The United Nations of the Peoples

[nin@xxxxxx]

Dear Burmanet readers,

Below are items from the final document of the third Assembly of 
the UN of the peoples held in Perugia, Italy, on Sept.23-25, 1999
with the participation of 140 representatives of civil society 
organizations from 100 countries, addressing THE ROLE OF THE GLOBAL 
CIVIL SOCIETY AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES FOR PEACE, AN ECONOMY OF 
JUSTICE AND INTERNATIONAL DEMOCRACY.

It includes policy strategy, demands and actions in several fields, 
with a comprehensive view and a global perspective. 

The WRTC takes the pleasure to redistribute this information on
behalf of *the United Nations of the Peoples*, not of the any 
governments.  

Quote:The power of the organisations of the global civil society 
does not lie in money or in weapons but in the will to "do" 
and not only to "talk" or "demand".

With metta and respect,
Dr. Khin Ni Ni Thein
WRTC
The WRTC is a non-governmental, non-profit, explicitly apolitical 
in nature, action-oriented, knowledge-based resource centre.
 ..................................................................

Below is an excerpt:
THE ROLE OF THE GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES FOR
PEACE, AN ECONOMY OF JUSTICE AND INTERNATIONAL DEMOCRACY

Final document of the 3rd Assembly of the United Nations of the 
Peoples


(...) Without an active and thriving civil society, without its
collaboration and a close relationship with institutions, no local or
global project to improve the quality of life or to preserve the planet
will ever be successful.  Therefore, every "realistic" vision of the future
must include:

- projects and plans for strengthening the civil society and local 
  communities;
- the recognition of the role that civil society organisations perform 
  and can carry out for peace, for an economy with justice and for 
  democracy;
- the growth of cooperation between civil society and institutions at 
  all levels, from the local to the global one, spreading a culture of
  reciprocity;
- respect for the autonomy of the civil society and its 
  non-subordination to the political or economic system;
- the growth of cooperation between the civil societies of different
  countries, reinforcing the international dimension of their activity 
  and the role of a global civil society.

In the era of interdipendence and globalisation, the main concrete
"resources" of a global civil society are:

1. the sharing of universal human values such as life, equal dignity of 
   all persons and peoples, freedom, solidarity, peace, human development,
   political and economic democracy;
2. the capacity to understand the signs of the times and act in order to
   make the international law on human rights - civil, political,
   economic, social, cultural, to peace, to development, to the 
   environment - prevail over the old international law of armed 
   sovereign states;
3. the will and the capacity to build cooperation networks between groups
   and communities across all borders,
4. the capacity to plan and act even in the most difficult situations;
5. the capacity to inform and educate;
6. the capacity to stimulate and collaborate with the institutions,
   starting from the local level.

The power of the organisations of the global civil society does not lie
in money or in weapons but in the will to "do" and not only to "talk" 
or "demand".

To do: with competence, capacity to analyze, plan and mobilize. To do in
difficult places:  working for the prevention of conflicts and in promoting
the growth of civil society where democracy is still weak.  

To do immediately:  by offering, for example, aid to victims of a tragedy,
but also searching for the causes, intervening on the sources of problems.
Civil society's strength lies in the capacity to coherently unite
denouncing, proposal and direct action.

If one of these components is missing (study and understanding, control,
denouncing, proposal, direct action, personal behaviour), civil society's
actions risk losing credibility and effectiveness.

The international situation is rapidly worsening and there is the need 
to oppose the current attempts to establish a hierarchical world order,
founded upon the sovereignty of armed national states, national
self-interest, the "law of strength" and the practice of war, upon the
exploitation of the natural and human resources of the poorer countries,
violence and the destruction of the environment, upon the control of
information and communication, financial speculation damaging the real
economy and human development. This imposes great responsibilities upon
civil societies all over the world which no woman or man can ignore.

THE THREE SECTIONS OF THE TEXT ARE THE FOLLOWING:

- Above all, peace
- For an economy with justice
- For an international democracy

Mario Pianta
ISRDS-CNR, Via De Lollis 12, 00185 Roma, Italy
tel. (39) 06 44879207, fax 06 4463836, e-mail pianta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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