One World TrustOn United Nations Day, 24th October 1999, the One World Trust launched Charter 99, the Charter for Global Democracy. Intended as a mass signature campaign, the Charter was signed by people in 120 countries in less than a year. An unplanned, but welcome consequence of this campaign was to bring both the Group and the Trust into contact with a number of MEPs and other Parliamentarians around the world. Global decision-making is concentrating in the offices of multilateral institutions and national government is increasingly less able to take decisions in isolation from the world community. New contact with national Parliamentarians around the world hints at new alliances the Group and the Trust must make if it is able to have its voice heard in the places where it can make the biggest impact.
In result of this work the Trust has acquired a distinct profile as an organisation working on the accountability of global organisations as a cornerstone for democratic global governance which is responsive to people affected by the way it functions. Building on their federalist heritage the Group and the Trust are well placed to work in this field and begin to work in alliance with other like minded groups in Parliaments across Europe and the World.
For the Future
A growing awareness of the effects of globalisation make the view of the APPGWG and the One World Trust as important as ever. This, though well understood by the Trust’s supporters, has been brought home to many outside our movement through a number of events following the fall of the Berlin Wall including the huge demonstrations outside the WTO in 1999, by the awful events in New York on September 11th and by the war in Iraq and its bloody aftermath. More people than ever are aware that individual governments cannot tackle cross-border problems alone but must work together to develop truly global solutions. Both the All-Party Group for World Governance and the One World Trust, offer a crucial voice in the growing clamour to make those who holf power accountable for the decisions they take and how they respond to people they affect with them.
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