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FW: Charter 99





-----Original Message-----
From: Mrogelj@aol.com [mailto:Mrogelj@aol.com] 
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 1999 5:27 PM
To: allcohorts@lead.org
Subject: Charter 99


Dear colleagues and friends,

This is a lengthy e-mail that is proposing an ambitious progressive vision 
for Global Democracy and the strengthening of the UN system. I offer it to 
you for consideration in the light of our discussions in New York. Please 
contact the organisers if you want to get involved in promoting it in your 
home country.


Charter 99 - Charter for Global Democracy

 This is the start of a grassroots movement to put democratic reform of 
international decisions at the top of the political agenda, particularly in 
the G7 richest countries of the world, by September 2000, when the UN meets 
for a special Assembly in New York. The reason for this is set out in the 
Charter itself, which follows this letter.

  
This Charter can make a difference: In Britain in 1837, the Chartists
published a demand for democracy in Britain: they got 15 million signatures
and won six out of seven of their demands, without the benefit of the 
internet. - It took them 90 years: with email we can do it in less. Charter 
77 in Czechoslovakia helped build the movement which brought democracy to 
Easter Europe and its leader, Vaclav Haval is now President of the Czech 
Republic. Charter 88 put constitutional reform on the British political 
agenda, and in ten years has made more progress than in the previous 100.


Now it is time for Charter 99 - a Charter for Global Democracy.



The Charter will be published simultaneously and independently in the 
national press in Australia, Britain, possibly South Africa, Germany and 
Finland, as well as anywhere else in the world someone joins us, on UN Day, 
24 October. We aim to publish it with a list of as many supporters from all 
over the world as possible, individuals and organisations.



Within less than a month there are Charter 99 supporters in 29 countries,
including Argentina, Australia, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, 
Ireland, Kenya, Lebanon, Nepal, Norway, Philippines, Sweden, Tanzania, UK, 
USA, Ukraine, Uruguay, as well as Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, 
Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, Virginia, Washington, Washington DC, -
our 
aim is to get at least one supporter in every country of the world and every

US state. Can you help?



A few minutes of your time will make a real difference. Please communicate 
this message to everyone you know who is concerned about the future of our 
planet.



The time is ripe. GLOBE International, the organisation of Legislators for 
the Environment is using the Charter as the basis of their policy. A growing

number of people have put their name to it (see below). It is supported by 
the President of Parliamentarians for Global Action. People are sending
unsolicited donations. Groups in Australia, Brazil and the US are 
spontaneously organising round it. 



But for people to support it, they have to see it. 

That's where you come in.



Global democracy is a huge goal, but you can help by doing something very 
small: 

1) sign it yourself, by returning the form at the end of this message;

2) get famous names to sign up: we want people to notice, hey, this is 
important!

3) seek supporters in EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY of the world, and in every state 
of the US



Publishing the Charter in the national press with a long list of names will 
have a big impact (just as Charter 88 did over ten years ago).



And if you also know people who can help translate the whole Charter into 
other languages, that would be great, or can contribute money or time to 
promote the Charter in your area, or create a website, or publish it in 
countries other than Britain, Australia and South Africa on 24 October, that

would be absolutely wonderful.



The Charter will be launched publically on 24 October, so we do not want 
press coverage about it before then, although it would be great to see more 
discussion of the issues addressed by the Charter.



Finally, just one word about the Charter itself: hundreds of people have
been 
involved in drafting it. We have tried to touch on all major issues that
need 
to be dealt with at a global level. We know that many other points could
have 
been included, and that not everyone agrees with everything in the 12 points

for urgent action. The main thing about the Charter is not the particular 
points, but the simple message that we want openness, accountability,
justice 
and democracy in international decision-making. We want to get support from 
across the political spectrum - green, red, blue - to demand an end to the 
exclusive, secretive system of global minority rule.


Please join us - sign and spread the word.



Thank you for your attention.



Titus Alexander

for Charter 99,

Westminster United Nations Association

Association of World Federalists



The Charter is attached. It may also be visited & signed at:

http://www.nettrek.com.au/~brian/Charter99.html

Charter 99

A Charter for Global Democracy

Our Call for International Accountability, justice, 

sustainable development and democracy




In September 2000 the United Nations will hold a special Millennium Assembly
and Summit on the future of the world. 




Dear Representatives to the Millennium Assembly, 


This Charter is addressed to you and all the governments and peoples of the 
world you represent. It is a demand for global democracy. 


Throughout the century now coming to an end there have been well meaning and

sometimes eloquent calls for world government; calls which pointed to the 
unfairness, inequality and injustice of the present distributions of wealth,

power and policy making - which mean that today one in five of us lives in 
absolute poverty; calls which emphasized the dangers to peace and even to
human survival. If only we could work as one world, then we could solve the 
world's problems together.


If only! Sometimes with a sigh, sometimes with contempt, these calls have 
been dismissed as impractical. 



But during the 1990s, demands for international government have taken on a 
new energy and precision:

·The Commission on Global Governance made an unprecedented international
effort to draw up a framework for global politics. 

· The Earth Summit in Rio, Agenda 21, The Earth Charter,  the Real World 
coalition, Earth Action's Call for a Safer World, Global Coalition World 
Democracy 2010 and many other declarations are uniting people's efforts for 
global democracy and sustainable development. 

· The Hague Agenda for Peace represents a world-wide coalition committed to 
replace the causes of war with a culture of peace. 

· The campaign against land mines successfully changed international law,
although much remains to be done.

·International  conferences at New York, Vienna, Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing
and Istanbul have made world issues of gender equality, family and social 
rights.

· Jubilee 2000 has co-ordinated a world-wide campaign to cancel the
unpayable 
debts of the world's poorest countries. 

·The International Commission on Rights and Responsibilities made a 
distinguished and expert attempt to codify Human Duties and
Responsibilities. 

· After fifty years of  campaigning, a statute to create an International 
Criminal Court was adopted at Rome in 1998 to reinforce international 
criminal law. 

· The Human Development Report 1999 recommended an agenda for action 
including a more coherent and more democratic architecture for global 
governance in the 21st century.


In addition, a growing scholarly literature on all aspects of globalisation 
has begun to explore how governments can regulate and democratise 
international affairs.

There are now detailed, practical measures which set out an ambitious agenda

for democracy in international decision-making, now increasingly known as 
'global governance'.  We believe that there is a profound and important 
reason for this historic shift. 



It is that in many ways we now have world government. 

It is not to be found at the United Nations. Rather, the UN has been

sidelined, while the real business of world government is done elsewhere.


Global policies are discussed and decided behind closed doors by exclusive 
groups, such as the G8, OECD, the Bank of International Settlements, the 
World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation
and 
others. These agencies are reinforced by informal networks of high officials

and powerful alliances. Together they have created what can be seen as 
dominant and exclusive institutions of world government. All too often they 
are influenced by transnational corporations which pursue their
own world strategies. 

These agencies of actual world government must be made accountable. If there

are to be global policies, let them be answerable to the peoples of the 
world. 


We call on you, therefore, to start the new century by initiating the

process of democratic global governance following three         fundamental 
principles: 

· openness and accountability 

· environmental sustainability 

· equality and justice.


The first aim is to make the already existing processes of world 
administration and governance accountable. We want to know what decisions
are being taken and why. We want the decision takers to know they are
answerable to the public in every country which feels the breath of 
international bodies. Then we want all decisions to be compatible with
public 
criteria of environmental sustainability.


Finally, if most ambitiously, we want them to be compatible with the 
principles of human rights, equality and justice, including social and
economic justice. 


What we want from the Millennium Assembly and Member States is decisive
action to put these principles into practice. We do not think they will be 
easy to achieve. We do not have all the answers. But we believe the 
difficulties can and must be overcome. In our era everyone is linked through

our shared environment, trade and communications. We live together as 
neighbours, and as neighbours we must respect the rights of all persons to 
address common problems. A joint effort of learning and negotiation, of
trial 
and error, will be needed. 


Many vital issues can best be tackled effectively at a global level, such as

the environment, biodiversity and climate change; international security and

disarmament; international trade, finance and labour rights; epidemics;
communications; and international crime. 


The first question is where should we start? We believe that the answer has 
to be at the United Nations. The inadequacy of the UN is well known. All 
around we see the principles of the UN subverted, sidelined and suppressed.

Since the UN Charter was signed, more than 30 million people have been
killed 
in war, most of them unarmed civilians; millions more people have been 
slaughtered in genocide and ethnic conflict; over 100 million people have 
fled their homes due to conflict or persecution, with over 20 million 
remaining as refugees today; permanent members of the Security Council have 
armed belligerents and engaged in war; governments have invested more in 
preparing for war than in strengthening peace; human rights have been
violated with little redress. 



Nevertheless the United Nations as an institution can hardly be blamed for 
the appalling behaviour of its member states. Without the UN, wars would
have 
been even more frequent; they would have gone on longer; there would have 
been a greater number of victims, and many more refugees living without
hope. 
The UN is the only arena in which all countries sit side by side. For all
its 
weakness, it retains an unmatched legitimacy in world affairs. 


The UN's founding Charter mandates you to achieve international co-operation

in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural or 
humanitarian character and to be a centre for harmonising the actions of 
nations (Article 1).


We therefore call on you to create effective mechanisms to hold  every
agency 
of actual world government to account. These include international economic 
alliances, military alliances, and agencies for environmental, financial, 
social, sporting, or other activity: All should have to answer regularly for

what they have done and intend to do, for their impact on the world
community 
and for their adherence to the UN Charter and international law. We want 
action to start the process now. 


The creation of democratic global governance may be complicated. But  the 
need for it is simple and urgent. Global problems will only get worse if 
international decision-making is left in the hands of the present 
undemocratic, exclusive institutions. Therefore we will press for action and

to call on public support around the world. 


World-wide campaigns have led to the end of apartheid in South Africa, to
the 
Statute for an International Criminal Court, to the ban on land mines and 
some debt-reduction for the world's poorest countries. The time has come to 
make democratic reform of international affairs our priority, both as an end

in itself and as a means of solving many serious social and economic 
problems. 


Many reforms are needed. The following 12 points are a summary of the many 
demands and proposals being made across the world for better international 
governance. 


As an urgent first step we call on you to set in motion a rigorous process
to 
hold all agencies of global governance to account and democratise 
international decision-making according to the principles set out in this 
letter. 


12 Areas for Urgent Action:


Strengthen democratic accountability and participation in international 
decision-making:
 

1. Give the UN General Assembly powers to scrutinise the work of UN agencies

and other agencies of global governance; create an annual Forum of Civil 
Society; open international institutions to increased participation by civil

society and elected representatives from member countries; bring the WTO
into 
the UN system and strengthen co-operation between all international
groupings 
under the UN system.



2. Create within the UN system an accountable, equitable and effective 
mechanism to monitor, supervise and regulate transnational corporations and
financial institutions; and require transnational companies to adhere to an 
international code of conduct covering agreed principles concerning human 
rights, the environment and core labour standards.



3. Give UN institutions an additional and independent source of revenue such

as taxation of foreign exchange transactions, aircraft and shipping fuels, 
arms sales and licensing use of the global commons.



Maintain international peace and security:


4. Reform the UN Security Council to open all decision-making to public
scrutiny;  phase out the single country veto and permanent membership; 
establish equitable representation from each region of the world; set up a
high level early warning system; and provide effective authority to mediate
and intervene in disputes at an early stage, within national boundaries
where 
necessary.



5. Establish a permanent, directly recruited UN Rapid Reaction Force to hold

the peace in a crisis, police gross violations of human rights and support 
multilateral defense against aggression and genocide; 



6. Make the UN register of arms mandatory; ratify and implement the Land
mine 
Ban Treaty; outlaw all weapons of mass destruction; initiate programmes to 
control the arms trade, convert the arms industry to peaceful production and

cut military spending world wide; strengthen accountability to the UN of all

international military action; and reduce the size of national armies as
part 
of a multilateral global security system.



 Uphold fundamental human rights: 


7. Strengthen world citizenship based on compliance with and respect for the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all international instruments on
Human Rights, including the six core treaties on  economic, social and 
cultural rights; civil and political rights; racial discrimination; 
discrimination against women, children's rights, torture, and the
conventions 
on genocide, refugees and labour standards.


Strengthen justice under international law: 


8. Ratify the Statute of the International Criminal Court; accept compulsory
jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, the International
Criminal Court and the UN Human Rights Committee; increase the Courts'
powers 
of enforcement; open the ICJ to individual petition and protect the judicial

independence of the ICC.



Promote social progress and better standards of life: 


9. Establish a strong UN institution for Economic and Environmental security
to promote international prosperity, protect the global commons and secure 
sustainable development.


   10. Establish an International Environmental Court to enforce 
international treaties on the environment and protect the global commons.



11. Declare climate change to be an essential global security interest and 
establish a high-level international urgent action team to assist the UN 
Conference of the Parties on Climate Change to set a scientifically based 
global ceiling on greenhouse gas emissions, to allocate national shares of 
permissible emissions based on convergence to equal per capita rights, and
to 
work with governments, companies, international agencies and NGOs to cut
emissions of greenhouse gases to a sustainable level.


12. Make poverty reduction a global priority: secure universal access to
safe drinking water, health care, housing, education, family planning,
gender equality, sustainable development and economic opportunities, and 
strengthen the capacity of development agencies to eliminate malnutrition, 
preventable diseases and absolute poverty through conservation and equitable

sharing of global resources. Cancel the unpayable debts of the poorest 
nations and institute measures to prevent severe debt burdens from ever 
building up again.




These are just some of the most important issues crying out for urgent
action by the world community. To make them happen, we need a determined 
effort to hold all agencies of global governance to account and democratise 
international decision-making. 







Using the Charter 



The Charter aims to build public support and political will to create a 
democratic and inclusive system of international decision-making by:
    · setting out key principles and priorities for transforming global 
governance ;

    · urging national parliaments, town councils, state and regional bodies,

trade unions, women's groups, political parties, churches, companies, other 
organisations and individuals to debate these issues and develop the ideas 
set out in the Charter;

    · encouraging people to discuss, study, publicise and lobby round the
key 
principles;

    · getting individuals, organisations and representative bodies to sign 
the Charter

    · presenting the Charter to the Millennium Assembly of the UN in 
September 2000 and to member governments



We are inviting signatures from public figures and all countries of the
world 
for a public launch on UN Day, 24 October, as an insert in the press in 
Britain and Australia. We can provide artwork to anyone in other countries 
planning a similar launch, but we do not want press coverage before that 
date. We do want help in gathering supporters. We would like every country
of 
the world represented when we publish the Charter.



Supporters include:

Australia:

Dr Hon. Douglas Nixon Everingham, Former federal minister

Brian Jenkins, StopMAI Coalition, Western Australia

Ian Matthews, 

UK:

Titus Alexander, author & educator

Rt Hon Lord Peter Archer of Sandwell, QC

Anthony Barnett, author and founding Director of Charter 88 

Lord Beaumont of Whittley,

Simon Burall, Director, One World Trust

David Chaytor, MP

Barry Coates, Director, World Development Movement

Tony Colman MP, All Party UNA, GLOBE UK

Terry Davis, MP

Anthony Giddens, Director, LSE

Bernie Hamilton, President, Leo Kuper Foundation

Alexandra Jones, Westminster Foundation for Democracy

Barry Jones, MP

Lord Frank Judd, Commission for Global Governance, 

Glenys Kinnock, MEP

Ken Livingstone, MP

Peter Luff, Director, Royal Commonwealth Society

Linda Malvern, author,

George Monbiot, writer and campaigner

Sir Shridrath Ramphal, Commission for Global Governance, 

Anita Roddick, founder, Body Shop

Allan Rogers, MP, President, Parliamentarians for Global Action,

Jane Talyor, Director, Positive News

Alan Tuckett, Director, NIACE

Joan Walley MP

Bowen Wells, MP, Chair, International Development Select Committee 

Ted Wheatley, UK-Association of World Federalists

Dan Wheatley, 



USA:

Dr. Jane Bluestein, President, Instructional Support Services, Nebraska

Robert Reasoner, President, International Council for Self-Esteem,
Washington 

Irv Stolberg, UNA-USA, Connecticut, 



Organisations

Association of World Federalists

Commission on Global Governance, 

Global Commons Institute,

New Economics Foundation

Royal Commonwealth Society, 

UK- All Party Group for World Government

Westminster United Nations Associations

World Development Movement

---------------------------------


To add your support, please send the following to: titus@gci.org.uk





To the Representatives to the Millennium Assembly,  



I support the Charter for Global Democracy and we call on you to set in 
motion a rigorous process to hold all agencies of global governance to 
account and democratize international decision-making according to the 
principles of accountability, equality, justice, sustainable development and

democracy. 





Signed



NAME: 

TITILE

PROFESSION/TRADE:

ORGANISATION (if any): 

ADDRESS: 

STATE

COUNTRY

PHONE: 

email:



DONATION/SUPPORT OFFERED:

Please make cheques payable to the Account No. 61181602, Sort Code: 40-02-06

United Nations Association Westminster Branch, 

Central Hall, Westminster

London SW1P 3AS

United Kingdom



email: to titus@gci.org.uk



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