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A People's Earth Charter From Ruud Lubbers President, WWF International In 1994, when I was still Prime Minister of The Netherlands, I invited Maurice Strong, the former Secretary General of UNCED and Chairman of the newly formed Earth Council, and Mikhail Gorbachev, acting in his capacity as Chairman of Green Cross International, to join forces in their attempts to realize an ‘Earth Charter’. The Earth Charter was drafted over an eight-year process and involved input from thousands of individuals and organizations across the planet. Completed in March 2000, it is the most extensively and intensively consulted upon NGO document ever produced. It can be seen on the Earth Charter website at www.earthcharter.org Endorsement for the Charter will be sought from the UN General Assembly in 2002, the tenth anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit. However, I consider the Earth Charter in the first place as a people’s document. It is meant to strengthen the efforts of civil society movements (NGOs) and it also addresses the world of transnational companies. Each NGO focuses its activity on specific aspects of sustainability. Each plays its own role in realizing a just, sustainable and participatory society. However, all these efforts will prove to be successful only if they are part of a comprehensive approach – a bigger plan for the Earth and life in all its diversity. We, as civil society movements, have to support each other, aware of the fact that we are partners in the same endeavour. Not all elements of the Earth Charter are relevant for our WWF efforts, but it is good to see the larger picture. Beyond this, there is another reason to promote and practice the Earth Charter. To achieve change for the good we need partnerships, sometimes with other NGOs, often with governments – at all levels – and intergovernmental organizations such as the World Bank, and also with transnational companies. Partnerships give shape and substance to the needed symbiosis between governments, the world of business and that of civil society. But these partnerships will prove to be more effective and fruitful if they become rooted in a common set of principles. The Earth Charter provides this. I want to end this note with a short philosophical remark. In the past, people around the globe focused on ‘the sovereignty of the people’ in each of their independent countries, each with their own traditions and their own constitution. Now the time has come to realize the sovereignty of the people connected, interdependent, all around the globe. We, as WWF, have to do our part. We have to do that in respect for and partnering with other players. The Earth Charter will prove to be instrumental. That is why I have taken the liberty of drawing your attention to it. Ruud Lubbers News and Views Form
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