CEE campus in Ahmedabad India, was the scenario of a very inspiring and fruitful conference called “Ethical Framework for a Sustainable World”, in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Earth Charter.
This conference took place from 1-3 November, 2010, and it was formally inaugurated by the Honourable Governor of Gujarat,Smt. Kamalaji .
Kartikeya Sarabhai, CEE Director and Mirian Vilela, ECI Director made the introductory remarks. The first conference address was offered by Amit Khare, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.
In these links you can find the CONFERENCE REPORT, Videos and full programme of the event (www.earthcharterplus10.org).
Steven Rockefeller, who chaired the drafting committee of the Earth Charter, offered a keynote address during the first day. He said that humanity has the potential to build a well ordered world and community to create a promising future. In order to realize this possibility, the world needed to come together and cooperate as never before and make the hard choices necessary to redirect the course of events. Mr. Rockefeller’s complete speech can be found in this link.
An interactive video conference was held with Ashok Khosla, President of IUCN Council and Julia Marton-Léfèvre, IUCN Director General, who were in Switzerland, but were able share their thoughts on IUCN and Earth Charter.
Other plenary sessions and working group sessions took place during the first and second days, in addition to cultural events. The first night, Manuel Obregon, Minister of Culture and Youth of Costa Rica offered a piano concert called “Symbiosis”. The second night, Malika Sarabhai and artists of Darpana offered a performance ilustrating the story of Ahmedabad.
Day 3 of the EC+10 conference started with a session in the serene environment of the Sabarmati Ashram on the banks of river Sabarmati, from where Mahatma Gandhi had once orchestrated India ‘s historic and unprecedented freedom struggle based on the principle of non-violence or Ahimsa.
The panel of speakers at the plenary session included Steven Rockefeller, Chair, Earth Charter International Council; Mary Evelyn Tucker, Forum on Religion and Ecology and Earth Charter International Council; Rabbi Seotendorp, Earth Charter Commissioner; Vishwaguru Paramhans Swami and little Avatarpuri representing Yoga for Daily Life; Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Art of Living; Sister Valerine Bernard representing the Brahma Kumaris; Michael Slaby of the Jacob Soetendorp Institute for Human Values; Kartikeya Sarabhai, Director, Centre for Environment Education and Tridip Suhrud from the Sabarmati Ashram.
The publication, “Earth Charter and Gandhi—Towards a Sustainable World” compiled by Kartikeya Sarabhai, Meena Raghunathan and Amishal Modi was released by Prof. Steven Rockefeller.
Former Prime Minister of The Netherlands and Earth Charter Commissioner, Ruud Lubbbers participated at the opening and closing session offering inspiring insights.
Recommendations from Working Sessions:
These are the final recommendations resulted from the work of all participants, attending 10 different specific sessions:
- School Education and Teacher Training
- Higher Education
- Non Formal Education
- Reviewing, Reorienting and Rethinking ICT to ESD
- Businesses & CSR and Green Economy
- The Earth Charter and Religion, Spirituality and Ethics
- Cities, Communities and Urbanisation
- Ethical Development Practices for Sustainable Livelihoods
- Global Challenges and Global Governance
- Biodiversity & Ethics