The Responsibility of World Citizens for the Human Rights Development for World Citizens

Pincas Jawetz, Sustainable Development Media Think Tank, Secretary-General and Editor-in-Chief, USA

Regarding: The 2010 World Summit on Human Rights for World Citizens and the Promotion of Respect, Law, Taxation, and Environment concepts and the sharing of ideas and examples in order to enrich the collection of material to make the summit more meaningful in helping world citizens - I will try to respond on two levels - The US and the UN.

Regarding the general Subject: "The Responsibility of World Citizens for the Human Rights Development for World Citizens," I agree fully that It is mankind’s collective sorrow to not have human rights prevail, which greatly impacts the survival of humanity. In witness of the lack of human rights practices on a global scale and the UN/NGO Association of World Citizens in its 2010 World Summit on Human Rights
for World Citizens in April in Asia can speak up for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in direct relation to the  implementations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights around the world.

On our website www.SustainabiliTank.info we attempt to be a global catalyst for the spread of ideas on Sustainable Development as the way to implement our global striving for the attainment of the goals you outlined. Also, in practical terms, it is the issue of Man-Induced Climate Change that highlights the inequality of human rights and political rights practically all over the globe, and as said, from our location in New York - let me note that we are unhappy with the way Sustainable Development and Climate Change are being handled in the US and in the UN - and just because some aspects are handled even worse in other fora - should not allow us to smooth over the US and the UN transgressions.

The fact that Mrs. Eleanore Roosevelt, wife of a US President succeeded in the formatting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has not produced a US National Declaration on Healthcare and when Hillary Clinton, wife of President Clinton took on the issue - she failed. When President Barack Obama picked up the issue he managed only a partial success when compared with legislature in practically all other developed Nations. The fact that conditions on healthcare much worse in practically all of the other Nations is of no consolation, and the fact that the MDGs include steps that provide for advances on the subject by people most in need of such change is a welcome issue that even has the backing of the United States. Now why did the US not achieve better progress within its own borders? When looked squarely in the face of the opposition to change in the US, we find that even in the US, the economic interests that hold the power, manage to lead a large part of the population to think that doing something for the country's poor may harm their own economics – and this is the farthest from truth. In effect when you spread the wealth, getting better educated, better fed, healthier citizens, you also created the markets that lift the economy and create better life for everyone. Hralthcare is clearly part of this and the effects of climate change are responsible for health problems that are beyond National - these are Global problems that can be tackled only by implementing the concept of Sustainable Development globally.

Above brings us from the example I picked in the US, because of the recent visibility of the healthcare issue, to the larger scope of the UN and to the Climate change negotiations that were managed by the UN.

Here the UN was a total failure because of the fake smiles of the "Seal the Deal" campaign when everyone knew that there was no deal on hand. This is a topic our SustainabiliTank.info outlet was deeply involved. In effect the subject, like everything else at the UN, is political in nature and involves the sitting governments in clear disregard of the concept of "PEOPLES" on which the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION ON HUMAN RIGHTS is based. The World Citizens concept represents the World's People and their right to living conditions that allow for a clean and secure environment, their right to education and health. Those rights are being negated by the human-induced effects of climate change that impacts land, water and air - three of the Aristotelian elements that make up our world in addition to the fourth element which is fire. Fire stands in for energy and it is the wrong use of this element - the excessive reliance of fossil fuels - that has fouled up the other three elements. It is the stubborn insistence on using fossil fuels that is now impeding the advances that the UN has set up in its valuable programs like the MDGs. In reality, by not being allowed to achieve real progress on climate, it is desertification, degradation of bioresouces, the rise of the level of oceans, the intensification and increased number of hurricanes, rains and droughts, diseases because of air and pollution, and so on - that do in effect negate the advances that can be achieved with the MDGs. The people that suffer most from the transgressions are those PEOPLES that do not even have a representation at the UN and the poor among the Nations that do have a representation at the UN.

Furthermore, it is in major part the rebellion of the disenfranchised people who are watching their land, water, and air fouled by extractive industries that allow living styles and living standards that are not part of their traditions, that push their own clinging even more to traditions like their own disenfranchising their women and not allowing for a secular education of their children. This enhances physical security problems and further decrease in human rights. The governments that make up the UN hinder NGOs that wish to tackle these various addictions - be it oil or be it religion. We suggest that there is real need for enlightenment in ways the UN manages its affairs as well.

The UN was created for the sake of its Security Council – the recognition that there must be a way to avoid cataclysms like WWII. ECOSOC at the UN and The Second Committee at the UN, were created because it was felt that Security is built on the back of changes in the economy structure. That is the area we are talking about, and that is the area we think should be emphasized in the Asian 2010 World Summit. The economy has now turned towards Asia, and we recognize that a US-China cooperation is needed in order to tackle Climate. To make such cooperation valuable Human Rights and Political Rights are part of the enabling mechanism.