The Agora of the inhabitants of the Earth

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“Audacity in the name of Humanity” is an international summit (four working languages, Italian, English, French and Spanish) that will take place at the monastery of the common good of Sezano (Verona) on 13-16 December 2018, called “The Agora of the inhabitants of the Earth”.

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Leggi in Italiano

 

“There is a time for analysis and a time for proposals,” says Riccardo Petrella, the Italo-Belgian economist and promoter of the international initiative Audacity in the name of Humanity. 70 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we have the duty to question ourselves on the path that humanity has taken. Although appreciable, in fact, the reaction to the immense brutality caused by the Second World War by the countries involved, the Declaration of ’48 today reveals all its limitations and its weakness for various reasons. The articles mention the right of the individual and not the collective, community rights, for example of indigenous peoples without a State. The signatory states are “western” and the perspective of independent Africa, the Middle East and much of Southeast Asia is absent. It is also not accompanied by an obligation of rigorous respect for these rights and the measure to protect them is not clearly defined. Nowadays, citizens have become the exclusive property of states, subject to the powers of individual nations and at the service of the interests of the owners of the financial capital.

Which analysis then? The reflection on the present human condition, in the light of the disorders and challenges that societies are facing: a predatory economic and financial system, where money is placed at the top of the hit parade of human values and living species become goods and therefore the object of transactions, where the common goods indispensable to life, such as water and land, but also public services such as health, are progressively privatised. A system that feeds on ruthless competitiveness, including arms trade, which contributes to preserving the state of conflict and instability at the global level, to end with the human devastation that we operate – in the name of a presumed progress – on an ecosystem that gives us back natural disasters, pollution, impoverishment of the soil. One of the consequences of this gloomy picture is the disintegration of the social structure, an invisible laceration of human relationships, which in one form or another we all perceive. People feel less and less that they belong to the same “human community” and instead divisions, dichotomous good/bad categorisations, and the exclusions of those who, considered weak, are not capable of complying with the dominant principle of productivity and utility are growing.

If we are part of Humanity itself, how can we become major players in political, social and economic regulation on a global scale? Here comes the “time for proposals”. The first concrete step of the initiative “Audacity in the name of Humanity” is an international summit (four working languages, Italian, English, French and Spanish) that will take place at the monastery of the common good of Sezano (Verona) on 13-16 December 2018, called “The Agora of the inhabitants of the Earth“. The event will gather about 200 people from different parts of the world for the purpose of drawing up the Charter of Humanity and giving a legal base to a new subject of law: the inhabitant of the Earth.

The program will be articulated in plenary sessions, in which the groups of activists who have worked on the individual themes during the year will present their reports, in three parallel sessions with final debate, on the following issues entitled: “The way of looking at Humanity”, “The great horizons on which to work”, “Liberating the future of Humanity” and a final day of work with the approval of the Charter of Humanity.

The second objective is to set up a “World Identity Card for the inhabitants of the earth”, which can be issued by municipalities, as a symbolic proof for the moment, of human beings as inhabitants of the same “community of life”, even before being citizens of individual states. The Municipalities that have formally joined so far are San Lorenzo (Argentina), Fumane and Canegrate (Italy), La Marsa (Tunisia), Palau Saverdera (Catalonia) as well as the network of solidarity municipalities (Recosol) and the national association of virtuous municipalities.

The event will be opened by the promoter of the initiative Riccardo Petrella, professor emeritus at the University of Louvain (Belgium), founder of the University for the common good in Sezano, referent of the movement for common goods at the international level and already promoter of the campaign Banning Poverty. Many guests and personalities committed to social and cultural activities will be attending. The journalist and activist Roberto Savio and the French philosopher Patrick Viveret, spokesman of the appeal to consciences, approved by the worldwide network Dialogues en Humanitè, will be present.

The representative of the movement Agua Bien Comun Mundial, Luis Infanti de la Mora, bishop of the Aysèn community in Chilean Patagonia and environmentalist, who led the fight against five large dams that would irreparably compromise the country’s ecosystem, will be speaking.

Creating a virtuous relationship with the environment in which we live will also be the topic of the speech by Anibal Faccendini, university professor in charge of the “Chair of Water” in Rosario, Argentina. Among the personalities of Brazil there will be the biblicist and theologian of Liberation Marcelo Barros, the pedagogist Luiz Rena, professor of social sciences at the University of Belo Horizonte, and the coordinator of progressive movements Marcos Arruda, who will talk about inequalities and social exclusion.

Joao Caraça, director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Science Foundation in Lisbon, will discuss the problem of financial disarmament, whereas Jean Pierre Wauquier will speak as a spokesman for the Franco-African cooperation on the right for water. Francine Mestrum, coordinator of the Global Social Justice network, who promotes the equitable distribution of economic resources, will be present from Belgium, whereas Stephan Möhrle will speak about disarmament on behalf of the German pacifist Jürgen Grässlin, founder of the movement “Stop to arms trade”, and Ina Darmstädter will be present as a referent of the Canaan Project on the empowerment of young women in the most peripheral urban areas.

Guests from Africa will include the journalist, writer and founder of the African October Festival, Cleophas Adrien Dioma from Burkina Faso and P. Emmanuel Amadou, a priest from the diocese of Yagoua in the far north of Cameroon. Isoke Aikpitanyi, author of the book “We girls of Benin City”, which shows her courageous and suffered rebellion against the racket of Nigerian prostitution, will share her testimony. Pierre Kabeza, teacher and trade unionist of Congo, and Marguerite Lottin, founder of the Cameroonian Intercultural Association Griot of Rome for a culture of integration, will also share their stories.

The Indian campaign Jai Jagat 2020 will be presented by a referent of the movement and which consists of a global march, from Delhi to Genoa, starting in autumn 2019, with the aim of gathering 5000 people (especially young people) in a Forum of peaceful dialogue that will address issues such as economic inequalities, the polarization of political forces and the arms race. Carminda Mac Lorin, from Montréal, founder and president of the organization for ecological and social transition Katalizo and general coordinator of the World Social Forum 2016, will also express her views on the theme of “visions of humanity”. Finally, the actor, singer and musician Moni Ovadia, will leave a message on the morning of December 15.

 

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::autore_::di Genny Losurdo::/autore_:: ::cck::2942::/cck::