Report of 3rd Symposium

Name:	Mr Rob Wheeler	Mr Rob Wheeler
Designation	UN Representative
Organization/Institution	Global Ecovillage Network
Country	USA

Short Biography	Rob Wheeler is the Coordinator of International Steering Committee of World Movement for Global Democracy (WMGD) Mr. Wheeler has served as an NGO Representative at the UN for the past ten years-representing the Global Eco-village Network, the Association of World Citizens, the Millennium Peoples Assembly Network, and the International Institute for Sustainable Future. He served on the Executive Committee for the Millennium NGO Forum, as well as on the Steering Committee of the World Civil Society Forum.

Workshop	SUPPORTING ALL OF THE EFFORTS FOR A WORLD PARLIAMENT AND GLOBAL DEMOCRACY By Mr Rob Wheeler, UN Representative, Global Ecovillage Network, USA This proposal is to develop a matrix of proposals and initiatives for establishing a World Parliament or Global Democracy, which the world’s people can thus choose from and support. This listing would be posted on the Coalition for a World Parliament and Global Democracy website; and it would describe how each of the proposals or initiatives can be advanced and supported. It would thus make it easy for people to get acquainted with the various proposals and to decide which they like best. The matrix could thus include such initiatives as: the World Constitution and Parliament Association, the World Parliament Experiment, the Global Community Earth Government, the Peoples Congress, the World Democracy Forum and Global Constitutional Forums, a UN Parliamentary Assembly, and a UN House of the Peoples or World Parliament. We would ask each of the organizations that are organizing these initiatives to endorse and support the Peoples Agenda or Platform of Global Proposals and to use it as a platform of what they want to achieve through their efforts for global democracy. We could also develop a strategy plan to register as many people as possible in the World Citizens Registry and to use it as the basis for electing people to the Peoples Congress in 2007. We could then develop a plan to hold elections for the Peoples Congress in as many regions of the world as possible. This would thus make it possible for us to create an actual prototype for a World Parliament and to put pressure on the governments to take our initiatives and proposals for World Democracy seriously. If we can gather enough support, it will also make the idea of World Democracy seem both more practical and appealing. We should also develop a plan for the Peoples Congress to focus on the passage and implementation of the Global Proposals or Peoples Agenda as one of its primary goals and objectives. Then we can ask all of the organizations that are supporting or participating in the Peoples Global Action Campaign to help organize and participate in the elections and proceedings of the Peoples Congress.

Speech	Speech of Mr Rob Wheeler, UN Representative, Global Ecovillage Network, USA Global Campaign to Implement the National Strategies for Sustainability Workshop At the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 in Johannesburg all of the Governments agreed to create and begin to implement a National Strategy for Sustainability by 2005. This was an important commitment because humanity is seriously polluting the natural environment and rapidly depleting our natural resource base. Unfortunately, however, many of the governments have not taken this commitment seriously and none are yet planning to make the transition to full sustainability – which is in fact the fundamental requirement upon which all of life depends. The United Nations has drafted guidelines that if carried out would lead us well on our way towards developing effective strategy plans. Now we need to create a global network of people and civil society organizations that support the development of the National Strategy Plans. We need to take the steps needed to ensure that all countries create such plans, that they all focus on making a rapid transition to achieving full sustainability, that specific means are developed to finance the implementation and transition, and that adequate processes are put in place to review, evaluate, and improve the national plans so that they are faithfully, effectively, and rapidly carried out. Creating an International Sustainable Energy Fund: Civil Society has also developed a proposal for an International Sustainable Energy Fund which was proposed to the United Nations during the Commission on Sustainable Development and the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The governments have still not given serious consideration to this proposal; though it would greatly increase our abilities to make a rapid transition to renewable energy and to avoid the problems that would come with Global Warming. The fund would provide resources for Research, Marketing, and Development of Sustainable Energy. The funds for the program would come from reducing the existing subsidies for fossil fuels. GRACE and the NGO Energy Caucus at the UN have drafted a 20 page proposal or resolution which would institute the Fund if passed. A serious campaign must be launched by civil society in order to support this program and ensure that we make the transition to renewable energy while we still can. Workshop and Plenary Presentation Proposal for a Peoples Global Action Campaign There are many global problems that are still not being seriously, or at least adequately, dealt with by our national governments and intergovernmental organizations. There is thus a huge opportunity for the Global Democracy movement to develop a listing of global proposals that we can support and work for AND once a World Parliament is created that it would address. One of the most productive things that we could do to raise public awareness and interest in World Democracy, would be to organize an active campaign to support the various proposals for dealing with our global problems - which will come out of the Global Symposium. Thus I am asking the organizers of the Global Symposium to lay the groundwork for this proposal before the Global Symposium even starts and to organize the symposium in such a way that it will support the development of such a campaign. First, the Global Proposals should be posted on the CMS and/or another website, along with a web forum where we can discuss each of the proposals and with a means to rank or indicate the degree to which we would support each of them. The discussion forum could also include a place to make suggestions for strategy development, how each of the proposals could be adopted and implemented, to report on progress made to date, to ask for the help that is needed, and to list how one can participate. Then during the Global Symposium we could schedule specific sessions to discuss and create action/strategy plans both for the overall Campaign and for each of the individual proposals. We should also focus on developing specific plans for how we can work together to ensure that each of the proposals will over time be adopted and implemented. I can provide an outline and make suggestions as to how these sessions could be structured, facilitated, and organized if that would be helpful. Thus one of our objectives could be to develop a Global Policy Board (or other such coordinating body) and a process to promote and work for the adoption and development of this platform of Global Proposals or Peoples Agenda. We could invite Simultaneous Policy, the Coalition for a World Parliament & Global Democracy, the World Citizen Alliance, and City Montessori School to help in designing and carrying out this process both before and after the Global Symposium. It was mentioned to me that CMS is planning to publish and distribute a booklet of the Global Proposals. Thus the booklet could also tell people how they can support both individual proposals and the overall campaign. We should work with the Alliance for a Responsible, Plural, and United World; the World Social Forum; UBUNTU; etc in order to develop Working Groups or Activist Communities that would further develop, support, and create strategies to encourage the adoption and implementation for each of the primary issue areas and the global proposals contained therein. The development of this campaign would lead directly to an outcome from the Conference that the participating organizations can support and promote for years to come. It will provide substantive proposals that a World Parliament and Global Democracy can work for and that will draw the interest and support of the world’s people.