Sign On: A PROPOSED DECLARATION FOR KANANASKIS

The WTO along with other trade agreements, organizations and institutions has been instrumental in fostering this collusion to the detriment of the global community through undermining public trust international law and civil society.

Currently there is a global disregard for the public trust through the violation of human rights, including civil and political rights and labour rights, as well as social, economic and cultural rights, the denial of social justice, the degradation of the environment, and the escalation of war and conflict.

International public trust law must take precedence over vested interest economic agreements: the NAFTA, APEC, WTO, and FTAA.

The NAFTA must be abrogated; APEC and WTO, dismantled, and FTAA negotiations discontinued and the member states of the United Nations must comply with years of obligations incurred through conventions treaties and covenants; commitments made through Conference Action plans and expectations created by UN General Assembly resolutions.

Member states of the United Nations have usually ignored their obligations and commitments under international public trust law: obligations and commitments to prevent war and conflict and harm to human health, to ensure social justice, to eradicate poverty, to preserve the environment, to reduce the ecological footprint, to guarantee human rights, labour rights, right to food and and housing--and civil and political rights including the right to protest, and to freedom of movement.

The year 1999 was the culmination of the decade devoted to international law . Rather than demonstrate respect for international law and the international Court of Justice, governments have devolved their power essentially to the corporations and to the agreements that enshrine corporate privileges as rights. Often rather than using public trust law international law the member states have used the vested economic interest international law, such as the WTO, to justify the devolution of power to the corporations through the promotion of the corporate goal of privatization, deregulation and voluntary compliance.

The dogma of economic growth at any cost continues to control the world under the auspices of the IMF, World Bank and the WTO. The dogma of unexamined unregulated economic growth being in the best interests of society also continues and is promulgated by corporations, promoted by the legion of corporate sponsored think tanks, substantiated through corporate funded universities, perpetuated by the media, and supported through the investments of citizens.

This next millennium must be one of prevention and precaution It is time for principle to rule corporations no longer for principle to be undermined by corporations. The force of civil society will not tolerate further negligence and destruction caused by the military, industrial, financial complex under the guise of altruism.

BACKGROUND:
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The purpose of this Treaty /Declaration is to demand that governments end the devolution of power to corporations, and to call upon governments to discharge the obligations, act on the commitments and fulfill the expectations undertaken through United Nations documents and through national and regional agreements. Successive drafts of the Treaty/ Declaration have circulated widely for over a year and a half. It has evolved with input from many participants via the internet and has been translated into Spanish and French. The Treaty was sent to each country's UN Missions in New York in 1997 and in 1998 on the anniversaries of the United Nations (October 24) and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 10). The Treaty was also circulated in 1997 as Treaty for State and Corporate Compliance: the nemesis of the MAI; circulated in November 1997 as Treaty for State and Corporate Compliance: the nemesis of APEC, and circulated in 1999 to support the call for the Dismantling of the WTO and the Implementation of international law.

CITIZENS' DECLARATION OF ACTIONS: GLOBAL COMPLIANCE WITH THE PUBLIC TRUST PREAMBLE

DETERMINED
· To create a world based on true participatory democracy within a framework of public trust principles RECOGNIZING the Interdependence of Peace, Environmental Protection, Human Rights, civil and political rights and social economic and cultural rights, and Social Justice; NOTING that through more than 50 years of concerted effort, the member states of the United Nations have created international Public Trust obligations, commitments and expectations:
1. to Promote and fully guarantee respect for human rights including civil and political rights, and social, cultural and economic rights including labour
rights, women's human rights, and indigenous rights, and the right to unadulterated food, potable water, human right to housing and to universally accessible not for profit health care, education and social justice and the right to self determination;
2. to Enable socially equitable and environmentally sound development;
3. to Achieve a state of peace, justice and security;
4. to Create a global structure that respects the rule of law; and
5. to Ensure the preservation and protection of the environment, respect the inherent worth of nature beyond human purpose, reduce the ecological footprint and move away from the current model of overconsumption CONCERNED that trade organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its proposed extension the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) undermine the UN's work of over 50 years in creating obligations, commitments and expectations with respect to the matters set out above:
DISMAYED by the continuing global urgency resulting from the failure of member states of the United Nations to discharge their obligations arising from conventions, treaties and covenants, to act on commitments made in conference action plans, and to fulfill expectations arising from General Assembly resolutions; RECALLING the commitment made by all the member states of the United Nations to "ensure that corporations including transnational corporations comply with national codes, social security laws, and international law, including international environmental law" (Platform of Action at the UN Conference on Women: Equality, Development and Peace, Beijing, 1995, and also in the Habitat II Agenda, Istanbul, 1996

Global Citizens call for the following:
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1. 1 * TO CREATE a world based on true participatory democracy within a framework of public trust principles;
* TO ACCEPT the inherent limits to the Earth's resources
* to promote the peaceful coexistence of all nations, races, and species;
* TO DEVELOP a stable and peaceful international society founded on the rule of international law;
* TO HALT the consequences of unprincipled economic growth;
* TO STRIVE to remove the inequitable distribution of resources, and to eradicate poverty
* TO STABILIZE population and implement the commitments made through the international conference on population and development
1.2 To discharge the obligations, act on the commitments, and fulfill the expectations arising from international Public Trust agreements, including:
(a) signing and ratifying any existing international conventions, treaties, and covenants that have not yet been signed and ratified;
(b) enacting the domestic legislation necessary to implement them or to fulfill the legitimate expectations created by General Assembly resolutions and declarations; and
(c) acting upon the commitments arising from conference action plans.
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2. 1. To establish mandatory international standards and regulations (MINS), based on international principles and on the highest and strongest regulations of member states, harmonizing standards and regulations continually upwards with respect to :
(a) Promoting and fully guaranteeing respect for human rights civil and political rights, and social, cultural and economic rights and including labour rights, indigenous rights and women's human rights; the human right to safe unadulterated food, the human right to accessible environmentally sound housing and universally accessible publicly funded health care, and social justice, and the right to self determination;
b. discharging the obligation undertaken by States in various multilateral treaties on human rights to prevent discrimination on the following grounds:
- race, tribe, or culture;
- colour, ethnicity, national ethnic or social origin, or language; nationality, place of birth, or nature of residence (refugee or immigrant, migrant worker);
- gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or form of family,
- disability or age;
- religion or conviction, political or other opinion, or - class, economic position, or other status; (1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, among others);
(c) Enabling socially equitable and environmentally sound employment;
(d) Achieving a state of peace, justice and security;
(e) Creating a global structure that respects the rule of law; including accepting the jurisdiction and judgment of the International Court of Justice
(f) Ensuring the preservation and protection of the environment, respecting the inherent worth of nature beyond human purpose, reducing the ecological footprint and moving away from the current model of overconsumptive development.
(g) Invoking the precautionary principle which holds that where there is a threat to the environment or human health the lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing measures that prevent the threat (Paraphrase of the principle found in numerous international instruments)
2. 2. to require that all use of natural resources must be in accordance with the principles set out in paragraph 2. (1) that all users pay a fair rent to the community for the use of those resources, and that all public subsidies to activities, individuals or companies that do not conform to the principles set out in paragraph 2. (1) be immediately discontinued.
2.3. to promote the right to ecological governance and global ecological solidarity and determine how to implement this governance.
2.4. to establish an urgent international network to protest immediately any arrests and imprisonment of environmental, political, labour or social protesters
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3.1 To demand compensation and reparations from investors or corporations, and from administrations that have permitted investors or corporations to, or assisted them in, degrading the environment, violating fundamental human rights, or causing harm to human health, especially where those actions
occurred:
(a) in developing and developed countries, or
(b) on the lands of indigenous peoples, or in the communities of marginalized citizens in either developing or developed countries.
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4. 1. To revoke the licences and charters of corporations, including transnational corporations, if those corporations have persistently:
(a) violated human rights or denied or colluded in denying social justice,
(b) caused unremediated environmental degradation or harm to human health,
(c) disregarded labour rights, including the right to strike, collective bargaining, the right to a safe working environment, the right to a living wage, and the right to pay equity
(d) contributed to conflict and war, or
(e) failed to pay compensation for past environmental degradation or non-compliance with international agreements.
4.2. To set up a monitoring and reporting network to inform citizens in the country of origin where corporations are registered of the activities of the foreign-based corporations
4.3 To expose the relationship between corporate exploitation of resources and war and the generation of social, human rights and ecological refugees and immigrants.
4.4. to coordinate a conference on the social, cultural and environmental impacts of the current model of overconsumption especially that of the transnational corporations
5. 1 To reduce the current global military budget of approximately 900 billion by at least 50% and to use the savings:
(a) to guarantee:
- the right to safe and unadulterated food, which has been not genetically
altered or irradiated, or grown with pesticides,
- the right to safe and affordable housing,
- the right to universally accessible publicly funded health care,
- the right to safe drinking water, and the right to prevent the sale of bulk water
- the right to a safe environment,
- The right to ecological heritage, and the rights of endangered species
- the right to universally accessible publicly funded education, and
- the right to peace;
(b) to fund socially equitable and environmentally sound employment; and
(c) to fund education and research free from corporate direction and control.
(d) to prohibit all corporate funding to political parties
5.2 To move towards global disarmament and the disbanding of NATO, and the dissolution of organizations and institutes dedicated to furthering of the cult of war rather than to the promoting a culture of peace
5.3 To stress the necessity of anticipation and prevention of conflict and an establishment of a culture of peace
5.4 To reveal the intricate relationship between the global arms sales and the creation and extension of war and conflict
5.5 To expose the role of pseudo NGOs for supporting paramilitary actions in the guise of promoting human rights
6. To increase funding for United Nations agencies and for international, national and regional educational institutions so that their missions will not be undermined by corporate direction or control. All funding to the United Nations should be conditional on and dedicated to furthering the objectives of international Public Trust law, not vested interest economic agreements such as GATT, WTO, APEC, FTAA etc. Since the Security Council is controlled by the nuclear armed states, and since the Security Council by its very existence violates the principle of sovereign equality as outlined in the United Nations Charter, the Security Council should be
disbanded, and the role of the General Assembly strengthened.
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7. To develop criteria for partnership with the United Nations so as to ensure
(i) the exclusion of corporations and
(ii) that no partner has in any way, in any of its activities, violated human rights, (including labour rights), caused environmental degradation, contributed to war and conflict, or failed to promote socially equitable and environmentally sound employment.
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8. To distinguish "civil society" from the "market economy" by defining civil society as those elements of society whose goals are to guarantee human rights, foster justice, protect and conserve the environment, prevent war and conflict, and provide for socially equitable and environmentally sound employment; and to declare and affirm the principle that civil society has a valid and important role to play, distinct from the market economy.
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9. 1. To prevent the transfer to other states of substances and activities that cause environmental degradation or that are harmful to human health, as agreed in the Rio Declaration, UNCED, 1992. This prohibition must cover activities such as those related to:
(a) producing, importing or exporting toxic, hazardous, or (non-medical) atomic substances and wastes,
(b) producing or consuming ozone-depleting substances,
(c) extracting resources by environmentally unsound methods,
(d) producing or distributing genetically-engineered food substances
(e) producing or distributing genetically engineered crop/pesticide systems,
(f) creating or increasing dependency on greenhouse gas emission
(g) ensuring that the governments of the corporations act to prevent the transfer to other states of substances and activities that cause environmental degradation or harm to human health
(h) ensuring that the governments of the developing countries act to prevent the transfer to other states of substances and activities that cause environmental degradation or harm to human health
9.2 To prevent practices within a culture that violate human rights:
9.2.1.To prohibit women's human rights violations such as genital mutilations, public stonings, beheadings, acid burnings, sex slave trade, military rape and enslavement.
9.3. To prevent the introduction into another state of substances and
activities prohibited in the state of origin
9.4. To establish legal obligations to ensure that the multinationals that have caused environmental degradation and harm to human health in developing countries are brought to trial in their country of origin
9. 5. To ensure compliance with international environmental instruments (A) Implementing the framework convention on climate change,
- conserving carbon sinks such as old growth forests and bogs,
-invoking the precautionary principle,
-exposing the conflict of interest of scientists who deny the threat of climate change
- rejecting the proposal that nuclear energy is the solution to climate change
- rejecting the proposal that the solution lies in emissions trading which endorses the right to pollute
- acting on the obligation to the reduce of greenhouse gases
- calling upon major green-house gas producing states to assume their responsibility to respect the rights of future generations
- ensuring that the developing countries are supported by the developed states in the commitment to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and that the developed states assist through supplying socially equitable and environmentally sound practices
- recognizing that the oceans provided the largest carbon sink and that the exploitation of the seas by the developing states is significant less than that of the developed states
- calling upon civil society, politicians, scientists to collaborate before United Nations Framework convention of climate change
- moving away from car/truck-dependency and promoting environmentally sound transportation (as agreed at UNCED and Habitat II
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(b) implementing the convention on biological diversity
- conserving biodiversity and identifying biodiversity
- invoking the precautionary principle to justify banning environmentally unsound practices that destroy biodiversity
(c) applying the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the convention on biological diversity to the preservation of temperate and tropical old growth forests
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10. 1. To act upon the commitments made at recent United Nations Conferences to move away from the over-consumptive model of development, to replace the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as an indicator of economic well-being with the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), the Criteria of Public Trust (CPT) or some other measure which reflects the general quality of life rather than gross economic activity.
10.2 To redefine "development" in ecological, social and equitable terms
10.3. To reject the economic dogma that maximum economic growth will
resolve inequitable income and wealth distribution.
10.4. To factor in the social and ecological costs of development
- discontinuing all [socially inequitable and environmentally unsound practices and public subsidies not conforming to public trust law.
- ensuring The socially equitable and environmentally sound use of the land and resources as a right to a common heritage
- requiring that all users pay a fair rent to the community for the use of all land and natural resources.
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11. 1. To prohibit all trade zones that circumvent obligations and commitments intended to guarantee all the above designated human rights, including social justice and labour rights, or to protect, preserve and conserve the environment.
11. 2. To phase out all socially inequitable and environmentally unsound industries while implementing a fair transition program for affected workers and communities.
- INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING:
(A) Banning genetically engineered foods and crops
-banning the patenting of life forms
- ending the exploitation of the knowledge of farmers, peasants and indigenous peoples
- promoting a global support program for conversion to organic agriculture and other forms of ecological farming
- instituting a fair and just transition program for farmers and communities affected by the conversion
(b) replacing the chemical pesticides with environmentally safe and sound alternatives
(c) dismantling civil nuclear plants and phasing out dependency on fossil fuels and the promoting of environmentally safe and sound alternative renewable energy
(d) preventing the cruelty to animals at all levels including in food production especially battery and factory farming, medical experimentation, and in human amusement
(e) promoting a move away from the current model of overconsumption by refusing, reusing, reducing and recycling
- providing that recycling does not introduce socially inequitable and environmentally unsound practices and substances such as recycling plutonium from dismantled nuclear weapons
11.3. to discharge the diverse obligations incurred through the Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992), the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992), the Basel Convention on the Transfer of Hazardous Waste, the Vienna Convention on the Elimination of the Production and Consumption of Ozone Depleting Substances (1985) and other relevant international environmental agreements;
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12. To act on the commitment to transfer .7% of GDP to developing countries, to cancel all developing-nation debt and if the debt has been paid all interest arising from loans by international bodies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and to terminate all
structural adjustment programs (SAPs) which seek to ensure repayment of such debt at the expense of ordinary people, including programs that mandate:
(a) the indiscriminate privatization of state-owned enterprises,
(b) the indiscriminate reduction of government expenditures,
(c) the indiscriminate liberalization of trade regimes,
(d) the indiscriminate opening of states to increased foreign investment,
especially where this entails the attraction of foreign capital by deregulating markets, offering low wages, implementing high interest rates, or providing little or no environmental protection,
(e) the indiscriminate encouragement to produce goods for export at the expense of crops, products or services which serve the needs of domestic peoples, or
(f) the creation or exacerbation of an imbalance between imports and exports.
12.2. to ensure that the banks and international institutions responsible for the lending of money for inappropriate corporate development are financially responsible for the canceling of the debt
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13. 1 To ensure that no state relaxes environmental, health, human rights or labour standards in order to attract industry, and that no corporation allows a branch or subsidiary to engage in manufacturing, transferring substances, or other practices that are banned, restricted or otherwise unacceptable in the controlling corporation's state of origin.
13. 2. To ensure that fulfilling a state's obligations under international Public Trust Law shall be an absolute defense against legal action by any state, corporation, or investor.
13. 3. To expose the extent to which citizens have allowed their pension and investment funds to support corporations that have violated the public trust, and to urge citizens to invest in the promotion of the public trust.
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14. To ensure that no state shall justify trade with a country that violates human rights, including labour rights, on the grounds that such trade will lead to a betterment of human rights, except where such trade is conditional on eliminating human rights abuses.
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15. To establish an International Court of Compliance to which citizens can bring evidence of state and corporate non-compliance with international
Public Trust Law, including the duty to:
(a) protect and advance human rights, including the right to adequate food,
shelter and health care, labour rights, and social justice,
(b) protect and conserve the environment,
(c) prevent war and conflict, and
(d) enable socially equitable and environmentally sound employment.
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16. To abolish the doctrine of "corporate personality" - the notion that corporations are persons and have the rights of ordinary people - thus preventing corporations from invoking the rights proper to individuals.
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17. To ensure the right of citizens to sue corporate owners and officers, in criminal and civil courts, for any violation of human rights, including labour rights, for denying social justice, for causing serious harm to the environment or to human health, or for contributing to suffering and waste through the international arms trade.
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(18) To eliminate weapons of mass destruction including nuclear, biological and chemical
(a) banning the mining of uranium and all nuclear weapons and adopting the abolition 2000 proposed
treaty for the abolition of nuclear weapons
(b) discontinuing the circulating and berthing of nuclear capable and nuclear armed vessels
(c) banning the transfer of plutonium in the form of MOX
(d) discontinuing all plans for Missile defence shield
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19.1 To prevent the corporate and corporate front group intrusion into the educational system - exposing the origin and funding of the educational materials
19.3. to promote educational programs related to the furtherance of the public trust
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To prevent the devolution of power to the corporations,
and the promotion of the corporate goal of deregulation, and voluntary compliance by calling for the implementation of the above measures.

SIGN-ON
NAME:
ORGANIZATION IF APPLICABLE
COUNTRY
E-MAIL

please send to Jean Chretien and a copy to j.russow@shawlink.ca

Joan Russow (PhD)
Global Compliance Research Project
1230 St Patrick St
Victoria, B.C.