Discussion on an ethical framework for global governance

Post by Alicia Jimenez

ECI Secretariat organized a second side event in the framework of the UN Summit Rio+20 on June 17th.  The objective of this event was to have an open discussion about how important it is to agree on common ethical principles for a global governance system for sustainability.

The invited speakers of the panel were:

Klaus Bosselmann, Professor at the Center for Environmental Law, Auckland University and IUCN-CEL, New Zealand

Rubens Born, President of Vitae Civilis Institute, Brazil

Alexander Likhotal, President of Green Cross International

Antonio Herman Benjamin, Judge at The High Court of Justice of Brazil (STJ)

I was impressed about the content of and depth of the remarks offered by the panelists.  The first panelist was Klaus Bosselman, who shared his views about the importance to focus on the governance of the commons, of the public goods, like the air and water. Bosselman suggests to create a trusteeship for managing the commons, following the example of the World Health Organization, where States give away their Sovereignty rights for the common , goals of eradicating important diseases.  Soon I’ll post an in depth interview I did with Klaus Bosselman  where he explains all of this.

Rubens Born talked about Brazil and their environmental governance framework, where now the legislation secures the right to all citizens to access public information.

Alexander Likhotal said that change is important, but we need to have a vision of where this change will lead us, so we don’t change to make things worse.  He talked about 3 deficiencies in the current discussion at Rio on the institutional framework for sustainability:

1. Failing of leadership to bring about solutions.

2 Lack of cohesion between economic globalization and sustainability, and

3. Climate change is not in the agenda.

“Without an ethical framework we won’t make any progress to address the issues we are talking about”, he said. 

Find in this link an interview that Douglas Williamson did with Alexander Likhotal.

Finally, Antonio Benjamin talked in very engaging way about the importance of clear wording to be able to better legislate on things related to the commons. 

Find in these links video interviews I did with with Antonio Herman Benjamin and Klaus Bosselman.