Re: The Future Starts This Week in Hamburg -- The World Future Council
is Ready to Go!
In the future, the WFC will be able to draw on the expertise of the former
President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, The Honourable Arthur
N R Robinson. He has received the Parliamentarians for Global Action "Defender
of Democracy Award", the Order of the Caribbean Community and was
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. And in 2002 he was honoured with
the Peace Leadership Award from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
Joining Robinson as the latest in a long line of prominent figures to
join the Council, are Prof Rae Kwon Chung, Director of the Environment
and Sustainable Division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission
for Asia and the Pacific; Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, Director of the
Centre for International Sustainable Development Law; Mairead Corrigan-Maguire,
Co-founder, The Peace People and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; Jared Duval,
National Director of the Sierra Student Coalition; the author Dr Riane
Eisler, President of the Centre for Partnership Studies; Wes Jackson,
Co-founder and President of The Land Institute; and Baroness Helena Kennedy,
President of the School of Oriental and African Studies (London University)
and Member of the House of Lords, UK.
The new councillors will meet with the founding members at the WFC Founding
Congress, which begins with a celebratory launch at 10am on the 10th of
May 2007 in the city hall, Hamburg, Germany. At the ceremony, Ole von
Beust, the Mayor of Hamburg, will officially welcome the Council to the
city. The initiators of the World Future Council and long term ATCA members
and contributors, Jakob von Uexkull (founder of the Right Livelihood Award)
and Herbert Girardet (author, environmental expert and film-maker), will
outline the aims of the WFC, and also speaking about their involvement
in the Council will be interim members of the WFC Executive Committee,
Bianca Jagger and Beate Weber, the former Mayor of the City of Heidelberg.
The Council will then go into session until Sunday to set the course for
the WFC's future work. The members of the World Future Council will present
the results of the founding congress as well as the Hamburg Call to Action
to the G8 and the EU at the main press conference at 11 a.m. on Sunday,
14th May.
The Aims of the World Future Council
The World Future Council is a strong new voice in the global arena, which
draws on our shared human values to champion the rights of future generations,
and working to ensure that humanity acts now to safeguard a sustainable
future. Despite having the means to tackle many of the problems we face,
the existing global system of governance has so far seemed incapable of
addressing them, often failing to adopt available solutions.
Supported by an international staff, the WFC's 50 Councillors will propose
ethical guidelines for national and international policies. Detailing
how they will go about implementing the proposals, Jakob von Uexkull said
the Council will help
"introduce these into national parliaments
via the e-Parliament, a global online network of democratically elected
parliamentarians. Our first in a series of major ongoing campaigns will
be on tackling global climate chaos."
[ENDS]
