Current Events
2008
March 21st: World Citizens Day
2007
Peoples Congress, Liege, November 3-4
Chris Hamer was elected as a member of the Peoples Congress, and attended their meeting at Liege in Belgium on the weekend of November 3-4. The Congress is a model world parliament, associated with the World Citizens Registry in Paris. It holds elections every 3 years, and delegates hold office for 9 years. At the meeting, a new executive was elected, Heloisa Primavera from Brazil as President, Liliane Metz-Krencker as Vice-President. Proceedings at the meeting were slowed by translation into 3 languages; next time, the aim is to use Esperanto alone as the working language! Hopefully the new executive will be able to revitalize this organization.
Pacific Islands Forum.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee has produced their report on Australia’s aid program in the Pacific. Our submission was listed as one of 37. Unfortunately, the report did not propose much in the way of concrete action. Its main recommendation was to set up a scheme of Youth Ambassadors in the region. There were also recommendations for a system of micro credit (like the Grameen Bank) in the Pacific; and for an altered tax regime for Australian companies investing in the Pacific; and that was about it.
Human Rights Torch
The Human Rights Torch has been established as a counterpart to the Olympic torch. It is traveling around the world to highlight human rights abuses by the Chinese government ahead of the Beijing Olympics and as part of a call to the Chinese government to promote respect for human rights. On December 13 the Human Rights Torch arrived in Canberra where it was welcomed by a large crowd and a number of speakers before being escorted to the Chinese Embassy by a large group of people. One of the speakers at the welcoming ceremony was World Citizen Lyndon Storey who spoke of the need for everyone, including the Chinese government, to respect our common humanity and make the Olympics a vehicle for promoting human rights rather than covering up violations of human rights.
UNPA.
The worldwide campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly is proceeding, and has been endorsed by many luminaries, ranging from Kofi Annan to the Pope. One of our student members, Vinay Orekondy who is a postgraduate student in international relations at UNSW, has offered to act as our director for this campaign, aiming to hone his skills in advocacy and lobbying. His first aim is to get the United Nations Association of Australia (UNAA) to endorse the campaign. Congratulations to Vinay on his outstanding initiative.
Peace Commission and Non-Violence Bill
Senator Lyn Allison of the Democrats has tabled a motion to establish such a Commission in the Senate. Its fate following the demise of the Democrats in the Senate remains to be seen.
World Unity Day
The solstice, March 21st, has been proposed to the UN as World Unity Day/ World Citizens Day.
Global Constitutional Forum
Jim Ranney, Chair of the Philadelphia Chapter of Citizens for Global Solutions, has tried to organize a meeting of Philadelphia World Federalists, an international advisory board, guests, and interested persons focussed on the eventual creation of a Constitution for Earth. The meeting was to be held from September 14-17, 2007, in Philadelphia. Invitees range from Bill Clinton on down. Unfortunately the plans have now fallen through, to be replaced by a debate on Iraq.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The Annual General Meeting of WCAA was held on Thursday 28 June at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney. Julna Zhao stepped down as Vice-President, due to work Commitments, and Wali Islam was elected in her place. We owe thanks to Julna for her strong support through our early years.
Melbourne Roundtable for Peace
Michael Ellis in Melbourne convened a Round Table for Peace which met in February. It was resolved to support a parliamentary campaign for a Commission for Peace and Non-Violence, led by Senator Lyn Allison of the Australian Democrats - see News. A Bill to this effect has now been tabled in the Federal Parliament. Michael has established a new association, Global Citizens for Peace, to spread these ideas.
World Citizens Day
A barbecue was held on Sunday, March 18th to celebrate World Citizens Day, at the Glover Cottages, head quarters of the Australian Institute for International Affairs (NSW) in Sydney. Dr Wali Islam said a few words to tell us about his aid project in Bangladesh.
2006
July1- July31st
Virtual Congress on World Citizenship and Democratic Global Governance
A web-based group called the Community of World Citizens (CWC) has been founded by Josep Ortega, and carries on a very active email discussion. They have organized a ‘Virtual Congress’ on World Citizenship and Democratic Global Governance, to run from July 1-31, 2006. The purpose of the Congress is to share views on global governance and how to advance towards it. It will take place via an interactive website where each paper will have its own discussion forum. One of the goals of the Congress is to develop a common strategy statement. A number of prominent leaders of the world movement have promised to take part. The deadline for submissions is June 15th
We have signed as an Association the Manifesto for World Citizenship and Democratic Global Governance developed by the CWC. Individual members who would like to sign the Manifesto or take part in the Congress should visit http://www.worldunitydays.net
Wednesday, May 24th, 2006
Keith Suter : ‘Can the UN Be Reformed?
This lecture was held on May 24th, 6-8 pm at CPACS, University of Sydney, in conjunction with Wendy Lambourne’s CPACS class. The room was full, with an attendance of about 40. Keith Suter gave a sparkling lecture, interrupted by occasional discussion, and had still not finished his outline material when the meeting closed at 8pm. Everybody seemed to enjoy the lecture very much.
Tuesday, March 21st, 2006.
World Citizens Day.
In 1975, at the celebration of 30 years from the creation of the United Nations in San Francisco, it was decided at the "mondialist" Congress that March 21st would be World Citizens Day.
The day of the equinox was chosen as a sign of equality between all people on earth.
A little later the celebration of World Citizens Day was accepted by the United Nations. The day is also earth and environment day as well as international action day against racism.
Recently, there has been a lively discussion on the web by the Community of World Citizens proposing a ‘World Unity Day’ for this date. A Manifesto has been prepared (see below), and a Letter inviting support from all who consider themselves World Citizens, as follows. We invite readers to sign up and show their support.
TO WORLD CITIZENS
Humanity faces many challenging problems throughout the world today. It is long past time that we must come together, as one human family, to support one another and to deal responsibly with our common problems.
Thus we, a group of individuals and organizations that has been actively working for world democracy for many years now, are inviting you to join us in recognizing and celebrating World Unity Days for World Citizenship and Global Governance on the two Equinox days of March 21 and September 21 each year.
The accompanying Manifesto describes our goals. We are collecting signatures (ongoing) in support of the Manifesto with the intention of presenting it to the political authorities in national governments and intergovernmental institutions as the number of supporters grows. The more that people participate actively in this initiative, the more likely it is that our political representatives will take our desires and demands seriously, and jointly move forward with us towards a new democratic world order.
World Unity Day will mark a time when WE, the People, can come together as one to recognize and celebrate both our unity and our diversity; to remember and give voice to our common heritage, rights, and responsibilities; and to organize and participate in cooperative activities to support this. We thus invite you to participate in the next World Unity Day of March 21, 2006, by organizing and taking individual and community action that focuses on our common dream of equity and justice for all, including:
Sgning the manifesto;
- Forwarding this message to as many people as you can;
- Sending this manifesto to your MP or political representative;
- Writing letters or articles to journals;
- Visiting the websites of the sponsoring organizations; and joining or supporting those you feel most closely represent your thought;
- Organizing community events, ceremonies, speeches, meetings, parties, and/or intercultural activities to celebrate World Unity Day;
- Sending your comments on the manifesto or new translation to worldcit@googlegroups.com
- If you wish to sign the manifesto for World Citizenship and Democratic Global Governance, please use the link below to submit your data. You will be contacted in the future with news about our progress.
http://www.worldcit.citymax.com/Sign.html
Manifesto
Wednesday, March 8th, 2006.
Committee Room 15, Houses of Parliament, Westminster, UK.
The Henry Usborne Memorial Lecture, entitled "Taking Democracy Global: Assessing the Benefits and Challenges of a Global Parliamentary Assembly", by Professor Andrew Strauss.
Sponsored by the One World Trust and Federal Union.