes they need in their field, in their village, in their communities, they can then find ways to bring about these changes for all. There is a wisdom in the ways of very humble people that needs to be utilized. Every humble person deserves to have ideas respected, and encouraged to develop his or her own life for the better. Sound solutions to help manage and sustain Earth will very likely be found this way. Everyone can help assess the needs of the hemisphere and propose sound solutions for its proper management, present and future. Everyone can think of better ideas to sustain all life on Earth and realize these ideas by conducting positive and constructive actions. When there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as opposed to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss; that is the grassroots process. The Earth Community Organization can help you to realize your actions by coordinating efforts efficiently. The Earth Community Organization is the only way to go to manage the hemisphere.
Right now you can use your skills, knowledge and abilities to help bring about the best kind of changes in the hemisphere by connecting with us in our aim to form Earth Government. We invite you to participate in the grassroots process to ensure a sound future for Earth. We want you to come to Toronto in August 2002 to show and share your strengths. The Americas and the Caribbean have for a long time been waiting for a truly global governing body based on universal values, human rights, global concepts and democracy. Earth Government might as well be created now. There is no longer any reason to wait. We are the Earth Community and we will form Earth Government. Proper management of the hemisphere is a priority and is a duty of every responsible person in the Americas and Caribbean.
Earth Government will now be formed, and the people of the Americas and Caribbean are invited to be first in creating it. We want you to reflect on future effects of such an event on the history of humanity. Certainly one will expect extraordinary changes: a reorganizing of human activities all over the hemisphere; participation by all in solving local and global problems; north meeting with south (eradication of poverty will be the price to pay to get votes from the south) in order to gather more votes within the newly created Earth Government; adoption of democratic principles, human rights, global concepts, and universal values by every citizen; gathering and coordinating of forces to resolve social and political problems in a peaceful way (no more conflicts or wars); gathering and coordinating of forces (technologies, scientific research, exploration work, human resources, etc.) to resolve problems such as global climate, environment, availability of resources, poverty, employment, etc. Thousands more changes!
Let your heart and mind reflect on 'the good' of a democratically elected Earth Government managing the hemisphere. Everyone is part of Earth Community by birth and therefore everyone has a right to vote. Everyone should be given a chance to vote. If you live in a developing country this time you will have a vote, human rights like all of us, you will be part of Earth Community, and we will stand by you. Decisions will be made democratically. You will finally have a voice and a friend, many friends, within Earth Government and Earth Community. Your lives have values just like all of ours. Details of Earth Government structure, goals and objectives, and Mission are available at http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/earthgov1/
During the Summit of the Americas several members of the Earth Community Organization (ECO) were protesting peacefully and orderly outside the gates. ECO was protesting against the undemocratic process that is the FTAA. Everything that’s important to the Earth Community is being let go by the 34 nation leaders and world business leaders in favor of the goal of making profits.
The member nations produced a total $11.4 trillion in goods and services in 1999, but had only $2.7 trillion in cross-border trade. The common market would link 800 million people, or 15 per cent of the world’s population. It will open up the hemisphere, streamline rules of investment and compete with such regional blocs as the European Union with fewer than half the population of the Americas.
There are nine major fundamental mandate sections included within the FTAA document: services, market access, subsidies investment, dispute settlement, agriculture, government procurement, intellectual property rights, competition. Three other areas of concern were also established within the FTAA document: civil society, electronic commerce, small economies.
Objectives shown in the FTAA document:
- removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade
- designing of a framework for growth of capital markets
- be in step with the World trade Organization (WTO)
- removal of agricultural export subsidies
- a legal framework to protect investors and their investments
- economic integration of the hemisphere
The FTAA will include a new constitution leading to rights and freedoms for corporations that override national rights. Investments will be protected in the agreement and investors will not lose their business as a result of government expropriation. The agreement is entirely business oriented. Profit is the goal to achieve. Business leaders are successful as long as they produce profits for their shareholders. Furthermore, they have to account for their performance every quarter, and they are not free to act in ways that would jeopardize their company’s financial health. The agreement would be a strong incentive to businesses to obtain and accumulate profits.
The World Trade Organization, foreign corporations and world business leaders claim that the FTAA agreement will bring sweeping democracy to all of the Americas. They claim trade globalization is a forerunner of democracy in nations where it is non-existent. The Earth Community Organization does not believe democracy will automatically succeed in a global free market. In fact, the FTAA is itself a flagrant abuse of democracy.
The FTAA will entrench corporate power at the expense of democratically elected officials from local communities, municipal governments, provincial governments, national governments and states. Such a free trade agreement is a form of "world anti-government" (such as the European Union block) as citizens lose the ability to act in their best interests and find sound solutions to their own problems. Citizens become disconnected with the decision-making process. In such scenario, democratic principles lose meaning and no longer prevail. All that we have worked for over the past decades to build sustainable communities will be all gone in the signing of an agreement, the FTAA. People were never asked to discuss and were never invited in its development. The principles of a sustainable development are let go and replaced by the desire of the world business leaders to make larger profits.
Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed by Canada, Mexico and the U.S. in 1994 describes the right of foreign investors on national governments. These rights will be intensified in the FTAA. It lets corporations sue governments directly for breaching trade deals they never signed. Companies can claim damages when they believe their rights under the trade pact have been violated by government regulations or decisions. They are allowed to sue for anything that gets in the way of profits. This elevates corporate rights far beyond those of the average citizen and their human rights. In the past, it has led government to cancel anti-pollution or environmental measures. The agreement disempower people and communities. It is the most powerful corporate tool to challenge democratic governance. In effect, no government should enter into an agreement such as the FTAA when citizens know it violates their own constitution. A constitutional referendum and an election with the issue of the FTAA as a priority would have to be conducted by each member nation before considering such an agreement. Government must negotiate the FTAA openly, transparently and honestly.
Earth Community believes all citizens have the right to share the wealth in the world. Foreign investment and the trade agreement must protect and improve social and environmental rights, not just the economy. A sustainable development in the hemisphere would mean finding a sound balance among the interactions designed to create a healthy economic growth, preserve environmental quality, make a wise use of our resources, and enhance social benefits. Free trade cannot proceed at the expense of the environment, labour rights, human rights and the sovereignty of a nation. The FTAA will lead to an increase in poverty by giving investor rights priority over government decision-making. Employers will be looking for more concessions from workers. Small businesses will find it more difficult to grow and compete against large corporations.
People are concerned about the lack of public consultation in free trade negotiations. The agreement is being negotiated without public scrutiny. The actual process of developing the FTAA is itself undemocratic as it excludes anyone but government officials and business interests. Civil society groups were left outside the gates during the conference. The decisions by trade bodies must not be allowed to take away the rights and responsibilities of local communities. A local community will find it impossible to make decisions about planning, public health, local control over water, waste, zoning, or environmental issues because the rights of corporations to profits would be deemed to take precedence.
The process of the Summit of the Americas had several other wrongdoings: decisions were made in secrecy; misappropriation of taxpayers’ money; violent suppression of free speech; and the sacrifice of Canadian interests for the profit of big corporations. None of the national governments had a referendum on the free trade issue. There were no discussions at home and in communities. People were not asked for their opinions and recommendations. Freedom of speech is a major aspect of democracy. So where is democracy? Citizens were not told what is at stake in the trade deal. The process of developing an agreement must include all citizens in order for democracy to expand freely across the Americas and Caribbean.
Other implications of the FTAA:
a) Services offered to the public can be managed by private, foreign providers; these providers are allowed to bid for contracts in all sectors such as energy, transportation, agriculture, forestry, fishery, health, education, sewer and water services. Truly, all sectors of life are affected.
b) Resources are opened for trade and may no longer be controlled by a national government; energy, rain forests and water are affected. In effect, business leaders of large corporations become the real owners of our resources.
c) Environmental decisions, education initiatives, health policies and cultural programs will be affected if they represent a threat to a corporation’s potential profit.
d) Canadians will have to accept continental economic and social policies and the U.S. dollars as our currency. The U.S. dollars will eventually become the currency of all 34 member nations. What it means to be a Canadian will be gradually diluted to fulfill the desires of business leaders. What it means to be a citizen in any country will be diluted to nothing.
e) Government will no longer have an independent financial policy.
f) Labour rights will be subjected to the primary goal of making profit.
g) Viability of social programs in a community will be subjected to scrutiny and control by the FTAA.
h) Operation of government will be restrained and dependent on economic goals.
i) The sovereignty of a nation will be chipped away. Government will give away sovereign and constitutional powers to secret FTAA tribunals whose only goals and objectives are to protect investments and investors.
j) The quality of life of every nation in the hemisphere will be diminished and subjected to economic goals.
k) Environmental degradation: lowering of plant and biomass diversity, increase of air pollution, natural resource depletion and pollution, deforestation, soil erosion, endangerment and extinction of life species. The legacy to our children and to the future generations thereafter will be a wasteland.
l) U.S. military is "to protect U.S. interests and investments" and that includes making other nations safe for U.S multinational corporations. When will the military issue be discussed? How will the military be part of the FTAA? Are we seeing here in the Americas a scenario that has occurred in Europe before the Second World War? The FTAA should entrench a strong statement that says that military should not be an option as a solution to any situation arising in the hemisphere. The Earth Court of Justice was created to deal with any situation and, therefore, the military is not needed. The military should also be subjected to the Earth Court of Justice for any violation of human rights including environmental rights as defined by the Scale of Human Rights).
m) What impacts will the FTAA have on women and children, indigenous Peoples, on poverty?
n) Degradation and disrespect of national standards (engineering, health, environmental, etc.).
o) If U.S. interest rates go up what will be the impacts of the cost of debt servicing of the 32 (out of 34) poor countries? Investments in those nations have to be serviced through any export surplus.
p) Future generations will be affected by entering into an agreement that obligates the present generation to irrevocable conditions. The FTAA would violate the basic principle of a sustainable development in the hemisphere and endanger the survival of Life on Earth.
q) If Canada and the U.S. were serious about the FTAA and a sustainable development in the poorest nations would they not accept removing now all tariffs for the very poorest members?
NAFTA has led to the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs in Canadian plants as companies relocated to Mexico to take advantage of the cheaper and weaker environmental and safety standards. The same thing will happen with the new agreement. The FTAA will have the effect of lowering down wages and working conditions in Canada and in the U.S. thereby adding more profits to business leaders.
The human rights abuse and environmental degradation are two of the many unresolved social issues in countries that want the trade agreement. Human rights violations would constitute unfair trade subsidies.
The process of designing the FTAA is obviously undemocratic and will lead to an "unsustainable development". Earth Community has worked hard to find sound solutions and better ways to improve the quality of our lives and that of the future generations. We are not going to let go the "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age". We will form our own ways to manage the Americas and the Caribbean. We will form the Earth Government. The people of the Americas and Caribbean will be first in forming Earth Government to manage the hemisphere.
The Earth Government will be formed when representatives from the 34 member nations have been elected. Earth Government allows the creation of a truly democratic process whereby one representative is elected for every million citizens. For the 800 million people or more of the Americas and Caribbean there would be 800 elected representatives whose job will be to manage responsibly the hemisphere. Each elected representative will bring forth issues and concerns of their particular citizens.
There are multiple issues related to forming Earth Government, and they are a part of discussion roundtables of the global dialogue Earth Management - all Peoples together with the theme Earth Government for Earth Community - A grassroots process. This new global dialogue will be held August 17-22, year 2002, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We are inviting researchers and groups to submit research papers and discussion proposals. We are making a special invitation to all civil society groups. Everyone is invited to participate in the discussion.
The Earth Community Organization will decide when there is a significant enough proportion of people throughout the hemisphere participating in the process. The 34 countries of the hemisphere will decide if they want to participate with this process or not. No one country will be forced to participate. It just means that if the government of a country does not allow representatives to be elected within their population then their will not be representatives from that country sent to Earth Government. It is a choice each country must make on their own.
One representative per million people! If all countries in the world had decided today to participate with this process we would have today 6,114 elected representatives to form Earth Government. They would form the Elected Representative Council or Legislative body of Earth Government. They could actually all stay home to govern or from some place in their communities. Today’s communications are more than adequate 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 Earth Executive Council 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. 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 accomplish a unified 6.114 billion people determined to make things work to keep Earth healthy!
This third millennium is a new challenge for the people of the Americas and Caribbean. New standards, goals and objectives have to be defined. Firm universal guidelines are essential in keeping the hemisphere healthy. When a group of ordinary people realized that they, personally, will make the changes they need in their field, in their village, in their communities, they can then find ways to bring about these changes for all. There is a wisdom in the ways of very humble people that needs to be utilized. Every humble person deserves to have ideas respected, and encouraged to develop his or her own life for the better. Sound solutions to help manage and sustain Earth will very likely be found this way. Everyone can help assess the needs of the hemisphere and propose sound solutions for its proper management, present and future. Everyone can think of better ideas to sustain all life on Earth and realize these ideas by conducting positive and constructive actions. When there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as opposed to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss; that is the grassroots process. The Earth Community Organization can help you to realize your actions by coordinating efforts efficiently. The Earth Community Organization is the only way to go to manage the hemisphere.
Right now you can use your skills, knowledge and abilities to help bring about the best kind of changes in the hemisphere by connecting with us in our aim to form Earth Government. We invite you to participate in the grassroots process to ensure a sound future for Earth. We want you to come to Toronto in August 2002 to show and share your strengths. The Americas and the Caribbean have for a long time been waiting for a truly global governing body based on universal values, human rights, global concepts and democracy. Earth Government might as well be created now. There is no longer any reason to wait. We are the Earth Community and we will form Earth Government. Proper management of the hemisphere is a priority and is a duty of every responsible person in the Americas and Caribbean.
Earth Government will now be formed, and the people of the Americas and Caribbean are invited to be first in creating it. We want you to reflect on future effects of such an event on the history of humanity. Certainly one will expect extraordinary changes: a reorganizing of human activities all over the hemisphere; participation by all in solving local and global problems; north meeting with south (eradication of poverty will be the price to pay to get votes from the south) in order to gather more votes within the newly created Earth Government; adoption of democratic principles, human rights, global concepts, and universal values by every citizen; gathering and coordinating of forces to resolve social and political problems in a peaceful way (no more conflicts or wars); gathering and coordinating of forces (technologies, scientific research, exploration work, human resources, etc.) to resolve problems such as global climate, environment, availability of resources, poverty, employment, etc. Thousands more changes!
Let your heart and mind reflect on 'the good' of a democratically elected Earth Government managing the hemisphere. Everyone is part of Earth Community by birth and therefore everyone has a right to vote. Everyone should be given a chance to vote. If you live in a developing country this time you will have a vote, human rights like all of us, you will be part of Earth Community, and we will stand by you. Decisions will be made democratically. You will finally have a voice and a friend, many friends, within Earth Government and Earth Community. Your lives have values just like all of ours. Details of Earth Government structure, goals and objectives, and Mission are available at http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/earthgov1/
The Peoples Revolution of the New Age |
by Germain Dufour
During the past thousand years humanity has lived with the "life program information" transferred into the brain via two ways: our genes, and education and upbringing. The mechanism of biological information protection did the rest. We are lock, stock, and barrel with the old stock. In a way! Today our species is evolving to rid itself of the old thoughts that are threatening its future and survival. This is a survival reaction and is very real. Our species will accomplish the evolutionary leap within a generation. The next step is the creation of new thoughts, thousands of them. Healthy thoughts! The kind that will sustain Earth.
Humanity has taken a new direction with globalization and the creation of planetary trade blocks. This new direction will lead to human misery and war, and our species reacts very strongly to such destructive ways. Business leaders are determined to rule the world in ways that will bring about the Peoples Revolution of the New Age .
Throughout History there have been major changes happening that have revolutionized our ways. They were social, political or religious revolutions. Political revolutions were always accompanied with deadly encounters. The most recent revolutions were the Bolshevik Revolution, French Revolution, American Revolution and the Chinese Revolution. Because of the lack of human compassion and disrespect of Earth and its community, planetary trading blocks will cause the event of the Peoples Revolution.
There is a way to make things right for all life on Earth. We have to face the fact that the Revolution is here and is growing. We see today the seeds of the Revolution: the Peoples Revolution of the New Age which includes all social, political and religious aspects of our lives. All of our ways and values are changing and evolving. Unless the Peoples Revolution is given the proper guidance, it will be more deadly than all we have seen in our past history put together. We can still avoid such an encounter. Actions by government and business leaders that lead to revolution and war must be curtailed. Power based on greed is not in the best interest of humanity as it leads to the violation of human rights and destruction. This time people will revolt against the business leaders and the establishment of business. They are the new leading body of the world. Businesses have taken the role of government and now hold largely the responsibility of wrongdoings. They will be held accountable for anything from the pollution of the planet, poverty, human rights violation, resources depletion, and disasters such as flooding and climate changes.
The world we see today aims at "making a profit" the most important aspect of our lives. The European Union uses an economic model based entirely on improving its economic edge in the world. Asia is following in the same step. Now the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) would also use a similar way of dealing with the other trade blocks of the planet.
Globalization and trade blocks are at the roots of the New Age Revolution. They are causing it.
One tends to be alarmed at the popular concept of globalization because it is based on greed. Globalization is here to stay and is a fact of life. The world has become global. Societies throughout the world are struggling to be in step with the most powerful nations. National economies and financial markets are connected through computer link-up and are interlocked. Commercial banking and business ownership has no economic or political borders. Because of the dynamic of trade in goods and services and because of the movement in capital and technology, production in different countries has become increasingly dependent on one another.
In consequence of globalization, the new economic and political distribution of power around the world has become very different then we were used to. It has become very intangible, in constant motion and affected by global markets. Giant new markets are forming all over the world. Competition is hardening. National economies can no longer insure or guarantee rights of possession on any property. National borders no longer mean protection, security, cultural boundaries, resources ownership, political and economic control.
Globalization and the trade blocks intensify all aspects of human life and are at the roots of the Peoples Revolution of the New Age . Globalization is a process interaction which involves growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide with implications and impacts on social, cultural, political, environmental and familial aspects and rights. Geographical and political limits become less and less significant.
Economic globalization is seen by the growing interaction and interdependence of the world's different nations and corporations. Interactions include capital flows, flows of material goods, and labour. Markets, technologies and consumption patterns gradually let go their national or local character and become international and global. Economic globalization leads to globally more standardized sets of products.
Political globalization facilitates the spread of individualism and thus Western consumer society.
Cultural globalization is concerned with a change of the different sets of values that are connected to tradition, religion and different political systems. Cultural globalization is fed by information passing geographical boundaries through communication systems and media, like TV, Internet, advertisement etc. Cultural globalization homogenizes the sets of value systems of different cultures via constantly evolving.
The globalization of consumption can be observed. Market analyses can prove the existence and the demand of certain products worldwide and the presence of corporations in different countries of the world. A globalization of consumption is actually taking place because we observe that certain products are sold with success all over the world. Globalization of consumption represents an environmental danger. The consumer society is blamed for causing the largest part of environmental problems through resource depletion, emissions and wastes.
In multilateral trade, developing countries have three major concerns:
* The Uruguay Round has not done much to improve market access for their exports of goods and services.
* World Trade Organization(WTO) rules were found unbalanced in many important development related areas including the protection of intellectual property rights and use of industrial subsidies.
* Inadequate or inexistent human and financial resources have rendered impossible the use of opportunities offered by WTO to developing countries.
These concerns are not likely to find sound solutions within the FTAA.
People living in developing countries find no interest to enter into negotiations with wealthier trading partners. The increasing gap between rich and poor nations will make it even unlikely of successful multilateral trade negotiations.
The effects of globalization and the creation of planetary trade blocks give rise to global problems such as:
* unemployment in industrial nations
* poverty increases world-wide ~ entire countries in a state of starvation
* environmental degradation
* national interests of a country changing and becoming more trade oriented and trying to go with the wave of global trade
* international interests of a country take prime importance
* in developing countries, national debts constrict the institutions of the national state and contribute to the destruction of the economic activity which, in turn, as the effect of creating unemployment
* national currencies of many countries are affected by national debts and contribute in destroying social life, creating ethnic conflicts and civil wars
* the large corporation is becoming larger and getting more power and control falls into the hands of a few people
* globalization is another way of keeping control on our lives in the hands of a few people
* with globalization we have no control and no say in our future and the world becomes a game played by a few people just as it has always been throughout history, leading to revolutions and war
* with globalization there is no sense of direction and meaning, no security for the individual, just a few people getting richer and controlling us all
The globalization of the world economic system is proceeding at a very rapid pace, and is wrongly promoted as being welfare-improving. This phenomenon is also present in the arena of international finance. In this area, however, the presumed virtues of globalization are far from being materialized. Trends show that developing countries in the global economy are faced to achieve a stable economic growth by a faster growth. The global economy is unstable. Serious biases against the underprivileged exist. It was found that in the world's poorest countries the interactions between trading and financial systems have had significant negative impacts on their growth. Global capital movements have kept poverty and unemployment on the rise in developing countries. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening. This shows a failure of the new economic system of the world in building an equitable system of global economic governance. Most developing countries show a trend of widening trade deficits and falling or stagnant growth rates. Their efforts to close the payments gap through increased exports to developed countries have failed. An increase in exports required growth in world demand but world growth has been low. Export earnings were not sufficient in financing the debt.
A new approach to trade and development issues was suggested: business leaders are to conduct their affairs with responsibility, cooperation and compassion. A larger flow of private foreign investment would accelerate further growth and bring stability. Progress on access to markets in industrialized countries is the key to overcoming the payments facing developing countries. The international trading system needs to be fair to all global economies. Their are aspects leading to unfair competition. Protectionism is at its highest in developed countries. For example, the heavy subsidization of agricultural output in the industrial countries cuts out imports from developing countries. Protectionism was also observed for industrial products such as clothing and textiles, low-tech and high-tech products. The industrialized countries were found to make use of antidumping procedures and health and safety standards against successful exporters in the developing countries.
Perceiving and understanding the human population in its role as a consumer is very important because consumers collectively spend two thirds of a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). They buy and influence the purchase of an increasingly wide array of products. Despite the fact that we are making consumer decisions in an emerging global community, people are still being taught how to be "good consumers", when actually the word consume means, "to destroy, use or expend". The enormous productive capacities and market forces of the planet have been committed to satisfying human needs and desires with little overall regard to the short-term or long-term future of life on the planet, or life in other nations or in future generations. There are many different types of consumers and they all need to be taken into account separately: teen, young adult, elderly, low income, disabled, illiterate, and ethnic. Each type of consumers need to be understood from the point of view of a global perspective; a global perspective that challenges materialism and promotes ecological responsibility, humanitarianism, well-being, consumer ethics and the Earth Community concepts. These concepts were developed to sustain Earth and they include world conditions, global problems and issues, global citizenship, stewardship of the ecosystem of the Earth, a moral and a spiritual community, universal values, and global interconnections.
Consumption in developing countries has risen much faster over decade than in the industrialized countries due to their high rate of population growth, fast urban development, increased motorization and industrialization. In the OECD countries, a decline in world prices does not usually stimulate consumption because taxes on oil products account for most of the price to end-users.
The Earth Community Organization is concerned with the sustainability of current levels and patterns of consumption and with the economic, political, personal, environmental, availability of resources, societal and spiritual impact of excessive, run-away consumption. About 20% of Earth’s people account for 80% of the world's total consumption. We have assigned ourselves the task of finding ways to make consumption, consumer rights and responsibilities:
* Fair to the well-being of others
* Socially responsible and sustainable to future generations
* In line with the universal values
* In line with human rights and responsibilities
Consumers' rights impinge on the rights of other humans living in Earth Community. The right to choice is the consumer right that refers to the right to have a range and variety of goods and services at competitive, fair prices and variable, satisfactory quality. In order to assure choice in the developed country markets, governments have implemented trade laws to facilitate cross border transactions and transnational corporations (TNCs) have set up business off shore so they can lessen the cost of the production process. The goods that are available in the developed country markets are provided by slave labour, child labour, sweatshops or in countries that allow the TNCs to forego adhering to pollution or ecological concerns and human rights in pursuit of profit. Labour rights are abused in efforts to earn more profits. This leads to abhorrent working conditions, job insecurity and low living standards (all human rights). Consumers in developed countries have been socialized to want more and more things to consume but have not been socialized to appreciate the impact of their consumption choices on the human rights of other people; that is, they are not being responsible for their decisions.
Responsible consumption within the Earth Community means:
Consumers operate in an impersonal market economy where they make choices unburdened by guilt or social obligations; they just have to be able to pay. But a typical global community consumer see himself/herself as part of a larger whole that is affected by a collectivity of individual consumption decisions and has to question the global integrity of purchasing a product, and will decide not to purchase at all if the integrity is being challenged.
Earth Community has initiated a global dialogue to discuss a sustainable development as a widely-discussed alternative to currently unsustainable economic development patterns. It is all the more attractive because it may be cast in terms compatible with the market economy. However, there must be a social dimension to the concept, a vision, for it to become a viable alternative to unrestrained economic growth. The Earth is no longer a self-regulating planetary system. Its future will depend on human action and the continuation of natural ecosystems will be achieved because people want them to be preserved. Acceptance of sustainable development by society may depend on cultural values and even spiritual notions about the relationship of humankind to the Earth.
People will not accept a view of sustainable development that recreates a technologically more advanced version of a basic peasant society, especially if they have only recently developed economically. For societies to accept a sustainable development and to continue to grow within, the new way of living must accept cultural diversity, encourage individual expression, allow social change, offer opportunity, and examine values. There must be ways to permit opportunity and growth without ecological compromise. Achieving sustainable development may therefore be linked with policies emphasizing community, the value of information, originality in ideas, and the arts.
Humanity embarks on a new path in history, the inevitability of World societies living, sharing, and creating economic partnerships interactively is, beyond doubt, that which we must confront. Our creativity today may influence tomorrow's socio-economic strategies and contribute to the evolution of human societies - an evolution directed towards a global partnership with each other, and, most importantly, with our natural environment. Many socio-political infrastructures created for global industries neglect the environment and do not promote environmental sustainability. It is proposed the restructuring of knowledge that governs society, a strategy aimed to change the focus of the capitalist economy and considered Indigenous peoples and their nurturing of spiritual and environmental partnership with nature - a valuable and integral part of their socio-economic structure.
A corporation will now be required to operate its business as per global ehtics:
Employing participatory approaches in identifying needs, solutions and designing specific mechanisms for poverty alleviation reduces the risk of program failure. Building the capacity of the poor to develop their own strategies for overcoming poverty and supporting these strategies enables us to ensure sustainability of poor people’s own initiatives. Poverty exists everywhere, and it takes dramatic forms in developing countries where governments have a hard time in coping with the basic needs and demands of their populations.
The distribution of wealth around the world demands more compassionate approaches to bridging the continuously widening gap between the rich and the poor. Understanding the economic and social development of a balance world is a priority of the Earth Community Organization. The eradication of poverty in the world is a priority and our responsibility. The interaction of poor health, poverty and environmental deterioration has been measured and was found to have a direct relationship with the stage of economic and social development of a country. Policies to combat poverty should not damage the environment. Environmental policies should not create poverty.
This requires:
* The diversification of production activities thereby reducing pressure on natural resources
* A major change in consumer habits so as to be compatible with the natural environment
* The development of technologies aimed at specific environmental and social conditions; 'clean' technologies that have less impact on the environment
Humanity has taken a new direction with globalization and the creation of planetary trade blocks. This new direction will lead to human misery and war, and our species reacts very strongly to such destructive ways. Business leaders are determined to rule the world in ways that will bring about the Peoples Revolution of the New Age .
Throughout History there have been major changes happening that have revolutionized our ways. They were social, political or religious revolutions. Political revolutions were always accompanied with deadly encounters. The most recent revolutions were the Bolshevik Revolution, French Revolution, American Revolution and the Chinese Revolution. Because of the lack of human compassion and disrespect of Earth and its community, planetary trading blocks will cause the event of the Peoples Revolution.
There is a way to make things right for all life on Earth. We have to face the fact that the Revolution is here and is growing. We see today the seeds of the Revolution: the Peoples Revolution of the New Age which includes all social, political and religious aspects of our lives. All of our ways and values are changing and evolving. Unless the Peoples Revolution is given the proper guidance, it will be more deadly than all we have seen in our past history put together. We can still avoid such an encounter. Actions by government and business leaders that lead to revolution and war must be curtailed. Power based on greed is not in the best interest of humanity as it leads to the violation of human rights and destruction. This time people will revolt against the business leaders and the establishment of business. They are the new leading body of the world. Businesses have taken the role of government and now hold largely the responsibility of wrongdoings. They will be held accountable for anything from the pollution of the planet, poverty, human rights violation, resources depletion, and disasters such as flooding and climate changes.
The world we see today aims at "making a profit" the most important aspect of our lives. The European Union uses an economic model based entirely on improving its economic edge in the world. Asia is following in the same step. Now the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) would also use a similar way of dealing with the other trade blocks of the planet.
Globalization and trade blocks are at the roots of the New Age Revolution. They are causing it.
Trade and globalization
One tends to be alarmed at the popular concept of globalization because it is based on greed. Globalization is here to stay and is a fact of life. The world has become global. Societies throughout the world are struggling to be in step with the most powerful nations. National economies and financial markets are connected through computer link-up and are interlocked. Commercial banking and business ownership has no economic or political borders. Because of the dynamic of trade in goods and services and because of the movement in capital and technology, production in different countries has become increasingly dependent on one another.
In consequence of globalization, the new economic and political distribution of power around the world has become very different then we were used to. It has become very intangible, in constant motion and affected by global markets. Giant new markets are forming all over the world. Competition is hardening. National economies can no longer insure or guarantee rights of possession on any property. National borders no longer mean protection, security, cultural boundaries, resources ownership, political and economic control.
Globalization and the trade blocks intensify all aspects of human life and are at the roots of the Peoples Revolution of the New Age . Globalization is a process interaction which involves growing economic interdependence of countries worldwide with implications and impacts on social, cultural, political, environmental and familial aspects and rights. Geographical and political limits become less and less significant.
Economic globalization is seen by the growing interaction and interdependence of the world's different nations and corporations. Interactions include capital flows, flows of material goods, and labour. Markets, technologies and consumption patterns gradually let go their national or local character and become international and global. Economic globalization leads to globally more standardized sets of products.
Political globalization facilitates the spread of individualism and thus Western consumer society.
Cultural globalization is concerned with a change of the different sets of values that are connected to tradition, religion and different political systems. Cultural globalization is fed by information passing geographical boundaries through communication systems and media, like TV, Internet, advertisement etc. Cultural globalization homogenizes the sets of value systems of different cultures via constantly evolving.
The globalization of consumption can be observed. Market analyses can prove the existence and the demand of certain products worldwide and the presence of corporations in different countries of the world. A globalization of consumption is actually taking place because we observe that certain products are sold with success all over the world. Globalization of consumption represents an environmental danger. The consumer society is blamed for causing the largest part of environmental problems through resource depletion, emissions and wastes.
Trade with developing countries
In multilateral trade, developing countries have three major concerns:
* The Uruguay Round has not done much to improve market access for their exports of goods and services.
* World Trade Organization(WTO) rules were found unbalanced in many important development related areas including the protection of intellectual property rights and use of industrial subsidies.
* Inadequate or inexistent human and financial resources have rendered impossible the use of opportunities offered by WTO to developing countries.
These concerns are not likely to find sound solutions within the FTAA.
People living in developing countries find no interest to enter into negotiations with wealthier trading partners. The increasing gap between rich and poor nations will make it even unlikely of successful multilateral trade negotiations.
The effects of globalization and the creation of planetary trade blocks give rise to global problems such as:
* unemployment in industrial nations
* poverty increases world-wide ~ entire countries in a state of starvation
* environmental degradation
* national interests of a country changing and becoming more trade oriented and trying to go with the wave of global trade
* international interests of a country take prime importance
* in developing countries, national debts constrict the institutions of the national state and contribute to the destruction of the economic activity which, in turn, as the effect of creating unemployment
* national currencies of many countries are affected by national debts and contribute in destroying social life, creating ethnic conflicts and civil wars
* the large corporation is becoming larger and getting more power and control falls into the hands of a few people
* globalization is another way of keeping control on our lives in the hands of a few people
* with globalization we have no control and no say in our future and the world becomes a game played by a few people just as it has always been throughout history, leading to revolutions and war
* with globalization there is no sense of direction and meaning, no security for the individual, just a few people getting richer and controlling us all
Trade and the world economic system
The globalization of the world economic system is proceeding at a very rapid pace, and is wrongly promoted as being welfare-improving. This phenomenon is also present in the arena of international finance. In this area, however, the presumed virtues of globalization are far from being materialized. Trends show that developing countries in the global economy are faced to achieve a stable economic growth by a faster growth. The global economy is unstable. Serious biases against the underprivileged exist. It was found that in the world's poorest countries the interactions between trading and financial systems have had significant negative impacts on their growth. Global capital movements have kept poverty and unemployment on the rise in developing countries. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening. This shows a failure of the new economic system of the world in building an equitable system of global economic governance. Most developing countries show a trend of widening trade deficits and falling or stagnant growth rates. Their efforts to close the payments gap through increased exports to developed countries have failed. An increase in exports required growth in world demand but world growth has been low. Export earnings were not sufficient in financing the debt.
A sound solution to trade issues
A new approach to trade and development issues was suggested: business leaders are to conduct their affairs with responsibility, cooperation and compassion. A larger flow of private foreign investment would accelerate further growth and bring stability. Progress on access to markets in industrialized countries is the key to overcoming the payments facing developing countries. The international trading system needs to be fair to all global economies. Their are aspects leading to unfair competition. Protectionism is at its highest in developed countries. For example, the heavy subsidization of agricultural output in the industrial countries cuts out imports from developing countries. Protectionism was also observed for industrial products such as clothing and textiles, low-tech and high-tech products. The industrialized countries were found to make use of antidumping procedures and health and safety standards against successful exporters in the developing countries.
Trade vs consumption
Perceiving and understanding the human population in its role as a consumer is very important because consumers collectively spend two thirds of a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). They buy and influence the purchase of an increasingly wide array of products. Despite the fact that we are making consumer decisions in an emerging global community, people are still being taught how to be "good consumers", when actually the word consume means, "to destroy, use or expend". The enormous productive capacities and market forces of the planet have been committed to satisfying human needs and desires with little overall regard to the short-term or long-term future of life on the planet, or life in other nations or in future generations. There are many different types of consumers and they all need to be taken into account separately: teen, young adult, elderly, low income, disabled, illiterate, and ethnic. Each type of consumers need to be understood from the point of view of a global perspective; a global perspective that challenges materialism and promotes ecological responsibility, humanitarianism, well-being, consumer ethics and the Earth Community concepts. These concepts were developed to sustain Earth and they include world conditions, global problems and issues, global citizenship, stewardship of the ecosystem of the Earth, a moral and a spiritual community, universal values, and global interconnections.
Consumption in developing countries has risen much faster over decade than in the industrialized countries due to their high rate of population growth, fast urban development, increased motorization and industrialization. In the OECD countries, a decline in world prices does not usually stimulate consumption because taxes on oil products account for most of the price to end-users.
The Earth Community Organization is concerned with the sustainability of current levels and patterns of consumption and with the economic, political, personal, environmental, availability of resources, societal and spiritual impact of excessive, run-away consumption. About 20% of Earth’s people account for 80% of the world's total consumption. We have assigned ourselves the task of finding ways to make consumption, consumer rights and responsibilities:
* Fair to the well-being of others
* Socially responsible and sustainable to future generations
* In line with the universal values
* In line with human rights and responsibilities
Consumers' rights impinge on the rights of other humans living in Earth Community. The right to choice is the consumer right that refers to the right to have a range and variety of goods and services at competitive, fair prices and variable, satisfactory quality. In order to assure choice in the developed country markets, governments have implemented trade laws to facilitate cross border transactions and transnational corporations (TNCs) have set up business off shore so they can lessen the cost of the production process. The goods that are available in the developed country markets are provided by slave labour, child labour, sweatshops or in countries that allow the TNCs to forego adhering to pollution or ecological concerns and human rights in pursuit of profit. Labour rights are abused in efforts to earn more profits. This leads to abhorrent working conditions, job insecurity and low living standards (all human rights). Consumers in developed countries have been socialized to want more and more things to consume but have not been socialized to appreciate the impact of their consumption choices on the human rights of other people; that is, they are not being responsible for their decisions.
Responsible consumption within the Earth Community means:
- Awareness of global dynamics, the state of the planet, and the differences of other cultures
- Being concerned with the impact of consumption and production on the environment
- Acceptance of notions of voluntary simplicity and conservation
- Knowing the consequences of resource management decisions
- Living a sustainable life style
- Be aware of the impacts of new and different technologies
- Be aware of the impacts of economic development on the integrity of both developed and developing local indigenous communities, infrastructures and natural environments
- Be aware of the impacts on human rights, political stability, societal well-being, cultural sustainability, familial well-being, quality of life and standards of living of other nations
- Be aware of the impacts of a decision made by a family living in developed country to consume a particular good on the household subsistence, production and community activity of a family living in a developing country; and be aware if that decision would affect poverty, potable water, food diversity, arable land, security from war, education, communications
Consumers operate in an impersonal market economy where they make choices unburdened by guilt or social obligations; they just have to be able to pay. But a typical global community consumer see himself/herself as part of a larger whole that is affected by a collectivity of individual consumption decisions and has to question the global integrity of purchasing a product, and will decide not to purchase at all if the integrity is being challenged.
Sound trade solutions within Earth Community
Earth Community has initiated a global dialogue to discuss a sustainable development as a widely-discussed alternative to currently unsustainable economic development patterns. It is all the more attractive because it may be cast in terms compatible with the market economy. However, there must be a social dimension to the concept, a vision, for it to become a viable alternative to unrestrained economic growth. The Earth is no longer a self-regulating planetary system. Its future will depend on human action and the continuation of natural ecosystems will be achieved because people want them to be preserved. Acceptance of sustainable development by society may depend on cultural values and even spiritual notions about the relationship of humankind to the Earth.
People will not accept a view of sustainable development that recreates a technologically more advanced version of a basic peasant society, especially if they have only recently developed economically. For societies to accept a sustainable development and to continue to grow within, the new way of living must accept cultural diversity, encourage individual expression, allow social change, offer opportunity, and examine values. There must be ways to permit opportunity and growth without ecological compromise. Achieving sustainable development may therefore be linked with policies emphasizing community, the value of information, originality in ideas, and the arts.
Humanity embarks on a new path in history, the inevitability of World societies living, sharing, and creating economic partnerships interactively is, beyond doubt, that which we must confront. Our creativity today may influence tomorrow's socio-economic strategies and contribute to the evolution of human societies - an evolution directed towards a global partnership with each other, and, most importantly, with our natural environment. Many socio-political infrastructures created for global industries neglect the environment and do not promote environmental sustainability. It is proposed the restructuring of knowledge that governs society, a strategy aimed to change the focus of the capitalist economy and considered Indigenous peoples and their nurturing of spiritual and environmental partnership with nature - a valuable and integral part of their socio-economic structure.
A corporation will now be required to operate its business as per global ehtics:
- Be concerned with issues such as climate change, bio-diversity, pollution prevention and adopt high standards
- Minimize environmental degradation and health impacts
- Be responsible for the environmental impact of its products and services throughout their cycle
- Adopt a wide environmental code, and policies, health and safety practices and procedures aimed at reducing resource and energy use in each stage of a product or service life-cycle
- Set up appropriate management systems to implement policies
- Conduct annual checks and balances and provide reports to the community
- Respect the political jurisdiction of national communities
- Respect human rights, social and cultural rights
- Recognize its political and economic impact on local communities
- Contribute to the long-term social, cultural, environmental and economic sustainability of the local communities
- Respect the rights of indigenous peoples, their culture and land, and their religious and social customs; provide employment and training opportunities
- Ensure that each employee is treated with respect and dignity and is not subjected to any physical, sexual, psychological or verbal harassment or abuse
- Respect employees' right to freedom of association, labour organization, and free collective bargaining
- Provide equal pay for work of equal value
- Recognize the responsibilities of all workers to their families, and provide for maternity leave, and paternity leave
- Ensure that their be no barriers to the full participation of women within the company
- Participate in the creation of child care centres and centres for the elderly and persons with disabilities where appropriate
- Ensure no discrimination on grounds of race, ethnicity, or culture
- Ensure that persons with disabilities who apply for jobs with the company receive fair treatment and are considered solely on their ability to do the job; provide resources and facilities which enable them to achieve progression in employment in the company
- Provide training to all employees to conduct their activities in an environmentally responsible manner
- Work with organizations concerned with children's rights, human rights and labour rights to ensure that young workers are not exploited
- Ensure that a mechanism is in place to address ethical issues of concern raised by employees
- Make sure that the company's policies balance the interests of managers, shareholders, employees, and other affected parties
- Adhere to international standards and protocols relevant to its products and services
- Adopt marketing practices which protect consumers and ensure the safety of all products
- Conduct or support research on the environmental impacts of raw materials, products, processes, emissions and wastes associates with the company and on the means of minimizing such adverse impacts
- Make a sustainable use of renewable natural resources such as water, soils and forests
- Conserve non-renewable natural resources through efficient use and careful planning
- Conserve energy and improve energy efficiency of internal operations and of the goods and services being sold
Employing participatory approaches in identifying needs, solutions and designing specific mechanisms for poverty alleviation reduces the risk of program failure. Building the capacity of the poor to develop their own strategies for overcoming poverty and supporting these strategies enables us to ensure sustainability of poor people’s own initiatives. Poverty exists everywhere, and it takes dramatic forms in developing countries where governments have a hard time in coping with the basic needs and demands of their populations.
The distribution of wealth around the world demands more compassionate approaches to bridging the continuously widening gap between the rich and the poor. Understanding the economic and social development of a balance world is a priority of the Earth Community Organization. The eradication of poverty in the world is a priority and our responsibility. The interaction of poor health, poverty and environmental deterioration has been measured and was found to have a direct relationship with the stage of economic and social development of a country. Policies to combat poverty should not damage the environment. Environmental policies should not create poverty.
This requires:
* The diversification of production activities thereby reducing pressure on natural resources
* A major change in consumer habits so as to be compatible with the natural environment
* The development of technologies aimed at specific environmental and social conditions; 'clean' technologies that have less impact on the environment
Back to top of page
Table of Contents
Preamble
Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age:
1. Compliance with the Divine Will
2. The Soul of Humanity
3. Global Concepts and Universal Values
4. The Scale of Human Rights
5. The People’s Grassroots Movement
6. The Measurement of Sustainable Development
7. Earth Management
8. Global Ethics
9. Respect and Care for the Community of Life
10. Ecological Integrity
11. Social and Economic Justice
12. Democracy, Nonviolence, and Peace
13. Earth Government
14. The Earth Court of Justice
15. The Statute of the Earth Court of Justice
2. The Soul of Humanity
3. Global Concepts and Universal Values
4. The Scale of Human Rights
5. The People’s Grassroots Movement
6. The Measurement of Sustainable Development
7. Earth Management
8. Global Ethics
9. Respect and Care for the Community of Life
10. Ecological Integrity
11. Social and Economic Justice
12. Democracy, Nonviolence, and Peace
13. Earth Government
14. The Earth Court of Justice
15. The Statute of the Earth Court of Justice
Chapter I: Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age (Articles 1-2)
Chapter II: Membership (Articles 3-7)
Chapter III: Principal Bodies of the Earth Community Organization(ECO) (Articles 8-9)
Chapter IV: The Elected Representatives Council (Articles 10-51)
Chapter V: The Earth Executive Council (Articles 52-170)
Chapter VI: The Earth Judiciary Council (Articles 171-185)
Chapter VII: The Earth Court of Justice (Articles 186-200)
Chapter VIII: The Earth Security Council (Articles 201-210)
Chapter IX: The Global Sustainable Society Council (Articles 211-220)
Chapter X: The Secretary- General (Articles 221-225)
Chapter XI: The Trusteeship Council and the Trusteeship System (Articles 226-239)
Chapter XII: Earth Security and Peace (Articles 240-247)
Chapter XIII: Settlement of Disputes (Articles 248-252)
Chapter XIV: Local Arrangements of Disputes (Articles 253-254)
Chapter XV: State and Citizen Participation to Legal Disputes (Articles 255-258)
Chapter XVI: The Global Community Assessment Centre(GCAC) (Articles 259-263)
Chapter XVII: Warning System on Environmental Hazards and Emergencies to Prevent Disasters from Happening (Articles 264-266)
Chapter XVIII: Rescues and Emergencies(Articles 267-270)
Chapter XIX: Global Economic and Social Co-operation (Articles 271-276)
Chapter XX: The Economic and Social Council (Articles 277-290)
Chapter XXI: Ethics, Policies and Management Practices to the Corporate Sector and Institutions (Articles 291-310)
Chapter XXII: The Scale of Human Rights (Articles 311-322)
Chapter XXIII: The Management of the Earth (Articles 323-330)
Chapter XXIV: Earth Government(Articles 331-337)
Chapter XXV: Statement Regarding Non-Self -Governing Territories (Articles 338-339)
Chapter XXVI: Resource Management and Control (Articles 340-345)
Chapter XXVII: Transitional Security Arrangements (Article 346)
Chapter XXVIII: Miscellaneous Provisions Articles 347-350)
Chapter XXIX: Amendments (Articles 351-352)
Chapter XXX: Ratification and Signature (Articles 353-355)
Chapter II: Membership (Articles 3-7)
Chapter III: Principal Bodies of the Earth Community Organization(ECO) (Articles 8-9)
Chapter IV: The Elected Representatives Council (Articles 10-51)
Chapter V: The Earth Executive Council (Articles 52-170)
Chapter VI: The Earth Judiciary Council (Articles 171-185)
Chapter VII: The Earth Court of Justice (Articles 186-200)
Chapter VIII: The Earth Security Council (Articles 201-210)
Chapter IX: The Global Sustainable Society Council (Articles 211-220)
Chapter X: The Secretary- General (Articles 221-225)
Chapter XI: The Trusteeship Council and the Trusteeship System (Articles 226-239)
Chapter XII: Earth Security and Peace (Articles 240-247)
Chapter XIII: Settlement of Disputes (Articles 248-252)
Chapter XIV: Local Arrangements of Disputes (Articles 253-254)
Chapter XV: State and Citizen Participation to Legal Disputes (Articles 255-258)
Chapter XVI: The Global Community Assessment Centre(GCAC) (Articles 259-263)
Chapter XVII: Warning System on Environmental Hazards and Emergencies to Prevent Disasters from Happening (Articles 264-266)
Chapter XVIII: Rescues and Emergencies(Articles 267-270)
Chapter XIX: Global Economic and Social Co-operation (Articles 271-276)
Chapter XX: The Economic and Social Council (Articles 277-290)
Chapter XXI: Ethics, Policies and Management Practices to the Corporate Sector and Institutions (Articles 291-310)
Chapter XXII: The Scale of Human Rights (Articles 311-322)
Chapter XXIII: The Management of the Earth (Articles 323-330)
Chapter XXIV: Earth Government(Articles 331-337)
Chapter XXV: Statement Regarding Non-Self -Governing Territories (Articles 338-339)
Chapter XXVI: Resource Management and Control (Articles 340-345)
Chapter XXVII: Transitional Security Arrangements (Article 346)
Chapter XXVIII: Miscellaneous Provisions Articles 347-350)
Chapter XXIX: Amendments (Articles 351-352)
Chapter XXX: Ratification and Signature (Articles 353-355)
Introductory Note |
We the Peoples of the Earth Community are reaffirming faith in the fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and smalll. We the Peoples implies every individual on Earth. Earth management is now a priority and a duty of every responsible person on Earth. The Earth Community Organization (ECO) has taken action by calling the Divine Will into our lives and following its guidance. Divine Will is now a part of the Soul of Humanity to be used for the higher purpose of good and Life's evolution. We will learn to serve humanity and radiate the Will of God to others. We will establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and we promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.
The spiritual belief, universal values, principles and aspirations of the New Age will be attained by:
* practicing tolerance and living together in peace and harmony with one another as neighbours,
* promoting the economic and social advancement of all peoples,
* maintaining peace and security in the world by using negotiations and peaceful means,
* finding unity in diversity with all Life,
* establishing the respect for the life-support system of the planet,
* creating activities guided by the Soul of Humanity,
* keeping Earth healthy, productive and hospitable for all people and living things, and
* applying the principle that when there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as opposed to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss.
Preamble |
The Charter of the Earth Community is a declaration of interdependence and responsibility and an urgent call to build a global partnership for sustainable development. It is a commitment to Life and its evolution to bring humanity to God. Earth Community has focused people aspirations toward a unique goal: humanity survival now and in the future along with all Life on Earth.
The "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age" of the Charter are closely interrelated. Together they provide a conception of sustainable development and set forth fundamental guidelines for achieving it; they were drawn from international law, science, philosophy, religion, and they were discussed as research papers during the World Congress on Managing and Measuring Sustainable Development - Global Community Action 1 held in August 2000. They are also a part of the August 2002 global dialogue on Earth Management - all Peoples together.
The goal of sustainable development is full human development and ecological protection. The Charter recognizes that humanity's environmental, economic, social, cultural, ethical, spiritual problems and aspirations are interconnected. It affirms the need for holistic thinking and collaborative, integrated problem solving. Sustainable development requires such an approach. It is about freedom, justice, participation, and peace as well as environmental protection and economic well-being.
The Divine Will was drawn to humanity and is now a part of the Soul of Humanity. The goals of the Divine Will are to enable each one of us to create the higher purpose of humanity, evolve spiritually, serve the greater plan of humanity and evolution of all Life. As never before in history, common destiny beckons us to seek a new beginning. Such renewal is the promise of these Charter "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age". To fulfill this promise, we must commit ourselves to adopt and promote the values and objectives of the Charter.
This requires a change of mind and heart. It requires a new sense of global interdependence and universal responsibility. We must imaginatively develop and apply the vision of a sustainable way of life locally, nationally, regionally, and globally. Our cultural diversity is a precious heritage and different cultures will find their own distinctive ways to realize the vision. We must deepen and expand the global dialogue that generated the Charter, for we have much to learn from the ongoing collaborative search for truth and wisdom.
Life often involves tensions between important values. This can mean difficult choices. However, we must find ways to harmonize diversity with unity, the exercise of freedom with the common good, short-term objectives with long-term goals. Every individual, family, organization, and community has a vital role to play. The arts, sciences, religions, educational institutions, media, businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and governments are all called to offer creative leadership. The partnership of government, civil society, and business is essential for effective governance.
In order to build a sustainable global community, each individual, each local community, and national governments of the world must initiate their commitment to the Earth Community Organization, fulfill their obligations under existing international agreements, and support the implementation of Charter principles with an international legally binding instrument on environment and development.
Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for Life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life. Our expanding consciousness will blend with that of the Soul of Humanity.
Humanity welcomes the "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age" with Faith in the Divine Will and without fears such as the fear of change. Humanity seeks meaningfull experiences and embraces the future for the better. Divine Will brings forth a sustainable global society embracing universal values related to human rights, economic and social justice, respect of nature, peace, responsibility to one another, and the protection and management of the Earth. Everyone on Earth shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of Life within Earth Community.
Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age: |
1. Compliance with the Divine Will
The Divine Will is the most powerful force of the Universe and is pure spiritual energy. Divine Will becomes a force in our lives enabling each one of us to create the higher purpose of humanity, evolve spiritually and serve the greater plan of humanity and evolution of all Life. When Divine Will is called into humanity it supersedes personal will, government will and the will of any other organization or institution. Divine Will transforms the will and desires of every human being to reflect the Soul of Humanity's purpose and the Divine Plan for Life on Earth. Once the will of humanity has merged with the Divine Will, we will no longer remember what we were like before. The new consciousness will be taken for granted as if we were always this way. The Vision of the Divine Plan can then be seen.
Divine Will was drawn to humanity. Divine Will is a part of the Soul of Humanity to be used for the higher purpose of good and Life's evolution. The Earth Community Organization (ECO) has taken action by calling the Divine Will into our lives and following its guidance. The Light of God's Spirit flows into the Soul of Humanity and into each one of us. Every human being will now live a life through the eyes of the Soul of Humanity and, as a group, according to the Divine Will and inspired by Love. Every human being will identify with the Soul of Humanity thus making possible to understand the unique place we have in the Universe and the special higher purpose we have to accomplish as a group. We will become aware of all other Souls throughout the Universe. Our expanding consciousness is important for humanity. We will blend our consciousness with that of the Soul of Humanity. It is important that new activities be created that is of value to the Soul of Humanity. ECO will assist the group effort in pursuing those actions that represent humanity's higher purpose and our identification with Life. We will learn to serve humanity and radiate the Will of God to others.
Divine Will is transmitted into our personal will and desires and help us to evolve, move forward in our lives and deal with all community problems or issues. All beliefs, motivations and goals that do not represent true Soul activity will go away. The Soul of Humanity and God the Spirit will reweave the fabric of our lives so we can see our path with a clear mind and see creative ways to evolve, learn, grow and expand our consciousness.
The Soul of Humanity shows us the way to:
* fulfill our dreams;
* support and care for ourselves and as a unified group;
* find creative new ways and conduct creative new actions for our well-being and the quality of our lives;
* value our spiritual growth;
* honor and respect ourselves, and as a group; and
* release any beliefs, thoughts, motivations and goals that do not honor us.
* support and care for ourselves and as a unified group;
* find creative new ways and conduct creative new actions for our well-being and the quality of our lives;
* value our spiritual growth;
* honor and respect ourselves, and as a group; and
* release any beliefs, thoughts, motivations and goals that do not honor us.
We will assist humanity in its evolution. A new beginning! All possibilities stand in front of us, and we can create anything we want in accordance with the higher purpose of the Soul of Humanity. Our mind will link and merge with the mind of the Soul of Humanity thus enabling us to synthesize knowledge and information in a flash. Our mind will be filled with new ideas, revelations, that reflect God's ideals, and we will see God's Pure Light. We will feel the radiating Love from the Soul of Humanity, its gentleness, its kindness, its compassion, its forgiveness, its serenity, a sense of deep Peace, and its creative intelligence pouring into us. Spirit is within each one of us. There is an inner Peace within Spirit, a pure awareness of all of humanity, all Life, and of all the Universe. Spirit knows the Divine Will or Will of God. It is in contact with God the Creator of the Universe.
Humanity welcomes the "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age" with Faith in the Divine Will and without fears such as the fear of change. Humanity seeks meaningfull experiences and embraces the future for the better. Divine Will brings forth a sustainable global society embracing universal values related to human rights, economic and social justice, respect of nature, peace, responsibility to one another, and the protection and management of the Earth. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of Life within Earth Community. Old values and beliefs that no longer serve the greater good and the higher purpose of the Soul of Humanity are left behind. Divine Will is about helping humanity find:
* Why we are all important to "Earth
Community"?
* What is important to each one of us ?
* What is really good to humanity?
* What is needed to keep the good things?
* What could make them even better?
* What we could do to keep the good things good?
* What is most important to sustain Earth, all of humanity and all Life?
* What is very important?
* What is not so important?
* What is not good?
* Could good things help get rid of bad things?
* What unimportant things need to go?
* How could you help get rid of these things?
Being unified under the Soul of Humanity, Divine Will, God the Spirit and the Earth Community Organization dissolve all barriers and expand our consciousness. We become more whole and complete within ourselves and as a group. Our common Spirit is able to resolve planetary problems in a coherent way. One common global Vision allows us to see how all the parts of the whole relate to each other. We have the right relationship with one another, with all life forms and Earth itself, and with the Soul of Humanity, the Divine Will and God the Spirit.
Our Vision shows us how to:
* love and what is to be loved;
* experience Divine Love;
* heal humanity;
* see what is truly important and bring it about through awareness;
* serve others within Earth Community in the highest way;
* lead and educate;
* understand and act upon our feelings and behaviors in a positive way; and
* find unity in diversity with all Life.
* experience Divine Love;
* heal humanity;
* see what is truly important and bring it about through awareness;
* serve others within Earth Community in the highest way;
* lead and educate;
* understand and act upon our feelings and behaviors in a positive way; and
* find unity in diversity with all Life.
Compliance with the Divine Will is about creating a new kind of global civilization in alignment with the Divine Plan:
* respect for the life-support system of the planet;
* mutual love and respect;
* a sense of unity in diversity; and
* creating activities guided by the Soul of Humanity.
* mutual love and respect;
* a sense of unity in diversity; and
* creating activities guided by the Soul of Humanity.
Compliance with the Divine Will expands our mind to see clearly local and global impacts amongst the interactions of the environment, resources, economic development and social aspects. We will see issues in relation to many other issues and find sound solutions (win/win solutions) to problems in accordance with the Divine Plan. When there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as opposed to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss.
Compliance with the Divine Will brings about the event of Peace in the world by creating harmony, unity and balance where there is conflict. Divine Will creates harmony between ourselves and others in the community, and respects each person ways. Humanity accepts a wide range of ideals, beliefs, values, principles and aspirations of the New Age. Divine Will brings in peace and goodwill.
Compliance with the Divine Will can help us think clearly and globally about issues so that we will know with certainty what to do. A sense of direction is found. We blend with the Soul of Humanity's mind and think as the Soul with objectivity, accuracy and precision. We will hold a one-pointed focus and be devoted and fearless to our higher purpose and goals.
2. The Soul of Humanity
The Soul of Humanity is a wonderful loving Being made up of all the Souls of humanity, the Souls of all lifeforms on Earth and the Soul of Earth itself. This is what Souls do best, and it is to unify and better serve God. They have merged together to better serve God. Souls can evolve as well and they have. They have formed a new Being, the Soul of Humanity, to better serve God. The Soul of Humanity is helping to bring about the event of Peace in the world. Knowing that Earth is a spiritual entity as well as a physical entity in space and time in the Universe we begin to have a better relationship with Earth and with all its living inhabitants. This way Earth management will become a spiritual and a natural process whereby each person is responsible and accountable for its management the best they can. Peace in the world and Earth management have for too long been in the hands of and affected by government and business leaders, in the hands of a few people on the planet, as opposed to being in the hands of all of us (over 6 billion people on Earth) working together to keep our planet healthy. We are the keepers of the Earth.
Over the past thousands of years, our species has gone through all sorts of loops and dead ends but we are who we are today: hopeful, imaginative, creative, demanding, powerful, diversified, changing, evolving, intelligent, resourceful, and a kilometre length of skills, qualifications and strengths. We have what it takes to manage Earth wisely and keep it healthy. Respect for Earth is very important to the success of our goal.
The Soul of Humanity will:
* resolve problems, concerns and issues peacefully
* reinstate the respect for Earth
* keep Earth healthy, productive and hospitable for all people and living things
Good Souls have joined forces to bring forth a sustainable global society embracing universal values related to human rights, economic and social justice, respect of nature, peace, responsibility to one another, and the protection and management of the Earth. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of life within Earth Community. When there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as opposed to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss.
3. Global Concepts and Universal Values
A) The Glass Bubble concept of "a Global Community"
The Glass Bubble was designed to illustrate the concept of 'a global community'. It is an imaginary space enclosed in a glass bubble. Inside this is everything a person can see: above to the clouds, below into the waters
of a lake or in the earth, to the horizons in front, in back, and on the sides.
Every creature, every plant, every person, every structure that is visible to
him(her) is part of this "global community."
Look up, look down, to the right, to the left, in front and behind you. Imagine all this space is inside a giant clear glass bubble. This is "a global community."
Wherever you go, you are inside a "global
community". Every thing, every living creature there, interacts one upon the
other. Influences inter-weave and are responsible for causes and effects. Worlds
within worlds orbiting in and out of one another's space, having their being.
Your presence has influence on everything else inside your immediate global
community.
To interact knowledgeably within one's global community has to
be learned. All life forms interact and depend upon other life forms for survival.
Ignorance of nature's law causes such damage, and working in harmony with nature produces such good results.
The concept of the Glass Bubble can be extended to include the planet Earth and all the "global communities" contained therein.
The following definition of The Global Community is
appropriate:
"The Global Community is defined as being all
that exits or occurs at any location at any time between the Ozone layer above
and the core of the planet below." The technical definition being "a sound balance among the
interactions of the impacts (positive and/or negative), or stresses, on the four
major quality systems: People, Economic Development, Environment and
Availability of Resources," and
The none-technical definition being "a sound balance among the
interactions designed to create a healthy economic growth, preserve
environmental quality, make a wise use of our resources, and enhance social
benefits."
When there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as opposed to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss. The Earth Community Organization
can help you to realize your actions by coordinating efforts efficiently together.
B)
The following graphics was designed to illustrate the meaning of sustainable
development and other global concepts. It is the basis for understanding:
* that Earth is a spiritual Being, a part of the Soul of Humanity
* interactions between the four major quality systems (small circles, not to scale) shown here
* that the ecosystem and life-support system of the planet (the large circle around the planet) are much more important for all of humanity and other lifeforms
* the reason for developing and implementing the Scale of Human Rights
* the search of sound solutions and therefore a sound balance amongst interactions
* the measurement and evaluation of the impact equation
* the development and use of indicators and indices
* the reason for creating the Earth Community Organization and Earth Government
* Earth management
C) Universal Values
Our universal values are meant to bring together the billions of people around the world for the good of all humanity. These values are the common grounds to start a new global dialogue. East and West talking; capitalism and communism, all different political and social philosophies and structures reaching to one another, compromising, changing, letting go old ways that dont work, creating new ways that do, and finding what is very important to ensure a sound future for Earth. All peoples on Earth will now join forces to bring forth a sustainable global society embracing universal values related to human rights, economic and social justice, respect of nature, peace, responsibility to one another, and the protection and management of the Earth. Everyone shares responsibility for the present and future well-being of life within Earth Community.
The following universal values were obtained during the World Congress on Managing and Measuring Sustainable Development - Global Community Action 1 held in August 2000. They are now an integral part of the Charter of the Earth Community.
a.
Working together to keep our planet healthy, productive and hospitable for all people and living things. This requires quality relationships and responsibility to one-self and others, and dealing wisely with consumption, work, finances, health, resources, community living, family, life purpose, wildlife and the Earth.
b.
We are committed to be responsible to ourselves and to one another, and to sustaining Earth. The key is personal responsibility and accountability. Therefore the individual is the important element, one who takes responsibility for his/her community. As previously defined, an 'individual' here may either be a person, a corporation, a NGO, a local community, a group of people, organizations, businesses, a nation, or a government.
c.
Apply a wellness approach in dealing with physical well-being. There is a multitude of influences shaping family life and its well-being. Wellness is a concept related to physical well-being. It is a new health paradigm replacing the old model of doctors, drugs, and treating symptoms. Spiritual well-being deals with mental, emotional and spiritual as well as physical health. Instead of blaming the doctor for an illness and expecting insurance companies and government to pick up the health care tab, a wellness approach places personal responsibility as part of the solution.
d.
All cultures and nations value the family as an important social unit. The family is the basic social unit of the Earth Community.
e.
Earth Community is becoming pluralistic. Recognition and respect of this pluralism is a necessity for the survival of mankind. The history of humanity has always been that of an increasingly more complex interrelationship between its members. Clans to tribes, to nations, to empires, and to today's economic and political alliances. Societies have become global and communications have made us all 'neighbours'. Massive migrations within and among countries have contributed to increasing contacts between human beings of different origins, religions, ideologies, and moral-value systems.
f.
Earth Community recognizes that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Freedom is both a principle and a value. It is because human beings are free that they are subject of law and are creators and holders of rights. Freedom and human rights are therefore basic to each other. Equality and freedom are therefore accepted and enshrined as universal values by which the Earth Community Organization will governed its affairs. As universal values they are concerned with our ability to decide, to choose values and to participate in the making of laws, and they are dependent on the recognition of other people. These values forbid any form of discrimination on the grounds of race, nationality, sex, religion, age or mother tongue. By accepting both values of freedom and equality we can achieve justice. One can be answerable for one's actions in a 'just' way only if judgements are given in the framework of democratically established laws and courts. Social justice is another universal value to which Earth Community aspires and accepts as a universal value. Social justice consists in sharing wealth with a view to greater equality and the equal recognition of each individual's merits. Human rights and democracy are closely intertwined. 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 were present during the August 2000 World Congress as we have dialogue and debate on the rights of different people and their accompanying obligations and responsibilities as human beings. These freedoms can exist everywhere.
g.
An adequate level of health care is a universal value as well as a human right. We expect adequate health services to be accessible, affordable, compassionate and socially acceptable. The Earth Community Organization is proposing that every individual of a society is co-responsible for helping in implementing and managing health programmes along with the government and the public institutions.
h.
There are universal quality of life values which lead to "human betterment" or the improvement of the human condition. In addition to the value of species survival (human and other living organisms), they include: adequate resources, justice and equality, freedom, and peace or balance of power. A better quality of life for all people of the Earth Community is a goal for all of us and one of our universal values.
i.
For a community to be sustainable there has to be a general social and economical well-being throughout the community. Health is the basic building block of this well-being. Health is a complex state involving mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, social and economical well-being. Health promotion generates living and working conditions that are safe, stimulating, satisfying and enjoyable. To reach a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, a community must be able to identify and to realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change with the environment. The overall guiding principle for the community is the need to encourage reciprocal maintenance, to take care of each other and the environment. The important part of the thinking in both community health and ecological sustainability is the need to find a sense of community as a crucial aspect of a healthy individual development.
j.
The Charter of the Earth Community is a declaration by every human being to the commitment of responsibility to themselves and to one another, and to sustaining Earth. The key is personal responsibility and accountability. Therefore the individual is the important element, one who takes responsibility for his/her community. As previously defined (see Vision in http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/vdufour2000/Vision2024.html), an 'individual' here may either be a person, a corporation, a NGO, a local community, a group of people, organizations, businesses, a nation, or a government. We are all working together to keep our planet healthy, productive and hospitable for all people and living things. This requires quality relationships and responsibility to one-self and others, and dealing wisely with consumption, work, finances, health, resources, community living, family, life purpose, wildlife and the Earth. We are also all accountable to others about our actions and the things we do throughout our lives.
k.
The Charter of the Earth Community is an acceptance and commitment about peace, freedom, social and economic well-being, ecological protection, global ethics and spiritual values; it also recognizes the interactions between aspects included in the major quality systems such as: economic, environmental, social, and the availability of resources.
l.
Responsibility and accountability are universal values. Every individual on Earth is responsible and accountable for their action(s).
Note:
All universal values obtained during the World Congress were listed in the Proceedings on the website and are found at:
http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/gdufour2000/WebNet4/Universal.htm
4. The Scale of Human Rights
A healthy environment is essential to long term prosperity and well-being, and citizens in Earth Community demand a high level of ecological protection. This is the 'raison d'etre' of the Scale of Human Rights.
Primordial human rights are those human rights that individuals have by virtue of their very existence as human beings: to live, eat, drink fresh water, breath clean air, and have shelter. These rights are separate categories than ecological rights, the right of the greatest number of people, economic rights, social rights, cultural rights and religious rights. Ecological and primordial human rights are the only rights that have existed unchanged throughout the evolutionary origin of our species. Any major change would have threatened our very existence. All other human rights listed here are rights created by human beings and can be changed depending of new circumstances; they are not stagnant but are rather flexible and adaptive, and they can evolve. Ecological and primordial human rights of this generation and of future generations are therefore much more important than any other human rights existing now and in the future.
This is the reason for drawing the Scale of Human Rights as shown here:
* Ecological rights
* Primordial human rights
* The ecological and primordial human
rights of future generations
* The right that the greatest number
of people has by virtue of its number (50% plus one) and after voting democratically
representatives to Earth Government
* Economic rights (business and consumer
rights with their responsibilities and accountabilities) and social rights
(civil and political rights)
* Cultural rights and religious rights
In this way the Scale of Human Rights gives us a 'sense of direction' for future planning and managing of the Earth. Earth management is now well defined and becomes a goal to achieve. We no longer waste energy and resources in things that are absolutely unimportant.
Note:
The Scale of Human Rights was brought forward during the World Congress in August 2000, and it was discussed further in the December 2000 and March 2001 Newsletters.
5. The People’s Grassroots Movement
The Earth Community organization was first introduced 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, 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 Webpage. For now only one
director position was filled during the August 2000 World Congress: the President
of the organization is Joseph-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 Earth Community Organization.
This is the founding group of the Earth
Community Organization, the Interim Earth Government, global community concepts and universal values.
Over the past decades, Earth Community has initialized the People's Participation Grassroots Movement in wanting what is rightfully ours to manage: Earth. 'We the Peoples' of the Earth are now set with one goal, one direction, that is to protect and manage Earth for our generation and for all of the others to come. We are the hopes of humanity. We are now developing the foundation of Earth Government, the highest aspirations of humanity, a Vision of the most powerful reform in the History of Humanity. People from all over the planet are developing models for Earth Government, the greatest of all hopes. Human consciousness has evolved and will seek no rest until Earth Government has come to life.
Societies seek to form a democratically elected Earth Government, one representative per million people. Over six thousands representatives will be managing Earth. The Middle Age feudal Kingdom has evolved to become a planetary government where representatives are making decisions on behalf of their communities. In the Vision of Earth in Year 2024 governing now requires participation from every person on Earth. National governments have turn over to their citizens the responsibility and accountability of local and global problems. Finding sound solutions to problems and making decisions is no longer accomplished behind closed doors but is now a process requiring everyone's participation. National governments and Earth Government have made democracy a living and a spiritual process for the good of all of humanity. Participation is now a necessity. Participation, global concepts, universal values and the Scale of Human Rights are being taught at the school level. Earth Community has focused societies aspirations toward a unique goal: humanity survival now and in the future along with all life on Earth.
6. The Measurement of Sustainable Development
The evaluation of sustainable development is a tool and a process allowing us to evaluate decisions which we feel must be made now in order to reach our objective: to sustain Earth and all of humanity. All impacts and their associated action-decisions are evaluated. A measurement of the current performance gives us a basis for comparison to see how far we are in reaching our objective.
An evaluation of sustainable development consists of ranking risks relative to each other and finding which practice is better than another. A scale of good practices emphasizes the quantifiable aspects of all impacts, compares them to each other, and makes a judgment as to which impacts must be our priorities now in Earth Community. Assigning values to impacts is part of the combined social, environmental, resources and economic accounting system that covers not only the conventional economic indicators (GDP, GNP, etc.) but also such matters as the costs of restoring a damaged environment and effects of economic activities on health.
A scale of good pratices is based on and would have to satisfy what it means to fulfill the requirements of sustainable development. We will fulfill the requirements for a sustainable development by implementing economic activity that can advance sustainability by:
a) reducing per capita consumption of energy and resources;
b) reducing energy and resource content per unit of output;
c) reducing waste discharges per unit of output and in total;
d) decreasing wastage of natural resources during harvesting and processing, thus increasing the amount put to productive use.
We will fulfill the requirements for a sustainable development by implementing various conservation strategies such as:
a) the maintenance of ecological succession, soil regeneration and protection, the recycling of nutrients and the cleansing of air and water;
b) the preservation of biological diversity, which forms the basis of life on Earth and assures our foods, many medicines and industrial products;
c) the sustainable use of ecosystems and species such as fish, wildlife, forests, agricultural soils and grazing lands so that harvests do not exceed rates of regeneration required to meet future needs;
d) the use of non-renewable resources in a manner that will lead to an economy that is sustainable in the long term. This will require the development of renewable substitutes;
e) the reduction in soil erosion by changing farming practices.
We will fulfill the requirements for a sustainable development by developing a combined social and economic accounting system that covers not only the conventional economic indicators (GDP, GNP, etc.) but also such matters as soil depletion, forest degeneration, the costs of restoring a damaged environment and the effects of economic activity on health.
We will fulfill the requirements for a sustainable development by creating tests for sustainability:
a) the amount of arable land and forest that is being lost;
b) the amount of silt in rivers coming from eroded farm fields;
c) the loss of large numbers and even whole species of wildlife;
d) the positive and negative impact of process and products on health;
e) the impact of development on the stock of non-renewable resources such as oil, gas, metals and minerals;
f) the impact of waste products;
g) the ability of new proposals to implement cleaner and more resource-efficient techniques and technologies.
We will fulfill the requirements for a sustainable development by being committed to make forest management to include getting more value out of the wood. This means wasting less of the trees that are cut and making better use of what are now considered non-commercial tree speices.
We will fulfill the requirements for a sustainable development by requiring formal Impact Assessment for all major projects so as to predict the sustainability of these developments and determine whether impacts can be mitigated.
We will fulfill the requirements for a sustainable development by using essential elements of an adequate urban and rural development:
a) suitable community facilities and services;
b) decent housing and health care;
c) personal security from crime;
d) educational and cultural opportunities;
e) family stability;
f) efficient and safe transportation;
g) land planning;
h) an atmosphere of social justice;
i) aesthetic satisfaction;
j) responsive government subject to community participation in decision-making;
k) energy conservation and energy efficiency are part of the decision-making process and made part of the community design;
l) the application of the 4 Rs is integrated in the community design;
m) community businesses, working areas, play areas, social and cultural areas, education areas, and training areas;
n) the use of renewable energy sources, central heating where possible, and cogeneration of electricity are made part of the community design when possible;
o) the form of community development integrates concepts such as cooperation, trust, interdependence, stewardship, and mutual responsibility;
p) promote self-sufficiency in all areas such as energy, garbage, food and sewage disposal;
q) rely on locally-produced goods.
At the end, a Scale of Good Practices is developed not only from what it means to fulfill the requirements of a sustainable development but also from the perspective of keeping us all healthy and sustaining Earth to make it happen.
Health is created and lived by people within a community: where they work, learn, play, and love. Health is a complex state involving mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, economical and social well-being. Each community can develop its own ideas of what a healthy community is by looking at its own situation, and finding its own solutions. Health promotion generates living and working conditions that are safe, stimulating, satisfying and enjoyable. To reach a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, a community must be able to identify and to realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change with the environment. The overall guiding principle for the community is the need to encourage reciprocal maintenance, to take care of each other and the environment. The important part of the thinking in both community health and ecological sustainability is the need to find a sense of community as a crucial aspect of healthy individual development.
Developing a scale of values and designing and testing quality indicators is the most important task. The Gross Environmental Sustainable Development Index (GESDI) is quantitatively describing quality indicators rather than merely measuring different variables. GESDI includes all possible aspects, all physical, biological, health, social and cultural components which routinely influences the lives of individuals and communities. If we are to achieve effective evaluation of quality, comprehensive data are needed about the status and changes of the variables. Optimally, these data may be organized in terms of indices that in some fashion aggregate relevant data. These indices are in turn used to predict the impact of public and private actions, assess conditions and trends, and determine the effectiveness of programs in all areas. For instance, reliable data are needed to evaluate the effects of human activities on the environment and to determine what possible actions that can be done to ameliorate the adverse effects. The quality of urban environment constitutes a major test of the level of the well-being of a nation as a society. Essential elements of an adequate urban environment include the following parts:
* Health care system, * Educational system, * Seniors'care, * Food chain, nutrition, * Population growth, * Farming communities, * Parks, * Psychological, biological, genetics and evolution, * Spiritual pathways, * Entertainment, * Quality of life, customs and beliefs, information access, communication, aesthetics * Decent housing, suitable community services, * Pollution, waste, * An atmosphere of social justice, * Family stability, * Religion, * Infrastructures and facilities, land planning, * Juvenile crimes, gangs, drugs, illiteracy, * Socio-cultural and political influences, multi-culturalism, laws, * Anthropological, Aboriginals, Natives issues.
Knowing what are the important elements of sustainable development allows us to structure indicators into major areas such as demographic data; the economic data of the individual, family, and household; the status of the region's economy; housing, community facilities, and aesthetic quality; social quality. Here also the weights given to the different segments of the evaluation were obtained or guess-estimated from the results of the Survey on the Scale of Values.
An other indicator was developed to measure the costs of development: the Gross Sustainable Development Product (GSDP). The GSDP is defined as the total value of production within a region over a specified period of time. It is measured using market prices for goods and services transactions in the economy. The GSDP is designed to replace the Gross Development Product (GDP) as the primary indicator of the economic performance of a nation.
The GSDP takes into accounts:
· the economic impacts of environmental and health degradation or improvement, resource depletion or findings of new stocks, and depreciation or appreciation of stocks;
· the impact of people activity on the environment, the availability of resources, and economic development;
· the "quality" of the four major quality systems and the impacts of changes in these systems on national income and wealth;
· global concerns and their impacts on the economy;
· the welfare, economic development and quality of life of future generations; · expenditures on pollution abatement and clean-ups, people health, floods, vehicle accidents, and on any negative impact costs;
· the status of each resource and the stocks and productive capacities of exploited populations and ecosystems, and make sure that those capacities are sustained and replenished after use; and
· the depreciation or appreciation of natural assets, the depletion and degradation of natural resources and the environment, ecological processes and biological diversity, the costs of rectifying unmitigated environmental damage, the values of natural resources, capital stocks, the impacts of degradation or improvement, social costs, health costs, environmental clean-up costs, and the costs of the environment, economic growth, and resources uses to current and future generations and to a nation’s income.
The measurement of GSDP shows that consumption levels can be maintained without depleting and depreciating the quality and quantity of services. It indicates the solutions to the problems as well as the directions to take, such as:
· invest in technology, R & D, to increase the end-use efficiency;
· increase productivity;
· modify social, educational programs and services;
· slow down or increase economic growth;
· remediate components of the four major quality systems; and
· rectify present shortcomings of income and wealth accounts.
The measurement of GSDP also gives a proper and sound signal to the public, government and industry about the rate and direction of economic growth; it identifies environmental, health, and social quality; it identifies sustainable and unsustainable levels of resource and environmental uses; it measures the success or failure of
sustainable development policies and practices; and it identifies resource scarcity. Values obtained enable us to make meaningful comparisons of sustainable development between cities, provinces, nations over the entire planet.· increase productivity;
· modify social, educational programs and services;
· slow down or increase economic growth;
· remediate components of the four major quality systems; and
· rectify present shortcomings of income and wealth accounts.
A status report of all physical accounts show the physical state and availability of resources and the state of the environment. Examples of the physical stock accounts are:
• minerals • oil, gas and coal • forests
• wildlife • agricultural • soils • fish
• protected wilderness areas • flow rate of water
Valuation in terms of money accounts is difficult for some non-market values such as:
* aesthetic satisfaction * air quality * water quality
* soil carrying capacity and productivity * acid rain deposition
* biodiversity * wilderness and protected areas * land productivity
GESDI can be obtained for these quality indicators that are difficult to give a money value to. Both the GESDI and GSDP are measured together and tell us about the quality and cost of development, locally and globally.
Measurements of GESDI and GSDP provide insights for the discussion of issues such as :
· Is the actual rate of development too slow or too fast?
· Are People aspects being stressed too far?
· Are resources and the environment managed in a sustainable manner?
· What forms of community and home designs promote sustainability?
· In what ways should social, educational, and health programs and services be modified?
· Is this generation leaving to the future generation a world that is at least as diverse and productive as the one it inherited?
· What improvements can be brought up to the quality of development?
· Are People aspects being stressed too far?
· Are resources and the environment managed in a sustainable manner?
· What forms of community and home designs promote sustainability?
· In what ways should social, educational, and health programs and services be modified?
· Is this generation leaving to the future generation a world that is at least as diverse and productive as the one it inherited?
· What improvements can be brought up to the quality of development?
7. Earth Management
This third millennium is a new challenge. New standards, goals and objectives have to be defined. Firm universal guidelines are essentials in keeping the world healthy. When a group of ordinary people realized they, personally, will make the changes they need in their fields, in their village, in their communities, they can then find ways to bring about these changes for all. There is a wisdom in the ways of very humble people that needs to be utilized. Every humble person deserves to have ideas respected, and encouraged to develop his or her own life for the better. Sound solutions to help manage and sustain Earth will very likely be found this way. Everyone can help assess the needs of the planet and propose sound solutions for its proper management, present and future. Everyone can think of better ideas to sustain all life on Earth and realize these ideas by conducting positive and constructive actions. When there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as opposed to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss; that is the grassroots process. Earth Community Organization can help you realized your actions by coordinating efforts efficiently together.
Earth management is a priority and is a duty of every responsible person on Earth. Also, part of the theme is the concern of all issues related to the management of Earth with respect to the availability of resources, the environment, social and economic development aspects. All these issues and concerns were discussed during the World Congress on Managing and Measuring Sustainable Development - Global Community Action 1 held on August 2000. Now for the next stage - the management of Earth. We found during the World Congress that there were several universal values and global concepts that connect all communities and societies to each other. Proper Earth management is a necessity and requires all peoples to unite and actually manage the planet. Local and global policies need to be developed and implemented by every community. Every person on Earth is responsible for this very important duty. The time for action is now - positive and constructive actions to sustain Earth. The new Global Dialogue on Earth Management - all Peoples together has the mandate to conduct and implement positive and constructive actions all over the planet. It is a grassroots process involving everyone as part of Earth Community. Participants from all sectors and walks of life will describe and explain the actions they have performed in their own homes, communities or in any other place on the planet. Everyone is responsible for the proper management of Earth and therefore everyone is invited to submit research papers, Vision statements, actions conducted in sustaining Earth, results of brain-storming exercises, comments and recommendations.
Positive and constructive actions in sustaining Earth. These are actions learned from the previous Global Dialogue or new ones. Participants from all sectors of life will describe and explain actions that they have performed in their own homes, communities, business places or in any other places on the planet.
8. Global Ethics
The Earth Community Organization (ECO) found a way of dealing with globalization: global ethics. In the past, corporations ruled without checks and balances. Now, global ethics will be a basic minimum to do business, and there will be checks and balances. Our judgement will be based on global ethics. Global ethics must always be grounded in realities. But realities are changing constantly and are different in different places. We live in a world that makes progress toward democracy. Ethics and morality exist only when human beings can act freely. In our free society, rights are tied to responsibilities. Corporations are committed to improvement in business performance and want to be seen as 'good corporate citizens' on a local and a global scale. Corporations have social responsibilities as they are an integral part of society. Global ethics recalls that those realities, on which others build upon, have to be protected first. ECO has found that universal values and human rights as described above were the foundation of global ethics.
ECO has now at hand the method and framework to conduct societal checks and balances
of a global sustainable development. A more balanced world economy
will result of annual checks and balances. Corporations will take their
social responsibilities and become involved in designing, monitoring, and
implementing these checks and balances. Several corporations have already
done so. Results will be taken into account in the evaluation of
sustainable development. Corporations are required to expand their responsibilities
to include human rights, the environment, community and family aspects,
safe working conditions, fair wages and sustainable consumption aspects.
Allowing the corporate sector to review their own activities and conducting their own checks and balances is like letting
the fox guard the chicken coop, i.e. multinational corporations have a vested interest in making sure that they make money and go unpunished
for breaking all rules. By the time we realize it was wrong to choose a world economic model based entirely on profit, it will be too late. The Earth ecosystem, our life-support system, will have been destroyed beyond repair.
What to do about this situation? ECO is proposing to oversee the world economic system and put in place checks and ballances to the satisfaction of Earth Community.
9. Respect and Care for the Community of Life
A) Respect Earth and life in all its diversity
a. Recognize that all beings are interdependent and every form of life has value regardless of its worth to human beings.
b. Affirm faith in the inherent dignity of all human beings and in the intellectual, artistic, ethical, and spiritual potential of humanity.
B) Care for the community of life with understanding, compassion, and love
a. Accept that with the right to own, manage, and use natural resources comes the duty to prevent environmental harm and to protect the rights of people.
b. Affirm that with increased freedom, knowledge, and power comes increased responsibility to promote the common good.
C) Build democratic societies that are just, participatory, sustainable, and peaceful
a. Ensure that communities at all levels guarantee human rights and fundamental freedoms and provide everyone an opportunity to realize his or her full potential.
b. Promote social and economic justice, enabling all to achieve a secure and meaningful livelihood that is ecologically responsible.
D) Secure Earth's bounty and beauty for present and future generations
a. Recognize that the freedom of action of each generation is qualified by the needs of future generations.
b. Transmit to future generations values, traditions, and institutions that support the long-term flourishing of Earth's human and ecological communities.
10. Ecological Integrity
A) Protect and restore the integrity of Earth's ecological systems, with special concern for biological diversity and the natural processes that sustain life
a. Adopt at all levels sustainable development plans and regulations that make environmental conservation and rehabilitation integral to all development initiatives.
b. Establish and safeguard viable nature and biosphere reserves, including wild lands and marine areas, to protect Earth's life support systems, maintain biodiversity, and preserve our natural heritage.
c. Promote the recovery of endangered species and ecosystems.
d. Control and eradicate non-native or genetically modified organisms harmful to native species and the environment, and prevent introduction of such harmful organisms.
e. Manage the use of renewable resources such as water, soil, forest products, and marine life in ways that do not exceed rates of regeneration and that protect the health of ecosystems.
f. Manage the extraction and use of non-renewable resources such as minerals and fossil fuels in ways that minimize depletion and cause no serious environmental damage.
B) Prevent harm as the best method of environmental protection and, when knowledge is limited, apply a precautionary approach
a. Take action to avoid the possibility of serious or irreversible environmental harm even when scientific knowledge is incomplete or inconclusive.
b. Place the burden of proof on those who argue that a proposed activity will not cause significant harm, and make the responsible parties liable for environmental harm.
c. Ensure that decision making addresses the cumulative, long-term, indirect, long distance, and global consequences of human activities.
d. Prevent pollution of any part of the environment and allow no build-up of radioactive, toxic, or other hazardous substances.
e. Avoid military activities damaging to the environment.
C) Adopt patterns of production, consumption, and reproduction that safeguard Earth's regenerative capacities, human rights, and community well-being
a. Reduce, reuse, and recycle the materials used in production and consumption systems, and ensure that residual waste can be assimilated by ecological systems.
b. Act with restraint and efficiency when using energy, and rely increasingly on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.
c. Promote the development, adoption, and equitable transfer of environmentally sound technologies.
d. Internalize the full environmental and social costs of goods and services in the selling price, and enable consumers to identify products that meet the highest social and environmental standards.
e. Ensure universal access to health care that fosters reproductive health and responsible reproduction.
f. Adopt lifestyles that emphasize the quality of life and material sufficiency in a finite world.
D) Advance the study of ecological sustainability and promote the open exchange and wide application of the knowledge acquired
a. Support international scientific and technical cooperation on sustainability, with special attention to the needs of developing nations.
b. Recognize and preserve the traditional knowledge and spiritual wisdom in all cultures that contribute to environmental protection and human well-being.
c. Ensure that information of vital importance to human health and environmental protection, including genetic information, remains available in the public domain.
11. Social and Economic Justice
A) Eradicate poverty as an ethical, social, and environmental imperative
a. Guarantee the right to potable water, clean air, food security, uncontaminated soil, shelter, and safe sanitation, allocating the national and international resources required.
b. Empower every human being with the education and resources to secure a sustainable livelihood, and provide social security and safety nets for those who are unable to support themselves.
c. Recognize the ignored, protect the vulnerable, serve those who suffer, and enable them to develop their capacities and to pursue their aspirations.
B) Ensure that economic activities and institutions at all levels promote human development in an equitable and sustainable manner
a. Promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations.
b. Enhance the intellectual, financial, technical, and social resources of developing nations, and relieve them of onerous international debt.
c. Ensure that all trade supports sustainable resource use, environmental protection, and progressive labor standards.
d. Require multinational corporations and international financial organizations to act transparently in the public good, and hold them accountable for the consequences of their activities.
C) Affirm gender equality and equity as prerequisites to sustainable development and ensure universal access to education, health care, and economic opportunity
a. Secure the human rights of women and girls and end all violence against them.
b. Promote the active participation of women in all aspects of economic, political, civil, social, and cultural life as full and equal partners, decision makers, leaders, and beneficiaries.
c. Strengthen families and ensure the safety and loving nurture of all family members.
D) Uphold the right of all, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of human dignity, bodily health, and spiritual well-being, with special attention to the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities
a. Eliminate discrimination in all its forms, such as that based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, language, and national, ethnic or social origin.
b. Affirm the right of indigenous peoples to their spirituality, knowledge, lands and resources and to their related practice of sustainable livelihoods.
c. Honor and support the young people of our communities, enabling them to fulfill their essential role in creating sustainable societies.
d. Protect and restore outstanding places of cultural and spiritual significance.
12. Democracy, Nonviolence, and Peace
A) Strengthen democratic institutions at all levels, and provide transparency and accountability in governance, inclusive participation in decision making, and access to justice
a. Uphold the right of everyone to receive clear and timely information on environmental matters and all development plans and activities which are likely to affect them or in which they have an interest.
b. Support local, regional and global civil society, and promote the meaningful participation of all interested individuals and organizations in decision making.
c. Protect the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, peaceful assembly, association, and dissent.
d. Institute effective and efficient access to administrative and independent judicial procedures, including remedies and redress for environmental harm and the threat of such harm.
e. Eliminate corruption in all public and private institutions.
f. Strengthen local communities, enabling them to care for their environments, and assign environmental responsibilities to the levels of government where they can be carried out most effectively.
B) Integrate into formal education and life-long learning the knowledge, values, and skills needed for a sustainable way of life
a. Provide all, especially children and youth, with educational opportunities that empower them to contribute actively to sustainable development.
b. Promote the contribution of the arts and humanities as well as the sciences in sustainability education.
c. Enhance the role of the mass media in raising awareness of ecological and social challenges.
d. Recognize the importance of moral and spiritual education for sustainable living.
C) Treat all living beings with respect and consideration
a. Prevent cruelty to animals kept in human societies and protect them from suffering.
b. Protect wild animals from methods of hunting, trapping, and fishing that cause extreme, prolonged, or avoidable suffering.
c. Avoid or eliminate to the full extent possible the taking or destruction of non-targeted species.
D) Promote a culture of tolerance, nonviolence, and peace
a. Encourage and support mutual understanding, solidarity, and cooperation among all peoples and within and among nations.
b. Implement comprehensive strategies to prevent violent conflict and use collaborative problem solving to manage and resolve environmental conflicts and other disputes.
c. Demilitarize national security systems to the level of a non-provocative defense posture, and convert military resources to peaceful purposes, including ecological restoration.
d. Eliminate nuclear, biological, and toxic weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.
e. Ensure that the use of orbital and outer space supports environmental protection and peace.
f. Recognize that peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part.
13. Earth Government
In August 2002 we will all meet together to claim our birth right of electing a democratic government to manage Earth: the rights to vote and elect our representatives to Earth Government.
We want nothing less! 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.
Right now you can use your skills, knowledge and abilities help bring about the best kind of changes in the world by connecting with us in our aim to
form Earth Government. We invite you to participate in the grassroots process to
ensure a sound future for Earth.
Earth has long been waiting for a truly global governing body based on universal values, human
rights, global concepts and democracy. Earth Government might as well be created now, there is
no longer any reason to wait. We are the Earth Community and we will form Earth Government.
Earth Government will now be formed, and we want you to reflect on future effects of such an
event on the history of humanity. Certainly one will expect extraordinary changes: a reorganizing
of human activities all over the planet; participation by all societies on the planet in solving local
and global problems; new alliances forming; north meeting with south (eradication of poverty will
be the price to pay to get votes from the south) in order to gather more votes within the newly
created Earth Government to satisfy power struggles between European, Asian and Western countries; adoption of democratic principles, human rights, global
concepts, and universal values by every human being; expansion of consciousness; gathering and
coordinating of forces to resolve social and political problems in a peaceful way (no more
conflicts or wars); gathering and coordinating of forces (technologies, scientific research,
exploration work, human resources, etc.) to resolve global problems such as global climate,
environment, availability of resources, poverty, employment, etc. Thousands more changes!
Let your heart and mind reflect on 'the good' of a democratically elected Earth Government.
Everyone is part of Earth Community by birth and therefore everyone has a right to vote.
Everyone should be given a chance to vote. If you live in a developing country this time you will
have a vote, human rights like all of us, you will be part of Earth Community, and we will stand
by you. Decisions will be made democratically. You will finally have a voice and a friend, many
friends, within Earth Government and Earth Community. Your lives have values just like all of ours.
There is so much to learn from one another! And we have no choice! It was
well explained during the World Congress on Managing and Measuring Sustainable Development
- Global Community Action 1 that this is a natural reaction
for the survival of our species. Our species is in the process to rid itself
of old ways, old thoughts that dont work and are threatening its survival
on Earth. Certainly we all see this is happening! It is an evolutionary
stage in our development and the leap will be completed within a generation.
Between now and August 2002 we will have created the Interim Earth
Government for Earth Community. The Interim Earth Government for Earth
Community will govern for as long as necessary to create the democratic
structure of the government and to put in place the voting system it
requires. Officers and Ministers of the Interim Earth Government will be required to
work as a team.
Details of Earth Government structure, goals and objectives, and Mission are available at: http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/earthgov1/
Perhaps a question on everyone's mind is how do
we get billions of people to vote democratically for the Earth Government?
This may seems like an impossible task. What voting system would satisfy us all? This is an issue and also a Discussion Roundtable. Headquarters are at the address shown below but will be
moved after a properly conducted democratic election. In the mean time
the interim Earth Government will administer the affairs. Germain Dufour
Phone:
Actually there is a way(s), and it was described in the December 2000 Newsletter.
President
Earth Community Organization
and
Interim Earth Government
Headquarters
Guelph
Ontario
Canada
14. The Earth Court of Justice
Prosecuting criminals on the basis of universal jurisdiction regardless of a territorial or nationality nexus required a solid commitment of political will from national governments and Earth Community.
Once in effect, the Earth Court of Justice will become the principal judicial organ of the Earth Community. The Court will have a dual role: to settle in accordance with international law the legal disputes submitted to it by national governments, local communities, and in some special cases by corporations, non-government-organizations and citizens, and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by duly authorized organs and agencies.
The Court will be composed of judges elected by the Elected Representatives Council and Earth Security Council. It may not include more than one judge of any nationality. The Members of the Court do not represent their governments but are independent magistrates. The judges must possess the qualifications required in their respective countries for appointment to the highest judicial offices, or by jurists of recognized competence in international law. The composition of the Court has also to reflect the main forms of civilization and the principal legal systems of the world.
The Earth Court of Justice will hear cases involving:
* nation states
* national political and military leaders accountable for violations of international humanitarian law
* 'core' crimes of genocide
* crimes against humanity and human rights
* war crimes
* crimes with significant impacts perpetuated against the life-support system of the planet (for instance wars and use of weapons of widespread destruction are listed under this category)
* crimes related to the relentless misuse of the Earth Resources
* environmental crimes
* social crimes as the Court may see apply
The procedure followed by the Court is defined in its Statute. The Court decides in accordance with:
* belief, values, principles and aspirations of the New Age,
* international treaties and conventions in force,
* international custom,
* the general principles of law and,
* as subsidiary means, judicial decisions and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists.
15. The Statute of the Earth Court of Justice
The Earth Court of Justice established by the Charter of the Earth Community as the principal organ of the Earth Community shall be constituted and shall function in accordance with the provisions of the Statute(the Statute is in the process of being made and has several chapters and nearly a hundred articles).
| Chapter I: Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age (Articles 1-2) |
Article 1
The Purposes of the Earth Community Organization (ECO) are to:
1. maintain international peace and security in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
2. promote friendly relations among nations, individuals and communities based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples;
3. promote international co-operation:
* in finding sound solutions to economic, social, cultural, humanitarian, or local and global community problems; when there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as opposed to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss.
* in establishing respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
4. be a home and a global community centre to all nations, people and local communities and help them harmonize their actions to achieve their common goals.
1. maintain international peace and security in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
2. promote friendly relations among nations, individuals and communities based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples;
3. promote international co-operation:
* in finding sound solutions to economic, social, cultural, humanitarian, or local and global community problems; when there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as opposed to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss.
* in establishing respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
4. be a home and a global community centre to all nations, people and local communities and help them harmonize their actions to achieve their common goals.
Article 2
The Earth Community Organization and its membership, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall conduct actions in accordance with the following Principles:
1. The Organization shall establish local communities of one million people each for a total of 6,114 elected representatives throughout the world; the number of representatives will change according to the change in Earth's population; the election of representatives shall follow a democratic process properly supervised;
2. The Organization is based on the principle of the equality of all its 6,114 Members;
3. All Members shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter;
4. International disputes shall be resolved peacefully with no threat to international peace, security and justice;
5. International relations shall refrain from using threat or force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any national government;
6. The Organization shall not intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any national government; and
7. The use of armed forces against any national government is prohibited. When there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as opposed to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss. This Principle applies to all disputes and conflicts.
1. The Organization shall establish local communities of one million people each for a total of 6,114 elected representatives throughout the world; the number of representatives will change according to the change in Earth's population; the election of representatives shall follow a democratic process properly supervised;
2. The Organization is based on the principle of the equality of all its 6,114 Members;
3. All Members shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter;
4. International disputes shall be resolved peacefully with no threat to international peace, security and justice;
5. International relations shall refrain from using threat or force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any national government;
6. The Organization shall not intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any national government; and
7. The use of armed forces against any national government is prohibited. When there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as opposed to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss. This Principle applies to all disputes and conflicts.
| Chapter II: Membership (Articles 3-7) |
Article 3
1. The original Members of the Earth Community Organization shall be all Participants of the August 2000 World Congress on Managing and Measuring Sustainable Development - Global Community Action 1. They were given a lifetime membership. This is the founding group of the Earth Community Organization, the global community concepts and universal values, and of this first draft of the Charter of the Earth Community.
2. Everyone is part of Earth Community by birth and therefore everyone has a right to vote. It is our birth right of electing a democratic government to manage Earth: the rights to vote and elect our representatives. Everyone should be given a chance to vote. If you live in a developing country this time you will have a vote, human rights like all of us, you will be part of Earth Community, and we will stand by you. Decisions will be made democratically. You will finally have a voice and a friend, many friends, within Earth Government and Earth Community. Your lives have values just like all of ours.
3. The Members of the Earth Community Organization are the founders (original Members), and those persons participating in the August 2002 Global Dialogue will subsequently become Members.
4. A person becomes also a Member of the Earth Community Organization by a favourable vote passed by a majority of the Members at a regular meeting of the Organization, and upon payment of the fee. Such voting shall be by ballot, unless the meeting resolution otherwise decides. Each Member shall promptly be informed by the Secretary of his/her admission as a Member.
5. Every member shall uphold the Charter and comply with these "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age".
6. The amount of the first annual membership dues shall be determined by the directors and after that the annual membership dues shall be determined at the annual general meeting of the Earth Community Organization.
7. A person shall cease to be a member of the Earth Community Organization:
(a) by delivering his resignation in writing to the Secretary of the Board or by mailing or delivering it to the address of the Earth Community Organization;
(b) on his death or in the case of an organization on dissolution;
(c) on being expelled; or
(d) on having been a Member not in good standing for 12 consecutive months.
In case of resignation, a Member shall remain liable for payment of any assessment or other sum levied or which became payable by him to the Earth Community Organization prior to acceptance of his resignation.
1. Membership in the Earth Community Organization is open to any individual (group, NGO, state, businesses, or any citizen) which accept the obligations contained in the present Charter and are able and willing to carry out these obligations.
2. The admission of any such individual to membership in the Earth Community Organization will be effected by a decision of the Executive.
A Member of the Earth Community Organization against which preventive or enforcement action has been taken by the Earth Security Council may be suspended from the exercise of the rights and privileges of membership by the Elected Representatives upon the recommendation of the Earth Security Council. The exercise of these rights and privileges may be restored by the Earth Security Council.
A Member of the Earth Community Organization which has persistently violated the "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age" contained in the present Charter may be expelled from the Organization by the Elected Representatives upon the recommendation of the Earth Security Council.
2. Everyone is part of Earth Community by birth and therefore everyone has a right to vote. It is our birth right of electing a democratic government to manage Earth: the rights to vote and elect our representatives. Everyone should be given a chance to vote. If you live in a developing country this time you will have a vote, human rights like all of us, you will be part of Earth Community, and we will stand by you. Decisions will be made democratically. You will finally have a voice and a friend, many friends, within Earth Government and Earth Community. Your lives have values just like all of ours.
3. The Members of the Earth Community Organization are the founders (original Members), and those persons participating in the August 2002 Global Dialogue will subsequently become Members.
4. A person becomes also a Member of the Earth Community Organization by a favourable vote passed by a majority of the Members at a regular meeting of the Organization, and upon payment of the fee. Such voting shall be by ballot, unless the meeting resolution otherwise decides. Each Member shall promptly be informed by the Secretary of his/her admission as a Member.
5. Every member shall uphold the Charter and comply with these "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age".
6. The amount of the first annual membership dues shall be determined by the directors and after that the annual membership dues shall be determined at the annual general meeting of the Earth Community Organization.
7. A person shall cease to be a member of the Earth Community Organization:
(a) by delivering his resignation in writing to the Secretary of the Board or by mailing or delivering it to the address of the Earth Community Organization;
(b) on his death or in the case of an organization on dissolution;
(c) on being expelled; or
(d) on having been a Member not in good standing for 12 consecutive months.
In case of resignation, a Member shall remain liable for payment of any assessment or other sum levied or which became payable by him to the Earth Community Organization prior to acceptance of his resignation.
Article 4
1. Membership in the Earth Community Organization is open to any individual (group, NGO, state, businesses, or any citizen) which accept the obligations contained in the present Charter and are able and willing to carry out these obligations.
2. The admission of any such individual to membership in the Earth Community Organization will be effected by a decision of the Executive.
Article 5
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. The number of elected representatives will change with the change in the world population.
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.
Article 6
A Member of the Earth Community Organization against which preventive or enforcement action has been taken by the Earth Security Council may be suspended from the exercise of the rights and privileges of membership by the Elected Representatives upon the recommendation of the Earth Security Council. The exercise of these rights and privileges may be restored by the Earth Security Council.
Article 7
A Member of the Earth Community Organization which has persistently violated the "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age" contained in the present Charter may be expelled from the Organization by the Elected Representatives upon the recommendation of the Earth Security Council.
| Chapter III: Principal Bodies of the Earth Community Organization(ECO) (Articles 8-9) |
Article 8
1. These are established as the principal bodies of the Earth Community Organization (ECO): the Elected Representatives Council (or Legislative Body), the Earth Executive Council, the Judiciary Council, the Earth Security and Peace Council, the Earth Court of Justice, the Global Sustainable Society Council, the Secretariat, the Trusteeship Council, the Global Community Assessment Centre (GCAC), the Economic and Social Council, the Earth Management Council, the Rescues and Emergencies Council, and the Earth Governement .
2. Such subsidiary bodies as may be found necessary may be established in accordance with the present Charter.
The Earth Community Organization shall place no restriction on the eligibility of men and women to participate in any capacity and under conditions of equality in its principal and subsidiary bodies.
2. Such subsidiary bodies as may be found necessary may be established in accordance with the present Charter.
Article 9
The Earth Community Organization shall place no restriction on the eligibility of men and women to participate in any capacity and under conditions of equality in its principal and subsidiary bodies.
| Chapter IV: The Elected Representatives Council (Articles 10-51) |
Article 10
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. The number of Elected Representatives will change with the change of the world population.
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.
Functions and powers
Article 11
The Elected Representatives Council (or Legislative Assembly) may legislate on any matters within the scope of the Charter.
Article 12
The Elected Representatives Council may evoke the "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age" in the maintenance of international peace and security, and the Elected Representatives Council may make recommendations with regard to such "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age" to the Earth Security Council.
Article 13
The Elected Representatives Council may start a dialogue on any questions relating to the maintenance of international peace and security brought before it by the principal bodies of the Earth Community Organization or by any community on the planet. Any such question on which action is necessary shall be referred to the the principal bodies of the Earth Community Organization by the Elected Representatives Council.
Article 14
The President, with the consent of the Earth Security Council, shall notify the Elected Representatives Council at each session of any matters relative to the maintenance of international peace and security which are being dealt with by the Earth Security Council.
Article 15
1. The Elected Representatives Council shall support studies and make recommendations for the purpose of promoting local and global community co-operation in:
a. the political field and encouraging the understanding, development and expansion of international law;
b. the economic, social, cultural, educational, spiritual, and health fields; and
c. assisting in the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.
Article 16
The Elected Representatives Council may recommend measures for the peaceful adjustment of any situation which it deems likely to impair the general welfare or friendly relations among communities and nations, including situations resulting from a violation of the provisions of the Charter setting forth the "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age" of the Earth Community Organization.
1. The Elected Representatives Council shall receive and consider annual and special reports from the Earth Security Council; these reports shall include an account of the measures that the Earth Security Council has decided upon or taken to maintain international peace and security.
2. The Elected Representatives Council shall receive and consider reports from the other bodies of the Earth Community Organization as well as from individuals and local communities.
Article 17
The Elected Representatives Council shall perform such functions with respect to the international trusteeship system as are assigned to it in the Charter.
Article 18
1. The Elected Representatives Council shall consider and approve the budget of the Earth Community Organization.
2. The expenses of the Organization shall be borne by the Members as apportioned by the Elected Representatives Council.
3. The Elected Representatives Council shall consider and approve any financial and budgetary arrangements with specialize agencies, NGOs, and local communities referred to in the Charter and shall examine the administrative budgets of such specialized agencies, NGOs, and local communities with a view to making recommendations to them.
Voting
Article 19
1. Each member of Elected Representatives Council shall have one vote.
2. Decisions of the Elected Representatives Council on important questions shall be made by a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting. These questions shall include: recommendations with respect to the maintenance of peace and security in the world, the election of members in the different bodies of the Earth Community Organization, the suspension of the rights and privileges of membership, the expulsion of Members, and budgetary questions.
3. The Earth Community Organization is in the process of defining its voting procedure. Should voting be done by members present only?
Should voting through the Internet and/or using email be allowed so as to allow every member to participate actively and responsibly in the organization activities.
We are asking for your advice on key issues such as:
a. Should a member be allowed to vote by proxy?
b. Should members be allowed to vote through the Internet or other communication devices or systems?
c. How should a member vote on the Internet?
d. How do we make voting honest, and secure?
4. Decisions on other questions shall be made by a majority of the members present and voting.
Article 20
A Member of the Elected Representatives Council shall have no vote if problems arise in the payment of its financial contributions. The Council may, nevertheless, permit such a Member to vote if it is satisfied that the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond reach of the Member.
Procedure
Article 21
The Elected Representatives Council shall meet in regular annual sessions and in such special sessions as occasion may require. Special sessions shall be convoked by the President at the request of the Earth Security Council or of a majority of the Members.
Article 22
The Elected Representatives Council shall adopt its own rules of procedure.
Article 23
The Elected Representatives Council shall establish such subsidiary bodies as it deems necessary for the performance of its functions.
Articles 24 to 51 will be added at a later date.
| Chapter V: The Earth Executive Council (Articles 52-170) |
The Articles 52 to 170 describe Chapter V: The Earth Executive Council. Some of these articles also describe the section concerning the Elected Reprensatives Council.
| Chapter VI: The Earth Judiciary Council (Articles 171-185) |
The Articles 171 to 185 describe Chapter VI: The Earth Judiciary Council. Some of these articles also describe the section related to the Elected Reprensatives Council.
| Chapter VII: The Earth Court of Justice (Articles 186-200) |
| Chapter VIII: The Earth Security Council (Articles 201-210) |
Articles 201 to 210 describe Chapter VIII: The Earth Security Council.
| Chapter IX: The Global Sustainable Society Council (Articles 211-220) |
Article 211
1. The Global Sustainable Society Council shall be managing the Global Community Assessment Centre (GCAC).
2. The objects of the Global Sustainable Society Council are to:
2.1 promote sustainable development as defined here by:
* the technical definition being "a sound balance among the interactions of the impacts (positive and/or negative), or stresses, on the four major quality systems: People, Economic Development, Environment and Availability of Resources," and
* the none-technical definition being "a sound balance among the interactions designed to create a healthy economic growth, preserve environmental quality, make a wise use of our resources, and enhance social benefits"
2.2 promote sustainable development worldwide, establish new standards, goals to be reached, and a benchmark for the 21st century in all aspects of sustainable development; firm guidelines are essential in keeping the four major areas of concern as free as possible from negative growth factors; promote, manage and/or sponsor international meetings and conferences as they relate to sustainable development;
2.3 research and develop local and global indicators and indices for the measurement and management of sustainable development;
2.4 research and develop a sound balance among the interactions of the impacts as defined in 2.1 and in all aspects of sustainable development;
2.5 research and develop products, techniques, processes, methods and programs to fulfill a sustainable development as defined in 2.1;
2.6 promote co-operation amongst levels of government and citizens in planning which will help the measurement and management of sustainable development; bring together businesses and the Public and create a venue where the best ways can be found to sustain resources and measure consumption and use;
2.7 create a worldwide network that will obtain data from all over the world in all aspects of sustainable development, and use the information obtained to fulfill the goal defined in 2.1; provide access to the information to concerned parties; the gathering and analysis of the information shall be used to help community and home development, and social development;
2.8 encourage and foster and develop among its members a recognition of the importance of a sound sustainable development locally and worldwide;
2.9 provide educational services and training related to:
* the measurement and management of sustainable development
* maintaining conditions under which People and Nature can co-exist in productive harmony and fulfill the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations
* development of sustainable communities and sustainable homes
2.10 engage in activities to relief poverty in the world; by searching "a sound balance among the interactions of the impacts" will result in a relief of poverty;
2.11 carry out activities primarily for the benefit of the Public, community and home development, and world development in the spirit of the Earth and its People survival;
2.12 promote an environmental sustainable development that does not endanger the natural systems that support life on Earth: the air, the waters, the soils and the living things;
Article 212
The objects described in section 2 shall be carried out on an exclusively charitable basis.
Article 213
The purposes of the Earth Community Organization shall be carried out without purpose of gain for its members, and any profits or other accretions to the organization shall be used for promoting its purpose. The Directors shall be a President, a Vice-President, a Secretary, a Treasurer and other officers. The Directors shall serve without remuneration, and no Director shall directly or indirectly receive any profit from his or her position, except to be paid reasonable expenses incurred in the performance of his or her duties.
Article 214
The Earth Community Organization shall be subject to the various charitable rules and regulations.
Article 215
The borrowing power of the Earth Community Organization pursuant to any rule passed by the organization shall be limited to borrowing money for current operating expenses, provided that the borrowing power of the organization shall not be so limited if it borrows on the security of real or personal property.
Articles 216 to 220 will be added later.
| Chapter X: The Secretary-General (Articles 221-225) |
Article 221
The Secretary- General of the United Nations shall be invited to be a part of the Executive Council of the Earth Community.
Article 222
The Secretary-General shall have a vote during the Executive Council meetings.
Article 223
The Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Executive Council any matter which in his/her opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.
Article 224
In the performance of their duties the Secretary-General and the Executive Council staff shall not seek or receive instructions from any government or from any other authority external to the Earth Community Organization. They shall refrain from any action which might be in conflict on their position as international officials responsible only to the Earth Community Organization.
Article 225
Each Member of the Earth Community Organization undertakes to respect the exclusively international character of the responsibilities of the Secretary-General and not to seek to influence them in the discharge of their responsibilities.
| Chapter XI: The Trusteeship Council and Trusteeship System (Articles 226-239) |
Article 226
The Earth Community Organization shall establish under its authority an international trusteeship system for the administration and supervision of such territories as may be placed there under by subsequent individual agreements. These territories are hereinafter referred to as trust territories.
Article 227
The basic objectives of the trusteeship system, in accordance with the "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age" of the present Charter, shall be to:
a. further international peace and security;
b. promote the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the trust territories, and their progressive development towards self-government or independence as may be appropriate to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned, and as may be provided by the terms of each trusteeship agreement;
c. encourage respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all with- out : as to race, sex, language, or religion, and to encourage recognition of the interdependence of the peoples of the world; and
d. ensure equal treatment in social, economic, and commercial matters for all Members of the Earth Community and their , and also equal treatment for the latter in the administration of justice, with- out prejudice to the attainment of the fore- going objectives.
Article 228
1. The trusteeship system shall apply to such territories in the following categories as may be placed thereunder by means of trusteeship agreements:
a. territories now held under mandate;
b. territories which may be detached from enemy states as a result of the Second World War; and
c. territories voluntarily placed under the system by states responsible for their administration.
2. It will be a matter for subsequent agreement as to which territories in the foregoing categories will be brought under the trustee- ship system and upon what terms.
Article 229
The trusteeship system shall not apply to territories which have become Members of the Earth Community Organization, relationship among which shall be based on respect for the principle of sovereign equality.
Article 230
The terms of trusteeship for each territory to be placed under the trusteeship system, including any alteration or amendment, shall be agreed upon by the states directly concerned, including the mandatory power in the case of territories held under mandate by a Member of the Earth Community Organization.
Article 231
The trusteeship agreement shall in each case include the terms under which the trust territory will be administered and designate the authority which will exercise the administration of the trust territory. Such authority, hereinafter called the administering authority, may be one or more states or the Organization itself.
Article 232
1. All functions of the Earth Community Organization relating to strategic areas, including the approval of the terms of the trusteeship agreements and of their alteration or amendment, shall be exercised by the Earth Security Council.
2. The Earth Security Council shall, subject to the provisions of the trusteeship agreements and without prejudice to security considerations, avail itself of the assistance of the Trusteeship Council to perform those functions of the Earth Community Organization under the trusteeship system relating to political, economic, social, and educational matters in the strategic areas.
Article 233
The Trusteeship Council, operating under the authority of the Elected Representatives Council, shall assist the Elected Representatives Council in carrying out these functions.
Article 234
1. The Trusteeship Council shall consist of the following Members of the Earth Community:
a. those Members administering trust territories;
b. as many other Members elected for three-year terms by the Elected Representatives Council as may be necessary to ensure that the total number of members of the Trusteeship Council is equally divided between those Members of the Earth Community which administer trust territories and those which do not.
2. Each member of the Trusteeship Council shall designate one specially qualified person to represent it therein.
Article 235
The Elected Representative Council and, under its authority, the Trusteeship Council, in carrying out their functions, may:
a. consider reports submitted by the administering authority;
b. accept petitions and examine them in consultation with the administering authority;
c. provide for periodic visits to the respective trust territories at times agreed upon with the administering authority; and
d. take these and other actions in conformity with the terms of the trusteeship agreements.
Article 236
The Trusteeship Council shall formulate a questionnaire on the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of each trust territory, and the administering authority for each trust territory within the competence of the Elected Represntative Council shall make an annual report to the Elected Representative Council upon the basis of such questionnaire.
Article 237
1. Each member of the Trusteeship Council shall have one vote.
2. Decisions of the Trusteeship Council shall be made by a majority of the members present and voting.
Article 238
1. The Trusteeship Council shall adopt its own rules of procedure, including the method of selecting its President.
2. The Trusteeship Council shall meet as required in accordance with its rules, which shall include provision for the convening of meetings on the request of a majority of its members.
Article 239
The Trusteeship Council shall, when appropriate, request the assistance of the Economic and Social Council and the specialized agencies in regard to matters with which they are respectively concerned.
| Chapter XII: Earth Security and Peace (Articles 240-247) |
Article 240
1. The Earth Community Organization declares that the threat or use of nuclear weapons are contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict in any circumstances. Once in effect, the Earth Court of Justice will declare definitively that the threat or use of nuclear weapons is unlawful even in extreme circumstances of self-defense, in which the very survival of a State would be at stake.
2. The Earth Community Organization declares that when there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as opposed to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss. This Principle applies to disputes and conflicts.
Article 241
States have a legal obligation not only to pursue negotiations leading to nuclear disarmment in all aspects, but also to bring to a conclusion such negotiations.
Article 242
Nuclear weapons, like all weapons, are subject to the law of armed conflict protecting civilians, combatants, the environment, neutral nations, and succeeding generations from the effects of warfare.
Article 243
The Earth Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age", to maintain or restore international peace and security.
Article 244
In order to prevent an aggravation of the situation, the Earth Security Council may, before making the recommendations or deciding upon the measures provided for in the Charter, call upon the parties concerned to comply with such provisional measures as it deems necessary or desirable. Such provisional measures shall be without prejudice to the rights, claims, or position of the parties concerned. The Earth Security Council shall duly take account of failure to comply with such provisional measures.
Article 245
The Earth Security Council may decide what measures not involving the use of armed force are to be employed to give effect to its decisions, and it may call upon the Members of the Earth Community to apply such measures. These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio,and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations.
Article 246
1. All Members of the Earth Community Organizationb, in order to contribute to the maintenance of international peace and security, undertake to make available to the Earth Security Council, on its and in accordance with a special agreement or agreements, assistance, and facilities, including rights of passage, necessary for the purpose of maintaining international peace and security.
2. The action required to carry out the decisions of the Earth Security Council for the maintenance of international peace and security shall be taken by all the Members of the Earth Community or by some of them, as the Earth Security Council may determine.
3. The Members of the Earth Community shall join in affording mutual assistance in carrying out the measures decided upon by the Earth Security Council.
Article 247
If preventive or enforcement measures against any state are taken by the Earth Security Council, any other state, whether a Member of the Earth Community or not, which finds itself confronted with special economic problems arising from the carrying out of those measures shall have the right to consult the Earth Security Council with regard to a solution of those problems.
| Chapter XIII: Settlement of Disputes (Articles 248-252) |
Article 248
1. The parties to any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.
2. The Earth Security Council shall, when it deems necessary, call upon the parties to settle their dispute by such means.
3. When there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as opposed to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss. This Principle applies to disputes and conflicts.
Article 249
The Earth Security Council may investigate any dispute, or any situation which might lead to international friction or give rise to a dispute, in order to determine whether the continuance of the dispute or situation is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security.
Article 250
l. Any Member of the Earth Community may bring any dispute to the attention of the Earth Security Council or of the Elected Representatives Council.
2. A state which is not a Member of the Earth Community may bring to the attention of the Earth Security Council or of the Elected Representatives Council any dispute to which it is a party if it accepts in advance, for the purposes of the dispute, the obligations of pacific settlement provided in the present Charter.
Article 251
1. The Earth Security Council should take into consideration any procedures for the settlement of the dispute which have already been adopted by the parties.
2. In making recommendations under this Article the Earth Security Council should also take into consideration that legal disputes should as a general rule be referred by the parties to the Earth Court of Justice in accordance with the provisions of the Statute of the Court.
Article 252
If the Earth Security Council deems that the continuance of the dispute is in fact likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, it shall decide whether to take action under "Belief, Values, Principles and Aspirations of the New Age" or to recommend such terms of settlement as it may consider appropriate. When there is a need to find a solution to a problem or a concern, a sound solution would be to choose a measure or conduct an action, if possible, which causes reversible damage as opposed to a measure or an action causing an irreversible loss. This Principle applies to disputes and conflicts.
| Chapter XIV: Local Arrangements of Disputes (Articles 253-254) |
Article 253
The Members of the Earth Community shall make every effort to achieve pacific settlement of local disputes through regional arrangements or by regional agencies before referring them to the Earth Security Council.
Article 254
The Earth Security Council shall, where appropriate, utilize such regional arrangements or agencies for enforcement action under its authority. But no enforcement action shall be taken under regional arrangements or by regional agencies, or by the Earth Security Council.
| Chapter XV: State and Citizen Participation to Legal Disputes (Articles 255-258) |
Article 255
Articles 255 to 258 will be added later.
| Chapter XVI: The Global Community Assessment Centre(GCAC) (Articles 259-263) |
Article 259
The history of the Global Community Assessment Centre (GCAC), its R & D projects, and objectives are found at:
http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/earth2000/mainGCAC1.html
Earth Community Organization is now offering local and global services and is accepting contract work through Earth Community, a business branch of Global Community WebNet Ltd. The listing of services is found at:
http://globalcommunitywebnet.com/gdufour2000/
Articles 260 to 263 will be added later.
| Chapter XVII: Warning System on Environmental Hazards and Emergencies to Prevent Disasters from Happening (Articles 264-266) |
Article 264
Articles 264 to 266 will be added later.
| Chapter XVIII: Rescues and Emergencies (Articles 267-270) |
Article 267
Articles 267 to 270 will be added later
| Chapter XIX: Global Economic and Social Co-operation (Articles 271-276) |
Articles 271 to 276 describe the Chapter XIX: Global Economic and Social Co-operation.
| Chapter XX: The Economic and Social Council (Articles 277-290) |
Articles 277 to 290 describe the Chapter XX: The Economic and Social Council.
| Chapter XXI: Ethics, Policies and Management Practices to the Corporate Sector and Institutions (Articles 291-310) |
Articles 291 to 310 describe the Chapter XXI: Ethics, Policies and Management Practices to the Corporate Sector and Institutions.
|
Chapter XXII: The Scale of Human Rights (Articles 311-322) |
Articles 311 to 322 describe Chapter XXII: The Scale of Human Rights.
| Chapter XXIII: The Management of the Earth (Articles 323-330) |
Articles 323 to 330 describe Chapter XXIII: The Management of the Earth.
| Chapter XXIV: Earth Government (Articles 331-337) |
Articles 331 to 337 describe Chapter XXIV: Earth Government.
| Chapter XXV: Statement Regarding Non-Self-Governing Territories (Articles 338-339) |
Article 338
Members of the Earth Community which have or assume responsibilities for the administration of territories whose peoples have not yet attained a full measure of self-government recognize the principle that the interests of the inhabitants of these territories are paramount, and accept as a sacred trust the obligation to promote to the utmost, within the system of international peace and security established by the present Charter, the well- being of the inhabitants of these territories, and, to this end to:
a. ensure, with due respect for the culture of the peoples concerned, their political, economic, social, and educational advancement, their just treatment, and their protection against abuses;
b. develop self-government, to take due account of the political aspirations of the peoples, and to assist them in the progressive development of their free political institutions, according to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and their varying stages of advancement;
c. further international peace and security;
d. promote constructive measures of development, to encourage research, and to co-operate with one another and, when and where appropriate, with specialized international bodies with a view to the practical achievement of the social, economic, and scientific purposes set forth in this Article; and
e. transmit regularly to the Executive Council for information purposes, subject to such limitation as security and constitutional considerations may require, statistical and other information of a technical nature relating to economic, social, and educational conditions in the territories for which they are respectively responsible.
Article 339
Members of the Earth Community also agree that their policy in respect of the territories to which this Chapter applies, no less than in respect of their metropolitan areas, must be based on the general principle of good-neighbourliness, due account being taken of the interests and well-being of the rest of the world, in social, economic, and commercial matters.
| Chapter XXVI: Resource Management and Control (Articles 340-345) |
Article 340 to 345 describe Chapter XXVI: Resource Management and Control and will be added later.
| Chapter XXVII: Transitional Security Arrangements (Articles 346) |
Article 346
Nothing in the present Charter shall invalidate or preclude action as a result of that Second World War by the Governments having responsibility for such action.
| Chapter XXVIII: Miscellaneous Provisions (Articles 347-350) |
Article 347
1. Every treaty and every international agreement entered into by any Member of the Earth Community after the present Charter comes into force shall as soon as possible be registered with the Executive Council and published by it.
2. No party to any such treaty or international agreement which has not been registered in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article may invoke that treaty or agreement before any organ of the Earth Community.
Article 348
In the event of a conflict between the obligations of the Members of the Earth Community under the present Charter and their obligations under any other international agreement, their obligations under the present Charter shall prevail.
Article 349
The Earth Community Organization shall enjoy in the territory of each of its Members such legal capacity as may be necessary for the exercise of its functions and the fulfilment of its purposes.
Article 350
1. The Earth Community Organization shall enjoy in the territory of each of its Members such privileges and immunities as are necessary for the fulfillment of its purposes.
2. Representatives of the Members of the Earth Community and officials of the Earth Community Organization shall similarly enjoy such privileges and immunities as are necessary for the independent exercise of their functions in connexion with the Earth Community Organization.
| Chapter XXIX: Amendments (Articles 351-352) |
Article 351
Amendments to the present Charter shall come into force for all Members of the Earth Community when they have been adopted by a vote of two thirds of the members of the Elected Representatives Council and ratified in accordance with their respective constitutional processes by two thirds of the Members of the Earth Community.
Article 352
1. A Global Dialogue of the Members of the Earth Community for the purpose of reviewing the present Charter may be held at a date and place to be fixed by a two-thirds vote of the members of the Elected Reprensatives Council.
2. Any alteration of the present Charter recommended by a two-thirds vote of the Global Dialogue shall take effect when ratified in accordance with their respective constitutional processes by two thirds of the Members of the Earth Community.
| Chapter XXX: Ratification and Signature (Articles 353-355) |
Article 353
1. The present Charter shall be ratified by the signatory Members in accordance with their respective constitutional processes.
2. The Members signatory to the present Charter which ratify it after it has come into force will become original Members of the Earth Community on the date of the deposit of their respective ratifications.
Article 354
Articles 354 and 355 will be added later.
Section |