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"Communities of ideas" - the underlying values and a common charter
Jean-Marc FLAMENT
Saturday, November 02, 2002 2:39 PM
Abstract: This contribution develops the proposal of a World Parliament
based in "communities of ideas," through three aspects: a) the values that
underlie this proposal: peace, democracy and transparence, b) the offices of
the Communities of Ideas as centers of study to produce law and as
independent commissions for controlling national parliaments and
international organizations, c) the development of a common charter to all
communities of ideas.
See also: A proposal: the communities of ideas
Hello to all friends of the forum
This is an abstract of my first contribution:
My friends of the group of YHAD and myself proposed that the entities
represented at the World Parliament were not States, nor Peoples but many
Communities of Ideas representing each one of the aspirations concerning the
human nature.
Values for a world parliament: peace, democracy, clarity
Of course, this proposal bears in itself several values that appear to us to
be fundamental.
The first value is Peace. It is already implicit in the notion of World
Parliament since a Parliament is a place for dialoguing not for fighting. We
think that the proposed formula reinforces this value because the true
aspirations of humanity are more complementary than antagonistic and because
a same community of ideas can receive votes from all continents.
Consequently, we abolish geographical distances and make disappear the
notion of territory that, in the past, has caused to numerous wars.
The second value is Democracy, in the original sense of the term. The power
emanates from the population on a global scale and not, as is currently the
case, from political party's representing groups with local interests that
exercises, without mandate, an influence over the whole world. Therefore, we
propose that the voice be given to civil society at a global scale.
The third value on which we propose to found the World Parliament is the
transparence. In the so-called democratic countries of our times, the
political parties announce a complete program. You can agree with some
points of this program and disagree with others. You cannot also find one
party with which you were entirely accepting. However, when a party is in
power, it automatically assumes that a majority of the population approves
of its actions even when taking important decisions without having consulted
the population it governs.
If the Communities of Ideas form themselves around only one aspiration, for
example "Food For All" or "Stop the Racism," then the representative of
these Communities of Ideas will have a clear program for everybody. It will
be enough to look at the composition of the World Parliament after the
elections to have immediately a clear vision of the aspirations of the
global population.
Communities of Ideas and architecture of the governance
I am a little uncomfortable not to be able to deal with the system of
voting. We suggest that it was coherent with this proposal and that every
person can express one hundred voices and can distribute them, according to
his/her own priorities, between the different communities of ideas. This is
quite logical, as any person confronted to the hunger and the absence of
lodging would wish to vote at the same time for "Food For All" and "Housing
For All." Otherwise, it is not impartial to vote first to elect the
Communities and only after, for a shorter period, to elect the people who
will represent the Community at the World Parliament.
We don't think that a World Parliament can immediately replace the different
national Parliaments, but every Community of ideas can have an office of
study to analyze some proposals in order to advance in its goal, to submit
them to the vote of the World Parliament that will assure divulgation and
will give out official recommendations for the different national
parliaments. In the same way, the Communities of Ideas could analyze the
decisions taken by the different national parliaments or by international
organizations, such as the IMF or the OECD and, eventually, through a WP
vote, to declare them illegal.
At first, maybe it will have only a moral weight but we can hope that after
some time an increasing number of states could recognize the legitimacy of
the World Parliament insofar as their citizens will have also participated
in the vote.
It will become in all cases more and more difficult to national parliaments
to continue to consider themselves as democrats while ignoring the
democratic expression at the global scale.
A common charter to the Communities of Ideas
We finally think that in order to be admitted to create a Community of
Ideas, the candidates would have to, besides to represent a certain number
of members, sign a common charter to all the Communities of Ideas.
This charter would establish that all Community of Ideas candidates would
approve without reserve: a) The declaration of Human Rights and the Rights
of Children b) The declaration of the rights and responsibilities of human
beings c) The Earth Charter d) The principle of the equality in law for men,
women and children, e) A protocol declaring solemnly illegal all war or
armed violence. f) A commitment declaring to recognize the needs of other
communities as their own and to vote sincerely over the propositions coming
from other communities. g) a commitment to privilege the respect, the
dialogue and the consensus of the others.
Maybe this list is too long and not detailed enough. I show it to you just
as the fruit of the discussions of the YHAD group and as an example, however
it is obvious that we should put in this charter the fruit of our common
thoughts here on the forum, while also assuring above all to reflect the
hopes and sensitivities of the people underrepresented on this forum.
Thank you for your good attention.
WP21 Alliance Forum on a World Parliament for the 21st Century
E-mail : world-parl@forums.alliance21.org
Fax 1 717 264 5036
Information, inscriptions, désinscriptions: germa@alliance21.org
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