Reflection on the Charter and governance, Oceania, 2005

The first part of the year involved international aspects of the Charter work, with participation in the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, and in May, the GO5 Conference on Global Democracy in Montreal. With Cécile Sabourin and Fabienne Presentey, from the Canadian Charter Committee, and Marcos Reigota from Brazil, we gave a presentation on the Charter, which created a dynamic exchange and stimulated enthusiasm for involvement from Canadian people, as well as the desire for further involvement from international participants.
In April Betsan Martin attended a meeting in Delhi for the ‘Intercultural Glossary’ book project. She wrote a contribution to a Chinese publication on Responsibility, which is being edited by the Chinese Committee.

Much of the co-ordination work has been achieved through small group meetings with committee members. This is effective in terms of grounding the Charter in people’s own area of work, and helps with keeping up momentum. We have a meeting for all members early in December. Also, when Cecile Sabourin (coordinator of the regional Committee for Canada) was in New Zealand, we had a meeting with the Human Rights Commissioner in Auckland. Three committee members attended. The discussion focussed on the Responsibility dimensions of Human Rights. The door is open for us to pursue further activities with the Human Rights Commission, particularly in their educational programme.

The Charter Text
After the Charter meeting in Chile a project specifically to provide feedback on the text of the Charter seemed appropriate, since, in the previous period, our interest was more in the concept generally. Interviews with different groups of people include researchers, environmental advocates, university teachers, human rights professionals, teachers, lawyers. Discussion of the Charter principles has provided documentation of people’s responses which has yet to be reviewed and presented in the Charter website as ‘Experience Files’. There have been lively exchanges on language and translation, particularly around translating the principles into Pacific languages, and Maori language in particular. Examples of feedback have included unwillingness to translate the Charter because of the risk of reducing and confining Pacific thought into the structure of the text as it is written. Other comments have consistently focused on the abstract quality of the principles. Quite often there have been a perusal of the principles and then much more interest in specific projects.

It would be fair to say that enthusiasm of a Charter of Human Responsibilities comes to life where it facilitates or resources projects in material ways.

Film project
Film material from the Chile meeting, the World Social Forum, and the Delhi meeting has been edited into presentation documentaries on Responsibility. These are being used for distribution and to contribute background discussion on responsibility.

Good Governance and Responsibility
One of the projects linked to the FPH and the Charter of Human Responsibility is with one of our associates, an academic in the field of Management and Ethics. He is on an influential Government Board involved with employment, education and training. The Board has had a special project to theorise and manifest good governance practice. Dr Maria Humphries is a Professor in Management Studies and Ethics, and works with Responsibility in Human Rights and on a Government Board. Maria and Betsan emphasize collaborative process as a pathway in responsibility in their writing, research and in committee work. To illustrate collaboration and relational ethics, they refer to a Pacific sailing craft, a two hulled vessel with a structure similar to a catamaran boat. The structure of two hulls joined by a platform is a metaphor for bringing people together to navigate the way ahead.

Consensus was reached in an exciting Board meeting recently where an innovative framework for good governance based on collaborative, intercultural processes was agreed to, driven by values rather than an exclusive prerogative of commercial interests.

You can also read the article Good Governance, Responsibility and the Waka

Pacific Regional Inter-religious Colloquium
A Colloquium on Indigenous Cultural and Religious Concepts of Peace and Good Governance was held in Samoa at the end of December 2005. Papers were presented by international theologians and indigenous leaders of the South Pacific ocean region. The Colloquium initiated dialogue from these traditions for the contemporary requirements for peace and governance. Betsan drew on the theme of Responsibility in her presentation. The Charter project in New Zealand contributed to the Colloquium financially, and envisages a further regional initiative on Ethical Governance.
Participants and presenters for this Colloquium are drawn primarily from the Pacific Forum nations and other Pacific nations of the region, including Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. Two presenters will come from Rome and the United States.

The objectives of the Pacific Interreligious Colloquium are consistent with the Priority Themes of the Pacific Programmes for Strengthening Governance, of NZAid. The objectives contribute to increasing regional ownership, build community capacity and support gender equitable participation in the development of solutions to improve regional Peace building, conflict prevention processes and improve democratic governance in the following ways:

• Retrieving concepts, meanings and perspectives on Peace among Indigenous cultures and religions of the Pacific in order to strengthen democratic processes and human rights activities within the region;

• Engaging Pacific cultural and practices that respect and promote human rights and responsibilities.

• Development of decision making, governance and management models that respect the contributions based on indigenous concepts of Peace and Conflict Prevention.

Assist in implementing international agreements on human rights by:

• Producing frameworks to support and strengthen human rights awareness and activities and a framework of responsibilities within the region;

• Peace building and conflict resolution and management to protect Human Rights;

• Restore cultural practices that respect and promote human rights and responsibilities and Peace.

The Colloquium will support sustainable institutional development with protection of civil and human rights by engaging Pacific religious institutions and indigenous cultures to create institutional models that promote human rights and responsibilities.

Human Rights and Responsibilities Educational project
An approach has been made to the Human Rights Commission education team to work bring the concept of responsibility into their school programmes. A proposal has been drafted by an associate of the Charter here, to work with the NZ Bill of Rights, the Draft Declaration of Human Rights, and the Charter of Human Responsibility as a method of engagement for students. The proposal has been agreed to in principle.

Since the September election in New Zealand, the opposition conservative party, which only lost the election by 1 seat, has appointed a Minister for Political Correctness!! The agenda is to undermine and even eradicate agendas of the Human Rights Commission, such as support for a revised history of Aotearoa-New Zealand in which the indigenous experience of colonization is accounted for, and support for the civil rights of same sex couples.

Further plans …
An educator working with the Charter here is considering a further project for a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for Aotearoa.

Writing feature articles. Writing of a regular journal column by an experienced columnist and educational leader in New Zealand, for publication regularly in newspapers or journals.