Interim Earth Government
Legislative
(for a model based on a democratically elected Earth government)
Earth
Government -
Mission Statement
Earth Government will:
- Be responsive to the needs of our citizens.
- Coordinate efforts from all individuals, organizations,
communities, nations, NGOs, governments, businesses to work together to keep
our planet healthy, productive and hospitable for all people and living
things.
- Respect and protect our environment by preserving our natural heritage.
- Build upon our diversified economic base and promote new 'clean'
technologies.
- Ensure controlled quality growth.
- Maintain strong Earth management practices.
- Promote global community concepts and universal values as
basic building blocks of Earth Community.
- Conduct societal, environmental, economic and availability of resources
checks and balances.
- 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.
- Promote political well-being, or an internal sense of power and autonomy, as
being in control of one's life, being able to and having the freedom to make
decisions, being aware of and able to anticipate the consequences of one's actions
on one's self and others and having the skills to act on one's decisions, being
individuals who no longer accept unquestioningly those practices in society that
are frequently taken for granted, those practices which reinforce inequality and
injustice.
- Recognize that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. As universal values,
freedom and equality 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 judgments are
given in the framework of democratically established laws and courts. 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 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.
- Give equal emphasis to cultural rights, economic and social rights, and civil and
political rights. We will not enforce economic rights alone to the detriment of individual civil rights and the rights of all
individuals to decide their own fate and the future of their country, their political
rights. We are aware that traditional customs and standards could burden the sustainability of all life on Earth. They could burden
Earth society or any society forever, and holds individuals in a straitjacket. We
cannot accept that. No one can! There are choices to be made and you must make them. Cultures can develop and can go on developing. Even religious
beliefs may evolve. We are living now and we are able to create these changes.
We are at least as bright , most certainly brighter, than the people who were
living thousand of years ago. As far as Earth Government is concerned, cultural and religious differences cannot be a reason or an excuse or a pretext for
not respecting human rights. Quite the contrary, all kinds of cultures may promote human rights and
especially cultural rights. They are different in their achievements, but they are equal in dignity where they are
expressions of freedom. At any time or in any given place, men, women and children use their
culture to invent new ways of making human rights a living reality. Diversity
enriches us if it respects the dignity of each individual, and if it takes account of
human rights as a whole. Each individual is recognized as a representative of humankind. Human dignity resides in each of us and this
dignity must be recognized and respected by all.
- Recognize that 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. A classical example is that of the stewardship of the ecological base (the base of life) which has to be given priority
before the fulfillment of various economic and social wishes. Demands resulting
from the social system of a particular country have to find their limits in the
protection of the global ecosystem or the aim of maximization of labour productivity in agriculture and forestry should not be
realized at the expense of biodiversity landscapes. Vital interests of future generations have to be
considered as having priority before less vital interests of the present generation.
Typical examples are climate change, fresh water, clean air and soil erosion.
Supply chains have to be designed in a way, that the goods can enter after usage
or consumption into natural or industrial recycling processes. If serious damages
to persons, animals, plants and the ecosystem cannot be excluded, an action or
pattern of behaviour should be refrained from. A striking example is the use of
negotiations and community principles to resolve conflicts in other countries.
Never use armed intervention to resolve a conflict. Never go to war.
A measure
for supplying goods or services should choose a path which entails the least
possible impact on the ecological and social system concerned. This way functioning proven systems will not be disturbed, and unnecessary risks will not
be taken. The Polluter Pays Principle applies to all with no exception. Supply
strategies consuming less resources should have preference before those enhancing more resource consumption. Strategies, which violate human dignity,
should not be permitted. Examples are the expulsion of an indigenous population
by the flooding of a valley for a hydroelectric power plant.
A more balance 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. 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.
Earth Government has extended the idea of sustainability to be a moral and ethical state, as well as an economic and environmental state,
wherein sustainable consumption patterns respect the universal values of peace,
security, justice and equity within the human relationships that exist in the global
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, if possible, which causes reversible damage as oppose to a measure causing an irreversible loss.
Consumers should be concerned with the impact of their decisions on the environment but also on
the lives and well-being of other people. Since one of the key functions of families as a social institution is to engage in production (selling their labour in
return for wages) and consumption (using those wages to buy goods and services), then the role of families has impacts on sustainable consumption and
development.
- Assume that the eradication of poverty in the world is a priority and our responsibility. The interaction of poor health,
poverty and environmental deterioration have a direct relationship with the stage of economic and social development of a
country. Several developing countries are ruled by socio-economic and political structures
that are oppressive, and it is the inherently vulnerable and dependent groups that
are at a higher risk of neglect and abuse. There has to be an organized NGO sector and active human-rights groups in such societies in order to protect and
defend the oppressed people.
- Propose to make fresh drinking water a human right. The existing and future
uses of water are constantly challenged; balancing supply and demand is made
even harder by the amounts of pollution found in the air, land and waters. Pollution is widespread and people are dying because of it. As soon as more
pollution is added into the fresh water systems than people and all life die. This is
true even with the best system in the world. We live on the edge. Rainwater could carry pollution to the fresh water supply, and it is too late.
Our fresh water sources are already being used and yet, the world population is increasing rapidly.
This increase in population and the increase of pollutants in our drinking water
sources have created conflicts which will only become more and more serious in
the near future.
- Propose to make clean air a human right. Industrial pollution plays a major
role in the deterioration of nature but this time the level of pollution is above the
carrying capacity of the ecosystem. Human rights are those that individuals have by virtue of their very existence as
human beings: to live, eat, drink fresh water, breath fresh air, have shelter. Just as
human beings have human rights, they also have moral, legal responsibilities and
related obligations and accountabilities. Every person needs Oxygen to live so
clean air is certainly a primordial human right by our very nature. A large part of
our body is made of water and we could not live without water; therefore water is
also a primordial human rights by our very nature.
- Scrutinize 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. Earth Government will find a balanced, sustainable global consumption. About 20% of Earth’s people account
for 80% of the world's total consumption. 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.
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