The Steering Committee of the World Citizens Party has revised the previous "Joint Congressional Resolution".
The World Citizens Party welcomes all friends to support this resolution by printing it, endorsing and sending back to our office at: World Citizens Party, 2161 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140.
GLOBAL RESOLUTION
The World Citizens Party seeks to organize worldwide support for a conference to revise the United Nations Charter to create a democratic federal world government.
In the U.S.A., the World Citizens Party supports the following Congressional Resolution.
Concurrent Resolution (U.S.A.)
A CALL FOR A GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE UNITED NATIONS
TO REVISE THE UNITED NATIONS CHARTER TO FORM
A DEMOCRATIC FEDERAL WORLD GOVERNMENT
Whereas, numerous wars, international and civil, have been waged since the United Nations was founded in 1945,
and whereas warfare continues, and no evidence exists that war will cease to occur in the future unless new measures are taken, and
Whereas, the United Nations, notwithstanding its invaluable humanitarian, scientific, social and cultural achievements, has failed in its basic purpose to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”, and
Whereas, the United Nations requires the structural capability to address matters that by their nature or by neglect cannot be or are not being addressed adequately by nation states including, but not limited to, war, nuclear weapons proliferation, international terrorism, environmental catastrophe and economic disparity, and
Whereas, the United Nations requires the structural capability to enforce democratically enacted world law,
Therefore, be it resolved that it is the sense of the United States Congress that the President of the United States call for a general conference of the members of the United Nations, as provided by Article 109 of the Charter, to revise the United Nations to form a democratic federal world government conforming to the following specifications:
A representative and democratic World Legislature with world constitutional authority to enact world law;
A World Executive, directly elected by the people of the world or selected by and responsible to the elected
World Legislature, whose powers are specifically enumerated by the World Constitution, to administer and enforce world law;
A World Judiciary System to interpret world law, a system with compulsory jurisdiction to adjudicate disputes between nation states, non national entities and individual world citizens;
A World Bill of Rights to protect the basic human rights of all world citizens.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Baha'is perspective on the Role of World Government in Establishing of Peace, Justice and Unity on a Global Scale
On March 14, 2009, The World Citizens Party Steering Committee meeting Brian Aull- member of Baha'i Community made a presentation of Baha'is thoughts on the role of the world government in establishment of peace, justice and unity on a global scale. Below is a text of his talk.
The Bahá’í Faith is a world religion whose purpose is to unite all the races and peoples of the world in one universal Cause, one common Faith. Bahá’ís are followers of Bahá’u’lláh, who they believe is the Promised One of past religions traditions Whose teachings, work and influence would enable humanity to build a new world based on peace, justice, and unity. So to give you some context here, I’d like to first tell you a bit about Bahá’u’lláh and how He came to address the issue of world government and how this relates to the other teachings of the Faith.
He was born in Teheran in 1817 and His father was a high official in the court of the Shah. From a very young age, became renowned for nobility of character and profound knowledge and wisdom. When His father died He turned down the opportunity to succeed him, and instead devoted Himself to philanthropic activities, assisting the poor and working for justice. By 1850 He had become the prime mover of the events leading to the establishment and spread of the Bahá’í Faith. Because of His claim to bear a new revelation from God that superceded the Quran, He was the target of persecution by the Islamic clergy and the governments of both Iran and of the Ottoman Empire. They exiled Him several times to more and more remote places, hoping to stamp out the new religion. It had just the opposite effect, because people that came into contact with Him, including jailors, were transformed by the experience and became Bahá’ís.
Bahá’u’lláh’s writings span over 100 volumes and cover topics ranging from the journey of the soul and the influence of prayer to world government and spiritual principles bearing on the solution of economic problems. The pivot of His teachings is the oneness of humanity; He says, “The world is but one country and mankind its citizens.” "Regard ye not one another as strangers; ye are the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one branch.” So a lot of the personal virtues stressed in the Bahá’í teachings, such as overcoming prejudice, are those that facilitate the achievement of unity. And unity does not mean uniformity; it means being different but working together.
Unity is also not a long-term goal that might be achieved one we can solve other problems such as war and poverty. The achievement of unity comes first. Once we start to live and function as if we’re all in this together, then we can solve problems such as war and poverty.
Bahá’u’lláh tells us that religion is progressive. It’s not just about individual redemption, but also about advancing human civilization. In terms of the way society functions, the human family has gone through stages of maturation analogous to infancy, childhood, and adolescence in the life of an individual. Today, humanity is in the transition from a turbulent adolescence into adulthood. As the 1985 peace statement, The Promise of World Peace, puts it: “The Bahá’í Faith regards the current world confusion and calamitous condition in human affairs as a natural phase in an organic process leading ultimately and irresistibly to the unification of the human race in a single social order whose boundaries are those of the planet.”
So what does the Bahá’í community do to help us get there? A distinctive aspect of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings is the idea that the functioning of social and political institutions must be based on spiritual values. The Bahá’í community does not have clergy; it elects governing councils at the local, national and international levels. These are not merely “administrative” bodies. Their purpose is to incubate a new political culture based on unity. Their deliberations are non-adversarial and motivated by a spirit of service and cooperative search for the truth in thinking about every issue. They are meant to be a model of human governance that can eventually be offered to society at large. The important point here is that it’s not just about the structure piece, but also about the culture and values piece. If people are divided by selfish motives and myopic vision, Robert’s Rule of Order will not rescue them. In terms of the larger world, the Bahá’í writings make some specific statements about how world government will come about and what it will look like. As a prisoner of the Turkish Sultan, Bahá’u’lláh wrote a remarkable series of letters to the rulers of that time, and exhorted them to establish a global collective security system.
The Promise of World Peace is a good resource if you want to learn more about the Bahá’í teachings on peace and global governance. Here are a few quotes from it.
“The time must come when the imperative necessity for the holding of a vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be universally realized. The rulers and kings of the earth must needs attend it, and, participating in its deliberations, must consider such ways and means as will lay the foundations of the world’s Great Peace amongst men.” [a quote from Bahá’u’lláh]
In the Bahá’í view, recognition of the oneness of mankind “calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world—a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.”
“What else could these weighty words signify,” [Shoghi Effendi] wrote, “if they did not point to the inevitable curtailment of unfettered national sovereignty as an indispensable preliminary to the formation of the future Commonwealth of all the nations of the world? Some form of a world super-state must needs be evolved,in whose favour all the nations of the world will have willingly ceded every claim to make war, certain rights to impose taxation and all rights to maintain armaments, except for purposes of maintaining internal order within their respective dominions. Such a state will have to include within its orbit an International Executive adequate to enforce supreme and unchallengeable authority on every recalcitrant member of the commonwealth; a World Parliament whose members shall be elected by the people in their respective countries and whose election shall be confirmed by their respective governments; and a Supreme Tribunal whose judgment will have a binding effect even in such cases where the parties concerned did not voluntarily agree to submit their case to its consideration.
A world community in which all economic barriers will have been permanently demolished and the interdependence of capital and labour definitely recognized; in which the clamour of religious fanaticism and strife will have been forever stilled; in which the flame of racial animosity will have been finally extinguished; in which a single code of international law—the product of the considered judgment of the world’s federated representatives—shall have as its sanction the instant and coercive intervention of the combined forces of the federated units;
and finally a world community in which the fury of a capricious and militant nationalism will have been transmuted into an abiding consciousness of world citizenship—such indeed, appears, in its broadest outline, the Order anticipated by Bahá’u’lláh, an Order that shall come to be regarded as the fairest fruit of a slowly maturing age.”
Of course, the process of getting there will be a difficult and rocky journey. Institutions that function according to archaic assumptions will crumble and collapse under the weight of their own inadequacy. But this is not a reason to despair, because it paves the way for constructive processes, for the building of new institutions. The work you are doing is a example of the many constructive processes going on. These processes don’t make the headlines, but that does not diminish their importance.
The Bahá’í Faith is a world religion whose purpose is to unite all the races and peoples of the world in one universal Cause, one common Faith. Bahá’ís are followers of Bahá’u’lláh, who they believe is the Promised One of past religions traditions Whose teachings, work and influence would enable humanity to build a new world based on peace, justice, and unity. So to give you some context here, I’d like to first tell you a bit about Bahá’u’lláh and how He came to address the issue of world government and how this relates to the other teachings of the Faith.
He was born in Teheran in 1817 and His father was a high official in the court of the Shah. From a very young age, became renowned for nobility of character and profound knowledge and wisdom. When His father died He turned down the opportunity to succeed him, and instead devoted Himself to philanthropic activities, assisting the poor and working for justice. By 1850 He had become the prime mover of the events leading to the establishment and spread of the Bahá’í Faith. Because of His claim to bear a new revelation from God that superceded the Quran, He was the target of persecution by the Islamic clergy and the governments of both Iran and of the Ottoman Empire. They exiled Him several times to more and more remote places, hoping to stamp out the new religion. It had just the opposite effect, because people that came into contact with Him, including jailors, were transformed by the experience and became Bahá’ís.
Bahá’u’lláh’s writings span over 100 volumes and cover topics ranging from the journey of the soul and the influence of prayer to world government and spiritual principles bearing on the solution of economic problems. The pivot of His teachings is the oneness of humanity; He says, “The world is but one country and mankind its citizens.” "Regard ye not one another as strangers; ye are the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one branch.” So a lot of the personal virtues stressed in the Bahá’í teachings, such as overcoming prejudice, are those that facilitate the achievement of unity. And unity does not mean uniformity; it means being different but working together.
Unity is also not a long-term goal that might be achieved one we can solve other problems such as war and poverty. The achievement of unity comes first. Once we start to live and function as if we’re all in this together, then we can solve problems such as war and poverty.
Bahá’u’lláh tells us that religion is progressive. It’s not just about individual redemption, but also about advancing human civilization. In terms of the way society functions, the human family has gone through stages of maturation analogous to infancy, childhood, and adolescence in the life of an individual. Today, humanity is in the transition from a turbulent adolescence into adulthood. As the 1985 peace statement, The Promise of World Peace, puts it: “The Bahá’í Faith regards the current world confusion and calamitous condition in human affairs as a natural phase in an organic process leading ultimately and irresistibly to the unification of the human race in a single social order whose boundaries are those of the planet.”
So what does the Bahá’í community do to help us get there? A distinctive aspect of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings is the idea that the functioning of social and political institutions must be based on spiritual values. The Bahá’í community does not have clergy; it elects governing councils at the local, national and international levels. These are not merely “administrative” bodies. Their purpose is to incubate a new political culture based on unity. Their deliberations are non-adversarial and motivated by a spirit of service and cooperative search for the truth in thinking about every issue. They are meant to be a model of human governance that can eventually be offered to society at large. The important point here is that it’s not just about the structure piece, but also about the culture and values piece. If people are divided by selfish motives and myopic vision, Robert’s Rule of Order will not rescue them. In terms of the larger world, the Bahá’í writings make some specific statements about how world government will come about and what it will look like. As a prisoner of the Turkish Sultan, Bahá’u’lláh wrote a remarkable series of letters to the rulers of that time, and exhorted them to establish a global collective security system.
The Promise of World Peace is a good resource if you want to learn more about the Bahá’í teachings on peace and global governance. Here are a few quotes from it.
“The time must come when the imperative necessity for the holding of a vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be universally realized. The rulers and kings of the earth must needs attend it, and, participating in its deliberations, must consider such ways and means as will lay the foundations of the world’s Great Peace amongst men.” [a quote from Bahá’u’lláh]
In the Bahá’í view, recognition of the oneness of mankind “calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world—a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.”
“What else could these weighty words signify,” [Shoghi Effendi] wrote, “if they did not point to the inevitable curtailment of unfettered national sovereignty as an indispensable preliminary to the formation of the future Commonwealth of all the nations of the world? Some form of a world super-state must needs be evolved,in whose favour all the nations of the world will have willingly ceded every claim to make war, certain rights to impose taxation and all rights to maintain armaments, except for purposes of maintaining internal order within their respective dominions. Such a state will have to include within its orbit an International Executive adequate to enforce supreme and unchallengeable authority on every recalcitrant member of the commonwealth; a World Parliament whose members shall be elected by the people in their respective countries and whose election shall be confirmed by their respective governments; and a Supreme Tribunal whose judgment will have a binding effect even in such cases where the parties concerned did not voluntarily agree to submit their case to its consideration.
A world community in which all economic barriers will have been permanently demolished and the interdependence of capital and labour definitely recognized; in which the clamour of religious fanaticism and strife will have been forever stilled; in which the flame of racial animosity will have been finally extinguished; in which a single code of international law—the product of the considered judgment of the world’s federated representatives—shall have as its sanction the instant and coercive intervention of the combined forces of the federated units;
and finally a world community in which the fury of a capricious and militant nationalism will have been transmuted into an abiding consciousness of world citizenship—such indeed, appears, in its broadest outline, the Order anticipated by Bahá’u’lláh, an Order that shall come to be regarded as the fairest fruit of a slowly maturing age.”
Of course, the process of getting there will be a difficult and rocky journey. Institutions that function according to archaic assumptions will crumble and collapse under the weight of their own inadequacy. But this is not a reason to despair, because it paves the way for constructive processes, for the building of new institutions. The work you are doing is a example of the many constructive processes going on. These processes don’t make the headlines, but that does not diminish their importance.
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