Freedom and democracy

Culture of Peace Foundation, Madrid, Spain

Federico Mayor Zaragoza

And so, a renewala new beginningwill be able to take place..

A new beginning would exemplify the historical transition from force to word, from a culture of imposition, dominion, and violence to a culture of conversation, reconciliation, alliance, and peace. Throughout the centuries, only a few men have dominated the rest of men and women. Womens appearance in the milieu of power has been fleeting and mimicking others. Life itself was offered unflinchingly for frightened human beings who were bound both territorially as well as intellectually to a very limited space, where they were born, lived, and died. Now, finally, in just a few years, due to modern technologies of communication and information, it is possible to express oneself without limitations. One is able to compare things in such a way as to appreciate more what one has and to understand the precariousness of others. Tied to this global consciousness, essential for conscious behavior in daily activitiestied to the technical mediums for such projections beyond our physical environments, the progressive increase in the number of women decision-makers stands out. Well, we are living in fascinating times when the inertia that secularly hampered progress may now be overcome, above all from an intellectual and spiritual point of view. I like to say that evolution, which we see in nature, introduces the right path: the timeless and the essential are preserved, and what was useful at one given time changes for what now must be replaced. It is extremely difficult for those who remain attached to their privileges to recognize the necessity of this transformation and to accept that yesterdays formulas may no longer be valid for today and for tomorrow. Evolution or revolution: the difference is in the r, which stands for responsibility. As responsible persons, at all times we must ensure with some fore38

sight that that which is peculiar to human species avoids any recourse to violence. The great variation is the force of the word and its effect on educated human beings only. This is clearly set forth in the first article of the UNESCO Constitution, which was written in circumstances of great human tension after a world war in which the most abominable mechanisms of extermination were useda war of holocaust, genocide and total disregard for human species. The article reads: To educate is to contribute to the formation of free and responsible human beings. Free and responsiblethis is the kind of education that in just a few years could render real the great pillar that sustains all the rights and duties: the equal dignity of all human beings. Whether they are male or female, rich or poor, of one ideology or another, of one belief or another, of one skin color or anotherall are human beings equal in dignity. All are free, all are responsible. Freedom is supreme gift. Every human being is unique, able to think, to imagine, to anticipate and to create. Every human being is endowed with ability to discern, to recognize at every moment the correct edge of lights and shadows, of certainties and uncertainties. Human freedom is the only condition in the design of creation. Everything is predictable in the universe. The immutable laws of physics and chemistry regulate everythingexcept human discretionary nature. In the Preamble, the UNESCO Constitution adds: Behavior will be guided by democratic principles of justice, freedom, and intellectual and moral solidarity. By not having followed these very clear indications for the intellectual organizations of the United Nations system, the implementation of the clairvoyant beginning of the Charter, We the peoples has not been possible since immediately the peoples

Translation by Israel Martnez and Paul Donohue MCCJ

were not part of the General Assembly, but only representatives of States. And, no aid was given only loans, nor was international cooperation offered, but only the forced exploitation of natural resources, and, what is worse, in the course of a few years the globalizationers were able to replace ethical values with the stock market; they replaced democratic principles with the laws of the market, the United Nations with a group of plutocrats, which, above all in the West, resulted in systematic crisis of dire consequences. Now, the time of silence, submission, and blind obedience is finished. The moment has come for a great transition from a culture of imposition, dominion, and violence to a culture of dialogue, reconciliation, and peace. In a context that is completely democratic, the moment has arrived to apply Human Rights in such a way as to permit as established in the first paragraph of the Constitutions Preamble: to free humanity from fear. It is precisely a Universal Declaration of Democracyethical, political, cultural, economic, internationalwhich permits broad wings to unfold and take flight in the infinite space of the spirit. No more indifferent spectators, silent and distracted. As The Earth Charter indicates right at the beginning: We are at a critical moment in the Earths history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must come together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. q

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