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1.	Earth Charter
	For centuries, law has developed to codify rules for the protection of people’s interests. Now a push is on to protect planetary interests with a new set of environmental rights and responsibilities to be articulated in an international Earth Charter. Many see the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights of 1948 as a crowning achievement in the process of establishing legal safeguards for indivual rights and freedoms, which can be claimed irrespective of race, religion, gender or economic status – though some consider the Declaration limited by a Northern and Western perspective which overlooks communal rights and responsibilites. But today, as ecological crises worsen, it is plain that no such corresponding privileges have been afforded to plants, animals or ecosystems. Launched in 1994, the Earth Charter project of the Earth Council and Green Cross International hopes to rectify the situation by enshrining a new global SD ethic in international law. The Earth Charter builds on a foundation of over 40 recent international laws, priniciples and other documents. These include the 1972 Stockholm Declaration, the 1987 Brundtland Report Our Common Future, Agenda 21 from the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio and, more recently, the environmental law work emerging from the World Conservation Union (IUCN). An extensive international consultation process was also begun in 1996, both across-the-wire and face-to-face, with further consultations expected as the Charter enters its drafting and review stages. A preliminary draft was launched earlier this Spring at the ‘Rio+5’ meeting of civil society leaders. The long-range objective for the Earth Charter is ratification by all the member states of the United Nations. The Council hopes to build a global constituency of popular support for the Charter before asking governments to sign on the dotted line. Not surprisingly, this process is taking time. Some governments have already shown signs that they favour the idea. South Korea, for example, issued its own ‘Seoul Declaration of Environmental Ethics’ at a special UN meeting of heads of state this June, while the Philippines adopted a home-grown version in the mid-nineties. With the new Earth Charter written, revised and ratified before 2000, the global community could enter the new millennium equipped with international laws grounded in an ethics that extends beyond people to the planet as a whole. [an emerging charter to enshrine Earth-related ethics into international law]
	Earth ethics n.values which extend beyond people to the planet as a whole.
	"The Earth Charter". Earth Ethics 8 (Winter/Spring 1997): 1-24. Rockefeller, Steven C. Principles of Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Development: Summary and Survey. San Jose, Costa Rica: Earth Council Earth Charter Project, 1996. 152p.
Virtual Ideas	Read and react to the latest draft of the Earth Charter