The Open Science Justice Lab at the University of Amsterdam has launched a project to advance research and open-access knowledge sharing in support of developing a global constitution. When I was completing my history of climate negotiations book in 2014, I concluded that there was an urgent need for a global constitution. Climate change cannot simply be addressed by negotiations within the climate regime, it covers issues of water, desertification, biodiversity loss; it affects development pathways; it is impacted by sovereign debt; its time scale does not match short-term political leaders and short-term CEOs of companies. Contract and public international law often conflict to the detriment of the public interest. Much of my work argues that global governance will be inevitably fragmented, but a global constitution could serve as an umbrella under which the diverse elements of governance could be tested against.
Can a global constitution ease the world’s pressing challenges?
We share this world with at least 8.7 million species. But today humans and their livestock account for 96% of the total mammal biomass with wild mammals accounting for only 4%. This is logical as we are in the midst of the 6th largest biodiversity extinction event. Humans have taken over 55% of the land, diverted and dammed rivers at the cost of freshwater species, and our herbicides, insecticides and fungicides as well as our extraction of honey have led to a major pollinator crises that can backfire by not pollinating our food plants. With the rise of the right of the river and nature and ecocide as legal concepts, we are trying to more equitably share this world with other species. In our work on safe and just Earth System Boundaries we have made proposals about how to give back space to nature. Only a global constitution could grant nature rights with global relevance.
Only a decade ago, we thought we were moving towards a more harmonious world with fewer wars and greater consensus about what needs to happen. But as a history professor once warned us in an European Union project on future scenarios that war is inevitable and there will be ups and downs in the future as in the past, we see now a rise of disintegration, loss of solidarity, investment in weapons, threats of a new colonialism, the breakdown or manipulation of the instruments of democracy, the rise of misinformation and disinformation, and climate change is forgotten with the rise of strong men in power. A question is – could a global constitution play a role in easing these challenges?
Everybody is invited to provide input
While the world does not yet appear to be ready for a constitution, we are inviting anybody and everybody above the age of 10 to write an essay (produce a cartoon, poem, or painting) in any language about what they would like to see in a global constitution. They can write on behalf of themselves or on behalf of any species or natural system that they are informed about. They then become the contributing authors of the future global constitution. Their ideas will feed into our research underlying the constitution. We aim at a constitution of the inhabitants of the Earth. Essays and other contributions can be submitted at globalconstitution.org.
Five years down the road we hope to have put together the elements of such a constitution. By then may be there will be a great demand for such a constitution. Organizations such as Democracy Without Borders are among those that promote the idea.
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