| Towards a New Paradigm for Global Development and Peace |
BACKGROUND |
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| In 1945 the UN Charter was drawn up by representatives from 50 countries in San Francisco, signed into effect on June 26, 1945, and the United Nations came into existence on October 24, 1945. |
The principal idea behind the creation of the UN was to prevent the atrocities of WWII from being repeated. |
Yet in the 56 years of its existence the United Nations has not been able to prevent large-scale genocide as witnessed in Kampuchea, civil wars in Africa and the Balkan, civil and military conflict in numerous hot spots around the globe. At best the UN has been instrumental in peacekeeping missions after cease-fires were enforced. |
The General Assembly and Security Council on a regular basis become the victims of regional squabbling, open and hidden political agendas of one or more member states, and human rights and international treaties are often sacrificed or relegated to a second plane in the name of big business. |
The 1992 Rio de Janeiro UN Conference on Environment and Development led to the adoption of Agenda 21, the official UN guidelines for sustainable development.
Agenda 21 and various other framework protocols previously or subsequently adopted regarding biodiversity, climate change and reduction of greenhouse gases, and other areas related to sustainable development have been boycotted by large and powerful member states to protect their national economies. |
Attempts to eradicate hunger, disease and war, and improve the human condition of all human beings, principles set forth in the Bill of Rights of the UN, have been unsuccessful and the fate of the global bans on nuclear warfare, biological and chemical warfare seems more uncertain than ever. |
The outcomes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in 2002, underscored the relatively little progress made towards implementing sustainable development around the world. |
Intercultural communications between the nations that constitute the UN seem to be at an all-time low. Geopolitical, economical and national agendas pit entire countries, continents and ethnic groups against each other in factions demarcated by idiosyncratic religious and national value systems which foster inequality, racial profiling and hatred rather than the common values in all men. |
The events of September 11, 2001 have demonstrated the moral bankruptcy of the UN, which never allowed civil society and individuals, but only governments and multinationals to dictate and distort policies aimed at the betterment of mankind. |
The gap between the industrialized countries and developing countries has only widened, and fear is now the prime motivator of distorted national and international policies, formulated by corporate, military and political leaders who often do not hesitate to set back the clock. |
Scandals in numerous bodies of the UN cripple its efforts to lead by example on a global scale. |
The recent document from the Secretary General of the UN "In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All" and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Reports are ample proof of the failure of the UN to address the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development and human rights. |
It should be remembered that on September 12, 2001, one day after the terrorist bombings of the World Trade Center buildings in New York, the home page of the main UN web site had a notice for its New York staff detailing a time frame for safe resumption of work. |
Nothing was said about the events that altered the Western world as we know it the day before! |
This again is a stark reminder that the UN and the governments of its constituent members are staffed by bureaucrats. |
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Our global human society calls for a new paradigm for global development and peace, one in which every citizen of earth has a say in his or her future. |
It is high time to cut through the thousands of verbose conference reports, programs of action and documents regularly churned out by the bureaucrats that populate the UN and its bodies and agencies, and reduce the entire vision, concepts and goals of sustainable development, human rights and global peace to a minimum of words, words that make sense to the brightest, the humblest, the youngest and the most troubled of minds in our global human society. |
PROJECT PARADIGM |
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| Using insights from the fields of sustainable development, deep ecology, psychology and behavioral sciences and applying principles found in appropriate technology transfer and fair trade, we are able to establish the societal factors underlying the functioning of human value systems (including those of religious systems) and intercultural communications. Thus we are able to create a "common set of human values, which is dictated by none but is accepted by all" to be used in a global human society, in which individuals and civil society gain their rightful place next to governments and corporations in the process of shaping the future of global development, peace and the destiny of man. |
Rainbow Warriors International plans to release its key document, outlining Project Paradigm at the end of 2006 to the world. |
Project Paradigm will engage all major groups defined by Agenda 21 on both a global and on local scales to start making the changes towards sustainable development and global peace on a larger scale and with more concerted efforts than ever before possible. | |
To make this possible Rainbow Warriors International is planning to bring major global and local groups together to spearhead and jumpstart a truly global network in which local civil societies, NGOs and community based organizations will be able to participate. |
