Earth Charter Introduction

Ruud Lubbers and Jolanda Koorevaar

Friday, December 18, 1998

The Earth Charter is a proposal for a system of global ethics. As such it encompasses both the well known human rights and less formalized principles for ecological, social and political sustainable development. The Earth Charter addresses both nation states and IGOs, business and NGO's, institutions and individuals, in short it addresses every individual and every collectivity of individuals that inhabits our earth. Last but not least, the Earth Charter speaks both of rights and of responsibilities/duties.

The Charter in not supposed to replace the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR). On the contrary, the Charter is meant to strengthen that declaration, to support it and to complement it. The Charter is not unique in that aim. We have got, to name just a few: the IUCN draft on Environment and Development, The UNESCO 111 Millennium Universal Declaration of Responsibilities and Human Duties, the UN Commission on Global Governance, Global civic ethic and so on (see for an overview of other initiatives A Comparison on Global Ethics Proposals).

In the 1990's there seems to be a feeling that the traditional declarations like the UDHR are very much needed and necessary, but are not sufficient anymore. The UDHR centers around the concept of the constitutional state. Rights are to be respected and protected by states. Now we see all kinds of non-state-centric declarations on the rise.

In our view this development has several origins. Firstly, after fifty years it has become clear that states can not and sometimes do not want to guarantee human rights by themselves. Both pressure and active co-responsibility must therefore come from other (societal) actors.

Secondly, a lot of our societies are affected by 'extreme modernization' social discipline degrades, economization of life grows, traditions fade away. The open and permissive society leaves us without moral guidelines for our behavior. People now feel a new need for a guiding ethic.

Above this, in the nineties the globalization process strongly shook up our individual lives and world order. People around the world found out that they are more interdependent as ever. The sweat of the Indian laborer is sold by Nikes 'one million a year manager'. A larger part of humanity then ever before finds itself today in one economic space. Besides, the suffering of people threatened by war, an oppressing state or poverty now becomes visible in real time all over the globe. The other way around: the affluence of the happy few also becomes visible to the poorer masses. Thus, we live also in one social space. In Marx's terms: due to the world market-mechanism and ICT, globalization transforms humanity an sich to a humanity fur sich.

This is further stimulated by the immense global problems that have recently become visible: problems concerning security, ecology and equity. At the conference of Rio de Janeiro in 1992 these problems were addressed. In the Rio Declaration it was acknowledged that huge ecological problems had risen due to worldwide economic growth and economic exploitation of nature. It was also mentioned that the (visibility of) interdependence had grown so much that global problems had to be met with global, not national, answers. Important too was the conclusion that there exists a close relation between (under)development and environmental depletion/pollution. In Rio it was understood that universal rights, moral guidelines and duties of individuals towards other people, humanity, nature and cosmos were intertwined. The work was further carried out after Rio by several NGO's. The IUCN for example has offered the UN a declaration in which the obligations of individuals towards nature have been written down. The members of the UN however have not as yet accepted the proposal.

Contrary to the IUCN declaration, the Earth Charter, as was said before, addresses not only states, but also the broader public. In the Earth Charter a global ethic is formulated that gives us guidelines for behavior and action towards the global problems and that tells us how to cope constructively with the challenges posed to us by processes of globalization.

If we go in to this a little bit deeper we can say that in our era of globalization we live as individuals being part of humanity living on one, indivisible earth, in a culturally diverse world society in which we ought to have a voice and should be able to meaningfully participate.

As individuals we have rights, as formulated in the UDHR. As individuals we have also the right to be active in the governance of societies, from local to global, of which we are a part. By participating, we contribute to the public good. Through our participation, we become bearers of responsibility for the public good.

All individuals and groups are a part of the human family, of humanity. Therefore everybody and every institution must have the right and must take the responsibility to get involved in matters of public interest. The sovereignty of the peoples has to be realized: resulting in a world in which democracy and sovereignty are realized in concentric circles from the most local to the most global levels.

A globalized world is also a multi-cultural world. Groups, all groups, must leave room for individual autonomy and development. But all groups and all group members must also respect others, must be willing to enter into open dialogues with others, must refrain from using violence against others. (see also Our Creative Diversity, J. Perez de Cuellar, 1996, Paris, Oxford and IBH publishing) As individuals and humanity at large, we live on a shared, but indivisible earth. A healthy environment is in the interest of everybody living now and everybody to come, in future generations. Taking care of nature is therefore a shared responsibility. It is a matter of life or death for all living creatures and for the future of all species.

The Earth Charter is a global ethic that tries to pose principles that can guide people in coping with interdependencies: between and among individuals, groups, humanity and nature. The Earth Charter tries to tell people how they can live together in a sustainable way in an era of globalization. It is meant to be a empowering document. It is also meant to be instrumental in the global dialogue between peoples, religious and cultural groups. The ultimate ambition is that the Earth Charter can serve as a constitutive document for the global sovereignty of the peoples. As such it is a valuable document that will hopefully become part of human conscience soon.

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