All of this sounds so nice. What is number 3? What is number 6? How about number 7? How about 13 and 14?
INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES 2006 CHARTER
Charter 1.7 - Principles
The Association shall promote, and ask its individual members to adopt, the following Earth Charter Principles to guide local action:
(1) Respect Earth and life in all its diversity.
(2) Care for the community of life with understanding, compassion, and love.
(3) Build democratic societies that are just, participatory, sustainable, and peaceful. (Using the Delphi technique?)
(4) Secure Earth’s bounty and beauty for present and future generations.
(5) Protect and restore the integrity of Earth’s ecological systems, with special concern for biological diversity and the natural processes that sustain life.
(6) Prevent harm as the best method of environmental protection and, when knowledge is limited, apply a precautionary approach. (Violation of innocent until proven guilty)
(7) Adopt patterns of production, consumption, and reproduction that safeguard Earth’s regenerative capacities, human rights, and community well-being. (Communitarianism with forced sterilization?)
(8) Advance the study of ecological sustainability and promote the open exchange and wide application of the knowledge acquired.
(9) Eradicate poverty as an ethical, social, and environmental imperative.
(10) Ensure that economic activities and institutions at all levels promote human development in an equitable and sustainable manner.
(11) Affirm gender equality and equity as prerequisites to sustainable development and ensure universal access to education, health care, and economic opportunity.
(12) Uphold the right of all, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of human dignity, bodily health, and spiritual well-being, with special attention to the
rights of indigenous peoples and minorities.
(13) Strengthen democratic institutions at all levels, and provide transparency and accountability in governance, inclusive participation in decision making, and access to justice. (How transparent is ICLEI? Can we go to the meetings? Or are all of these agreements made in secret?)
(14) Integrate into formal education and life-long learning the knowledge, values, and skills needed for a sustainable way of life. (Indoctrination from cradle to grave)
(15) Treat all living beings with respect and consideration.
(16) Promote a culture of tolerance, nonviolence, and peace.
The Association shall develop, and encourage its members to use, a framework for measuring performance in the area of sustainable development and environment.
By-Laws § 1.7.a - ICLEI offices shall:
- encourage members to endorse the Earth Charter Principles and report back to ICLEI;
- provide promotional material on ICLEI’s association with the Earth Charter to local governments interested in ICLEI membership,
- include such promotional in welcome packages for new members and annual invoices;
- maintain a registry of members having endorsed the Earth Charter Principles. (WHERE IS THIS REGISTRY?)