TOWARDS A PACT OF HUMANITY
Final Report
Brussels - Sezano 15 Jan 2019
1
Good morning and welcome.
We were about 200 people, women and men from Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe, who met for the first time in Sezano (near Verona) from December 13 evening to the afternoon of December 16, 2018. We spent this time in the awesome Monastery of the Common Good of Sezano and the particularly favourable weather gave us wonderful sunny days.
We called ourselves the Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth because we believe that we must think and act together as Inhabitants of the Earth and not just as Italian or Brazilian citizens, Chinese or Russian, Indian or Nigerian. That's the way through which we can change the future of the life of the Earth and bring it out of the critical state we have created due to a century of brutal economic exploitation and devastating wars.
We have met by pursuing different practical objectives, believing that the plurality of the pathways is the essential condition to allow Humanity to become a juridical and political- institutional public subject. This subject is the key to a peaceful and just life together among all the inhabitants of the Earth, and to the safeguard and care of the global community on Earth. We think we can interpret the deep feeling of all the groups, associations and movements that believe that the future of life will be promising in so far as we are able to recognize each other mutually and have the desire to live together, and cooperate for the benefit of all.
They have been three beautiful and passionate days of meetings, ideas, debates, musical performances, songs, and proposals even though we are aware that the inequalities among people, human communities, and populations remain structurally serious and unacceptable. This is beyond a certain general improvement in the living conditions of the world's population (average increase of life expectancy).
The power of our encounter lay in the conviction that neither inequality and its two main consequences, war and impoverishment/exclusion, on the one hand, nor the destruction of the life of the Earth, on the other, are "natural" and inevitable phenomena.
It is possible to reverse the course provided we have the courage to make the necessary radical changes. It is pure illusion to believe that one can "change" without changing the founding principles of both the dominant economic system, which prays life, and the warlike political system centred on the national oligarchies.
The facts confirm that peace has never been reached through war or, in recent years, the life and economy of the planet by rescuing the banks with tens of trillion euros withdrawn at the cost of the less wealthy people. As we intended, we have drawn up and jointly approved the Charter of the Inhabitants of the Earth for a Pact of Humanity. It shows that the audacity of change is an act of great common human and political wisdom. The spirit of utopian creativity and communality will safeguard the future of life, nowadays at high existential risk, in the plurality of visions and purposes, and of collective responsibility in the planetary fraternity.
In this spirit, we have divided the results of the Agora into two parts: The Charter of the Inhabitants of the Earth, as an expression of the utopian creativity in the plurality of living Towards a Pact of Humanity, as a concrete articulation of the collective responsibility for the existence of the Earth, place of common life of all its inhabitants.
We were about 200 people, women and men from Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Europe, who met for the first time in Sezano (near Verona) from December 13 evening to the afternoon of December 16, 2018. We spent this time in the awesome Monastery of the Common Good of Sezano and the particularly favourable weather gave us wonderful sunny days.
We called ourselves the Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth because we believe that we must think and act together as Inhabitants of the Earth and not just as Italian or Brazilian citizens, Chinese or Russian, Indian or Nigerian. That's the way through which we can change the future of the life of the Earth and bring it out of the critical state we have created due to a century of brutal economic exploitation and devastating wars.
We have met by pursuing different practical objectives, believing that the plurality of the pathways is the essential condition to allow Humanity to become a juridical and political- institutional public subject. This subject is the key to a peaceful and just life together among all the inhabitants of the Earth, and to the safeguard and care of the global community on Earth. We think we can interpret the deep feeling of all the groups, associations and movements that believe that the future of life will be promising in so far as we are able to recognize each other mutually and have the desire to live together, and cooperate for the benefit of all.
They have been three beautiful and passionate days of meetings, ideas, debates, musical performances, songs, and proposals even though we are aware that the inequalities among people, human communities, and populations remain structurally serious and unacceptable. This is beyond a certain general improvement in the living conditions of the world's population (average increase of life expectancy).
The power of our encounter lay in the conviction that neither inequality and its two main consequences, war and impoverishment/exclusion, on the one hand, nor the destruction of the life of the Earth, on the other, are "natural" and inevitable phenomena.
It is possible to reverse the course provided we have the courage to make the necessary radical changes. It is pure illusion to believe that one can "change" without changing the founding principles of both the dominant economic system, which prays life, and the warlike political system centred on the national oligarchies.
The facts confirm that peace has never been reached through war or, in recent years, the life and economy of the planet by rescuing the banks with tens of trillion euros withdrawn at the cost of the less wealthy people. As we intended, we have drawn up and jointly approved the Charter of the Inhabitants of the Earth for a Pact of Humanity. It shows that the audacity of change is an act of great common human and political wisdom. The spirit of utopian creativity and communality will safeguard the future of life, nowadays at high existential risk, in the plurality of visions and purposes, and of collective responsibility in the planetary fraternity.
In this spirit, we have divided the results of the Agora into two parts: The Charter of the Inhabitants of the Earth, as an expression of the utopian creativity in the plurality of living Towards a Pact of Humanity, as a concrete articulation of the collective responsibility for the existence of the Earth, place of common life of all its inhabitants.
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The Agora has had three phases:
Premise
- The preparatory phase during which 13 groups were formed and worked in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Quebec...
- The Agora itself that lasted three days, starting with a celebration followed by the presentation and discussion of the reports drawn up by the 13 working groups, plus the contributions of the Municipalities on the Identity Card "Inhabitant of the Earth" and other contributions arisen in the parallel or plenary sessions, including a special session focused on water.
- The last one coincides with the collective editing of the present document by e-mail.
The documents mentioned below are part of the "written and audio-visual heritage of the Agora".
The collection is available on the Agora website:
http://audacia-umanita.blogspot.com
1. The programme of the Agora
2. The video-images of POUR (B) with musical background (song by Léon Gieco, En el pais de la libertad)
3. Mikhaïl Gorbachev's message to the participants of the Agora
4. The reports by the 13 pre-Agora working groups (in the original language and, for many of them in the other working languages of the Agora)
5. The report of the plenary session presenting the 13 reports prepared by the president of the session (in Italian, French, Spanish and English)
6. The note on the worldwide ID-Inhabitant of the Earth (and copy of the resolutions of the Municipalities adhering to the pre-Agora initiative)
7. The CD containing Maria Palatine's musical performances. Copy of the lyrics read by Bernard Tirtiaux
8. The description of Jai Jagat 2020, of Stop Arms Trade, and of the two proposals of "Democracy without Borders"
9. The copy of the photos of Chiara Sibona's exhibition entitled "Shoulders and hands", on women's work
10. L'Appel aux consciences promoted by "Dialogues en Humanité" to which the Agora has joined.
PS. All the plenary works of the Agora have been video-recorded and are available on request, with a small contribution.
- The Agora itself that lasted three days, starting with a celebration followed by the presentation and discussion of the reports drawn up by the 13 working groups, plus the contributions of the Municipalities on the Identity Card "Inhabitant of the Earth" and other contributions arisen in the parallel or plenary sessions, including a special session focused on water.
- The last one coincides with the collective editing of the present document by e-mail.
The documents mentioned below are part of the "written and audio-visual heritage of the Agora".
The collection is available on the Agora website:
http://audacia-umanita.blogspot.com
1. The programme of the Agora
2. The video-images of POUR (B) with musical background (song by Léon Gieco, En el pais de la libertad)
3. Mikhaïl Gorbachev's message to the participants of the Agora
4. The reports by the 13 pre-Agora working groups (in the original language and, for many of them in the other working languages of the Agora)
5. The report of the plenary session presenting the 13 reports prepared by the president of the session (in Italian, French, Spanish and English)
6. The note on the worldwide ID-Inhabitant of the Earth (and copy of the resolutions of the Municipalities adhering to the pre-Agora initiative)
7. The CD containing Maria Palatine's musical performances. Copy of the lyrics read by Bernard Tirtiaux
8. The description of Jai Jagat 2020, of Stop Arms Trade, and of the two proposals of "Democracy without Borders"
9. The copy of the photos of Chiara Sibona's exhibition entitled "Shoulders and hands", on women's work
10. L'Appel aux consciences promoted by "Dialogues en Humanité" to which the Agora has joined.
PS. All the plenary works of the Agora have been video-recorded and are available on request, with a small contribution.
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A. The Charter of the Inhabitants of the Earth
Imaginaries, visions and consciousness
The life, the earth, the inhabitants
Imaginaries, visions and consciousness
The life, the earth, the inhabitants
In his message to the participants of the Agora, Mikhaïl Gorbachev, the last president of the USSR and Noble Peace Prize, wrote: “I was pleased and encouraged to learn about your initiative of convening the unprecedented Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth(...) Instead of looking for the ways to find common solutions to these dramatic problems, decrease tensions and diminish social contrasts political leaders as well as economic elites and military industrial lobbies by their irresponsible actions aggravate the planetary crisis (...) Your inspiring initiative might constitute a favorable step in the realization by all human beings of their belonging to the global community responsible for the maintenance of life on the Earth.”
1.
all "Inhabitants of the Earth." The Earth is our "place of life" (oikos), our common home. The Earth is the endlessly varied set of places where human beings and other living creatures have the habit of living, be it in the countryside or in the mountains, in tropical forests or in desert, marine or lake areas, cities or large metropolises. Not a single human being and no human organization is the owner.
2. The habit of living in one or more places on Earth means that one of the main characteristics of the inhabitants of the Earth is that they had to learn and need to keep learning to live together. That refers not only to the places of first or direct proximity and history ("in my home") but to the distant and abstract places of the global community of life ("the great home of all the billions of unknown and diverse people I will never know").
3. Especially in the last two and a half centuries, the Earth has become home for women and men from all parts of the world living together for long or short periods of time, creating multi-cultural, multilingual, multi-religious, multi-ethnic "Communities of Inhabitants of the Earth". Their vitality and beauty lie precisely in the plurality, in the variety, in the inter-connections.
4. Human beings inhabit the Earth but they are neither the first nor the sole inhabitants of the Earth. All living creatures are part of the life on Earth. Like all living species, human beings are the result of the evolution of the life of the Earth. Life originated about 3.7 billion years ago. The Earth has been an "inhabited", lifeless planet for 800 million. Life first appeared in the form of microbes, then of plants and then of animals in water. After hundreds of millions of years, life has also expanded out of the water on land. The human kind is one of the most recent living species. It is estimated that humans have been living there for only 220,000 years. Recently there was even talk of just 25,000 years.
all "Inhabitants of the Earth." The Earth is our "place of life" (oikos), our common home. The Earth is the endlessly varied set of places where human beings and other living creatures have the habit of living, be it in the countryside or in the mountains, in tropical forests or in desert, marine or lake areas, cities or large metropolises. Not a single human being and no human organization is the owner.
2. The habit of living in one or more places on Earth means that one of the main characteristics of the inhabitants of the Earth is that they had to learn and need to keep learning to live together. That refers not only to the places of first or direct proximity and history ("in my home") but to the distant and abstract places of the global community of life ("the great home of all the billions of unknown and diverse people I will never know").
3. Especially in the last two and a half centuries, the Earth has become home for women and men from all parts of the world living together for long or short periods of time, creating multi-cultural, multilingual, multi-religious, multi-ethnic "Communities of Inhabitants of the Earth". Their vitality and beauty lie precisely in the plurality, in the variety, in the inter-connections.
4. Human beings inhabit the Earth but they are neither the first nor the sole inhabitants of the Earth. All living creatures are part of the life on Earth. Like all living species, human beings are the result of the evolution of the life of the Earth. Life originated about 3.7 billion years ago. The Earth has been an "inhabited", lifeless planet for 800 million. Life first appeared in the form of microbes, then of plants and then of animals in water. After hundreds of millions of years, life has also expanded out of the water on land. The human kind is one of the most recent living species. It is estimated that humans have been living there for only 220,000 years. Recently there was even talk of just 25,000 years.
As living beings (human, microbial, plant, animal species), we are
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- No living organisms, be they whales, primary forests, species or parts of the human species, can be excluded from inhabiting the Earth, from living there in a good existential and ecological state. That is the real deep historical meaning of the struggles against the actions that are the source of the extinction of living species (see the emblematic case of bees). Therefore, there is no "natural" or "acquired" power that can legitimately forbid a human being or a human community to inhabit the earth in dignity, equality in rights, and responsibly. For this reason, the exclusion, segregation and endangerment of life of groups, categories or human communities must be treated as criminal acts to be condemned without compromise. In recent years, legalized crime permitted by legislative provisions and governmental-administrative measures has increased considerably, especially in the financial field, in the use of natural resources and eco-systems, and with regard to migrant populations.
- Today the human being is twice expropriated of his humanity. Firstly, as a citizen, since the State (in general, called "national") has made the citizen its exclusive property. You are a "citizen" only if the State adds a "national" attribute to it: Italian, German, Russian, American, Ethiopian, and Chinese. Without this attribute, no one is considered a true citizen holding rights and duties (see the case of "travellers" and "migrants" in search of a new place for living). Secondly, as a person, because the dominant economic system considers every human being a "resource" for the economy whose value is determined based on his contribution to the creation of benefit for the invested capital or income. A human being who is not a citizen owned by a State and is not an economically profitable resource for the capital, meets the most effective requirements to be / become someone who is excluded from life. Freeing human beings’ life from the jaws of this pincer represents one of the most effective and urgent step towards the construction of Humanity.
- Neither the human being nor ants nor bacteria need to be "recognized" by other living species in order to exist and live. Instead, in order to live together, there is the need to define relationships and establish rules. The history of life on Earth is a constant search and realization of relational forms of co-existence and co-living, which are less and less violent and exclusive. This is shown by the evolution of the judicial thinking and jurisprudential practices by human societies, which have moved from a strictly anthropocentric view to a holistic and bio-centric one, including the totality of living creatures (the world of genes, the vegetal world, the animal world, the human world...). Hence the importance of the development of the rights of animals, plants, "nature", and the new recognition (from 2017) of the legal status to five rivers...
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Contrasts, inequalities, struggles, search for identity and security
10. Overcoming anthropocentrism. Only a few centuries ago, starting from the West, human beings have thought of creating not only a distinct living species but also of forming a superior species so that all other creatures are subjected to and necessary for it. Hence, the clear
- For nearly fifty years, the rapid globalization of the dominant economic system (capitalistic, market and financial economy) and the simultaneous profound "revolutionary" changes in the scientific and technological fields, have disrupted and upset the imagery of the world and of life. The new basic principles imposed by the dominant social groups have changed the "way of viewing the world": everything or almost everything has been commodified, privatised, including all forms of life. Money is no longer public. The financial markets have real political power, not governments, let alone elected parliaments. The “masters” of information and biogenetic technologies rule the future. The world is in the networks, in the virtual reality, in the global cities. Everyone suffers from cyber convulsion and is facing the ecological "transition", fighting for survival and power. Violence is increasingly widespread, extensive and global. Mutual contradictions and exclusions are growing: none wants to be cut off from the pop-globalization but the wealthiest ones preach the local quality innovation and the local solutions. They try to defend the traditional and new "national" local identities. "Everyone wants to be on the rise and admire the boom of the wealth in Qatar/Dubai and the power of China (new competitor/enemy of the United States) but they are not reassured, they are afraid of the future and they try to safeguard their "home", the security of their place, of their community. There are those who block the borders, build giant walls, prevent migrants from accessing the ports and instead create new square kilometres of areas to accommodate the containers of the world. In addition, there are those who cry out for the supremacy of the whites and swear on the truth of their Gods. On the other hand, there are also those who are always marching for peace and justice all over the world. There are women, particularly Indian, Latin American, Palestinian-Israeli, fighting against all forms of violence, millions of young people protesting against weapons. Asian, African and Latin American farmers are fighting for a radical transformation in their relationship with the Earth. Millions of citizens are demonstrating on the streets their opposition to the destruction of life on the planet and revolt against the blind violence of the predatory global financial system. The "poor workers" strongly denounce the new forms of slavery they are subjected to. The Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth has clearly chosen its field: we are on the other side.
- Besides, there is a growing feeling that it is unacceptable to reject the most comprehensive and inclusive forms, which go beyond the inequalities of income that divide and shatter the human beings with regard to dignity, rights, responsibility, freedom and democracy. This happens also because human beings have become more aware of the new specificities of the human condition in the framework of the recent evolution of the life on Earth and of their fundamental role in it.
10. Overcoming anthropocentrism. Only a few centuries ago, starting from the West, human beings have thought of creating not only a distinct living species but also of forming a superior species so that all other creatures are subjected to and necessary for it. Hence, the clear
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opposition between "human being" and "nature". Nowadays, the distinction between the human species (humanity) and the other living species persists, but we are now aware of being an integral part of the entire life of the Earth and its evolution. We are human beings, we belong to "nature", we are "nature" and we share, with animals in particular, a significant part of our genetic heritage. Together with the other living species, we form the global community of life on Earth, we are "Inhabitants of the Earth". The global community of life on Earth is an innovative concept at all levels. Concretely, on the organizational aspect of living together, this leads us to enter a historical perspective of the legal and political institutionalization of the "global community of life". When we talk about "protecting" or "rescuing" life on earth, we are speaking of the life and the places of existence for all the inhabitants of the planet, a new global Ark. Therefore, if economy is the set of "rules of the house", it is clear that the present world economy must be changed at its roots because it is simply a set of rules based on inequality, injustice, competitiveness, war and exclusion.
- The anthropogenic era. It is self-evident that since the end of the 19th century, the life of the earth has entered the so-called "Anthropocene" era, where the evolution of life is increasingly affected by human activities. We have realized, especially following the conception and use of the atomic bomb and the unsustainability of our predatory ways of living, that humanity is the only living species capable of upsetting and causing the destruction of the life on earth in its integrity and totality. This has challenged our collective conceptions and practices of progress, development, well-being, wealth, the dominant economy, war and inequality. For the same reasons, it is causing the rejection and violent resistance to change by those powers and interests represented in the restricted "local" world oligarchies.
- The imperative of security and global responsibility. Capable of upsetting and destroying the life of the Earth, Humanity has also become consequently aware of the fact that it is the only living species able to ensure its protection, safeguarding and permanence. Therefore, it is necessary to take on the responsibility for it as primary player on the planetary level. Whereas in the past, only poets, artists, philosophers, visionaries (men and women), were able to talk about human responsibility, universal responsibility, global ethics and planetary ethics, today each and every human inhabitant of the Earth can / should do so. Not just talk about it, but also most importantly act to build the effective capacity of Humanity to create another future of life on the planet in the name of all the Inhabitants of the Earth (meaning by, for and with all the Inhabitants of the Earth).
- In a long-term perspective, what mentioned above is closely related to education, which is not to be identified, as it usually happens today, with teaching knowledge and skills. An education not only for children and young people, but also for adults to a critical conscience and thought that aims to bring out (ex-ducere) individual and collective creativity. In accordance with the ubuntu philosophy, it is a matter of developing a spirit of sharing and not of supremacy and aristocracy (the power of the best in relation to the values of the dominant forces), as what "business and management schools" teach. An education, therefore, that does not take place only in school buildings, but that is also carried out on the streets, at home, in factories, hospitals, banks. In the working groups (the first four in particular) as well as during the Agora, the prevailing educational system in the world has been criticized because it remains a means for the (re)production and maintenance of inequalities, despite the changes that have taken place. Actually, it legitimises war and private property, it extols competition and individual success, and it mainly enhances the usefulness of things, although using an apparently
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opposite language. The Inhabitants of the Earth have the duty to promote, as well as the right to "access" a public education and less and less privatized. Especially the privatization of universities is harmful to the new generations that are driven to believe knowledge is primarily an economic good, a commodity, and a means for surviving in place of others. The children of humanity are not designed to replicate today’s adults but to become the new inhabitants of the Earth capable of protecting and taking care of the life on the planet.
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B. Toward a Pact of Humanity
The founding principles and constituent processes
In the village of Sezano, we experienced an atmosphere of "constituent assembly". It was not just a matter of surrendering "in the face of the ongoing devastations nor, on the opposite, of letting oneself go to the mystifying naive optimism and do-goodism by claiming, "We are positive". We have endeavoured to define the objectives, means and methods of action, which are specific and concrete, although not easy, or quick to implement. They have in fact a long-term, "constituent" nature. In short, we have worked on the conception of the design laboratory of what could/should become "A Pact of Humanity", a new global social contract. The stakes for us were: how can we contribute to shaping and mobilising the processes that will enable Humanity to become the only legal and political-institutional entity capable of safeguarding, protecting and sustaining the life of the Earth on a planetary scale in the name of, for and with all the inhabitants of the Earth?
We have responded by initiating "a permanent constituent", the Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth, a movement of spaces and opportunities in the making, without fences or walls, offering metaphorical and real, open "tents" instead.
We have articulated what emerged out of the work of the Agora into four groups of founding principles and constituent paths (PPC):
PPC1. For a future of the life on Earth based on the principles that life is sacred and gratuitous and that humanity is responsible for it
PPC2. To eradicate the structural factors that generate inequality, whereby impoverishment/exclusion is the biggest theft of life
PPC3. To replace the logics of war with the logics of collective security and the power spread among all the inhabitants of the earth (directly among humans and through the representation by Humanity)
PPC4. The first working tools for setting in motion the conception and implementation of the Humanity Pact.
PPC1. For a future of the life on Earth based on the principles that life is sacred and gratuitous and that humanity is responsible for it
Strong, present and unanimous was the reference to the sacredness of life against the processes disseminated in all parts of the Earth of the commodification and commercialization of all forms of life, which culminated in 2012 at the Third World Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. In fact, on that occasion, the élites of the "international community" expressed by the UN recognized the need and importance of the "monetization of nature" ("nature pricing", "nature banking"). Life has a value in itself, which cannot and must not be measured in monetary terms. The current dominance of owning over being is unacceptable. In this context,
The founding principles and constituent processes
In the village of Sezano, we experienced an atmosphere of "constituent assembly". It was not just a matter of surrendering "in the face of the ongoing devastations nor, on the opposite, of letting oneself go to the mystifying naive optimism and do-goodism by claiming, "We are positive". We have endeavoured to define the objectives, means and methods of action, which are specific and concrete, although not easy, or quick to implement. They have in fact a long-term, "constituent" nature. In short, we have worked on the conception of the design laboratory of what could/should become "A Pact of Humanity", a new global social contract. The stakes for us were: how can we contribute to shaping and mobilising the processes that will enable Humanity to become the only legal and political-institutional entity capable of safeguarding, protecting and sustaining the life of the Earth on a planetary scale in the name of, for and with all the inhabitants of the Earth?
We have responded by initiating "a permanent constituent", the Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth, a movement of spaces and opportunities in the making, without fences or walls, offering metaphorical and real, open "tents" instead.
We have articulated what emerged out of the work of the Agora into four groups of founding principles and constituent paths (PPC):
PPC1. For a future of the life on Earth based on the principles that life is sacred and gratuitous and that humanity is responsible for it
PPC2. To eradicate the structural factors that generate inequality, whereby impoverishment/exclusion is the biggest theft of life
PPC3. To replace the logics of war with the logics of collective security and the power spread among all the inhabitants of the earth (directly among humans and through the representation by Humanity)
PPC4. The first working tools for setting in motion the conception and implementation of the Humanity Pact.
PPC1. For a future of the life on Earth based on the principles that life is sacred and gratuitous and that humanity is responsible for it
Strong, present and unanimous was the reference to the sacredness of life against the processes disseminated in all parts of the Earth of the commodification and commercialization of all forms of life, which culminated in 2012 at the Third World Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. In fact, on that occasion, the élites of the "international community" expressed by the UN recognized the need and importance of the "monetization of nature" ("nature pricing", "nature banking"). Life has a value in itself, which cannot and must not be measured in monetary terms. The current dominance of owning over being is unacceptable. In this context,
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there is no place for any effective integral spirituality of the human body and mind. This principle was discussed and proclaimed during the Agora as an inevitable pillar for the elimination of gender inequalities.
Gender inequalities have been the topic of interventions of considerable social and political value, as well as human and ethical. The distance between words and facts remains unacceptable. It is necessary to free oneself from the subjugation and the enslavement to the body used by men and women as a means of struggle/domination between both genders and within the same one. Far from diminishing, the commodification of women tends to increase and so does the violence between genders. The white males who have the primacy are the main actors who act against humanity, but the indifferent ones are no less. The solution does not go primarily from the elimination of the obstacles, which are many, to "equal access" but through a radical change in the human vision regarding the image that men have imposed on women and on themselves. Priority must be given to acting not in favour of "real differences in principle equality" but "in favour of real equality while respecting differences in principle".
Strictly connected to the sacredness of life, not to be confused necessarily with religious visions of life is the principle of life as a free gift. The quality of being gratuitous does not mean, as asserted in Sezano, the absence of monetary and non-monetary "costs" for the public goods and services, which are essential for life and are guaranteed to everyone as rights. It means that, in preparation for the necessary changes towards the de-monetization and de-marketisation, the collective community is responsible for these costs through the taxation system within the public budget. The costs of the rights are part of the res publicaand a collective responsibility.
The works of the Agora have also been inspired by two other principles. The Ubuntu principle, which comes from Africa, and the well-known worldwide principle of Buen vivir, from the Andean and indigenous "Latin American" origins. Both have a fundamental value as a universalistic approach. Ubuntu defines the human being, stands for “I am what we made each other”, and strongly states the natural and historically collective, relational and interdependent character of the human being. The meaning of Buen vivir is more varied according to the indigenous peoples.
It is based on a harmonious relationship between human beings and nature, on a mutual community, of shared responsibilities, of collective production and common wealth, of social inclusion and participation...
In the light of and in accordance with these principles, we support the urgent need for de- monetization and de-marketisation of the essential global public goods for life, such as water, seeds and knowledge, to begin with. Letting the market, and in particular the financial markets, decide on these goods has been one of the most serious collective mistakes of the past few decades.
In this perspective, the construction of Humanity becomes compelling and prejudicial as a key factor for the future of life in the name of all the inhabitants of the Earth. Their task,
Gender inequalities have been the topic of interventions of considerable social and political value, as well as human and ethical. The distance between words and facts remains unacceptable. It is necessary to free oneself from the subjugation and the enslavement to the body used by men and women as a means of struggle/domination between both genders and within the same one. Far from diminishing, the commodification of women tends to increase and so does the violence between genders. The white males who have the primacy are the main actors who act against humanity, but the indifferent ones are no less. The solution does not go primarily from the elimination of the obstacles, which are many, to "equal access" but through a radical change in the human vision regarding the image that men have imposed on women and on themselves. Priority must be given to acting not in favour of "real differences in principle equality" but "in favour of real equality while respecting differences in principle".
Strictly connected to the sacredness of life, not to be confused necessarily with religious visions of life is the principle of life as a free gift. The quality of being gratuitous does not mean, as asserted in Sezano, the absence of monetary and non-monetary "costs" for the public goods and services, which are essential for life and are guaranteed to everyone as rights. It means that, in preparation for the necessary changes towards the de-monetization and de-marketisation, the collective community is responsible for these costs through the taxation system within the public budget. The costs of the rights are part of the res publicaand a collective responsibility.
The works of the Agora have also been inspired by two other principles. The Ubuntu principle, which comes from Africa, and the well-known worldwide principle of Buen vivir, from the Andean and indigenous "Latin American" origins. Both have a fundamental value as a universalistic approach. Ubuntu defines the human being, stands for “I am what we made each other”, and strongly states the natural and historically collective, relational and interdependent character of the human being. The meaning of Buen vivir is more varied according to the indigenous peoples.
It is based on a harmonious relationship between human beings and nature, on a mutual community, of shared responsibilities, of collective production and common wealth, of social inclusion and participation...
In the light of and in accordance with these principles, we support the urgent need for de- monetization and de-marketisation of the essential global public goods for life, such as water, seeds and knowledge, to begin with. Letting the market, and in particular the financial markets, decide on these goods has been one of the most serious collective mistakes of the past few decades.
In this perspective, the construction of Humanity becomes compelling and prejudicial as a key factor for the future of life in the name of all the inhabitants of the Earth. Their task,
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according to all the works on the topics "Which humanity?” “What do citizens think when they speak of humanity?" "What are the key words for talking about humanity?" is precisely to adopt as the guiding principle the peaceful living together, in place of the imperative of the techno-economic competitiveness for power and survival.
To this end, in line with the Global Charter for Social Protection Rights, adopted in October 2018 in Gent (Belgium), we propose the establishment of a global social justice system based on "local" public networks of compulsory social protection interconnected on a global scale under the shared authority of the World Monetary Security Council (see in this regard PPC2).
Finally, in order to complete this first group of PPCs, it is necessary to take a significant symbolic step of high political and social value, namely: the assignment by the Municipalities (local communities) of the ID Card "Inhabitant of the Earth" to all their inhabitants (on request). The Agora strongly insisted that before being Norwegian, Peruvian, Egyptian or Vietnamese, Hungarian or Mexican citizens... all human beings are Inhabitants of the Earth in equal dignity and responsibility towards the life on Earth.
Facing the expropriation of humanity due to the patrimonial grabbing of our person by the national State and the productive seizure by the capitalist economic system, which is more and more technologically advanced, the concept of “Inhabitant of the Earth” allows us to re- invent the future of life on a wider and integral basis. This goes beyond the fragmentation and fences belonging to the old memory and to which many exponents of the "new" adult generation want us to return. Hence, the innovative idea of issuing the Identity Card "Inhabitant of the Earth", which does not have an immediate legal value but a high symbolic, cultural and political one though.
Already 10 large and small municipalities in Argentina (San Lorenzo), Catalonia/Spain (Palau Saverdera), Italy (Fumane, Canegrate, Fugarolo Rocca, Sommacampagna, Riace, the Eighth Municipality of Rome), Portugal (Lisbon) and Tunisia (La Marsa), have joined the initiative with municipal resolutions. Some representatives of the Municipalities were present (Canegrate, 0ttavo Municipio di Roma).
Excellent news on this matter: the Mayor of Lisbon not only gave his support to the initiative but declared himself willing to welcome in Lisbon one of the upcoming events of the Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth.
PPC2. To eradicate the structural factors that generate inequality, whereby impoverishment/ exclusion is the biggest theft of life
To this end, in line with the Global Charter for Social Protection Rights, adopted in October 2018 in Gent (Belgium), we propose the establishment of a global social justice system based on "local" public networks of compulsory social protection interconnected on a global scale under the shared authority of the World Monetary Security Council (see in this regard PPC2).
Finally, in order to complete this first group of PPCs, it is necessary to take a significant symbolic step of high political and social value, namely: the assignment by the Municipalities (local communities) of the ID Card "Inhabitant of the Earth" to all their inhabitants (on request). The Agora strongly insisted that before being Norwegian, Peruvian, Egyptian or Vietnamese, Hungarian or Mexican citizens... all human beings are Inhabitants of the Earth in equal dignity and responsibility towards the life on Earth.
Facing the expropriation of humanity due to the patrimonial grabbing of our person by the national State and the productive seizure by the capitalist economic system, which is more and more technologically advanced, the concept of “Inhabitant of the Earth” allows us to re- invent the future of life on a wider and integral basis. This goes beyond the fragmentation and fences belonging to the old memory and to which many exponents of the "new" adult generation want us to return. Hence, the innovative idea of issuing the Identity Card "Inhabitant of the Earth", which does not have an immediate legal value but a high symbolic, cultural and political one though.
Already 10 large and small municipalities in Argentina (San Lorenzo), Catalonia/Spain (Palau Saverdera), Italy (Fumane, Canegrate, Fugarolo Rocca, Sommacampagna, Riace, the Eighth Municipality of Rome), Portugal (Lisbon) and Tunisia (La Marsa), have joined the initiative with municipal resolutions. Some representatives of the Municipalities were present (Canegrate, 0ttavo Municipio di Roma).
Excellent news on this matter: the Mayor of Lisbon not only gave his support to the initiative but declared himself willing to welcome in Lisbon one of the upcoming events of the Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth.
PPC2. To eradicate the structural factors that generate inequality, whereby impoverishment/ exclusion is the biggest theft of life
The second area of priority action concerns the inequality and in particular, the ideas and social practises widely spread throughout the world that it is “natural” and thus supposedly “inevitable”. Inequality is mainly a social product of the unjust societies. Therefore, its structural factors can be modified and removed. Among these, certainly one of the most important and decisive in our times is the so-called private intellectual property right on the living creature, which was legalized in the United States in 1980. The private patentability on living organisms as well as the private patentability on algorithms and artificial intelligence in general must be abolished. Without this indispensable abolition, as repeatedly expressed with conviction and firmness by the participants in the Agora, it will be impossible to fight against
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the processes generators of inequality of rights and social injustice because of the commodification, commercialization, and privatization of life. It is also clear that no significant progress will be made in terms of sustainable development and countering the causes of the global warming if the right of private patentability over the living creatures is maintained.
Obviously, in combination with the abolition of the private patentability on living organisms and on artificial intelligence, the Agora has adopted the proposal to create a Security Council for the World's Public Goods (starting from water, seeds, knowledge). This Council represents a major step forward. The 24 COPs ("Conference of Parties") organised each year by the UN since 1993 on climate change have not made it possible to achieve any significant substantial progress if we consider the enormous human and financial resources mobilised for that purpose by the "world leaders". Why? This is mainly because of the principle of national sovereignty over natural resources and the associated principle, which is the obligation for each State to ensure and promote national security primarily (energy, food, water, mining, etc.). Thus, there is no world plan, with figures defined and approved by all States, regarding the commitments to be respected by States. Each State is free to set, in full sovereignty, its commitments supposed to contribute to keeping the average increase in the earth's temperature below 2 degrees. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of states have abandoned their sovereignty over natural resources by selling their property and/or transferring their management and control to private companies. Moreover, especially to corporations listed on the stock exchange, so that the real political power over resources is, in the end, in the hands of the world's financial markets. In this context, it is inevitable that "in the name of the national security", the States prioritize the aim of the competitiveness of the national economy on the world markets. The result of this is endless wars to take control of the resources and the abandonment of all concerns relating to the collective security of life on Earth.
There is a chance to implement the two proposals (abolition of the patentability of the living being and of the algorithms, and the creation of the Security Council of the world's public common goods) only on condition that the logics underlying the aims and the functioning of the financial system of the dominant economy are changed. For this reason, we have identified and proposed the following financial measures:
Obviously, in combination with the abolition of the private patentability on living organisms and on artificial intelligence, the Agora has adopted the proposal to create a Security Council for the World's Public Goods (starting from water, seeds, knowledge). This Council represents a major step forward. The 24 COPs ("Conference of Parties") organised each year by the UN since 1993 on climate change have not made it possible to achieve any significant substantial progress if we consider the enormous human and financial resources mobilised for that purpose by the "world leaders". Why? This is mainly because of the principle of national sovereignty over natural resources and the associated principle, which is the obligation for each State to ensure and promote national security primarily (energy, food, water, mining, etc.). Thus, there is no world plan, with figures defined and approved by all States, regarding the commitments to be respected by States. Each State is free to set, in full sovereignty, its commitments supposed to contribute to keeping the average increase in the earth's temperature below 2 degrees. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of states have abandoned their sovereignty over natural resources by selling their property and/or transferring their management and control to private companies. Moreover, especially to corporations listed on the stock exchange, so that the real political power over resources is, in the end, in the hands of the world's financial markets. In this context, it is inevitable that "in the name of the national security", the States prioritize the aim of the competitiveness of the national economy on the world markets. The result of this is endless wars to take control of the resources and the abandonment of all concerns relating to the collective security of life on Earth.
There is a chance to implement the two proposals (abolition of the patentability of the living being and of the algorithms, and the creation of the Security Council of the world's public common goods) only on condition that the logics underlying the aims and the functioning of the financial system of the dominant economy are changed. For this reason, we have identified and proposed the following financial measures:
- - banning the tax havens (which legalise evasion), the derivatives (bloodsuckers of the economy) and the high-frequency financial transactions (which operate out of human and social time), and
- - creating the World Public Bank (replacing the World Bank and the IMF), under the authority and control of the World Monetary Security Council, capable of supporting the financial needs of the Pact of Humanity without indebtedness and usury.Generally speaking, the current massive private and public debt (since the 1970s) towards financial institutions/creditors, almost all of which are private, represents an aberrant and illegitimate phenomenon of the existing economy and deserves to be deeply adjusted and eliminated.
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Water shouts: weapons off, toxic products off!
Appeal of the 15th December 2018. Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth.Who knows for how many billions of people the universal right to drinkable water and hygiene (and therefore to health) could have been made real if the world had spent on water in the years 1975-2000 the ten and more trillion dollars (one trillion is a thousand billions) that the USA alone spent on weapons and wars! Yet even today the USA and the other warmongering states, thieves of life, have spent (in 2017) more than a trillion and a half to "arm themselves and make war"! There is no need to add anything else. The dominant social groups who approve in a seemingly democratic way senseless military spending (China has also detonated, after the USA, the most powerful non-nuclear bomb ever produced), who liberally continue to produce and use hundreds of particularly harmful toxic substances (which pollute the planet's waters and contaminate people's blood and destroy the health of life on Earth), are irresponsible. They are merchants of death and deserve to be banned from government and power positions, and prosecuted for "crimes against humanity and the life of the Earth".
The behaviour of those who adore the "technology fix" is also ridiculous. Instead of clearing the ruined waters and protecting those of the planet that have not qualitatively been destroyed yet, they think about making money on the skin of the thirsty people promising to save the water needs of all inhabitants of the Earth "thanks" to the technology of transforming air into water.
The Earth frees itself from the thirst for water by rescuing the future of life from the might of the producers, from the traders of the war and from the arrogant blindness of the techno-financiers of salvation. There is nothing to be hoped for of them, except further wars and more thirsty people to rescue. It is up to the inhabitants of the Earth to organize their Humanity in a multitude of new ways of living, locally and globally, according to the principles and modalities discussed, evaluated and approved by the Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth. Water is life. The power of few is the negation of life.
Appeal of the 15th December 2018. Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth.Who knows for how many billions of people the universal right to drinkable water and hygiene (and therefore to health) could have been made real if the world had spent on water in the years 1975-2000 the ten and more trillion dollars (one trillion is a thousand billions) that the USA alone spent on weapons and wars! Yet even today the USA and the other warmongering states, thieves of life, have spent (in 2017) more than a trillion and a half to "arm themselves and make war"! There is no need to add anything else. The dominant social groups who approve in a seemingly democratic way senseless military spending (China has also detonated, after the USA, the most powerful non-nuclear bomb ever produced), who liberally continue to produce and use hundreds of particularly harmful toxic substances (which pollute the planet's waters and contaminate people's blood and destroy the health of life on Earth), are irresponsible. They are merchants of death and deserve to be banned from government and power positions, and prosecuted for "crimes against humanity and the life of the Earth".
The behaviour of those who adore the "technology fix" is also ridiculous. Instead of clearing the ruined waters and protecting those of the planet that have not qualitatively been destroyed yet, they think about making money on the skin of the thirsty people promising to save the water needs of all inhabitants of the Earth "thanks" to the technology of transforming air into water.
The Earth frees itself from the thirst for water by rescuing the future of life from the might of the producers, from the traders of the war and from the arrogant blindness of the techno-financiers of salvation. There is nothing to be hoped for of them, except further wars and more thirsty people to rescue. It is up to the inhabitants of the Earth to organize their Humanity in a multitude of new ways of living, locally and globally, according to the principles and modalities discussed, evaluated and approved by the Agora of the Inhabitants of the Earth. Water is life. The power of few is the negation of life.
PPC3. To replace the logics of war with the logics of collective security and the power spread among all the inhabitants of the earth (directly among humans and through the representation by Humanity)
Two of the most important key processes for the conception and implementation of a Pact of Humanity consist in re-inventing the world's public common goods as the basis also for a global responsibility and policy of collective life and security, and, to this end, re-designing a financial system that serves the social justice.
A third key process is to banish war. The fourth regards the promotion of democratic forms of governance of human communities "without frontiers" from the local to the global level.
Two of the most important key processes for the conception and implementation of a Pact of Humanity consist in re-inventing the world's public common goods as the basis also for a global responsibility and policy of collective life and security, and, to this end, re-designing a financial system that serves the social justice.
A third key process is to banish war. The fourth regards the promotion of democratic forms of governance of human communities "without frontiers" from the local to the global level.
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This was the focus of the proposals discussed under the tent of the Agora, particularly with regard to repudiating war (fully adherent and committed to participate in the future Jai Jagat 2020, the World March for Peace, organized by the Indian movement Ekta Parishad):
- - to ratify the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty signed by 122 UN countries in July 2017,
- - to put an end to the arms trade and to restrict the legality of the gun licence to exceptional situations. This entails, among other measures, the banning of militias that are "defending" the mining and extractive activities (see the document of the working
group 6)
In addition, with regard to democratic forms "without frontiers":
- - the establishment of a planetary Parliament on the initiative of the European Parliament, the Parlatino (Latin America), the Pan-African Parliament, etc.) to entrust with the task of guiding the essential and urgent joint actions to restore the Earth's state of health, in the name and for the rights of all inhabitants of the earth. This would be an important step towards the institutionalization of Humanity as such, beyond the inter-state and inter-governmental logic of the UN system;
- - to carry out several initiatives of raising awareness, experimentation and institutionalization supporting the multiplication of global democratic bodies "without frontiers" in all areas concerning people living together. A participatory tool that should go in this direction could be a World Initiative of the Inhabitants of the Earth in the context of the UN system, for the time being, on the model of the UN Initiative of European Citizens (ECI) introduced by the European Union (see document of the Group of working group 10, https://www.worldcitizensinitiative.org ).
PPC4. The first working tools for setting in motion the conception and implementation of the Humanity Pact.
In all the activities of designing and implementing plans, programmes and objectives, it is necessary to identify the social forces capable of "giving legs" to ideas. The last two proposals represent an attempt to provide a concrete, response to this need, although partial and limited.
Priority is given to the new global mobilization movements, on the one hand, and to the municipal institutions/local collectivities, on the other:
- - participation/alliance and support to existing world marches (of women, the Jai Jagat 2020, of migrants...) and extension of their model to other categories of earth inhabitants (mothers, teachers, youth, children...)
- - the establishment of the Day of the Inhabitants of the Earth (DIE) on the 15th December of each year, with the support of the Municipalities/local Collectivities. TheDay of the Inhabitants of the Earth will have a specific concrete objective to achieve
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within the framework of the implementation of the Pact of Humanity. On the day when the main objectives of the Day are fulfilled, this will have ended its function and can eventually be turned into another initiative at the service of the Pact of Humanity.
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CONCLUSIONThe future of life on Earth is still in the hands of the Inhabitants of the Earth.
We are convinced that the proposals presented are relevant, appropriate and feasible. Everything will depend on the cultural and social struggles that accompany them. Human history is made up of many local, sectoral and temporal failures of many good proposals. However, it is encouraging to know that human history sooner or later succeeds in achieving what for many people and institutions, over many years, has been considered an unrealistic and unattainable utopia. The unfolding of life is richer in creativity than human rationality can imagine.
Document drawn up and approved by the participants of the Agora on an initial proposal of Riccardo Petrella.
We are convinced that the proposals presented are relevant, appropriate and feasible. Everything will depend on the cultural and social struggles that accompany them. Human history is made up of many local, sectoral and temporal failures of many good proposals. However, it is encouraging to know that human history sooner or later succeeds in achieving what for many people and institutions, over many years, has been considered an unrealistic and unattainable utopia. The unfolding of life is richer in creativity than human rationality can imagine.
Document drawn up and approved by the participants of the Agora on an initial proposal of Riccardo Petrella.
We will be pleased to provide further information and explanations to all people and organisations interested in the follow-up of the proposals contained in the "Charter".
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