Interdependence day

Interdependence Day

Interdependence Day was founded by CivWorld led by political theorist and author Dr. Benjamin R. Barber. It is a yearly event held in a different international capital each year focusing on the importance of interdependence in solving the worlds problems.

Every challenge we face today from climate and crime to technology and markets, and communications and public health is global in character. Yet the institutions of democracy we rely on to address these challenges are still locked up inside sovereign states pursuing the old logic of independence. But in an interdependent world of diseases without borders, we also need citizens without borders - democracy without borders. Which means if we are to survive interdependence and flourish in liberty, we must either globalize democracy or democratize globalization.

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History

In the year 2000, a small group of scholars, civic and political leaders, and artists from a dozen nations met to design a program that might help raise consciousness around the realities and possibilities of interdependence.

Held previously in Philadelphia, Paris, Rome, Casablanca and Mexico City in 2008 Interdependence Day is being held in Brussels, Belgium with support from the European Parliament and European Commission as well as many local organizations including the Kaaitheater and Demos Brussels. It is part of the Year of Inter-cultural Dialogue and this year will have its first simultaneous Global Interdependence Youth Summit

One of the founding principals is the Declaration of Interdependence, signed already by President Bill Clinton, former Prime Minister of France Michel Rocard, Former Undersecretary General of the United Nations Olara Otunnu, Howard Dean, among many others.

The declaration states:

The Declaration of Interdependence
We the people of the world do herewith declare our interdependence as individuals and members of distinct communities and nations. We do pledge ourselves citizens of one CivWorld, civic, civil and civilized. Without prejudice to the goods and interests of our national and regional identities, we recognize our responsibilities to the common goods and liberties of humankind as a whole.
We do therefore pledge to work both directly and through the nations and communities of which we are also citizens:

To guarantee justice and equality for all by establishing on a firm basis the human rights of every person on the planet, ensuring that the least among us may enjoy the same liberties as the prominent and the powerful;

To forge a safe and sustainable global environment for all - which is the condition of human survival -- at a cost to peoples based on their current share in the world's wealth;

To offer children, our common human future, special attention and protection in distributing our common goods, above all those upon which health and education depend;

To establish democratic forms of global civil and legal governance through which our common rights can be secured and our common ends realized;
and

To foster democratic policies and institutions expressing and protecting our human commonality;
and at the same time,

To nurture free spaces in which our distinctive religious, ethnic and cultural identities may flourish and our equally worthy lives may be lived in dignity, protected from political, economic and cultural hegemony of every kind.

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