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After four years of slow
progress, its proponents now hope to revive the initiative
and present it to the United Nations (UN) in 2002.
''This charter is not a utopia, but human beings could
not live without the dream of a better life,'' Brazilian
expert Miriam Vilela, executive director of the San
Jose-based Earth Charter Secretariat, told Tierramérica.
The document's promoters hope that the text, the final
version of which was approved by delegates meeting
in the Netherlands last year, will be officially adopted
by countries, universities and organizations worldwide,
as well as by the UN.
''So far, the process has been difficult due to the
lack of political will among governments,'' reported
Vilela, who will this year lead an extensive campaign
to promote the Charter internationally.
This environmental code of conduct was the brainchild
of delegates at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro,
but the lack of agreement has slowed its finalization.
Shortly after the idea was founded, Maurice Strong,
secretary-general of the Earth Summit, and Mikhail
Gorbachev, founder of Green Cross International, presented
a new approach, with the support of the Dutch government.
In 1997, a first draft made its debut during the Earth
Summit + Five, in Rio de Janeiro. A commission was
then formed to guide the project, and the Earth Charter
Secretariat was established as part of the Earth Council,
an international, non-governmental organization (NGO)
based in Costa Rica.
In the following years, civil society groups drafted
texts with suggestions from university professors,
researchers, environmentalists and other experts.
Consensus has been difficult because a broad array
of interests is at stake in attempting to preserve
the earth's resources, Vilela pointed out. For example,
one draft called for compassion towards animals, but
residents of Arctic regions argued that if the idea
were taken to the extreme, they would not be able
to feed themselves.
Once the innumerable differences were reconciled,
the final text was written up, with four chapters:
ecological integrity; community respect and care for
life; social and economic justice; and democracy,
non-violence and peace.
According to the Charter's preamble, the dominant
models of production and consumption are causing environmental
devastation, depletion of resources and massive extinction
of species.
The text contains 16 articles which maintain that
environmental protection, human rights, equitable
development and world peace are interdependent and
indivisible.
It also stipulates the need for countries to adopt,
at all levels, sustainable development plans and regulations
that permit the inclusion of environmental conservation
and rehabilitation as integral parts of all development
initiatives.
But some environmentalists believe it is unlikely
- under current circumstances - that massive support
for the initiative can be achieved.
Jorge Cabrera, environmental lawyer and author of
the Costa Rican Biodiversity Law, told Tierramérica
that the Charter is a good idea, but has scant impact
and limited reception.
''The environmental sector is concentrated on ensuring
that what little has been approved is achieved. Even
within the environmental movement itself there are
few people who are aware of the Charter's contents,''
Cabrera explained.
But the promoters of the document believe that this
situation is not a disadvantage, but rather an incentive
to globally promote the final text and raise international
awareness.
Various international groups, among them the Green
Cross International, the Amazonian Parliament, the
UN's University for Peace, and even the Millennium
Forum, which covers a thousand NGOs, have already
adopted the Earth Charter.
''We have to achieve that countries commit themselves
to it, because this is a major effort toward human
coexistence and the conservation of resources,'' affirmed
Abelardo Brenes, professor at the University for Peace.
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