The Trojan Horse Plan for UN Reform

UNITED NATIONS, 21 Oct 2024

Klaus Schlichtmann – TRANSCEND Media Service

19 Oct 2024 – I am one of the original signatories of the Earth Constitution, presented in Innsbruck, Austria in 1977. Proposed by the World Constitution and Parliament Association (WCPA), the text can be downloaded: https://www.wcpa.global/text-of-the-earth-constitution.html/. The organisation at the time was run by Philip (1915-2012) and Margaret Isely (1921-1997). I knew both of them personally well. Presently Dr. Glen T. Martin, a Professor of Philosophy, leads the organisation. He is Executive Director of the Earth Constitution Institute (ECI) and President of the World Constitution and Parliament Association (WCPA). Professor Martin put me on the list as an ‘Initial Honorary Distinguished Advisor’. I am also a delegate to WCPA’s Provisional World Parliament.

The first session of the Provisional World Parliament, organised by the World Constitution and Parliament Association took place in Brighton, England in 1982, which I was able to attend. On my initiative, we passed a Resolution with the aim of taking steps to implement a specific project, the “RIVER OF DESTINY” project. This project had been presented by Helen Tucker from Canada, Tharyan Abraham from Kerala, India, and me, at the Third Session of the World Constituent Assembly convened by the WCPA in Colombo, Sri Lanka (December 29, 1978 to January 6, 1979).

The text was published in the magazine World Union (Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India). Among other things, it stated:

“Already in 1971-72 a United Nations team of experts evaluated the subcontinental irrigation and canal project, combining, besides irrigation for food production, hydroelectric power generation and navigation. The American futurologist R. Buckminister Fuller wrote about the project:

“Thinking in the longest time and biggest way about India’s problems and India’s needs, it becomes dramatically clear that the number one long-distance project to be immediately undertaken and continually served until completion is the building of a North to South chain of great canals and reservoirs leading the waters of the Himalayas southward all the way to the southern tongue of India. The waters that can be impounded in the highlands to produce vast energy generating dams whose waterhead can render India the most favourably energy-served areas in the world while also flowing its water under controlled conditions to all of its fertile fields.” R.B. Fuller in his foreword to Dinshaw J. Dastur’s This or Else…, Bombay, Jaico Publishing House 1976.

About the book the publishers commented—We have more wealth in water than Arabia has in oil so says Dinshaw J. Dastur. The above realisation dawned on him as he surveyed the length and breadth of India from the air. Out of the realisation grew a plan: to link all the rivers of India with two giant canals. The Himalayan and the Deccan Garland Canals. These will transform India into a prosperous country, bringing to fruition its tremendous agrarian potential. It is a project of breathtaking simplicity … Implementation of the project could call for global collaboration, planetary planning and a transnational investment policy. The River of Destiny Project for World Unification as a strategy could raise public consciousness. Individuals, organisations, governments and the United Nations could collaborate in the scheme.”

This is precisely what our Resolution aimed for.

In 1985, the Second Session of the Provisional World Parliament was inaugurated at New Delhi, India, on March 17, with 900 people attending, and active participation of the Indian Government. Opening addresses were delivered by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha (Parliament), the Hon. Balram Jakhar, who accepted to serve as Honorary Speaker of the Provisional World Parliament, H. E. Zail Singh, the President of India, who applauded the aims of the Parliament, and many others. Unfortunately I had not been able to attend.

During this session of the Provisional World Parliament, which continued until March 25, three “world legislative bills” and two Resolutions were adopted, among others, to carry out the program of the Emergency Earth Rescue Administration. A comprehensive legislative bill on the environment was also approved. The adopted bills included massive reforestation worldwide,a rapid transition from burning fossil, ratification of the Constitution for the Federation of Earth, outlaw nuclear weapons together with other weapons of mass destruction, establish a World Disarmament Agency, a World Economic Development Organization and a Graduate School of World Problems and developing a World Government Corporation. In addition, a WORLD COMMISSION ON TERRORISM was initiated. A Resolution For ZONES OF PEACE AND NUCLEAR FREE ZONES was as follows:

“This Second Session of the Provisional World Parliament recognizes, supports and encourages the declaration and implementation of Zones of Peace and Nuclear Free Zones by any and all countries, cities and other governmental bodies which will adopt such declarations, so that such countries and other areas can freely pursue policies of economic and social development in a peaceful and friendly manner, with the ultimate aim that the entire Earth, together with surrounding space, will become a Zone of Peace, free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, in the context of a non-military democratic World Federation.”

A Bill for a GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY was introduced by Emil Peter of The Greens Party of West Germany.

This ambitious program gave rise to a lot of hope in the International Community and in India.

As a delegate to the Provisional World Parliament I have attended several sessions in the 1990s and later in India. Recently, I have also participated in some WCPA webinars, for example in 2020,  discussing ‘India and Global Peace’, which an Indian newspaper, Sach Kahoon, wrote about (in Hindi). In my introduction I had said that India has a leading role to play in building effective models of peaceful global governance; I referred to Mahatma Gandhi, Sri Aurobindo, Dr. Radhakrishnan, Rabindranath Tagore, Arnold Toynbee and Maharaja Pratap Singh. India had been a founding member of both the League of Nations and the United Nations. I pointed to Article 109 of the UN Charter, which allows for a review of the United Nations Charter. If the UN Members decide so and if 2/3 of its members support an amendment, then it can be implemented. However, although no country has thought in this direction, India as a nation could start the review process. Patron Swami Agnivesh, President of World Constitution and Parliament Association (Delhi Chapter), Rakesh Chhokar, International Member Dr. Sanjeev Kumari, Surabhi Bhati, Lokesh Singh Tilakdhari, Dr. Rama Sharma, Frederick Iger, Dr. Ushri Dutta etc., who participated in the webinar, seemed to agree.

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Since so far no country has signed up to the world constitution, I had been thinking about how to introduce the Earth Constitution in the UN and initiate the process of ratification.

The United Nations Charter provides for a TRANSITION toward an International Peace based on Justice and Order. Could this perhaps be used to initiate the process of ratification? Article 106 of the UN Charter states:

“Pending the coming into force of such special agreements referred to in Article 43 as in the opinion of the Security Council enable it to begin the exercise of its responsibilities under Article 42, the parties to the Four-Nation Declaration, signed at Moscow, October 30, 1943, and France, shall, in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 5 of that Declaration, consult with one another and as occasion requires with other Members of the United Nations with a view to such joint action on behalf of the Organization as may be necessary for the purpose of maintaining international peace and security.”

This should be seen in connection with article 24 of the UN Charter, which stipulates:

“In order to ensure prompt and effective action by the United Nations, its Members confer on the Security Council primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, and agree that in carrying out its duties under this responsibility the Security Council acts on their behalf.”

In 1950, at the time of the Korean crisis, the Russians passed Resolution 85, asking to implement Chartzer Article 106 to allow them to participate in the collective security action against the North Korean aggressor. (See https://legal.un.org/repertory/art106/english/rep_orig_vol5_art106.pdf)

Unfortunately, just as so far no country has signed up to the world constitution, no UN Member state has conferred primary responsibility for the maintenance of International Peace and Security on the UN.

A procedure is required guiding UN Member states on how to implement Article 24 of the Charter; this guidance is provided for in several European Constitutions. The most striking among these is the German Constitution’s Article 24, which stipulates:

(1) The Federation may by legislation transfer sovereign powers to international organizations.

(2) With a view to maintaining peace, the Federation may enter into a system of mutual collective security; in doing so it will consent to such limitations upon its sovereign powers as will bring about and secure a peaceful and lasting order in Europe and among the nations of the world.

(3) For the settlement of disputes between states, the Federation shall accede to agreements providing for general, comprehensive and compulsory international arbitration.

Similar Provisions are found in the Italian, Norwegian, Austrian, Portuguese, Greek and many more European constitutions.

In the 1980s the German Constitution’s Article 24, Paragraph 1 in particular had got me thinking about what such a legislation or parliamentary BILL might look like in reality. I came up with several versions which I propagated and proposed to politicians and the Government.

Recently, to adapt the draft BILL to achieve the purpose of introducing the Constitution for the Federation of Earth in the UN, this tentative proposition was formulated:

THE PARLIAMENT

– conscious of its responsibility,

– animated by the resolve to initiate the process of Charter Review under Article 109 of the UN Charter,

– aiming at embarking on the transition toward an organization which will ensure peace and justice among nations,

– animated by the resolve to initiate a process, in the course of which the United Nations Organization may evolve into an efficacious instrument for securing peace and security, endowed with a limited supranational sovereignty of her own,

– for the organization and defense of peace,

– recognizing the fact that concrete, confidence-building measures and legal steps are required in order to ensure prompt and effective action by the United Nations,

– aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order,

– pursuing the strengthening of peace, and of justice and the development of friendly relations between peoples and states, and in order to serve an important national interest and promote cooperation with other states,

– to maintain international legal order and cooperation, and for this purpose

– introducing the Earth Constitution as a basis for discussing issues of disarmament and the effective functioning of the United Nations Organisation, including

– establishing a World Parliament and an efficient international police organisation to replace and/or effectively integrate NATO, hereby

     transfers sovereign powers concerning the right of belligerency of the state and national and international security and world peace to the Security Council of the United Nations (Article 24 I UN Charter).

In most countries such a BILL can be passed with a simple majority. How many people, having signed the Earth Constitution, would be willing to support such a BILL?

If we want to make progress and achieve the desired end, this would be a feasible way to proceed. I don’t see any other way or realistic proposal that would be able to effectively move us forward toward our goal of establishing an effective world peace organisation. If a country could be found that was willing to pass such a BILL as proposed here, and initiate the transition toward a genuine World Federal Order, the question we need to ask is: How much time do we have and how should we proceed?

I very much support the call for a Review Conference, implementing Art. 109 of the Charter, which should be applied together with Art. 106 and, for that matter, Art. 24 of the Charter. If a Review Conference were to consider the Earth Constitution, this would be facilitated/accomplished if a Member state took legislative action to initiate the transition. (It will be difficult to get a Review Conference to consider the Earth Constitution unless there is legislative action by Member states to initiate the transition.)

There are reasons why this has not happened. Differing interpretations of Article 24 are at the core. The wording of Art. 24 suggests that nations are to take legislative action to confer sovereign powers to the UN, “in accordance with their respective constitutional processes” (Art. 43, para 3). Indeed, as the French Charter Commentary on Article 24 states: “sticking to the letter of the text, it is the prime function of maintaining peace, which is transferred from the sphere of competence of each of the Member States to that of the Security Council. This function is transmitted with the related powers…” (Jean-Pierre Cot, Mathias Forteau, Alain Pelle, eds., La Charte des Nations Unies, volume I, Paris, economica 2005, p. 454; my translation)

The 1949 US RESOLUTION adopted in both Houses of Congress also supports this interpretation and appears as a broad hint to the international community, and especially the Europeans, to take action, stating:

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that it should be a fundamental objective of the foreign policy of the United States to support and strengthen the United Nations and to seek its development into a world federation open to all nations with defined and limited powers adequate to preserve peace and prevent aggression through the enactment, interpretation, and enforcement of world law.

German Diplomat Ernst von Weizsäcker, while awaiting trial as a war criminal, wrote his memoirs, saying that a world federal state would be a good idea. Perhaps there was some interaction between von Weizsäcker and the Americans regarding this issue. In his book Erinnerungen (Recollections), published in 1950, von Weizsäcker wrote he favoured the “peaceful and solidarity movement toward a federal superstate.” His son, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, a pacifist, also favoured world government, and to achieve this, he said, transferring sovereign powers to the international organisation would be necessary. Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker: “World peace is necessary because the world of the foreseeable future is a scientific and technological world.”

Obviously the American Resolution is consistent with the ultimate goals of the WCPA In fact, since none of the European countries have come up with an adequate response to the American Resolution, the WCPA, founded in 1958, is a follow-up, clearly in support of those objectives.

The question we now have to ask is: What consequences can we expect, if indeed a UN Member state decides to confer primary responsibility for the maintenance of International peace and security on the UN Security Council? Legally this will have implications for those countries that have similar peace provisions in their constitutions, provisions that provide for limiting or delegating sovereign powers to the international organisation—especially if there is a condition of reciprocity, as in the case of the French, Italian and Danish Constitution.

Leaving aside for a moment the matter of including introducing the Earth Constitution in the BILL, implementing constitutional provisions that obligate nations to confer primary responsibility for international peace and security on the Security Council would be a significant step towards initiating the transition process. While such a transition would require not only legal and procedural steps within individual nations but also diplomatic efforts to build consensus among UN member states, it is important to note that the principle of reciprocity and sovereign equality would likely play a crucial role in garnering support for such a transition.

Moving on: Introducing the matter of the Earth Constitution into the BILL may actually motivate some UN Member states to follow suit, because they see the alternative as an attractive venue, which could turn out to be an additional benefit.

As Harry S. Truman said on June 26, 1945:

“This Charter, like our own Constitution, will be expanded and improved as time goes on. No one claims that it is now a final or a perfect instrument. It has not been poured into any fixed mold. Changing world conditions will require readjustments—but they will be the readjustments of peace and not of war.”

This early pronouncement may also motivate some UN Member states to opt for the alternative, as it opens up possibilities for expanding and improving the organisation. The Earth Constitution suggests such readjustments as are necessary at this time for maintaining international peace and security. In addition, the numerous individuals and organisations that have already signed up to the Earth Constitution would add significant public support to the movement to implement the plan.

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Not only India, but perhaps China, too, would welcome such an initiative as suggested in this paper! China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs H.E. Wang Yi, in a statement at the General Debate of the 79th Session of The United Nations General Assembly in New York, on September 28, 2024 said:

“This institution, the United Nations, embodies the aspirations of people across the world for lasting peace and common prosperity, and bears witness to the glorious journey of the international community coming together in pursuit of progress. President Xi Jinping stressed on multiple occasions that the role of the U.N. should be strengthened, not weakened. Amid global transformation not seen in a century, what China calls for is to follow the trend of the times, keep to the direction of human progress, and make the right choices of history. What China proposes is to uphold peaceful coexistence and put in place a security architecture that ensures enduring stability … Countries need to be guided by a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security.” (https://www.mfa.gov.cn/eng/wjbzhd/202409/t20240929_11499995.html)

The Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations, established in July 2021 in New York, composed of 18 Member States, too, could very well be willing to support the peaceful change proposed by the World Constitution and Parliament Association.

Considering the wide support for a peaceful world, the expanding ‘BRICS’ intergovernmental organisation, comprising nine members as of date, searching for ways toward creating a just international order, should be considered as a positive as well.

Human beings face many planetary crises, beyond the climate emergency: the continuing threat of nuclear holocaust, global poverty and misery for 50% of humanity, the waste of trillions of dollars annually on worldwide militarism, and a spectrum of injustices. Addressing these threats will require not just cooperation and good will, but systematic agreements: an Earth Constitution.  This Constitution exists—it’s ready to go! (Hank Stone)

“All power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from, the people … The people have an unalienable right to reform or change their government, whenever it be inadequate to the purposes of its institution.” (James Madison’s original draft of his First Amendment to the Bill of Rights, 1789)

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Dr. Klaus Schlichtmann is author of numerous scholarly articles and several books, including Japan in the World. Shidehara Kijuro, Pacifism and the Abolition of War (Lexington 2009), and A Peace History of India. From Ashoka Maurya to Mahatma Gandhi (Vij Books 2016). Born in Hamburg, in the 1960s he traveled overland to India, and returning to Germany he became a peace activist and environmentalist. As a world federalist and a member of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) he participated in many international conferences. Having received a scholarship to do research in Japan, his Ph.D. dissertation on Shidehara and Article 9 was published in German in 1997.  He can be reached at unfor2007@hotmail.com – Contact: klaus.san@gmail.com

This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 21 Oct 2024.

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