Michael Meacher, the British Environment Minister, took time out from the Johannesburg Earth Summit to visit the Peoples Earth Summit where he said the real work was going on.

After ten days of meetings and discussions, participants committed themselves to creating a Decade of Commitment to Earth Democracy in a Declaration which invites like minded people to join them:
“We, as people committed to peace, justice and the protection of the Earth, our home, who have assembled at the Peoples Earth Summit in Johannesburg 2002:

1. reaffirm our common resolve to establish and strengthen the diversity of human societies that uphold firstly, the birthright of each person to enjoy clean air and water, productive land, and the community of life and secondly, the responsibility to ensure the integrity of the Earth’s systems;
2. recognise that the way in which we are being governed both legitimises and facilitates the ongoing destruction of the natural world and exacerbates poverty by enabling a minority to deprive the poor of their birthrights and livelihoods;
3. are outraged that the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, instead of being an Earth Summit, which reinforces the commitments made in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro to protect the Earth and strengthen the rights of the poor, has been subverted by governments and corporations for their own ends at the expense of civil society and the Earth;
4. are appalled by the fact that governments have continued to renege on their legally binding obligations and moral commitments made over the past decade to protect the planet and the rights of indigenous peoples and other cultures;
5. refuse to collaborate with laws and systems of governance that deny our most fundamental birthrights and responsibilities within the Earth Community.

We pledge that in spite of the failure of the Johannesburg Summit to protect the Earth and people’s birthrights, we will work together over the next decade as a community united by a common commitment to establish just, ethical and diverse human societies within a democracy of life. We call on like-minded people and organisations everywhere to join us in non-violent action to withdraw consent from those governments, corporations and organisations perpetuating destructive processes, and to build a new civil society, which celebrates the beauty of the world’s diversity, and is based on a shared reverence for life and a commitment to a sustainable and just future.
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FURTHER INFORMATION : This declaration forms part of an ongoing process of creating a Decade of Commitment to Earth Democracy. Feedback is a vital part of this process, please email your comments, organisation name and contact details to: decade@​peoplesearthsummit.​net
WEB SITE : http://​www​.peoplesearthdecade​.org