Thanks -Dancing Sfardic Dreamer
GLOBAL NEIGHBORS FOR CIVIL SOCIETY First Draft Saddened by the failures of governments and of the United Nations to secure the safety of our world and the well-being of its peoples, and convinced that an active, united citizenry can and must now undertake to create a global civil society, we hereby unite to form Global Neighbors for Civil Society and we pledge ourselves and this organization to the following commitments: We undertake to engage in respectful dialogue with people of nations, ethnicities, religions, and politics that differ from our own, and to promote such dialogue among others. We undertake to study the languages, cultures, history, and beliefs of other peoples to the best of our abilities; we shall likewise encourage and assist others in similar study. We undertake to stand against discrimination, whether based on class, race, economics, country of origin or of citizenship, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or political conviction. We shall not let any individual or group of individuals become the leading ideologue(s) of this organization, or use this organization as a tool for personal publicity and marketing. We undertake to encourage respectful disagreement among our members and to use our disagreements consciously as a testing ground for creative solutions to both local and global conflicts. We support diplomatic resolutions to conflicts throughout the world, and shall work to encourage a diplomacy grounded in respect for difference and an understanding that genuine conflict resolution must take into account the positions of all sides. We support economic self-sufficiency and programs that promote it, and we undertake to oppose programs that place onerous conditions on poor nations and individuals. We particularly support cooperative forms of economic self-support, and the development of cooperative and small-scale enterprises. We support and undertake to promote education, literacy, and health education; we particularly support education on AIDS prevention, reproduction, sanitation, and low-tech health care. We undertake to study low-tech means of offering emergency assistance to our neighbors, such as first aid, cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, and the use of complementary and indigenous healing systems, and we pledge to provide any emergency assistance we can to anyone around us who may need it, regardless of any differences between us. We support affordable and accessible health care for all, and we call upon all governments to promote such health care; we believe that comprehensive health care must include affordable access to sanitary hospitals, clinics, and medication, but must also include indigenous and alternative healing traditions, and must empower the individual seeking health as the primary agent of healing. We regard food, housing, and clothing as the inalienable right of all individuals, and we call upon all governments to ensure that no person is without these basic necessities. We support a politics of respect based on attentive listening to citizens and foreign governments, equitable use and distribution of resources, and peaceful resolution of conflicts. We call on governments and the private sector to use economics, education, and publicity to support intercultural and international dialogue among all segments of society. We call on governments and the private sector to support environmental protections for our planet and to oppose social and economic discrimination resulting in disproportionate environmental hazards for poor neighborhoods and poor countries; we call on the international community to prioritize environmental clean-ups in poor nations and poor neighborhoods while holding the wealthiest countries and corporations to the highest standards for environmental responsibility. Such environmental responsibility must include the conversion to use of renewable energy sources. We support democracy, self-determination, and minority rights for all peoples and in all nations, but we oppose the use of force as a means to this end. We oppose the use of violence as a means to resolve conflicts; we reject conflict resolution based on force, domination, or power imbalances; we insist that mutual respect, recognition, and awareness of shared responsibility must be the basis for all negotiation. We believe that the future of our world depends upon humanity choosing a path of mutual recognition and respect, and particularly of respect for difference as the positive result of human diversity. We reject the quest for dominance or hegemony by any nation, group, or ideology, including political, economic, and religious ideologies; we insist instead on the use of difference as the basis for deepening mutual understanding through dialogue and education. At the same time we maintain that people and groups of all identities share equally in the obligation of mutual respect and recognition, and of responsibility for our shared world.
Toward Peace For All, Paz para todos, Salam,
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